The World Economic Forum's Edison Alliance organized a symposium on promoting and scaling digital inclusion, held against the backdrop of the Edison Alliance's 1 Billion Lives Challenge, a challenge to improve the lives of one billion people globally by 2025 through accessible and affordable digital solutions.
Edison's 1 Billion Lives Challenge.
According to a recent report by the Middle East Institute, ICT spending in the Gulf countries is expected to reach $70 billion by 2024, with Saudi Arabia expected to spend $37 billion, the UAE $23 billion, and Qatar $9 billion.
According to a recent report by the Middle East Institute, ICT spending in the Gulf countries is expected to reach $70 billion by 2024.
With an estimated 47% people worldwide without internet access, which equates to about 3.8 billion people, and with the cost of broadband exceeding the financial means of 50% developed countries, Badr Jafar, as one of the Edison Alliance's appointed leaders, emphasized that digital inclusion is a means to an end, saying that addressing the global challenges faced by humanity and our environment is of course the primary goal, and technology is a means to that end, not the agent of change, as reported by Al-Anbaa.
Digital inclusion is a means to an end.
Commenting on the innovative investment models needed to achieve digital inclusion, Jafar explained that the importance of providing digital connectivity to those who lack it is an indisputable fact, as 70% of new values in the economy and the ability to capitalize on them over the next decade will be linked to platforms that require digital connectivity.
Jafar said that digital inclusion is a means to an end.
"Today, with trillions of dollars of capital chasing zero-rate returns, stable, long-term, tariff-based investment opportunities, such as digital infrastructure, are very attractive."
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"Today, with trillions of dollars of capital chasing zero-rate returns, stable, long-term, tariff-based investment opportunities, such as digital infrastructure, are very attractive.
"It remains for us to consider how to ensure that regulatory and investment frameworks are sufficiently clear, transparent and compelling to accelerate this investment."
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The Edison Alliance for Digital Inclusion Symposium was held within the virtual World Economic Forum for the 2021 Sustainable Development Impact Summit, which, in parallel with the United Nations General Assembly, hosted world leaders across sectors, disciplines and geographies to share knowledge, innovative approaches and promising ideas to accelerate recovery after the pandemic.
