UAE TRA participates in 8th Annual Meeting of General Assembly of Arab ICT Regulators Network in Beirut

The UAE TRA was represented by a high level delegation headed by Mr. Mohamed Gheyath (EDITA), and the membership of: Mr. Saif Bin Ghelaita (DTS), Mr. Mohammad Al Ramsi (DNGN), Mr. Nasser Bin Hammad (SMIA), Mrs. Ayesha Al Khazraji and Mr. Fares Harran from Regulatory Affairs in the TRA.

Commenting on the UAE participation, H.E. Mohamed Nasser Al Ghanim, TRA Director General, said, "Our involvement in this meeting and in other similar meetings with the Arab countries is in accordance with one of the main strategies of the TRA, which is to promote the Arab collective work in the ICT field, providing the highest level of services to the people in Arab countries."

Al Ghanim added, "The 8th Annual Meeting of ARGNET discussed several topics including the evaluation of on-going projects which were assigned to a few Arab administrations by the latest Arab Network meeting. These projects included: the neutrality of used technologies and provided services, customer protection, ICT indications, competition in ICT, and service quality."

The UAE has presented a number of recommendations and suggestions regarding the quality of service and customer protection projects, in addition to its comments on the draft strategic plan for the network for the coming four years.

The head of the UAE delegation, Mr. Mohamed Gheyath said, "The importance of such meetings is that they provide opportunities to meet with officials in other Arab Regulating Authorities in order to discuss several important issues, and exchange expertise and practices among the regulators. These annual meetings also aim at reaching agreements regarding methods, instructions and procedures related to different issues in the ICT sector whilst adhering to best practices adopted globally through UN specialized organizations such as the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), etc."

"Based on the vast experience of the UAE TRA in this field, we submitted a few project proposals to the current session such as the National Emergency Plan of the Telecommunication Sector, which was discussed in details and adopted as a project led by the UAE. In addition to the adoption of two further topics such as the green practices of the ICT sector, and the joining of academic entities in Arab countries as members of the activities of the ITU, in response to the international resolution taken by the ITU in Mexico last year," he added.

On the second day of the 8th Annual Meeting, ARGNET convened a round table meeting for officials in the Arab Regulating Authorities, and discussed several regulatory issues and called for the participation of the Arab network in international forums, in addition to discussing the network's strategic plan project.