The World Telecommunications Development Conference held in Buenos Aires in 2017 adopted five regional initiatives, one of which is “Internet of Things, Smart Cities and Big Data”. In an effort to kickstart activities under this regional initiative and specifically on the topic of Big Data, the ITU Arab Regional Office will prepare a regional assessment study on the enabling environment for Big Data in the Arab region. This study will focus on the regulatory and policy frameworks and the capacity building ecosystem in the 22 Arab countries of the Arab region with an analysis of the readiness of these countries to utilize Big Data in the commercial and developmental fields by all stakeholders particularly the governments and the private sector. This assessment study will be an essential tool for the ITU Arab Regional Office to pinpoint areas where the ITU can support the Arab region in the coming years in this field. Moreover, it will serve as a resource for the countries in the Arab region to refer to as they embark on creating national strategies to promote Big Data uses in their countries.
As part of this study, the ITU Arab Regional Office is conducting a survey with the 22 Arab Countries regulatory bodies, government entities and selected private sector entities. The result of the survey will inform the ITU and this report on the existing environment, the opportunities and challenges and what needs to be done to create an enabling environment for Big Data.
The ITU Arab Regional Office is inviting all members who receive this survey to take the time to respond online through the google link available on the side. Alternatively, you may also complete directly this document and send it back to the ITU Arab regional Office (to Mr. Karim Abdelghani, Programme Coordinator, ITU Arab Regional Office: karim.abdelghani@itu.int) (copies of the questionnaire available for download on the side).
In order to have a more complete view of the opportunities and challenges, we also invite you to share this survey with other members of your government and other institutions, including other regulators, private sector, private sector associations, academia and research communities to provide their own feedback.
Deadline to respond: November 10th, 2018
The final report from this study will be made public by end of calendar year 2018.