Page 71 - SAMENA Trends - March-April 2025

REGULATORY & POLICY UPDATES SAMENA TRENDS

digital economy of Saudi Arabia, exchange experiences and pavilions at the conference aiming to showcase the Kingdom's
best practices, discuss trends and innovations in the field, while high competitiveness and provide new ways to access the global
exploring and keeping pace with the latest technologies. In markets. MWC is one of the most important conferences related
addition to conducting bilateral meetings and discussions with to the communications and technology sector globally, with
global companies to promote collaboration in the communications an annual attendance of over 80,000 specialists from both the
and technology sector. During the conference, the Strategy public and private sectors, representing more than 190 countries
and Sustainability General Manager Eng. Abdulaziz Altamrah worldwide. The conference includes participation from heads of
participated in the ministerial program roundtable “Advancing communications and technology regulatory bodies from various
Digital Inclusion Towards a Connected Future”. Meanwhile, as countries and CEOs of major companies to discuss challenges
part of a strategic initiative to elevate Saudi products' global and opportunities facing the mobile communications sector and to
presence, the Saudi Export Development collaborated with CST to explore the latest technologies in the industry and ways to develop
organize the participation of national companies in international them. (March 6, 2025) new.cst.gov.sa

Sri Lanka

The Sri Lankan government has committed $10 million to drive new regulatory framework for digital services, including licensing
digital transformation across key sectors, including financial for service providers and the creation of a Digital Economic
services, healthcare, education, and government processes. A Authority. Sri Lanka aims to boost its digital economy, which is
major portion of the budget will support the Sri Lanka Unique expected to contribute $15 billion annually by the end of the
Identity Project (SL-UDI), aimed at creating a blockchain-based decade. In addition, the country plans to train 200,000 people in
digital ID system. The initiative is part of a broader effort to artificial intelligence, robotics, and new financial technologies.
modernize the country’s digital infrastructure, with a particular This renewed commitment aligns with Sri Lanka’s goal to lead
focus on improving productivity and efficiency. The SL-UDI project digitization efforts in Southeast Asia and reduce cash dependency
is expected to be rolled out in 2025, supported by a $35 million by adopting a central bank digital currency (CBDC).
contribution from India. The government also plans to introduce a (March 5, 20225) www.meatechwatch.com

United Arab Emirates

Abu Dhabi’s Department of Government Enablement has for businesses and investors; and fostering a more resilient and
announced an agreement with Microsoft and Core42, a G42 innovative environment for the public sector workforce. Abu Dhabi
company specialising in sovereign cloud, AI infrastructure and aims to automate 100% of its government processes, supported
digital services. G42 is an artificial intelligence development by US$3.54 billion investment in digital infrastructure through the
company based in Abu Dhabi. The agreement, say the partners, Abu Dhabi Government Digital Strategy 2025-2027. This strategy
will create a unified, high-performance sovereign cloud computing will see over 200 AI-driven solutions deployed to improve public
environment capable of processing more than 11 million daily service delivery, boost operational productivity, and contribute
digital interactions between Abu Dhabi government entities, to environmental sustainability. In fact the government can
citizens, residents and businesses. The government’s ambition already cite innovations such as TAMM 3.0, Abu Dhabi’s one-stop
is to enable the world’s first fully AI-native government by government services app, which has reduced the number of offline
2027, one committed to three goals in particular: enhancing customer visits by 90% and made more than 73% of transactions
government services to be more efficient and accessible for instantaneous.
citizens and residents; creating greater transparency and security (March 19, 2025) www.developingtelecoms.com

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