A new partnership-oriented mind set needs to be adopted by stakeholders, for telecom operators to thrive in the evolving ICT environment, said Dr Khaled Biyari, group chief executive of Saudi Telecom and chairman of the Samena Council.

Dr Biyari was speaking at a discussion held at the Samena Telecom Leaders’ Summit in Dubai, which featured panel discussions and collaborations on some of the most important issues facing the industry.

"Success now increasingly depends on gaining a deeper understanding of the evolving digital ecosystem and the value-chain, developing or acquiring the capabilities needed to flourish, and ensuring that such ecosystems remain sustainable,” he added.

The main panel discussion at the summit was an exchange of insights and commentaries around the theme “Necessities of the evolving market and relevant legislation and regulation”.

A key milestone of the event was the signing of a memorandum of understanding between the International Telecom Union (ITU), the Telecom Regulatory Authority of the UAE, and the Mohammed Bin Rashid Smart Learning Program (MBRSLP). 

The summit was also host to a number of high-level meetings, including the meeting between the ITU, regional operators and GSMA, which was specially facilitated by the Samena Council to assist in building better cooperation and understanding among telecom operators and regulatory authorities with the active involvement and advisory oversight of the ITU.

The Samena Council Roundtable (SALT) created a new platform for regional operators and regulatory bodies to engage with each other in a mutually resourceful and facilitative manner, for the purpose of aligning priorities in ICT development.

Bocar BA, chief executive of the Samena Council, commented: "True progress in the development of the digital economy is only possible if stakeholder inclusion is enabled and we strive for it by bringing the public and the private sector leadership together. Our business and our ecosystem are very complex. Fortunately, the quality of the gathering in our Leaders' Summit clearly indicates that our government and business leaders are not only ready to embrace new insights and mutually rewarding ways to rethink, they are also fully willing to define their success with each other's direct involvement. Moreover, we are continually observing that government leaders are becoming relatively more open toward understanding the pressing issues that the private sector is facing."

Chinese telecom company Huawei was the host sponsor for the summit, and was represented by Charles Yang, president of Huawei Middle East and Charles Ding, senior vice president of Huawei Global.

The Samena Telecommunications Council is the South Asia-Middle East-North Africa region’s premier industry council of telecom operators and service providers. –TradeArabia News Service