Time has changed and physical space is no longer the constraint. Cyberspace has taken over and many places have gone online to be digitally connected to the current borderless world of the ICT age. Information technology is evolving at breathtaking speed and is fast becoming a necessity in every aspect of life. For any country or business to thrive in the competitive arena of today's economy, it is crucial to be endowed with an advanced ICT infrastructure, system and network. Be it the government sector or the business fields or the social fronts, ICT has become the buzz and password for the world-dwellers to move on to the next frame and onto a higher phase. In Indonesia, the communication and information technology industry is also growing at a rapid rate the last couple of years. Heavy investments had gone into narrowing the digital divide of the country, starting with the Palapa project and leading on to the recent installation of Community Access Points (CAP) in 3 provinces covering 220 locations this year. CAP was designed to address the challenges of developing a ICT infrastructure to meet the specific requirement and needs of our diverse society, both geographically and socially. The ICT Expo and Forum 2009 reflects our strong desire to take concrete steps and through concerted effort strive towards accomplishing the vision of building our nation into a total information society in the near future. I encourage the industry and all stakeholders of the ICT sectors to come together and unite in achieving our goals through your proactive participation at this event. I am confident that regulators, infrastructure developers, service providers, content providers and solutions providers can work together to find solutions to the many challenges we are facing today, and thus drive and sustain the growth of our nation. With this in mind, I would like to thank the organisers of the ICT2009 event for gathering the industries together to showcase their best at the expo and to share their expertise at the forum. And, to all the participants - speakers, delegates, exhibitors, audience - I wish you an enriching time during the 3-day event. Ir. Tifatul Sembiring Minister of Communications & Information Technology