Mr. Chairman, dear Elected Officials, Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen,       
Dear Friends,

It has been a great privilege to serve the Union for the last eight years and I would like to thank you and you the ITU Member States for the trust and confidence that you placed in me by electing me twice for the position of Director of the Radiocommunication Bureau. 

I would like to thank the ITU Member States and the ITU‑R membership for their constant support to my actions during these eight years in order to ensure that the outputs of the ITU‑R sector are implemented in reality, in the form of networks and devices, and that this implementation is done in a sustainable way thanks to the efficient, equitable and economic use of spectrum.

I would like also to thank my dear fellows Elected officials, Hamadoun Touré, Houlin Zhao, Malcolm Johnson, Brahima Sanou and Chaesub Lee for the constant collaboration we had throughout these years.  I would also like to thank the ITU staff for its constant support and, of course the BR staff as we all know, these staff represent the key asset for our Union to complete its goals.

And among these very talented professionals, I would like to highlight three of them.  I know it's a difficult exercise, but I would like to thank my predecessor, Valery Timofeev, for being present throughout the years to exchange ideas in cases where I had difficult decisions to take.  I would like to thank my assistant, Sonia, for her dedicated and extraordinary work throughout these eight years, and my deputy, Mario Maniewicz, for the last five years of support that he gave me in this work.  I think without these three people, I would not have been able to carry out my task. 

I am confident that with the trust you gave to Mario Maniewicz in electing him at this Conference to be my successor, I am convinced that ITU‑R with your support and his action will continue to reach new heights.

As this wonderful journey together is soon coming to an end, I would like to say farewell to all of you and to tell you that I hope to see you in Geneva where I plan to retire and I hope to be able to serve our Union in different ways in the future. 

Thank you very much.