Commission Holds a Dialogue Session on the Occasion of World Telecommunication and Information Society Day

The Communications and Information Technology Commission held a dialogue session on the occasion of World Telecommunication and Information Society Day, which the world is celebrating this year under the theme "ICT for Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)," with the participation of a number of prominent Saudi figures in this field, with the aim of discussing ways to harness technology to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.

The session opened with the first theme addressing an introduction to World Telecommunication and Information Society Day, presented by Eng. Mansour Al-Qurashi, Director General of International Affairs at the Communications and Information Technology Commission. Mr. Majed Al-Asfour, Director General of Alignment and Strategy at the Ministry of Economy and Planning, then gave a historical overview of the concept of sustainable development, and its importance at the local and international levels. This was followed by a talk on the role of the private sector in enhancing sustainable development and achieving its goals, presented by Ms. Maha Al-Nuhait, Director General of the Sustainability Program at Saudi Telecom Company.

Ms. Noura Al-Zaid, Director General of the Secretariat of the National Digital Transformation Committee at the Digital Transformation Unit, also discussed the importance of providing an enabling environment that helps government agencies and enhances partnership with the private sector to achieve these goals.

Al-Zaid also referred in this regard to the Kingdom's hosting of the G20 this year, and the outcomes of the meeting of G20 digital economy ministers regarding recommendations and results on digital technology topics and related policies in enhancing and accelerating the response to the coronavirus pandemic.

The second theme began by affirming the important role that telecommunications and information technology play in shaping the future, and the participating speakers then took turns discussing this role and revealing ways to activate it and its most prominent national models.

The dialogue session concluded by linking the sustainability that global societies seek with the exceptional circumstances the world is experiencing today amid the spread of the "coronavirus" pandemic, revealing the importance of adopting the principles of sustainability to overcome this circumstance, and the most prominent efforts made by the Kingdom on the digital transformation front that contributed to mitigating the possible effects of the pandemic on business continuity and service delivery.

It is noted that the International Telecommunication Union designated the seventeenth of May each year to be "World Telecommunication and Information Society Day (WTISD)," with the aim of raising awareness of the impact of telecommunications and information technology on societies and their economies, amid the digital revolution the world is experiencing, and the Commission, as the Kingdom's point of contact with the International Telecommunication Union, seeks to highlight the Kingdom's efforts and related achievements.