Kingdom Chairs Meetings of the Arab Standardization Working Group

The Kingdom, represented by the Communications and Information Technology Commission, hosted at its headquarters in Riyadh the meeting of the Arab Standardization Working Group, held under the umbrella of the General Secretariat of the League of Arab States, with the aim of discussing and exchanging views, and preparing for the World Telecommunication Standardization Assembly, with participants from various Arab countries discussing a number of standardization topics currently under discussion in international standardization organizations and the International Telecommunication Union, and highlighting topics related to the World Telecommunication Standardization Assembly.

During the meeting, the most important outcomes of the previous meeting were reviewed, along with the key outcomes of the ITU Council related to the standardization sector, in addition to a presentation of a report on the vision of the Union's Telecommunication Standardization Sector for the study period (2021-2024) and the restructuring of the study groups in the Union's standardization sector, and the most important results of the recent meeting of the Telecommunication Standardization Advisory Group (TSAG) and its subordinate groups.

During the three-day meeting, the Arab Regional Group affiliated with ITU Study Group 20, chaired by the Kingdom represented by the Director General of International Affairs at the Communications and Information Technology Commission, Eng. Abdulrahman bin Mohammed Al-Hassan, held a session discussing a number of topics related to the work of the committee specialized in Internet of Things (IoT) technologies and smart cities and communities.

Eng. Abdullah bin Abdulrahman Al-Mubaddel, Chairman of the Arab Standardization Working Group and Director General of Infrastructure at the Communications and Information Technology Commission, said that the Kingdom's leadership of this group's work is an extension of its efforts related to telecommunications and information technology standardization, and embodies the achievements the Kingdom has made during the previous period in this regard, noting that this meeting sets the preparatory work plan for the Assembly, and the priorities and principles of the Arab Group for the Assembly.

It should be noted that telecommunication standardization is concerned with formulating and issuing technical specifications to regulate the performance and compatibility of technologies within a given industry, with the aim of raising the quality and efficiency of product performance, limiting the spread of substandard products, avoiding additional costs on products resulting from specifications differing from what is internationally applied, protecting users from health risks, protecting the frequency spectrum from interference, and finally enabling and supporting modern technologies.