Shanghai, China: To fully reap digital dividends, there is a need to pay more attention to enhancing connectivity, embracing digital application, and empowering digital talent. Huawei has announced that MENA and Central Asian telecoms stakeholders came together at a roundtable during MWC Shanghai 2024, the leading connectivity event in the Asia Pacific region. The session, ‘Middle East and Central Asia ICT Policy and Governance Forum’, took place and was moderated by the GSMA, bringing together regulators and operators from the Middle East, North Africa, and Central Asia. The stakeholders included senior officials from the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology and Huawei to discuss industry policies, successful practices, and valuable insights on key industry trends.

Themed “Driving Policy and Innovation to Shape Our Digital Future,” the forum discussed the importance of spectrum, optical, and datacom policy planning and explored how carriers, enterprises, oversight agencies, and regulators can enhance mobile security capabilities and provide guidance for risk management strategies. The meeting also sought to promote the adoption of GSMA’s Network Equipment Security Assurance Scheme (NESAS) and Mobile Cybersecurity Knowledge Base (MCKB). Attendees also reviewed industry policies and best practices, with examples from China’s successful use cases.

At the forum, Jeff Wang, President of the Public Affairs and Communications Department, Huawei, said, “To fully reap digital dividends, we need to pay more attention to enhancing connectivity, embracing digital application, and empowering digital talent.”

NESAS demonstrates how global collaborative efforts can address cybersecurity, offering a standardized assessment mechanism jointly defined by GSMA and 3GPP. It serves as a fundamental security baseline, developed in accordance with security standard guidelines pertaining to vendors’ product development and lifecycle processes. NESAS is valuable to both operators and vendors and is intended to be used alongside other mechanisms to ensure network security throughout its lifecycle.

MCKB seeks to help stakeholders manage risks in the 5G ecosystem by providing essential insights for their risk management strategy and guidance covering best practices and risk mitigation measures. The framework offers clear instructions for taking step-by-step actions to build security assurance while considering the entire risk spectrum of mobile end-to-end networks. It aims to enhance mobile security competencies and capabilities, strengthening the work of carriers, enterprises, oversight agencies, and regulators.

A focus on policy implementation and cybersecurity The forum featured two sessions focused on policy implementation and cybersecurity. The ICT Policy Implementation session explored spectrum planning for 5G and 5G-A networks, universal service funds (USF) and policies to promote mobile connectivity in rural areas, strengthening regulation of mobile and fixed networks to improve digital economy foundations. The session provided recommendations for various countries, such as UAE, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, and Iraq, based on their specific needs and achievements in these areas.

More than 50 countries globally are investing in super-fast optical fiber networks and Giga broadband to handle the network demands from future technologies like AR/VR and high-definition streaming. This digital upgrade is crucial to support the development of the regional ICT industry while ensuring a smooth user experience.