Page 95 - SAMENA Trends - January 2021

REGULATORY & POLICY UPDATES SAMENA TRENDS

Turkey

Deputy Minister of Transport and Infrastructure Dr. Ömer Fatih industry, Sayan said, "SMEs, which constitute 99.8 percent of
Sayan, spoke at the event on “The Power of Domestic Production active companies in our country, as in many countries, are the main
and SMEs in Technology", organized by the Union of Chambers sources of economic growth and business development. SMEs,
and Commodity Exchanges (TOBB) and Vodafone. Stating that job creation, "It plays an important role in promoting domestic
information and communication technologies are the leading demand through innovation and competition." Reminding that the
actors in every sector, Sayan said that the investments to be made Ministry and the Information Technologies and Communication
in this field are developed by directly affecting all other fields. Authority (BTK) have issued various regulations with the aim of
Sayan explained that as the Ministry, in line with the "National supporting SMEs in the information and communication sector
Technology Move" initiated by President, they consider the and getting more shares from the sector, Sayan said that in 3G
development of a sustainable domestic and national ecosystem concession agreements and 4.5G authorization certificates,
in the field of information and communication technologies as a mobile operators will make their investments in electronic
strategic goal and that they carry out important works in this field communication networks. at least 10 percent of said they want
together with stakeholders. Emphasizing that one of the most to ensure the product or system established to develop SMEs in
important tools that direct the economy is the manufacturing Turkey. (January 20, 2021) btk.gov.tr

United Arab Emirates

United Arab Emirates (UAE) telcos Etisalat and Du have raised the 15th anniversary of his Accession Day. The message was full of
foreign ownership limit on their shares from 20% to 49%. A report evidence that the UAE nation is indeed able to achieve and lead in
from Gulf News cites financial analysts as saying that the move various fields. We meet at the start of this year to affirm progress
will allow for strategic partnerships and invite further foreign in cooperation between government and local entities to realize
investment – both passive and active – as the two operators UAE’s visions and future goals.” Mr. Al Housani stressed that the
look to capitalize on the country’s growing 5G market. Etisalat UAE was able to make strides in Open Data last year, reaching
also has international operations across the Middle East, Africa the 16th place globally. He added: “We will continue our meetings
and Asia. Currently only around 5% of Etisalat’s shares are held by and joint cooperation to achieve all entitlements as today we are
non-Gulf nationals, while the level at Du is below 1%. Both telcos just a few months away to celebrating our golden jubilee, the
are majority owned by the UAE government. deadline set by our wise leadership to realize UAE Vision and
(January 21, 2021) gulfnews.com National Agenda Objectives. This requires further efforts from us
as a national OSI team, and action to increase communication,
The General Authority for Regulating the Telecommunications coordination and cooperation between our government entities, in
Sector (TRA) organized the first meeting of 2021 of the Online order to have an increased activation of smart services in line with
Service Index (OSI) Executive Team, an indicator of UAE Vision UAE Vision 2021 and the goals of the National Agenda.” During
2021 National Agenda. The meeting, held virtually, was attended the meeting, participants reviewed the big leap made by the UAE
by OSI team members representing 11 federal entities, including in Open Data, according to the Open Data Watch, which measures
local electronic/digital governments. The meeting aims at the inclusiveness and openness of official data and statistics. It
reviewing best government practices for the year 2020, and also includes an assessment of UAE Open Data Portals across 3
international developments, especially with respect to the special key sectors, 22 categories and 65 sub-indicators. Furthermore,
circumstance that the world has gone through in recent months. the meeting addressed the Open Data Race, one of the open
The meeting reviewed key achievements made by the UAE in data team initiatives in cooperation with 14 government entities,
Open Data, and the substantial development in the UAE Open which contributed to raising UAE's ranking to 16th in the Global
Data Portal. The UAE advanced to the 16th place globally in the Open Data Index. The meeting reviewed the achievements of UAE
2020 Open Data Inventory (ODIN) report, issued by the Open Data Hackathon in its previous sessions. Priorities of the National OSI
Organization, covering 187 countries, to record a jump of 51 ranks Team are to provide a sustainable environment and an integrated
at once, compared to the 2018 report. On this meeting, Salem Al digital infrastructure and to achieve the goals set at the global
Housani, Acting Deputy Director General of the Information and level. The Team acts in accordance with major global trends in
mGovernment Sector, and Chairman of the OSI Team, said: “At the UN e-Government Survey, namely: bridging the digital divide,
our first meeting this year, I find nothing better than to start with Open Data, promoting use, multichannel services, Connected
inspiration from the message of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed Government (G2G), and e-participation.
bin Rashid Al Maktoum, which he addressed to his people on the (January 12, 2021) tra.goe.ae

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