Thank you to all Speakers and Participants!

Accelerating a Sustainable Digital Economy

About the Policy Roundtable

The G20 Digital Economy Ministers Meeting of July 2020; Global Connect 2030 Agenda; several ITU and UN Broadband Commission initiatives and calls for collaboration to help close the digital divide; SAMENA Council’s own “SAMENA Industry Development Goals”, and an industry-wide realization to work collaboratively to achieve “Meaningful Connectivity” and “Global Digital Connectivity” as soon as possible, all corroborate the urgent need for implementing ICT policies that accelerate ICT Infrastructure development and foster digital inclusion, which may help realize the unprecedented potential of the Digital Economy in improving the socio-economics of the region, sustainably.


Multi-stakeholder collaborative efforts are required to help align needs and ways forward on the complex aspirations and challenges associated with the Digital Economy, and to position regulatory and policy mindsets in incentivizing Connectivity, overcoming Digital Gaps, and fostering Meaningful Innovation.

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Some of the Participating Leaders

Speakers

Agenda

Accelerating a Sustainable Digital Economy

“Evidence-based policies for greater digital inclusion”

Dubai Local Time
(GMT+4)

11:00 am - 12:00 pm

Perspectives, Priorities, and Readiness for Digital Economy


Keynote Speeches

Opening Statement

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Mr. Bocar A. BA

CEO & Board Member
SAMENA Telecommunications Council

Message from the Private Sector

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Mr. Steven Yi

Member of the Supervisory Board
President, Middle East & Africa Region
Huawei, China

Economic Outlook & Digital Potential

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H.E. Dr. Ahmad Belhoul Al Falasi

Minister
Ministry of Entrepreneurship and SME, UAE

Digital Economy Vision in Jordan

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H.E. Mr. Ahmad Hanandeh

Minister
Ministry of Digital Economy & Entrepreneurship, Jordan

Country Perspectives on Digitization and Digital Economy

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H.E. Mr. Fawad Chaudhary

Federal Minister of Science and Technology
Ministry of Science and Technology, Pakistan

Regulatory Perspectives on Digital Economy

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H.E. Shaikh Nasser Bin Mohamed Al Khalifa

Acting General Director
TRA Bahrain, Bahrain

Country Perspectives on Digitization and Digital Economy

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H.E. Mr. Omar Mansoor Ansari

Chairman
Afghanistan Telecom Regulatory Authority (ATRA), Afghanistan

Country Perspectives on Digitization and Digital Economy

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H.E. Dr. Ali Naser Al-Khwildi

Head of Regulatory Authority
Communications and Media Commission (CMC), Republic of Iraq

Arab Region’s Outlook on Digital Economy

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H.E. Mr. Khaled Wali

Minister Plenipotentiary, Director of ICT Department
League of Arab States, Egypt

Digital Transformation as a Holistic Systemic Change

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Mr. Stephen Bereaux

Deputy Director BDT
ITU, Switzerland

12:00 pm - 01:25 pm

Scene-setting & Panel Discussion

Scene-setting Shaping and Connecting the Digital Economies

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Mr. Derek O’Halloran

Head of Economy and Social System Initiative
World Economic Forum, Switzerland

Panel Discussion:Achieving Consensus on Modeling the Digital Economy for the Next Decade

The G20 Digital Economy Ministers Meeting of July 2020; Global Connect 2030 Agenda; several ITU and UN Broadband Commission initiatives and calls for collaboration to help close the digital divide; SAMENA Council’s own “SAMENA Industry Development Goals”, and an industry-wide realization to work collaboratively to achieve “Meaningful Connectivity” and “Global Digital Connectivity” as soon as possible, all corroborate the urgent need for implementing ICT policies that accelerate ICT Infrastructure development and foster digital inclusion, which may help realize the unprecedented potential of the Digital Economy in improving the socio-economics of the region, sustainably.

Multi-stakeholder collaborative efforts are required to help align needs and ways forward on the complex aspirations and challenges associated with the Digital Economy, and to position regulatory and policy mindsets in incentivizing Connectivity, overcoming Digital Gaps, and fostering Meaningful Innovation. There is already policy-level consensus within the region that the Digital Economy needs to be set on an accelerated path; it should be made sustainable; and it should be measureable. However, there is need to identify and act up certain initiatives to help accelerate the SA-ME-NA region’s digital economy in a sustainable way, with specialized focus on:

  • Building the necessary ICT infrastructure, which requires updating existing legal, technical systems, and making policies, such as “Cloud First”, to suit the digital space
  • Incentivizing collaboration and investment and fostering innovative ecosystem growth, including for digital content, IoT, etc.
  • Aligning national ICT visions with the national economic visions as much as possible
  • Defining steps to achieve strategic coordination of multiple stakeholders: Governments, Private Sector/Operators, Funding/Financing Entities, and Citizens (ICT talent)
  • Making digital economy measureable (inspiration can be taken from G20 common framework)
  • Integrating the region – countries should lower digital barriers/encourage cross-border data flows/address 5G spectrum interference, etc.
  • Create economies of scale for infrastructure investments, such as cross-border connectivity through terrestrial fiber cables

Moderator

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Dr. Karim Taga

Managing Partner, Global Practice Leader TIME
Arthur D. Little, Austria

Speakers

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Mr. Joseph Bradley

President - Tech & Digital Sector
NEOM, Saudi Arabia

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Mr. Safder Nazir

Regional Vice President Digital Industries Strategy
Huawei, UAE

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Ms. Maha Alnuhait

GM of Sustainability Program
stc, Saudi Arabia

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Mr. Hatem Bamatraf

CTO
Etisalat Group, UAE

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Mr. Jawad Jalal Abbassi

Head of MENA
GSMA, UAE

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Mr. Derek O’Halloran

Head of Economy and Social System Initiative
World Economic Forum, Switzerland

01:25 pm - 02:00 pm

Use Case Display, Presentations, Recommendations & Closure

Digital Economy Model City – Shenzhen

Use Case Display

Special Message

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Ms. Yaowen Wang

Deputy Director
Shenzhen Government Service Data Administration, China

Report PresentationMiddle East Digital Economy Outlook

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Mr. Rajesh Duneja

Partner, Head of Regulatory Competence Centre
Arthur D. Little, UAE

Special Observations & Recommendations

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Dr. Verena Weber

Head - CISPU
OECD, France

Outcome Statement and Closure

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Mr. Bocar BA

CEO
SAMENA Council, UAE
Accelerating a Sustainable Digital Economy

Sponsors & Partners

Sponsor

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Strategic Partnership

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