Page 3 - SAMENA Trends - May-June 2024

EDITORIAL SAMENA TRENDS

Mobilizing Substantial & Sustainable Resources for Digital

Development

Over the last two months, SAMENA Council I will reiterate here what SAMENA Council
has echoed the Industry's high-priority pressed upon in May during its Leaders'
areas, including some that it has helped Summit 2024: Co-operation is essential, and
define afresh and advocate as loudly as we cannot afford fragmentation in our strat-
possible. These include: monetization of egies and efforts. Digital development is
5G investments through Fixed Wireless almost synonymous with access to sustain-
Access deployment and advancing toward able, secure, and meaningful connectivity,
5G-Advanced as a means to enhance the 5G service availability, and affordability. Further
ecosystem and to bring the vision of smart, investment and scale are needed, and it is
gigacities to reality; reaffirming consensus more imperative than ever before that we un-
and way forward on 6 GHz spectrum and lock access to new capital.
new opportunities for the Industry as well as
for both developing and developed nations; Similarly, last month, at the WSIS+20, we had
meeting sustainable digital development the opportunity to identify some compelling
needs of the SA-ME-NA region, with elements for uniting stakeholders in Bocar A. BA
particular emphasize on the Arab region; universal digital inclusion: unlocking access Chief Executive Officer
developing and promoting fresh new to capital by broadening the contributor & Board Member
broadband financing approaches to connect base for financing digital infrastructure, and SAMENA Telecommunications
the unconnected regions of the world; adopting structured, pragmatic approaches Council
promoting cybersecurity as an incentivized to mobilize substantial and sustained
undertaking and building cyber resilience investment. The rationale is that it is no longer
for the telecom business; and assessing up to Telecom Operators, or the "traditional" flexible, technology-neutral regulatory
implications of Artificial Intelligence for telecom industry to bear the burden of frameworks to ensure equitable access
humans, networks, and the business, at building the world's digital infrastructure, to digital transformation benefits.
large, among other areas of stakeholder but also global digital platforms, content
interest from earlier on. providers, financial institutions, development SAMENA Council remains committed to
banks, and governments. promoting a digitally-inclusive and
Amidst these areas of endeavor, it is sustainably-enabled society throughout
critical that we work together to ensure As this edition of SAMENA TRENDS the SA-ME-NA and its neighboring
that acceleration toward digital economies covers a spectrum of outcomes from the regions, and to help put into effect
across the regions remains uniform, so that Council's industry activities, correlating strategic initiatives and policy
the challenge of various types of digital with aforementioned priority areas for the recommendations that are both well-
divides is mitigated. Industry, we ought to re-think and adopt intentioned as they are practical.
collaborative investment approaches and

3 MAY-JUNE 2024