From left: Tolga Ulutas, Senior Executive, CHT Operations, Accenture – Turkey; Marc Halbfinger, CEO of PCCW Global; Sheikh Mohamed Isa Al Khalifa, Chairman of SAMENA Telecommunications Council & Group CEO of Batelco; Hani Alshakhs, CEO of Tawasul Telecom – Iraq; Hakam Kanafani, CEO of Türk Telekom Group; and Subhra Das, EVP - Consumer & Digital Business Unit at du – UAE. Samena Telecommunications Council, the tri-regional non-profit telecommunications association, launched its Digitization Program last Tuesday covering 25 countries in the conclusion of its two-day annual “Beyond Connectivity 2013 Conference” held in Istanbul. The group also called on the telecommunications industry's key stakeholders to further collaborate and cooperate to accelerate socio-economic development in the region. Beyond Connectivity 2013 featured several key panel discussions on topics related to Internet governance, sustainability of the Internet value-chain, satellite broadband applications, international roaming, digitization initiatives and motivation across the region, cooperation across the content value-chain and spectrum harmonization. Delving on the fact that ICT is transforming all industries and that telcos can become enablers of digital economy, the CEO panelists were unanimous in accepting the critical need for telecom operators to create and build innovation, and change their business models, which they agreed aren't sustainable, in order to provide the best and most valuable service to customers. This strong call-to-action was based on the debate of whether telcos need to add more content or go head-to-head with OTT players, eventually becoming OTT players themselves. The panelists drew the attention of the audience to the need of building better infrastructure, looking at customer usage and adding value, and providing customers what they really need. The session closed with the panel stating that all operators need to fight for a level playing field and the need for OTT players to be regulated the same way as the telcos especially in reference to privacy protection. Highlighting the objective of SAMENA Council of promoting the development and adoption of national and sector-specific digitization policies that create new growth opportunities for all stakeholders, Bocar BA, CEO of SAMENA Telecommunications Council, said “the deployment of this program is about accelerating growth in the region, and considering that accelerated digitization will result in a $1.3 trillion cumulative increase in the regional GDP and the creation of over 7 million new business and 13.3 million new jobs by 2020, the Council is strongly focusing on digitization.” – SG
