smart samena report

Capturing the USD 1.3 Trillion Digitization Opportunity in the SAMENA Region by 2020

SMART SAMENA

SAMENABUILDING DIGITAL ECONOMIESTELECOMMUNICATIONS COUNCIL

Contents

Foreword Secretary General - ITU, Hamadoun Tour

PrefaceChairman - SAMENA Council, Mohamed Bin Isa Al Khalifa

AcknowledgementCEO - SAMENA Council, Bocar A. BA

Executive Summary

The Power of Digitization

The Current State of Digitization in SAMENA

The SMART SAMENA Opportunity

Policy Imperatives for SMART SAMENA

Conclusion

About SAMENA Telecommunications Council

Study Information & Overview

01

02

03

04

05

07

10

12

15

16

17

1SAMENA Telecommunications Council

Advances in telecommunications technologies are the foundation of so many of the things we are able to do today. The digital world is creating exciting new possibilities, with innovation in communications and information sharing systems taking place before our very eyes.

At the heart of all of this lies broadband and particularly mobile broadband which is transforming our thinking, our interaction as a global society, and our potential to contribute to the world we live in. Starting with the digitization of networks, followed by the digitization of services, the path towards ubiquitous adoption of ICT services has consistently followed an upwards trajectory. Smart regulatory policies, among other things like market openness, the creation and sustainability of investment incentives, and competitive service offerings all have spurred ever-faster adoption of digital technologies. Understanding todays digital world and envisioning better ways to shape the digital future requires policy-makers and regulators to understand what their new role is, and how that role can be best executed. To do so, they need the best possible market information and analysis.

The next decade in telecommunications will be driven by the creation of more new digital services that bring value to consumers. It is up to operators, technology providers, and end-users to make full and judicious use of the new information and communication technologies that we create. Similarly, it is up to us policy-making institutions and regulatory bodies to set the direction of our national agendas in accordance with the international frameworks developed for cross-border interaction, in line with our shared need to develop and sustain a healthy ICT ecosystem, globally.

The International Telecommunication Union is committed to helping the world reap the benefits of todays digital environment and tomorrows Knowledge Society. ITU is privileged to contribute to the SAMENA Council ICT Policy Assessment and Digitization Study 2012, and appreciates this important initiative taken by the SAMENA Council to facilitate the telecommunications industry in South Asia, the Middle East, and North Africa.

As Secretary-General of ITU, I am ever more committed to working with the new management of the SAMENA Council. In just a very short time the leadership that has been demonstrated is a prelude to a very successful partnership between the SAMENA Council and ITU.

ITU believes leaders should dream big for their people. This study by the SAMENA Council should help those dreams find a path to fulfillment.

Dr. Hamadoun I. TourSecretary GeneralInternational Telecommunication Union

Foreword

2 SAMENA Telecommunications Council

The improving internet environment in the South Asia Middle East North Africa (SAMENA) region has transformed ways in which close to a billion inhabitants engage in or benefit from human-to-machine and machine-to-machine interaction. Inarguably, unparalleled adoption of digitalized services, brought forth by telecommunications growth across the SAMENA region, is upon us.

Addressing the impending need for assessing the current state of digitization and enabling ICT policies is what has served as a catalyst for the SAMENA Telecommunications Council to initiate the SAMENA ICT Policy Assessment and Digitization Study. The work done to support the SAMENA Councils evaluation of digital opportunities across sectors and in assessing regional readiness for digitization would have to be immense; the findings themselves of equally large proportions. Such an effort would meet fruition and recognition, if its outcome included equipping the SAMENA Council with the right information and mannerism to positively influence policy change across markets; and to introduce new multi-billion dollar opportunities that are waiting to be discovered through digitization.

Our entire team is pleased to offer you this publication as a token of our focus in bringing quality information to you. We believe that digitization is where the future of the SAMENA region lies, and we believe this perception is destined to be proven correct in the future.

On behalf of the entire membership of the SAMENA Council, I wish to thank the members of the Board of Directors, the members of the Policy Board, and all those who both directly and indirectly contributed to this extensive work. We are hopeful that the findings of the SAMENA Councils first region-wide study will validate many of the statistics that we have come to know or have created.

Sheikh Mohamed Bin Isa Al KhalifaGroup Chief ExecutiveBatelco GroupChairman, SAMENA Telecommunications Council

Preface


The SAMENA Telecommunications Councils ICT Assessment and Digitization Study is the outcome of vision, support, and contributions by many. Various members of the Board of Directors of SAMENA Council, since tasking the SAMENA Council with an objective of promoting the development and adoption of national and sector-specific digitization policies that create new growth opportunities for telecom operators and ICT industry stakeholders while accelerating socio-economic development in the region, had felt that region-wide ICT policy assessment was merited. In the first quarter of 2012, the honorable leadership of the SAMENA Council issued its approval to conduct the required region-wide study.

Without the direction and support of the SAMENA Councils Chairman, Sheikh Mohamed Bin Isa Al Khalifa, Group Chief Executive Officer of Bahrain Telecommunications Company, our Vice Chairman, Mr. Walid Irshaid, Chief Executive Officer & President of Pakistan Telecommunication Company Ltd (PTCL), Dr. Amer Awadh Al Rawas, Chief Executive officer of Oman Telecommunications Company (OmanTel), Dr. Nasser Marafih, Chief Executive Officer of Qatar Telecom Group, Dr. Khaled bin Abdulaziz Al Ghoneim, Group Chief Executive Officer of Saudi Telecom Company, Mr. Mohammed A. Al Ageel, Chief Executive Officer of Bravo Saudi Arabia, Mr. Jean-Francois Thomas, Chief Executive Officer of Orange Jordan Telecom Group, Mr. Hakam Kanafani, Chief Executive Officer of Turk Telekom Group, Mr. Jamal Al Jarwan, Chief Regional Officer Asia Cluster, Etisalat Group UAE, Mr. Salman Bin Abdul Aziz Al Badran, Chief Executive Officer, VIVA Telecom Kuwait, and Mr. Thomas W. Wilson, CEO & Founder, Teralight Ltd, it would be impossible to initiate and commission the SAMENA Councils first ICT policy assessment Study.

The SAMENA Council is highly appreciative of and credits the Booz & Co. team, particularly Mr. Bahjat El-Darwiche as well as Mr. Milind Singh and team for actively addressing the requirements of this region-wide study, and for sustaining informative updates and presentations, frequently. The SAMENA Councils own team has done exceptional work to make this project successful. Mr. Izhar Ahmad, our current director of external relations development and the project manager of this Study, with his association with the SAMENA Council extending back to the concept stages, has been instrumental in this project from the start. He and his team have worked extensively to help initiate and fulfill the requirements of this critical project. Ms. Rola Ossieran, Director of Marketing, and her team are thanked for their contributions as well. Last but not least, we all are immensely thankful to the Secretary General of the ITU, Dr. Hamadoun Tour for extending his organizations collaborative support to the SAMENA Council and for sharing his thoughts with the readers of this study in the Foreword.

Bocar A. BAChief Executive OfficerSAMENA Telecommunications Council

Acknowledgements



Digitization the mass adoption of connected digital technologies and applications by consumers, enterprises, and governments is accelerating faster than expected. It is transforming social interactions, economic activities, and governance models globally, and creating trillions of dollars in GDP growth. The South Asia, Middle East and North Africa (SAMENA) region is not immune to these transformations.

Over the last decade the region has made considerable progress in boosting digital infrastructure regional mobile penetration now averages close to 100%, growing nearly 30% in the last three years. Unfortunately, however this is still significant room for improvement. The region currently ranks second to last among the worlds seven geographic regions. Moreover, although the level of digitization in the SAMENA region has risen in absolute terms in the most recent ranking period (2009-2011), the regions global ranking has regressed during that period.

If the SAMENA region re-accelerated its digitization efforts and improved its digitization ranking to third globally by 2020 (the SMART SAMENA scenario), it could reap substantial rewards. Such leap-frog acceleration would be welcomed by the regions fast-emerging generation of young digital natives, who are technologically sophisticated and highly value digital services. It would produce advanced applications, such as smart grids, intelligent traffic systems, tele-health solutions, remote learning, and customized multichannel e-government platforms, which deliver value across economic sectors. In all, the socioeconomic benefits of SMART SAMENA would be enormous: a US $1.25 trillion increase in regional GDP and the creation of 13.3 million new jobs by 2020.

To achieve SMART SAMENA, the countries of the region will require next-generation information and communications technology (ICT) policies. These policies are a cornerstone in the construction of a digital ecosystem that can stimulate and support supply and demand for digital services. Our assessment of the state of digitization in the region reveals five policy imperatives for SMART SAMENA: ensuring a Sustainable, innovative, and secure ICT sector; Managed and risk-mitigated sectoral digitization; ensuring availability of Advanced knowledge, human, and financial ICT capital; Regional and local collaboration platforms and stakeholder engagement models; and Tracking and monitoring mechanisms for instilling accountability and driving execution.

Executive Summary


125 SAMENA countries are Afghanistan, Algeria, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Djibouti, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Nepal, Oman, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, Turkey, UAE, and Yemen2 IDC Worldwide Big Data Technology and Services 2012-2015 Forecast, March 2012

The Power of Digitization

The SAMENA region includes 25 countries1 with a combined population of 800 million people. It contributes seven percent of global GDP and is one of the worlds fastest growing economic regions. The region is home to 60% + of the worlds oil reserves and 40% + natural gas serves. As this economically and politically vital region seeks new revenues of growth, ICT is emerging as key growth driver. Currently, SAMENA region overall is still in the initial stages of digitization and has yet to realize the massive socioeconomic potential it will yield.

Digitization is a global trend whose acute impact is being felt in every societal and economic arena. For instance, the sales volume of the largest e-tailers, such as Amazon, have eclipsed traditional brick-andmortar retailers and driven some, such as bookseller Borders, into bankruptcy. Digitization is also the source of innovative, new avenues of growth that promise to enhance national competitiveness and economic health. This is why President Barrack Obama is proposing a $1billion investment aimed at stimulating the creation of a digital manufacturing sector in the U.S. (See the sidebar Understanding Digitization.)

Understanding Digitization Digitization is the mass adoption of digitally-connected ICT devices and applications by consumers, enterprises, and governments (see Exhibit 1). This trend is accelerating at a rapid pace and it is transforming every aspect of our life. Consumers are increasingly utilizing digital platforms in their everyday social, professional, shopping, and educational activities. Enterprises across every economic sector are changing their business models, go-to-market approaches, production techniques, and operations to capture the opportunities of digitization, and to defend against its disruptive effects. Governments are leveraging digitization to broaden and improve their services, and to better engage with their citizens.

Indeed, the transformative power of digitization offers rich social and economic rewards. Studies have shown that smart utilities infrastructures can reduce the loss of treated water by 25-50 percent. In 2011, e-health solutions were used to process 750 million prescriptions in Germany alone, saving time and drastically reducing errors. Smart traffic flow systems reduced accident fatalities by more than 15 percent and reduced traffic congestion by more than 20 percent in Singapore. Every 5 percent improvement that smart power grids deliver in the U.S. reduces CO2 emissions by the equivalent of 53 million cars. Digital activity, including several hundred million Twitter messages per day, has spawned data exhaust that is expected to reach 8 trillion gigabytes in 2015, engendering Big Data possibilities in virtually every area of human endeavor2.


Exhibit 1: SAMENAs Youth Value Digitization

Source: Booz & Company/Google survey of the Arab Digital Generation; Booz & Company GCC Youth survey

Given digitizations proven potential as a driver of national competiveness and its emergence as a priority on the agendas of the regions governments, the SAMENA Telecommunications Council conducted this study to better understand the state of digitization in the region, the benefits that could be reaped from accelerating the rate of digitization (a scenario we call SMART SAMENA), and the governmental policies needed to capture those benefits.

Most SAMENA governments already recognize the importance of digitization and understand the positive impact that ICT can have on their citizens and economies. In the 2012 Network Readiness Index (tabulated by the World Economic Forum), five SAMENA countries Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, United Arab Emirates, and Oman ranked among the top fifteen countries worldwide on Importance of ICT to governments vision, a reflection of the commitments that these governments have made to pursue digitization.

This pursuit is especially important among the young people in the SAMENA region, who see it as is a key enabler of their future quality of life. A recent survey conducted across 10 SAMENA countries revealed that 10 percent of 15-35 year olds (young people who have grown up in a digital world) spend more than 3 hours per day on the Internet. These members of the digital generation value technical sophistication over financial prosperity in terms of national reputation. Many of them also believe that digitization is a prerequisite for reform in several major economic sectors in SAMENA, such as health and education (see Exhibit 1).


The Current State of Digitization in SAMENA

Digitization means different things to different stakeholders. To consumers, it means the ability to access digital applications and content in a timely manner. To regulatory authorities, it means a world-class digital infrastructure. To enterprises, it means the adoption of ICT applications that can improve the efficiency of their operations and the way in which they reach their customers. To incorporate all of these definitions into a comprehensive view of the current state of digitization in the SAMENA region, the SAMENA Telecommunications Council measured the extent of digitization of regions countries against a 23-indicator digitization index which ranks the state of digitization in 179 countries. (See the sidebar Calculating Digitization Levels.)

An analysis of the digitization index reveals that the SAMENA region is lagging behind other regions. Collectively, the countries of the SAMENA region rank sixth among seven regions globally, just ahead of Sub-Saharan Africa. None of the regions countries rank in the top 25 most digitally-advanced nations; 18 of the 25 SAMENA countries are in the constrained or emerging stages of digitization. Additionally, more than half of the regions countries rank below 100 in digitization development (see Exhibit 2).

Calculating Digitization LevelsThe digitization index used in this study calculates the level of a countrys digitization using 23 indicators that range from the average speed of broadband connections to the level of internet commerce3. These indicators measure a countrys digitization level in terms of six attributes: ubiquity, affordability, reliability, speed, usability, and skill. The attributes are normalized and combined to yield a single national digitization score on a scale of 0 to 100, with 100 signifying the most advanced level of digitization.

A countrys digitization index score is a composite ranking that identifies its position with regards to four distinct stages of digital development: constrained, emerging, transitional, and advanced. Countries with constrained digitization levels those with a score below 20face challenges in providing the basic building blocks of digital services, such as access and affordability. Countries with emerging digitization levels those with a score between 20 and 35 have largely addressed the affordability and access challenge, but the reliability and capacity of their digital services is limited. Countries with transitional digitization levels those with a score between 35 and 50 provide their citizens with access to ubiquitous, affordable, and reasonably reliable services, and have made minor advances in more sophisticated digital attributes, such as speed, usability, and skill. Countries with advanced digitization levels those with a score greater than 50 have developed a talent base capable of taking advantage of digital technologies, products, and services, and have improved the speed and quality of digital services.

Exhibit 2: Digitization in the SAMENA Region is Lagging

3The index used in this study is the Booz & Company Digitization Index


The slowdown in digitization in the SAMENA region has disturbing implications across its economy, particularly in the six economic sectors that collectively contribute more than 50 percent of its GDP. These sectors healthcare, government, education, energy and utilities, transportation and logistics, and financial services are priorities on the national agendas of the regions countries and they could gain significant benefit from digitization.

To ascertain the progress of digitization within these six sectors, the SAMENA Telecommunications conduct an analysis of 22 digitization opportunities across the sectors to determine the extent to which they had been captured in 10 SAMENA countries 4. A sector with well-developed digitization initiatives across all the opportunities was categorized as advanced. A sector with well-developed initiatives across a few opportunities or promising initiatives across all opportunities was catego-rized as intermediate. And, a sector with few or only nascent initiatives was categorized as nascent.

Exhibit 3: The Rate of Digitization in the SAMENA Region is Regressing in Relative Terms (2009 and 2011)

Source: Booz & Company Digitization Index

Furthermore, rate of digitization in the SAMENA region regressed in relative terms between 2009 and 2011, despite improvement in the Digitization Index in absolute terms. During this period, the regions countries declined 4.6 ranks on average, with the rankings of 73 percent of them falling (see Exhibit 3).

410 SAMENA countries included in the study are Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Oman, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and United Arab Emirates


In summary, the countries in the SAMENA region are failing to capitalize on digitization and in doing so; they are ceding competitive ground to other regions.

Exhibit 4: The Extent of Digitization across Six Key Economic Sectors in SAMENA

Source: Booz & Company analysis

The analysis reveals that the progress of digitization within most of these key economic sectors is limited in either scale or scope or both. Further, there are no SAMENA countries that have well-developed digitization initiatives in the education, energy and utilities, transportation and logistics, and financial services sectors. The government sector is the most digitized, with advanced e-government initiatives in most GCC countries and in Turkey, followed by the financial services sector, with most banks in the region offering digital services that are limited in scale or scope (see Exhibit 4).


The SMART SAMENA Opportunity

Given the critical role digitization plays in driving socio-economic benefits, it is important to understand the opportunity cost associated with the SAMENA regions lagging rate of digitization. To measure this cost, the SAMENA Telecommunication Council conducted an econometric analysis designed to measure the effects of digitization on GDP growth and job creation.

The model was applied to two scenarios: a slow-growth scenario in which the SAMENA region maintains its current sixth-place digitization index ranking; and SMART SAMENA an accelerated-growth scenario in which the region undertakes a concerted effort to achieve a leapfrog increase in the rate of digitization and raises its ranking to third globally. The model reveals that the SMART SAMENA scenario would result in a dramatic transformation of regions economic sectors, through innovative business models, go-to-market approaches, production techniques, and operational modes. This would produce a greater impact on industry output and productivity across industries than the current slow-growth scenario.

Digitization has already had a sizable impact on the countries of the SAMENA region: Between 2005 and 2011, digitization created 6.7 Million jobs in the region and contributed $631 Billion to its nominal GDP. Going forward, if the SAMENA region continued on its present course, digitization would have a GDP impact of $620 billion and it would create 8.4 million jobs by 2020. Under the SMART SAMENA scenario, however, the region would gain an additional $640 billion in GDP and 5 million more new jobs in the same period.

In total, SMART SAMENA would deliver more than $1.25 trillion to the economies in the region, and more than 13.3 million new jobs by 2020. It would also lead to the creation of more than 7 million businesses, fuelled by of digitizations ability to lower entry barriers and expand market reach (see Exhibit 5)

Exhibit 5: The Cumulative Economic Impact of SMART SAMENA, 2020



Exhibit 6: Selected Sector Benefits of SMART SAMENA


Beyond its direct economic impact, SMART SAMENA would usher in a new era of service and customer focus. For example, it would enable financial firms to provide real-time virtual payment platforms; governments to seamlessly engage with their citizens and provide one-window clearance services; and utilities and transport companies to better manage their costs and demand, while reducing traffic jams and electricity outages (see Exhibit 6).


Policy Imperatives for SMART SAMENA

Of course, the digitization of a region is an expensive and long-term undertaking. It will take the countries of SAMENA region the remainder of this decade to achieve SMART SAMENA and fully capture the rich potential of digitization.

SMART SAMENA will not happen by itself. Coordinated actions will be needed by major stakeholder groups that often have conflicting agendas. To bring this about, the national governments of the SAMENA region will need to establish policies that will provide leadership and guidelines aimed at bringing together stakeholders and focusing their efforts on achieving SMART SAMENA. The development of a comprehensive ICT policy is essential for improving a countrys digitization level. Toward this end, the SAMENA Telecommunications Council analyzed the national ICT policies in the SAMENA region based on their breadth and depth and compared them to best-in-class policies elsewhere in the world (see Exhibit 7).

An assessment of ten representative SAMENA countries revealed that:

ICT policies and programs are still nascent and have significant room for improvement in seven of the ten countries. Some countries lack policies all together, while others are relying on legacy policies that address telecommunications as opposed to digitization with its broader ecosystem. Countries with existing ICT policies could better address specific dimensions, including knowledge capital, ICT skills, content development, and demand stimulation. In general, the ICT policies in the region are not adequately addressing the issue of sectoral digitization. Some emphasize ICTs role in government and education, but opportunities exist in expanding ICTs enabling role to other sectors. Most policies in the region lack measurable targets, key performance indicators, and progress monitoring tools that are essential for instilling accountability and driving execution.

Exhibit 7: ICT Policies in Ten Representative SAMENA Countries Need Improvement



There are five policy objectives necessary to enable SMART SAMENA: a sustainable, innovative, and secure ICT sector; managed and risk-mitigated sectoral digitization; advanced investment of knowledge, human, and financial capital; regional and local collaboration platforms and stakeholder engagement models; and tracking and monitoring mechanisms for instilling accountability and driving execution (see Exhibit 8).

Exhibit 8: Five Policy Objectives for SMART SAMENA

Sustainable, Innovative, and Secure ICT Sector: The ICT sector is and will continue to be the engine that drives digitization, making the sustainability of the sector and, in particular, telecom industry a key objective of national digitization policies.

Further, the magnitude of the investment that the ICT sector will be required to make to achieve SMART SAMENA needs to be balanced against the growth and profit potential of the sector. It will require an estimated $235 billion in capital investment to achieve SMART SAMENA by 2020, the bulk of which will have to come from the ICT sector and, in many cases, telecom operators.

While Digitization will unlock significant revenue opportunities for ICT sector, generating an additional $300 billion market, unlocking this opportunity requires significant upfront investment in an environment which is constantly evolving. Bulk of these investments would need to come from heavily regulated and taxed telecom sector, which is currently struggling to balance long term high investment growth opportunities, with shareholder pressures on delivering short term returns. Policy would need to account for this dichotomy in investment and return horizon, ensuring sector is able to generate a fair risk adjusted return for its investment.

Developing the future digital infrastructure would require a measured assessment of the resilience of the assets at a national level. In an era of cyber espionage and evermore sophisticated cyber-attacks, ensuring security of the digital economy is essential to national competiveness and to the vibrancy of the ICT sector.

Managed and Risk-Mitigated Sectoral Digitization: SMART SAMENA will require substantial infrastructure investment and transformation across multiple sectors and geographies. National ICT policy will need to ensure that these transitions are properly managed and that the risks they entail are mitigated to as large a degree as possible. This is the only way that the SAMENA region can avoid potentially disastrous missteps, such the widely-publicized failure of the Nation Heath Services 11 billion e-health platform in the U.K.

In sectors, such as energy, healthcare, education, transportation, financial services, and utilities, where massive government and private-sector expenditures will be needed to achieve SMART SAMENA, policy makers must ensure that the changes required by digitization are thoroughly considered and coordinated. National policies should establish effective management and risk mitigation measures to ensure the successful digital transformations. For instance, policy makers may need to define standards for emerging technologies, such as near field communication and smart meters, which will not only boost the adoption of these services, but also significantly reduce the deployment and transition risks for the investors and customers.

Advanced ICT Capital: SMART SAMENA will require substantial investments of knowledge, human, and financial capital. As stated above, it will require an estimated investment of $235 billion by 2020 for an overall return that would be 5.3 times larger in GDP growth alone (see Exhibit 9). While the investment will largely be made by the ICT sector, the benefits of this capital investment will be shared across all economic sectors, and the governments of the SAMENA region.


Not all of this capital will go to large organizations with strong balance sheets; some will be needed by the small start-ups and SMEs that will provide last-mile services in the drive to accelerate digitization. Thus, policy makers need to create the foundation for a robust financial capital ecosystem that is capable of funding both small start-ups and large infrastructure projects. Many of the countries in the SAMENA region already have strong funding vehicles, such as the UAEs TRA ICT Fund, but these vehicles may need to be repurposed to plug gaps in the current funding ecosystem.

SMART SAMENA will require access to strong knowledge capital, which can be facilitated through advanced ICT training programs, R&D initiatives, and the development and protection of intellectual property. ICT policy also should encourage entrepreneurship through skill development, facilitate the conduct business, and provide avenues for business incubation.

Regional and Local Collaboration Platforms: To successfully achieve large-scale national and regional transformations, such as SMART SAMENA, policy makers must bring stakeholders together, provide the means for them to share best practices and lessons learnt, and assist them in assessing progress and making course corrections.

Collaboration is needed among policy makers to drive the digitization agenda across sectors. For example, the integration of ICT in schools will require collaboration between education and ICT policy makers in order to effectively drive the demand for and supply of digitization solutions in the education sector. Collaboration is need between regulators and standard-setting organizations to ensure scale, For example, the adoption of mobile payment solutions can be accelerated if there is alignment between financial sector and ICT sector regulators. And finally, there must be collaboration between private and public players to better balance risk and return and support co-investment.

Toward these ends, national and regional collaboration platforms have to be created and an effective dialogue process must be institutionalized. National platforms could take the form of a national digitization council, which meets quarterly under the stewardship of senior national leadership to discuss developments. Regional collaboration forums that are focused on digitization progress could also be facilitated by external organizations, such as the SAMENA Telecommunications Council, through existing and new working groups.

Tracking and monitoring mechanisms: Finally, a comprehensive national ICT policy will instill accountability and drive execution by monitoring and measuring digitization progress, and using this feedback to redirect resources and improve results as necessary. Toward this end, policy should set key performance indicators and develop impact measurement tools. It should institutionalize progress-monitoring mechanisms to foster accountability and drive execution. And, it should ensure that these mechanisms and indeed, all aspects of the policy itself are explicitly aligned to the national agenda.

Exhibit 9: SMART SAMENA Requires a Financial Investment of $253 Billion by 2020 (in billions)


SMART SAMENA represents a tremendous opportunity for the SAMENA region. In addition to significant benefits in terms of GDP growth and job creation, it promises to enlist and unleash the potential of the 200 million young people living in the region, with all of the benefit to their communities, their countries, and the world at large that implies.

Given the large investment and the required collaboration among a wide range of stakeholders, the magnitude of the challenge in achieving SMART SAMENA may seem daunting. Nonetheless, it is a worthwhile effort. Indeed it may be an inevitable effort: Digitization may be the only way to create sustainable economic growth and employment opportunities for the millions of people who are expected to enter SAMENAs labor markets in the next decade.

Our hopes for this report are twofold: First, that it will provide a platform for discussion and collaboration among all of the stakeholders who have an interest in the accelerated digitization of the SAMENA region; and second, that it will provide some direction as the countries in the SAMENA region consider and devise the ICT policies necessary to achieve SMART SAMENA.

Conclusion


SAMENA Telecommunications Council is a tri-regional, non-profit telecommunications association that represents over 40 telecommunications operators in 25 markets, representing an aggregate subscriber base of 790 million mobile users, including mobile broadband users, 79 million fixed-line users, and 22 million fixed broadband users. The Councils membership embodies a community of telecom operators, manufacturers, government bodies, academia, and leading global management consultancy organizations. SAMENAs Board of Directors and member companies include the largest regional operators and global multi-network operators as well as new competitive entrants. SAMENA focuses on digitization and broadband investment policies, and aims to promote beneficial regulation and governance that further industry evolution, as well as cooperation among key ICT industry stakeholders.

For further information please visit:www.samenacouncil.orgContact SAMENA Communication at: +971 4 364 2700 orE-mail: [email protected]

About SAMENA Council



Study Information & Overview

The findings of the SAMENA Councils regional ICT Policy Assessment and Digitization Study have been compiled in a full regional-level report as well as 10 country-level policy and digitization analyses.

The study allows for:

The observation of existing digital dimensions across economic sectors within the SAMENA economies; The evaluation of maturity of ICT policy across 25 markets of the SAMENA region, with detailed case-study focus on the largest regional ICT markets;Corroborating the need to accelerate digitization; Developing an understanding as to how urgently-placed focus on policy-change can dramatically increase digitization gains in countries.

Country-specific policy and digitization analyses are available for the following countries:

ICT POLICY ASSESSMENT & Digitization Study

Bahrain


Egypt


Jordan


Kuwait


Oman


Pakistan


Qatar


Saudi Arabia


Turkey


UAE

For inquiries and details about the SAMENA Councils study and purchase of country pack, please contact:

Izhar AhmadDirector, Government & External Relations(Study Co-coordinator)Email: [email protected]: +92 333 557 5122

Rola OsseiranDirector, Marketing & CommunicationEmail: [email protected]: +971 4 364 2700

www.samenacouncil.org

smart samena report

Documents

samena region

new digital services

new information

digitization of services

todays digital world

digital future

digitization study

power of digitization