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More Investment in Broadband Ecosystem Needed to Catapult Commonwealth Countries into the Digital

27 Sep 2016
More Investment in Broadband Ecosystem Needed to Catapult Commonwealth Countries into the Digital Economy

KUALA LUMPUR, 27 September 2016 --- “More investment in the broadband ecosystem will be required to develop the digital economy across the Commonwealth”, said Shola Taylor, Secretary General of the Commonwealth Telecommunications Organisation (CTO) at the recently concluded Commonwealth Broadband Asia Forum 2016.
 
With the demand for data services increasing all the time, it is inevitable that broadband infrastructure will need to be expanded and improved upon in order to cope with the growth. This will require a sustainable regulatory model combining universal service funds and incentives to attract long-term investments by service providers.
 
These were some of the topics discussed at the Forum which was jointly organised by the CTO and the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC), held from 21–22 September at the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre. Almost five hundred delegates gathered for the two-day Forum.
 
“Following the success of Commonwealth-wide and regional events on broadband in Africa and the Caribbean, I am delighted that this year’s Broadband Forum took place in Asia,” said Taylor. “Given the widely acknowledged role of broadband in accelerating socio-economic development, this Forum played a key role in sharing good practice throughout the Commonwealth.”
 
MCMC Chairman, Dato Sri Dr. Halim Shafie expressed that he was pleased that the Forum gave new insights to approaching challenges which the industry has been facing for the past few years. For instance, the digitisation of traditional
services has brought together regulators from different sectors to cohesively develop measures to promote consumer protection.
 
He said, “In today’s world of digital services and apps covering almost the entire spectrum of the economy, there is a need for regulators to innovate and establish collaborative regulation with our counterparts from different sectors.”
 
Senior MCMC officials were among the speakers and panelists at the event, as well as other policy makers, regulators, industry players, academia, international organisations and ICT consultants from across the Commonwealth and beyond, including Tarana Halim, Minister of State, Posts and Telecommunications Division, Ministry of Posts, Telecommunications and Information Technology, Bangladesh.
 
The two-day conference was followed by a visit to the One Malaysia Internet Centre (PI1M) at Pulau Carey. The site visit provided the delegates the opportunity to experience how technologies are transforming local communities by improving their livelihoods.
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