Message from the ITU Secretary-General It is my very great pleasure to welcome you to ITU Telecom World 2012, an event which provides a platform for the global ICT community to come together at the highest level to debate, network and share knowledge. As such, there could be no more fi tting host location than Dubai, a city with a centuries-old tradition of international trade and entrepreneurialism, a dynamic hub at the crossroads of Asia and Europe which has enthusiastically embraced digital technology in its daily life. ITU Telecom World 2012 assembles a unique, and uniquely infl uential, audience of delegates from private and public sectors alike, drawn from all quarters of the world and all parts of the ICT industry ecosystem. Whether you are joining fellow heads of government, company CEOs, regulators, heads of international agencies, academic institutions or digital thought-leaders, I welcome you warmly to the event and to your opportunity to gain fresh understanding of the crucial issues facing the industry today. We are experiencing a time of unprecedented disruption in the ICT sector, transforming not just the industry but the very world in which we live and work. New technologies such as cloud and M2M, shifting industry dynamics as a plethora of new players emerge, and megatrends including ageing demographics worldwide and the movement of economic power from West to East - these are the game changers shaping a new communications reality. It is vital that we are aware of the nature and extent of this transformed reality, and of the implications for our industry and for the world as a whole. There are tremendous opportunities to harness the power of next-generation networks, applications and solutions to drive socio-economic development across all sectors from transport, government and energy to education, health, fi nance and agriculture. There are also challenges, from the cyberthreat to personal, corporate, national and international security to the very real danger that we might lose that open, fair and transparent global communications system we as an industry have striven to build. So let us use World 2012 to engage in fi ve days of constructive dialogue, sharing best practices and new perspectives as we begin together to create the innovative policies, regulatory frameworks and competitive strategies that will enable all the citizens of the world to benefi t from the broadband age. I wish us all an exciting and fruitful collaboration here in Dubai! 15