Thank you,
Mr Chairman,
excellencies,
honourable delegates,
colleagues, friends. 

Firstly, congratulations to Houlin Zhao on his resounding re-election at ITU Secretary-General. 

I am honoured to have the opportunity to serve ITU for a second term as Deputy Secretary-General and look forward to working with all of you and continuing my excellent working relationship and friendship with Houlin for another four years.  I am sure we will continue our success, working with the new management team. 

I would like to thank the UK government for its strong support for my re-election as Deputy Secretary-General, especially ministers Lord Ashton and Lord Ahmed, and also Ambassador Julian Braithwaite and all the UK team for their tremendous effort. Vince Affleck has supported me in all five of my elections and will be retiring at the end of this year, so especial thanks to Vince. 

I thank most sincerely all those Member States that have voted for me for your trust in me and for your continuing support. 

I also thank Brahima Sanou for his great contribution to the ITU. Like me, he is a champion of the role that ICTs can play in sustainable development and I hope that our Union will continue to benefit from his commitment in the future. I also thank Brahima for making my re-election more exciting than it would otherwise have been! 

I would like to thank François Rancy for his excellent collaboration not only during his last 8 years as Director BR, but for over the 25 years we have worked together. It has always been a privilege and a pleasure to have worked with him. 

I would like to thank Chaesub Lee for his cooperation during his last four years as Director TSB and look forward to continuing that for another four years. 

I thank the excellent ITU staff for their support and dedication to the Union. 

Most of all I thank my wonderful wife Catherine. I would not be here without her. I am sorry to have put you through the stress of another election and hope that you will be able to relax this evening as I have booked dinner for just the two of us in the Burj Al Arab! 

Thank you all again and I look forward to working with you all over the next 4 years!