
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.

Speakers
Agenda
Accelerating a Sustainable Digital Economy
“Evidence-based policies for greater digital inclusion”
(GMT+4)
- Opening of Policy Roundtable11:00 am - 12:00 pm
- Panel Discussion12:00 pm - 01:25 pm
- Use Case Display, Presentations & Closure01:25 pm - 02:00 pm
11:00 am - 12:00 pm
Perspectives, Priorities, and Readiness for Digital Economy
Keynote Speeches
Opening Statement

Mr. Bocar A. BA
CEO & Board MemberSAMENA Telecommunications Council

Message from the Private Sector

Mr. Steven Yi
Member of the Supervisory BoardPresident, Middle East & Africa Region
Huawei, China

Economic Outlook & Digital Potential

H.E. Dr. Ahmad Belhoul Al Falasi
MinisterMinistry of Entrepreneurship and SME, UAE

Digital Economy Vision in Jordan

H.E. Mr. Ahmad Hanandeh
MinisterMinistry of Digital Economy & Entrepreneurship, Jordan

Country Perspectives on Digitization and Digital Economy

H.E. Mr. Fawad Chaudhary
Federal Minister of Science and TechnologyMinistry of Science and Technology, Pakistan

Regulatory Perspectives on Digital Economy

H.E. Shaikh Nasser Bin Mohamed Al Khalifa
Acting General DirectorTRA Bahrain, Bahrain

Country Perspectives on Digitization and Digital Economy

H.E. Mr. Omar Mansoor Ansari
ChairmanAfghanistan Telecom Regulatory Authority (ATRA), Afghanistan

Country Perspectives on Digitization and Digital Economy

H.E. Dr. Ali Naser Al-Khwildi
Head of Regulatory AuthorityCommunications and Media Commission (CMC), Republic of Iraq

Arab Region’s Outlook on Digital Economy

H.E. Mr. Khaled Wali
Minister Plenipotentiary, Director of ICT DepartmentLeague of Arab States, Egypt

Digital Transformation as a Holistic Systemic Change

Mr. Stephen Bereaux
Deputy Director BDTITU, Switzerland

12:00 pm - 01:25 pm
Scene-setting & Panel Discussion
Scene-setting Shaping and Connecting the Digital Economies

Mr. Derek O’Halloran
Head of Economy and Social System InitiativeWorld 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

Dr. Karim Taga
Managing Partner, Global Practice Leader TIMEArthur D. Little, Austria

Speakers

Mr. Joseph Bradley
President - Tech & Digital SectorNEOM, Saudi Arabia


Mr. Safder Nazir
Regional Vice President Digital Industries StrategyHuawei, UAE


Ms. Maha Alnuhait
GM of Sustainability Programstc, Saudi Arabia


Mr. Hatem Bamatraf
CTOEtisalat Group, UAE


Mr. Jawad Jalal Abbassi
Head of MENAGSMA, UAE


Mr. Derek O’Halloran
Head of Economy and Social System InitiativeWorld 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

Ms. Yaowen Wang
Deputy DirectorShenzhen Government Service Data Administration, China

Report PresentationMiddle East Digital Economy Outlook

Mr. Rajesh Duneja
Partner, Head of Regulatory Competence CentreArthur D. Little, UAE

Special Observations & Recommendations

Dr. Verena Weber
Head - CISPUOECD, France

Outcome Statement and Closure

Mr. Bocar BA
CEOSAMENA Council, UAE
