Page 7 - SAMENA Trends - February-March 2021

FEATURED SAMENA TRENDS

DG-TDRA (UAE) Speaks to SAMENA Council

H.E. Hamad Obaid Al Mansoori is the Head of the UAE Digital Government and Director General
of the Telecommunications and Digital Government Regulatory Authority. He has been awarded
the Prime Minister’s Medal for Distinguished Director-General in the Fifth Cycle of Mohammed
bin Rashid Government Excellence Award. This honor is the culmination of a journey full of
awards, achievements and responsibilities on many national levels.

When it comes to the telecommunications and information
technology sectors in the SA-ME-NA region, SAMENA
Council is the hub that offers us the space and opportunity
to consult with industry leaders on various important
issues. This is how it was, and this is how it will stay.
SAMENA Council has always been an important regional
organization. However, it has gained higher importance
after what mankind faced, following the pandemic in 2020
and continues to face even today.
We, in the Arab region, are in dire need of
further consultations between the various
stakeholders involved in the telecom sec-
tor, to agree on the future we want for our
children. I trust SAMENA Council to help
achieve this objective, being the umbrella
that brings together the regional countries
for serving noble humanitarian causes
through developments in the telecommu-
nications sector.

Pandemics have been a part of history, but with COVID-19, it
was the first time that an illness spread during the presence
of robust telecommunications network worldwide. We
can say that the world could continue to stay informed,
connected and even entertained; businesses survived and
education continued online. Many countries were able to
neutralize a large part of the difficulties arising from the
precautionary measures, thanks to the progress in the
telecommunications sector.

The UAE was one of those countries that could navigate
the pandemic effortlessly. We switched to remote work,
distance learning, and eCommerce in the early stages of H.E. Hamad Obaid Al Mansoori
the pandemic. The government too provided many digital Head, UAE Digital Government
services to the people.
Director General, Telecommunications and
While these are great successes indeed, they remain Digital Government Regulatory Authority,
incomplete unless the higher human goals are achieved;
foremost of which are bridging the digital divide, achieving UAE
the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals 2030,
and fulfilling the Action Lines of the World Summit on the
Information Society.

7 FEB-MAR 2021