Global ICT regulatory meeting highlights need for inclusive and
collaborative dialogue to accelerate socio-economic development
Digital financial inclusion takes centre stage in development debates
Geneva, 20 May, 2016 – More than 500 participants
from some 70 countries, including government ministers and top international
policy makers from the world’s information and communication technology (ICT)
regulatory authorities and leading technology companies, met from 11 to 14 May
in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, to attend ITU’s Global Symposium for Regulators
(GSR-16).
GSR, the world’s largest specialized gathering of ICT regulators and policy
specialists from the public and private sector, was chaired this year by Yasser
ElKady, Egypt’s Minister of Communications and Information Technology and
Chairman of the Board of Directors of the country’s National Telecommunication
Regulatory Authority (NTRA). The event was co-hosted by ITU and the NTRA under
the patronage of Abdel Fatah El Sisi, President of the Arab Republic of Egypt.
Under the theme “Be Empowered, Be Included! Building Blocks for Smart
Societies in a Connected World” participants discussed the enormous
opportunities ICTs offer for accelerating global socio-economic development. The
symposium focused on a wide range of issues, including artificial intelligence;
the ‘Internet of Things’ and M2M communications; new digital platforms; privacy,
trust and cybersecurity; and digital entrepreneurship. More than ever before,
this year’s GSR highlighted the importance of working together to create an
inclusive dialogue between regulators and stakeholders, as well as across
different economic sectors, to remove the barriers that hinder progress.
“This edition of GSR was very successful,” said ITU Secretary-General Houlin
Zhao. “I am very pleased that in today’s smart and connected world, where ICT
lies at the heart of economic and social development, we all agree that greater
collaboration is a must. Setting the right conditions for innovation and for new
business models to flourish while safeguarding consumers’ rights remains
critical and calls for greater cross-sectoral collaborative regulation.”
Watch the
GSR-16 Highlights video.
The GSR-16 closing ceremony on 14 May was presided over by the Director of
ITU’s Telecommunication Development Bureau (BDT), Brahima Sanou, and Mustafa
Abdul El-Wahed, Acting Executive President, NTRA.
“I would like to thank all participants for the high-quality debates we have
had in the past four days,” said Mr El-Wahed. “Here at GSR we have started
conversations that will help us overcome all the obstacles to achieving a
connected and inclusive world for all citizens.”
“Sharm el-Sheikh marks the beginning of the structured discussion on
collaborative regulation,” said Mr Sanou. “Collaborative regulation will help us
to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals and reach the most vulnerable
strata of society.” In his remarks, Mr Sanou thanked the government of Egypt and
the NTRA for their generous hospitality.
During the closing ceremony, Amr Badawi, Board Member of the NTRA, briefed
the audience on the outcomes of the
Global Dialogue on Digital Financial Inclusion, held on 11
May. He also presented the
GSR-16 Best Practice Guidelines on Collaborative Regulation for Digital
Financial Inclusion. German Arias, Executive Director of the
Comisión de Regulación de Comunicaciones (Colombia) and President of REGULATEL
presented the outcomes of the Regulatory Associations (RA) Meeting on behalf of
EMERG Chair, Dr Hichem Besbes, and Bocar Ba, CEO of Samena Telecommunication
Council and Chair of the Private Sector Chief Regulatory Officers’ (CRO)
Meeting, reported on the conclusions of the 6th CRO meeting. Both meetings were
held on 11 May.
This year’s GSR programme featured two parallel tracks on the final day, 14
May: a Regulators' track, open only to regulators and policy makers, and an
Industry track, open to ITU-D sector members.
Outputs from GSR-16 will be incorporated into ITU’s annual regulators report,
Trends in
Telecommunication Reform.
The next Global Symposium for Regulators will be held in the Bahamas from 11
to 14 July 2017.
Consult the
full programme of GSR-16 sessions.
Read the
GSR-16 Discussion Paper series.
Background information, including speeches of the high-level participants and
key global statistics on broadband, are available on the
GSR-16 Newsroom.
Watch
GSR-16 video interviews.
For more information, visit the
GSR-16 home page or contact:
Sarah Parkes
Chief, Media Relations and Public Information, ITU
|
Monica Albertini
Communication Officer,
BDT
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