Word of AICTO’s Director-General
HE/ Eng. Mohamed Ben Amor
We all know that the information and communication technologies have become during the last decade one of the most important components and tools in the daily life of every individual throughout the world. It has also become an important economic and development pillar upon which countries can implement their reform plans, social and development policies and draw their future strategies.
Day-by-day, Big technological transformation are happening and many technological trends are evolving with a very high-speed rhythm. This fact is leading the world to be in the midst of the “Fourth industrial revolution” driven by the emergence of many new concepts in the digital area, such as: Cloud Computing, Big Data, Internet of Things (IoT), Artificial Intelligence (AI), 5G … etc. Thus, these transformations and technological trends would radically affect all aspects of our lives and change totally our ways of living and working, if the required conditions are met.
The Arab region, although having its own specificity with some exceptions, is not isolated from the rest of the word; If something has an impact on the world, it will for sure affect the Arab region either from positive or negative point of view. So, despite the limitless opportunities that could be given by the transition of the all-digital and to catch up with the developed countries and to enhance its development in all economic fields, a vigilant eye has to be kept on the obstacles and challenges, mainly in the security field, that need to be overcome to avoid any kind of disruption from criminals and hackers which would negatively affect users, individuals, companies, governmental institutions or organizations in the region.
In this respect, it is necessary to work on the adaptation of all economic sectors to make them in harmony with the fast pace of the technological development. Hence, the importance of strengthening joint efforts among all stakeholders at the Arab, Regional and International levels to take advantage of the unlimited opportunities provided by this sector through cooperation and coordination to develop and unify appropriate strategies and implement them at a large scale for the good of all, as the physicist and cosmologist – Max Tegmark said : “Everything we love about civilization is a product of intelligence, so amplifying our human intelligence with artificial intelligence has the potential of helping civilization flourish like never before – as long as we manage to keep the technology beneficial.”
The Arab Information and Communication Technologies Organization (AICTO), since its creation and in order to fulfill its role in the region, has launched a strategic vision «Towards a Unified Arab digital society based on the creativity and innovation, boosting the Arab-Interregional complementarity and contributing efficiently to the development of the global sustainable digital economy ». the implementation of this vision is being done through strategic goals, aiming to serve the strategic interests of the Arab countries in the ICT field, with a special focus on the fruitful partnerships and international cooperation.
AICTO, as an ICT regional representative is willing to play its role of “regional coordinator” at the fullest. We have created an open platform for all involved and interested stakeholders in the region and we will be always focusing on building strong regional & international partnerships leading to the global sustainable development.
If you would like to work within a collaborative approach with the input from all key stakeholders in the region and beyond, with a win-win relationship, join AICTO and participate with us to shape a multilateral sustainable model based on the interconnection of three main pillars: Sharing – Coordination – Convergence. In the Arab region, we all share the same concerns, let’s sowing the seeds for a better tomorrow for all the Arab world through ICT.