ITU Telecom World 2017, the flagship annual telecom festival of the UN organized by its ICT arm, the International Telecommunications Union, ITU, kicked off in Korea’s southern port city of Busan on Monday with world telecom administrators vowing to deploy the fruits of technology for the good of humanity.

Hundreds of ministers, government officials, and business leaders from ITU’s 193 member states packed the auditorium of Bexco, an exhibition center and the main event venue for the conference, to celebrate the opening of the annual show.

The Executive Vice Chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission, Professor Umar Danbatta, on the sideline of the event, told journalists that Nigeria has already clawed her way into the evolving smart city initiatives which was a major highlight at the event.

“We are already running with the smart city initiative with Eko Atlantic project in Lagos. That is an example of smart city where a lot of Internet of Things would be happening.  We are in South Korea to attract more investments to the sector which is in line with the President Muhammadu Buhari’s government effort at growing the nation’s economy.

“We are here to tell the world of the abundant opportunities available to them in Nigeria telecom with of course a whole lot of incentives for them including tax holiday, an improved atmosphere of ease of doing business plus the fact that Nigeria offers a very high return on investments”, he said.

Nigeria also arrived in Busan with a strong team of ICT SMEs made up of young Nigerian innovators who took turns to join other innovators from across the world to pitch their products before a panel of telecom experts which included Nigeria’s former Minister of Communications, Dr. Omobola Johnson.

The conference, which is being held under the theme “Better Sooner,” gives participants the opportunity to discuss how to accelerate the innovation of the ICT segment and the expansion of smart technology across the globe.

“The looming ‘fourth industrial revolution,’ driven by cutting-edge technologies such as artificial intelligence, not only creates opportunities, but also poses challenges for humanity,” said Korean President Moon Jae-in in a video message played during the opening ceremony, citing autonomous vehicles and AI-powered robots — which are often described as a double-edged sword for humans.

“I hope the Telecom World conference becomes a chance for all the participants to work together to come up with response measures to handle those challenges,” he added.

Mr. H.E You Young Min, the Minister of Science and ICT for Korea told the audience that the ITU World 2017 has opened a limitless opportunity for the business world to invest in Korea. He said South Korea was happy to host because the nation believes in the power of ICT as the most potent tool to build a happier tomorrow.

About 5,300 government officials, policymakers, and entrepreneurs in the global ICT sector and 40,000 spectators are anticipated to join the four-day conference organized by the International Telecommunication Union, a UN agency responsible for global ICT issues, according to the preparatory committee of the event.

Companies in the telecom sector, including mobile carrier KT, a main sponsor for the ITU event, Chinese tech firm Huawei, will showcase their ICT products and solutions during the conference while small and medium-sized firms will seek future partnerships with global investors and businesses.

KT, which will display its AI-based network solutions during the event, also participated in establishing the standards of the 5G tech for an ITU declaration adopted by Korean and Central and South American ICT ministers on Sunday. The ministers called for united efforts to improve the network infrastructure in Central South America where nearly 50 percent of the entire population are not online.

“The Telecom World conference will become a platform to facilitate the contact and partnerships among all participants in the ICT sector,” said Haoulin Zhao, the secretary-general of the ITU, in his welcoming speech, adding the UN agency will continue to work to leave nobody behind in the ever-more connected world.

Delivering a keynote speech, Korea’s Science and ICT Minister Yoo Young-min vowed that the ministry will make the utmost effort to beef up the nation’s competitiveness in the emerging technologies and to close the so-called digital divide.

“The government will further invest in emerging technologies, such as the Internet of Things, and the related infrastructure,” ICT Minister Yoo said.

The city with a 3.6 million population was also the host city of the ITU Plenipotentiary Conference, a meeting among ITU members to set and revise the UN’s ICT policies, and ITU Telecom Asia, a regional ICT forum, in 2014 and 2004, respectively.

Korea, which topped the global ICT rankings in 2017 for the second straight year and is scheduled to host the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, will see a pilot service of the 5G mobile network technology up and running next year for the first time in the world.