In his opening address, Mr. Khalifa said, "It is critical for us to collectively work toward ensuring that our future ICT policies are created and harmonized on the pillars of knowledge, collaboration, commonality in developmental goals, and the passion to achieve human success. We need to develop and sustain processes for accelerating digitization in our economies, to guarantee social and economic progress throughout South Asia, the Middle East, and North Africa."
Read more: SAMENA Council highlights need to accelerate digitization
The Samena region, comprising South Asia, Middle East and North Africa, was the focus of the study by the Samena Council in collaboration with Booz & Company, which concluded that the benefits of this investment would be shared by players within the information and communication technology (ICT) sectors, as well as by governments.
While the development and growth of the telecommunications and ICT industry has been tremendous over the years, the emergence of next generation technologies and new ICT policies has resulted in a number of discussions revolving around the need for harmonized national ICT policies in the SAMENA region. Against the backdrop of this need for policies that will help with the ICT industry's development and progress in the region, SAMENA Telecommunications Council, the tri-regional telecommunications consortium will convene some of the industry leading CEO's, experts and decision makers at its annual "Beyond Connectivity 2012" conference from April 3rd-4th in Muscat, Oman.
Read more: Harmonized national ICT policies essential to the economic growth in the SAMENA Region