SAMENA Council emphasizes on achieving closeness between regulators and the telecom industry

From May 11 to 14, 2016, the world's telecom regulators gathered in Sharm el-Sheikh to take part in the 16th edition of the Global Symposium for Regulators (GSR). The GSR was organized by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in collaboration with National Telecom Regulatory Authority of Egypt, with need for defining and setting building blocks for smart societies in a connected world being one of the GSR's primary aims.

SAMENA Council took active part in the GSR, contributing to its leaders panel discussions while also chairing the 6th CRO Meeting, a global private-sector representative forum constituted by ITU-D sector-member companies operating in the digital space. More than 60 corporate entities had registered and expressed interest to join the CRO Meeting in order to bring private-sector's needs and business challenges to the attention of the ITU as well as to relevant government bodies.

Bocar BA, CEO, who along with other delegates from SAMENA Council represented SAMENA Council, while chairing the 6th CRO Meeting said that "It is up to us, the private sector, to propose solutions for moving forward on areas where regulators' help and attention are required by us. On the other hand, the authorities should let the private sector know of the new expectations they have of the private sector. CRO's new value lies in its ability to catalyze discussions with regulators, and thus more private-sector entities should participate in proposing new ways to move forward and to mutually identify quick wins." 

Commenting on the overall discussion and the spirit of the Symposium, Mr. BA said that "Our discussions with regulators in GSR-16 reveal that they consider operators' successes crucial to their own. We feel it is important to understand that working closely with regulators is a source of opportunities and not threats, and that regulators are willing to exercise more visible engagement with the private sector to achieve common sectoral and cross-sectoral development goals. SAMENA Council deems it both its responsibility and success as a private-sector representative body to emphasize on the significance of this observation, which can break barriers between the public and the private sectors. We also believe that the ITU too is doing very well to support and encourage the private sector's participation in Administration-level decision making."