ITU Secretary-General Opens the Kingdom's First Workshop at the WSIS Forum

His Excellency the Secretary-General of the International Telecommunication Union, Houlin Zhao, opened the first of the Kingdom's delegation's workshops at the World Summit on the Information Society Forum, currently held in Geneva, Switzerland, with the attendance of His Excellency the Governor of the Communications and Information Technology Commission and head of the Kingdom's delegation, Dr. Abdulaziz bin Salem Al-Ruwais, and His Excellency Dr. Abdulaziz bin Mohammed Al-Wasel, Permanent Representative of the Kingdom in Geneva, with the participation of three national entities: the National Cybersecurity Commission, Elm Company, and Saudi Telecom Company.

At the outset of the workshop, the Secretary-General of the International Telecommunication Union thanked the Kingdom for its ongoing contributions to and support of the Union's work, expressing his pleasure at the Kingdom's presentation of its most notable success stories in the field of information technology.

Dr. Ibrahim bin Saleh Al-Freeh, Deputy Governor for Strategy and Planning at the National Cybersecurity Commission, presented the Kingdom's vision in the field of cybersecurity and the national efforts that led to its achieving thirteenth place globally and first place among Arab countries in the 2018 Global Cybersecurity Index.

Dr. Nasser Al-Mishari, Business Vice President at Elm Company, which specializes in digital business services and government outsourcing projects, also presented the fundamentals of its work in developing innovative and smart solutions to accelerate the development of the knowledge-based economy in line with global digital trends.

During the workshop, Eng. Mohammed Al-Abdulkarim, Network Design Department Manager at Saudi Telecom Company, gave a presentation reviewing the company's achievements in adopting fifth-generation (5G) technologies, including its launch of the first 5G trial site, making it the first telecommunications company to launch such trials in the Middle East and North Africa region, in addition to what it seeks to achieve in the future of 5G and maximizing the benefits of its technologies.