A record 750 delegates from the world’s leading information and communication technology (ICT) policy makers met in Beirut this week in an effort to address the pressing challenges of a fast-changing technology environment.
Hosted by the ITU, the Lebanese Ministry of Telecommunications, and Lebanon’s Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA), under the High Patronage of the President of Lebanon, Michel Sleiman, the Global Industry Leaders Forum (GILF) and Global Symposium for Regulators (GSR) help industry leaders and regulators from around the world share experiences and forge common approaches to navigating today’s highly complex and challenging ICT markets.
The meetings were opened by Mr. Gibran Bassil, the then Lebanese Minister of Telecommunication; ITU Secretary-General, Dr. Hamadoun Touré; Mr. Sami Al Basheer Al Morshid, Director of ITU’s Telecommunication Development Bureau; Dr. Saad Al Barrak, CEO of the Zain Group; and Dr. Kamal Shehadi, Chairman and CEO of Lebanon’s TRA.
Chairing the GILF was Zain Group CEO Dr. Saad Al Barrak who made a key-note speech during the forum. Recently Dr Saad Al Barrak was ranked the 20th most influential person in the telecommunications industry today by internationally recognised and London based Global Telecoms Magazine.
In his opening address to delegates from more than 110 countries, Dr. Saad Al Barrak, focusing specifically on the regulatory needs of private industry, said mobile telephony has become a prerequisite for economic growth, calling mobile “one of the most powerful nation builders of our age”.
“Today, we are at a crucial juncture in the evolution of the ICT sector;” he said, “a place where regulators and policy makers must join operators on the same journey, because quite simply, our goals cannot be achieved as long as there exists a ‘Them and Us’ “.
As the lines between different types of services become increasingly blurred, ICT regulators face a huge challenge in trying to minimise market distortions arising from the different regulatory treatment of different technologies, in order that markets flourish, operators are free to adopt the most effective and advantageous technologies and consumers get the best deal in terms of accessibility, price and service quality.
In his opening address to delegates from more than 110 countries worldwide, Dr. Touré said the theme of this year’s event, ‘Hands On or Hands Off: Stimulating Growth through Effective Regulation’, is particularly relevant in the context of the current economic crisis, when many governments are looking to the ICT sector to re-energise debilitated national economies.
“In every field of human endeavour, and in every crisis we face, ICTs are part of the solution,” he said. “ICTs are playing a pivotal role in helping us emerge from the financial crisis and in fuelling economic recovery. And ICTs are directly responsible for job creation in the Knowledge Economy.”
Mr Sami Al Basheer Al Morshid, Director of ITU’s Telecommunication Development Bureau (BDT), said: “I am very proud that ITU’s Telecommunication Development Bureau can offer this platform for the main actors of our industry to imagine, design, build and administer the markets, networks and services that our citizens, businesses and governments require for their further development. Today every country, no matter what its level of development, relies on ICTs for its economic and social development. The environment that enables new technologies to be used and shared by all can only be created through regulatory reform.”
Dr. Kamal Shehadi, who chaired this year’s Global Symposium for Regulators, reiterated the TRA’s commitment to liberalising Lebanon’s ICT markets to inject new energy and service innovation. “TRA has made significant progress in a very short time span. It is now ready to move ahead and liberalise mobile, international, and remaining bottlenecks to broadband telecommunication services in 2010.”
