 Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, good morning, good afternoon, and good evening, and thank you for joining us for this important conversation on moving the regulatory cursor for digital regulation, jointly hosted by the ITU and the World Bank. And I'm very pleased to be able to facilitate this dialogue with my friend, Buthena. Welcome everyone. Lovely to see you, Doreen, and it's really great to have many regulators and experts with us today. We look forward to a very good discussion this morning. I think today's conversation comes at a particularly critical juncture for the digital regulatory community, a time of great upheaval that has, of course, been exacerbated by the COVID crisis. The pandemic has served as a stress test for so many elements of our digital ecosystem. Back in March last year, as lockdowns began to be imposed around the world, we saw huge demand spikes that put enormous strain on operators' abilities to keep vital networks up and running. And of course, not long after, we saw the internet begin to be overwhelmed by an infodemic of misinformation that threatened to compromise public health efforts. Creating this was a surge in cybercriminality as unscrupulous players capitalized on people's fears to mount online attacks, perpetrate online scams, and engage in misinformation campaigns. And most recently, we've seen the world's leading information and social platforms come under increasing scrutiny with new regulatory approaches targeting content moderation and content sourcing now being debated. These are tumultuous times where we have to remember that half the world is not connected. So Bhutena, tell us, how do you think the global digital regulatory community can best respond to these many diverse challenges? Thank you, Doreen. I really like how you put it. The pandemic was indeed a stress test to this digital ecosystem. For the regulatory community, it highlighted the importance of working together, the importance of closer and deeper collaboration to address the regulatory challenges. And we know some of them are old challenges that need to be seen against an evolving technological and market conditions. Some are persistent challenges, some are new and emerging. But all of them are reshaping the perimeter of regulation. Finally, recognizing the importance of specific context, a comprehensive approach to digital regulation is needed to tackle these complex challenges. I think the value of sharing latest knowledge and experience on regulatory issues cannot be stressed enough. It provides food for thought. It provides best practices and sometimes worst practices, practical solution that help mobilize the regulatory community, own wisdom and collective intelligence to tackle the wide range of challenges. Together with ITU, with your team, Doreen, we hope to facilitate this collective effort through the recent publication of the digital handbook and platform and create information for discussions like the one we're having today. Without a concerted effort, the globalization of digital can carry in a fragmented manner that would weaken the whole regulatory environment and can deepen existing vulnerability. So to avoid this scenario, we need to step up, including the private sector, the regulators, the operators, academia, civil society. Doreen, I want to ask you what role can international organizations like ours play in helping regulators navigate these uncharted waters? It's a good question and I really like your word together. Our two organizations have a long history of cooperation around regulatory issues, including our speedboat connectivity work last year with WEF and of course with GSMA, as well as a lot of our work together in the broadband commission and I'm happy to see some of our commissioners joining us today. And I can only agree with you that maintaining close collaboration between conveners like ITU and the World Bank and the broader global community is going to be crucial this year and beyond because the kind of regulatory fragmentation that you mentioned would be a real step backwards in our efforts to grow the sector and to promote broader digital inclusion. We really need to keep our eyes firmly on goals like harmonization, resource sharing and collaborative multi-stakeholder frameworks that embrace transparent and globally agreed principles. Regulatory fragmentation adds complexity. It also adds cost to any effort to extend and to expand digital access and with the COVID pandemic illustrating so dramatically the vital need for inclusive and better connectivity, we need to keep everyone working together constructively to help push access out to more people as affordably as possible. I think one problem that confronts us of course is how to help regulators build expertise when the pandemic is curtailing opportunities to meet and to exchange views. And I think the World Bank has been working on this issue and butana maybe you can share with us a little bit more about that. Mr. Rinne, in fact the issue around regulatory reform is core component of our projects and they are part of the enabling environment component in almost every project where the bank is working with clients on this with a focus also on building capacity to support regulators in this implement the regulatory changes needed. We are emphasizing a lot also analytical work on regulatory issues and a lot of the initiatives are joined with ITU and with other partners doing technical diagnostics to identify regulatory gaps and supporting governments in addressing them. And we're also working to make sure that these resources are available to everyone and the example of the toolkit is a good one. We're working together to create dedicated e-learning courses based on this tool. One of the key elements that helped us scale up these activities is also the support of partners who are supporting our efforts. A big shout today to the DDP digital development partnership partners and many of them are in the room today with a big thank you because you know making these resources available is key for us to work together on this topic. So this really again shows the power of partnership speaking of global cooperation during I'd like to hear from you about the upcoming World Telecommunications Development Conference. How do you see this playing with the issue around regulation for the meeting next November? Great, thank you, Buthena. So of course providing a global platform for frank exchange of ideas and experiences is one of the things that our organizations does well together with the World Bank and of course looking ahead to our World Telecommunications Development Conference that will take place in Addis Ababa in November. We're looking at a very much solutions focused conference where we intend to be tackling the challenges that are faced and connecting the unconnected. And of course regulatory issues being one of those key challenges will feature prominently in the conference discussions. And when we look at solutions and the magnitude of the job to be done, 3.7 billion unconnected, partnerships will be key. We have a new component of the WTBC, which will be a full partnership segment with stakeholders coming forward with concrete commitments. We also have partnerships as a big focus in our Road to Addis series. And tomorrow we will be holding our second stop on the Road to Addis with a big focus on partnerships. Other conversations in our Road to Addis will be covering financing, innovation and also for the first time youth with our Giga Education Initiative with UNICEF and our Generation Connect program in the spotlight. And I do hope many of our colleagues online today will join us in this series in the run up to the WTBC. But for now, I think it's time to invite our distinguished panel of experts to weigh in on some of these key challenges that are facing the ICT regulatory community. And Boutena, perhaps you could explain the format of our session today. Certainly. So today we'll have a session divided in two conversations of around 40 minutes each. The first one will be moderated by Doreen and the second one I'll have the pleasure to moderate where we look at issues around what would it take to support regulators in the new regulatory environment. Both segments will kick off with a panel discussion followed by an open discussion where you are all encouraged to participate. And we also have the privilege of having a number of authors of the regulatory handbook with us to kick start the open discussion on each section when we get there. So to make sure we hear each other as mentioned earlier, please make sure that you mute until Doreen or myself give you the floor and raise your hands if you have questions, start from now putting them on the on the chat box. So Doreen over to you to get started for the first session. Terrific, thank you. Thank you, Boutena. And as we get into the first conversation, I also wanted to mention that we're really happy that the digital regulation handbook that we've done together with the World Bank will be available in all six UN languages. And we're looking to to March next month where it will be available in all languages and you can download it for free from the internet. And I do hope you take advantage of that comprehensive resource. So before we get into our panel, I have been asked to invite you all to turn on your cameras. We're going to try to do a group photo as we do in these sessions. So please turn on your camera and Walid or Celia, are you going to help us understand when we're good to go for the photo? Let me count until three for the best might. Yeah, one, two, three. OK, great. We're good to go. I took the best picture. Perfect. Thank you. I'm sure it's the best picture. Thank you. So ladies and gentlemen, the the the experiences of the past 12 months have emphasized the need to work proactively and the need to work rapidly like a speedboat to move the regulatory cursor in the direction of safer, more secure and more inclusive digital transformation for all. Our distinguished panelists have much to share with us regarding their experiences in their own markets and their perspectives on the most urgent issues that need to be addressed. And as interactivity is an integral part of this event, I would like to just repeat and stress what Bhutana mentioned. Please start already now, putting your questions and comments into the chat. So let me warmly welcome our speakers. We're very happy to have with us this afternoon or this morning. We have Pamela Headey, Macias, the Undersecretary of Telecommunications Subtil in Chile. We have Dr. Mohamed Altamimi, who is the governor of the Communications and Information Technology Commission, CITC from Saudi Arabia. We have Mr. Dan Schlubloom, who is the Director-General of the Swedish Post and Telecommunications Authority. We have Mr. Balchereba, the Director-General of the Ethiopian Communications Authority. I think he was having trouble connecting, so I hope he does. Join us, and we have Mr. Ahmed Bender, who is the Assistant Vice President, Group Regulatory Affairs at Axietha Group. So to shape our conversation, I would like our discussions to consider the following questions. Do the basics of ICT regulations still apply? In this context, what regulatory measures are needed to nurture socioeconomic growth? Is there need for market redefinition in the digital economic space? And what long-term impact will the pandemic crisis have on collaborative practices across the board? I would like to invite each of you to share your thoughts. Three minutes, four Macs. We do have a timer. Celia will be helping me with that. And if you really run over, I will have to hold up the unfortunate red card. So let me turn to our first speaker, Undersecretary Pamela. We have seen the internet transforming societies. We still have a big digital divide, but it is starting to reduce. Undersecretary, please share with us your views on what you see. Over to you, please. Pamela, you're muted. Of course. A hi to everyone and thanks for the invitation. Definitely, this year, we saw a digital transformation in one year, what it usually will be done in four or five years. And in that sense, obviously, regulation is being laid behind. We have been working in Chile with all the sectors, with the Congress, of course, and all the other ministries to speed up the process to match up the reality of digital transformation with the regulation. In Chile, it's very important to strengthen our country to promote the evolution of digital technologies. In the case of Chile, these have been enhanced by pillars. For example, we have been reinforcing technology and neutrality, free competition and open market for immigration. Together, we're working with all the ministers that has to do something with transformation, which are that responsibility in Chile is in different ministries. It's very important to consolidate telecommunications industry. If the present is the future and is especially important to connect the unconnected, but also to get out the fastest enough of this economic crisis. It is very relevant in that sense, for example, to highlight all the path that Chile has been coming out to develop by being in Chile. With the commitment, we are committed to be the pioneers in Latin America to achieve that, not only we have been obviously having four tender process after seven years that we have been no other tender process for a spectrum, but it has been very important also to work with all the in the ecosystem of technology as well as telecommunications. And by that being obviously regulators, academic entrepreneurs, centers of innovation, international institutions, banks into a world bank or everyone that can help us go in the right path. And of course, look at the countries that have been implementing this for some years already. Excellent. Thank you. Thank you for that and for sharing what's happening in Chile and the way that you're advancing the closing of the digital divide and linking that to to the economic recovery. Thank you so much, Dr. Althamimi, let's turn to you. The mandate of regulators has evolved to reflect a change in global regulatory and technology landscape. Can you tell us more on the regulatory transformation that you see is needed and the process that you're undergoing on CITC? Dr. Althamimi, over to you, please. Thank you very much, Doreen and Pothena for inviting me to this conversation and hello, everyone. It's my pleasure to be participating in such an event, which comes in a perfect time to ensure a sustainable digital future for everyone. I will build in your conversation earlier at the beginning. Yes, we are really at a complex digital ecosystem. And this complexity does not affect only the investor and the player in the market. It will keep majority of ICT regulators, including me, myself, busy over the coming years. So answering your questions, Doreen, is there a list of predefined regulatory measures to mitigate this complexity? I think we are not there yet. We don't have a predefined regulatory measures to mitigate all the risk, all the risk of a digital ecosystem. And what I would like to share with you this evening, to share with you my concern and my line of thinking to mitigate this risk. I will not say solutions because we are not yet there. So we are as a regulator. We started to reconsider our definition of traditional market. Usually we build our regulatory framework based on predefined market or market segmentation. So we are right now trying to transition ourselves as an ICT regulator to be a digital regulator. We think it's a must to start enhancing collaboration both between regulatory bodies and also between internationally across border. So if I may share three points that we are discussing right now within Saudi Arabia about how to mitigate this risk, how to enhance and get the best out of this digital ecosystem and remove this complexity. One of them is overarching regulatory framework. There is a trade-off between regulatory certainty and flexibility. Traditional investors, they are asking us to have to be more certain for them to remove or reduce the risk of investment. At the same side, the other investor, the new investor digital platform, also the consumer, they want us to be more agile. They want more agility in our like regulations and regulatory framework. And that's a complexity for us as a regulator, how to protect and balance between protecting consumer and promote innovations and competition. We start to think about something like sandbox. We have a sandbox for Fintech, for example, in Saudi Arabia. We have a sandbox for Delivery App in Saudi Arabia. That could help in the short term, but in the long term, we have to have this kind of an arching regulatory framework that will be based on a fully digitized regulatory platform, if I could say. The second point, which as I mentioned at the beginning, the collaboration, the collaborative mode between regulators. We believe there should be a mechanism that helps regulatory body to work together. Not only regulators, it's only regulators and the private sector. And here I'm not saying for more regulations, but better regulation and better outcome for end users. So to this end in Saudi Arabia, we have adopted a new take on regulatory collaborations. We have been lately established a national regulatory committee that will bring together eight core regulators to collaborate in ICT and digital cross-sectorial topics such as artificial intelligence, blockchains, smart cities, Fintech and digital platform. We starting by the end of last year, 2020, and we are planning to cover multiple topics. That one of the outcomes out of this national regulatory committee, probably a couple of sandbox to enhance the investor to enter this market. The third point, which is I think it's a common across both regulatory and investor is building capacity or infesting in more regulatory skills development. We believe there is a lack globally, both in industry, also in regulatory for the skills to adapt to change the regulator body from traditional one to digital regulator. So what we are thinking here in Saudi Arabia, we are planning to establish a digital regulatory academy with the aim of building the skills and capability of reference stakeholders, including regulatory authority within Saudi Arabia and private sector in partnership with the ITU World Bank and leading regulatory and policy institute. So I would like to thank you, the ITU and the World Bank for the digital regulatory handbook. And for me, if I might share a little story, for me, when I read this book last year, I make it mandatory for anyone joining us in CITC, the Telecom Regulatory to be part of the important process to read this book. It's absolutely fantastic book that will give like a quick start for anyone entering the regulator as a part of like building the skills within the CITC. Thank you very much for this event and organizing such a great event and looking forward to our discussion. Thank you so much, Dr. Altamimi. That's what we like to hear. We like to hear that these efforts are actually useful and that they're taken on board by those that we're seeking to deliver to. So I'm glad you find it so useful. You covered a lot of ground that will take up when we hear from some of the authors from the complexities, the need for certainty, flexibility, agility, the sandbox approach. And we see the handbook as a sort of sandbox, the need for collaboration. And I think that's the perfect segue to my next speaker. And that's Dan Schlubloom, who was our our chair of the Global Symposium for Regulators last year. And Dan, you led the consultation on the gold standard for digital regulation. And of course, as part of that exercise, you were really emphasizing the need for collaboration, holistic, cross sectoral, multinational, regulatory and policy approaches. So Dan, in your view, and perhaps you can also pick up on some of Dr. Altamimi's points, are regulatory institutions fit for purpose to address the evolution of digital technologies and market needs? Over to you, Dan. Thank you very much, Doreen. Yes, I will happily pick that up. And thanks again for the opportunity last year of sharing the GSR, which I found very useful at all of these events. I completely agree with my colleague from Saudi Arabia are very useful to all of us to have open and frank discussions about what we see as developments of our sector and as our roles is indeed very important. And I will again, of course, underline, I think every time when we talk about are we fit for purpose or not, it really you need to start thinking about where are we heading as regulators if we're looking at our traditional task of ensuring competition in the deregulate the ICT markets. That is a skill that I think is relatively we know how to deal with that. And I think we've come a long way in many of our roles. But as we are getting deeper and deeper into the digitization of entire societies, there's almost nothing in our daily lives and in our societies that are not getting digitized. The challenge is becoming a completely different one. So I think the answer can be both yes and no. I think we are fit for purpose to do many things that we have done for a long time and that we know well. But in terms of getting into the new challenges, because digitization is not stopping whatever we or policymakers feel about it. It's happening and we need to be there to ensure that it provides good for society and for all users that it's inclusive and that it doesn't create new digital divides that those divides are not deep and both within societies and between societies. This is, I think, the most important key and how we choose to set that up in national situations or regional, even global. I think that can happen in so many different ways, but all of them depend heavily, in my view, on collaboration that we are actually as individuals and organizations. We have really taught and followed up and steered into this deep-level collaboration that actually means something that we don't only talk about what is my task, what is your task, but how can we together perform tasks that are meaningful to both our roles and to our societies. Because it doesn't really matter what kind of organization you have. None of us would cover all the aspects of society that needs to be covered as we continue to deepen this integration of traditional ways of doing into the new ways of doing things. And there are so many good things that will come about it. So we should not think of digitization as a threat. We should think of it as absolutely opportunities, but they need to be inclusive and they need to be fair on a global, regional and national scale. And that's, I think, the most important message I can share at this time. Thanks. Thank you so much and thank you for keeping the time as well. Absolutely digitization being an opportunity, the importance of being inclusive and fair. And as you said, good for society and the importance of meaningfulness and collaboration. Thank you. Thank you, Dan. I want to see if Balcha Reba, our Ethiopian regulator, he connected and I think he got disconnected. Balcha, if you're there, can you turn your camera on? And please, we wanted to hear from you on the digital transformation with digital Ethiopia. Balcha, are you with us? Yes, Miss Doreen. Hello, welcome, welcome. We know so much is happening on the digital agenda in Ethiopia. Can you share with us how you see your role in driving market development and the challenges you foresee? Please, over to you. Thank you, Miss Doreen. Thank you, Miss Votina and distinguished speakers and participants, ladies and gentlemen. I would like to thank both ITU and the World Bank Group for organizing this conversation on digital regulation under the team moving the regulatory cursor for digital regulation and inviting me to speak about my experiences of regulatory activities here in Ethiopia. As you may know, the Ethiopia is undertaking a major reform, especially in telecommunication sector, considering the broader context and the impact of the telecom sector, the Ethiopian government, with the objective to sustain the country's growth and attract foreign and domestic investment, aims further to develop the telecom sector in order for the sector to be able to offer modern and high quality services at prices that is globally competitive. Telecom is a key instrument to achieve the national ICT vision and objective through the expansion of ICT telecommunications and other infrastructure and services based on the fundamental principles of universal access and equitable distribution. Hence, in line with this vision and objective of the ICT policy and the strategy of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, the government has initiated a reform to transform the telecommunication sector. The telecommunication sector reform has two major objectives. One is to transform the incumbent operator, which is Ethiopian telecom, through strengthening of the participation of the private sector. And the second is to restructure the telecom market itself. To govern the transformation activity, a policy option paper was developed covering four broad areas. One was introduction of independent regulation of the sector to ensure that the interests of consumers, investors and the governments are properly represented in the balance sheet. And the other area was restructuring of Ethiopian telecom in response to the reformed market. The third one is to privatize parts of the Ethiopian telecom that is partial privatization of Ethiopian telecom. And the major and the fourth and the very important aspect of the time is reform the Ethiopian telecom market structure with emphasis on introduction of competition. Accordingly, to liberalize the sector, you know, first the sector regulatory law as well as the sector regulator has to be established. Accordingly, the new law is enacted, which is the communication service proclamation number 1148-2019. And using by this proclamation, the Ethiopian communication authority is established. After the establishment, the first task of ECA was, you know, developing new telecommunications regulatory framework. And also the framework is followed by development of several directives which would be used for the sector regulation. The reform activity is well underway. And now we are undertaking, you know, the RFP process for two new operator licenses, which we will be issuing in April this year. In doing, you know, this reform activity, we are very much grateful to the support we have received from the World Bank Group and especially with our transaction advisor, the IFC. They were, you know, providing us all necessary supporters and that they were with us, you know, with a twist journey we have made since 2018. As earlier speakers, you know, the challenges I am witnessing this time is, you know, especially in the lack of the convergence in regulation. As you know, as we all know, you know, in previous time, the telecom sector, even the ICT itself as well as the postal sector was regulated independently. Still in our country, we are undertaking only telecom and the postal sector is regulated under the same regulatory regime. The broadcasting is a separate, and it is considered in this or handled by a separate regulator, which is the European Broadcasting Authority. So now when we see, you know, especially with the advent of the e-commerce, the digital financial service, and also with the big data, it really, you know, we have to think of to focus in a converged way on a digital regulation. In Ethiopia, of course, you know, we are now, we have a new digital strategy, and we have, you know, our plan is, you know, just as much as possible, you know, to embark on a converged regulatory environment. So this, you know, the lack of the convergence in regulation is really the major challenge. Even now, while we are talking about the big data and the data regulation, in many nations, you know, we are witnessing that, you know, for example, the data protection is separately considered under the data protection commissions. And also many countries are also, you know, institutionalizing, you know, such kind of approach for the data regulation. But this, I don't think, you know, this lack of convergence will be taking us, you know, to the better result. I think, you know, ITU, in collaboration with World Bank Group, came out in a very important and timely moment, moment to introduce this digital regulation, which is a very comprehensive and a cross-sectoral regulatory guide. Thank you very much. Thank you so much, Balsa. You've laid out the whole process that you're undergoing in Ethiopia, quite a big agenda, in addition to hosting the WTBC, of course, setting up a new regulator, private sector participation in the operator, paving the way for competition. Many exciting things happening. Thank you for sharing those developments. And some of the points you mentioned about privacy and data protection, I see them also coming through in the chat, and we will pick up on those points in the second part of our discussion today. Thank you. Thank you so much, Balsa. Now we're going to turn, ladies and gentlemen, for a view from the private sector. So we have Ahmed Binder with us, one of the leading telecommunications groups in Asia, with a goal to becoming a digital champion. What are the main regulatory hurdles, Ahmed, that you face, and what are the regulatory measures that are needed to address the complexity of the digital ecosystem? If you can jump in, Ahmed, then three, four minutes, Max, thank you. Yeah, wonderful. Thank you, Loreen. Thank you very much. Thank you, ITU and the World Bank very much for giving me an opportunity to share my views in presence of such esteemed speakers and a wonderful audience. Well, the digital regulation toolkit and the platform were much awaited. It was absolutely a step in the right direction, and it will enable exchange of learning and will stimulate discussion on modernization of regulatory frameworks across the world, as one of the examples that we see right now. I represent as the other group, as you introduced. We run headquarters in Kuala Lumpur. We run multiple infrastructure, mobile, and digital businesses across 11 countries in South Asia and Southeast Asia. We directly or indirectly support more than 600,000 jobs in Asia. Well, we all know that in the new normal, the power of digital technologies has come into sharp focus. Digitization or enabling a digital economy has significantly been promoted in many government agencies. We also know that connectivity is a core enabler of the digitization. We are the connectivity providers, by the way. And hence, dependence of many sectors, industries, and masses on connectivity has increased many folds. The demand of mobile broadband has increased between 20 to 30% during the pandemic. Expectations on us have risen significantly, and this has put connectivity providers under enormous pressure. To top this up, the duration of technical technology investment for mobile operators, for example, the time from 2G to 3G to 4G, and now to 5G has rapidly shrunk. And 5G will require massive network densification, and hence, much more capital will be needed. So far, we've done a decent job in ensuring connectivity during the pandemic. I hope that the world agrees with this. However, significant investment will be required to keep up with this demand. It is therefore necessary to create a virtuous investment cycle to keep the engine running. We believe that the governments and regulators have a huge role in enabling this cycle, and we see this more and more in these forums, the seriousness of this. For example, there's a need to develop national digital infrastructure and connectivity roadmaps to rationalize the sector-specific taxes for connectivity providers, bring the spectrum fees to the reasonable levels, consider competition from across the borders while defining markets and assessing market powers, and streamlining fragmented industry structures as you have earlier mentioned, et cetera. So I'm very happy to see that the new regulation toolkit brings attention to many of these issues. On the flip side, who has gained most out of this wave of digitalization, which is supported by the connectivity providers? Well, the big tech companies have gotten even bigger. Just five of them have added a whopping $2.7 trillion to their market cap just in 2020 in one year. So in the past few years, we have seen some global source searching in checking the superdominance of these digital tech giants, and this is gradually resulting in the reboot of antitrust regulations. We see the proposed DSA, DMA in the EU. We see the media code in Australia, US antitrust proceedings. We see the revised competition law in Germany and the digital markets in UK. So there has been some attention to it. So while one of the core objectives of regulating the IT regulation is consumer protection, and it is and it will always be relevant, its interpretation might need some updating. For example, are free services really free? Are they actually beneficial to consumers in the longer run or these services are limiting their choices? What's the price they pay? What's the value of data to the consumers? All these questions are being asked. To sum it up, regulation in the digital world is complex. This is because of the interplay between many issues related to digital platforms. For example, competition, data security, consumer protection and so on. We're happy to see steps in the right direction. We believe that there is a need for all the regional bodies and NRAs to look into modernizing their regulatory tools to respond to the change world. Many regulations can be relaxed for the connectivity providers while other could be proposed for the digital ones. And with this, I thank you very much. I hope I have not exceeded my time. Thank you. Excellent. So much. Thank you so much, Ahmed. And as you said, regulation in the digital world is complex and you have certainly highlighted a number of those complexities from taxation, spectrum fees, consumer protection competition, and of course the importance of investments. I'm glad you raised that issue as well. Now, ladies and gentlemen, we do have a number of questions that have come in in the chat on a range of issues. So I'm happy to see that. We're going to hear from one of our authors. We have Janet Hernandez with us. Janet is the president of the telecommunications management group. She focuses on ICT policy and regulation. Janet, you provided extensive research and you provided extensive support. You have provided extensive support to countries. In reforming their policies and regulatory frameworks. In the parts of the handbook that you focused on, and I understand you, of course, you were the author of the regulatory governance and access for all pieces. Can you share with us. Our existing ICT regulatory authorities equipped to address these new digital regulatory issues. Do you see regulators roles shifting? And should countries create new regulators specialized in digital platforms and services, or should the roles of existing regulators be expanded? So over to you, Janet, if I can ask you to be kind of two minutes, that would be great over to you. Thank you, Dari. I think the presentations by a number of the regulators have been very to the point and on this issue. And Dr. Altamini, clearly you have read and embraced the toolkit, the handbook. So kudos to you. But I think as mentioned, the regulators role is definitely shifting. We're seeing that digital services is bringing a whole host of issues that regulators did not anticipate. And so I think governments are looking at how do we address these issues? And we're seeing a variety of different approaches being taken. The current regulators of ICT and broadcasting sometimes do not have the mandate to address some of these issues. And so the regulators are having to potentially shift that mandate. You saw this in the UK, where Ofcom looked at the issue of whether to establish a new regulator. And what they opted to do was to expand the mandate of the regulator to address illegal or harmful content. Likewise, you saw in Australia, they looked at the issue of whether to create a separate digital regulator. And instead what they did was they decided that with the issue of digital platform competition, that would be addressed by the competition authority. And then you would have the media and communications authority dealing with certain issues. So there was a clear designation of authority. But I think you're also, as I think has been raised, realistically, it's very difficult to have one regulator deal with all of these issues. And so that brings in the issue of collaboration, which I think we talk a lot about in the handbook and it has been raised today. You see this being done formally through different agreements and MOUs. Saudi Arabia clearly has embraced this by their committee. And I think also with regards to the UK, they have created a joint digital regulation forum that has competition, the competition authority, the information commissioner and also the with off-com. So you see this increasing. And I think that's not going to go away. I think it's a realistic way to deal with these issues. And I think also industry has a strong will to play, as has been mentioned, because I think they can bring in their insights. And there's opportunity to address some of these issues through self-regulation and through co-regulation, such as codes of conduct, which I think have been embraced by a number of jurisdictions. So the bottom line is it's as has been mentioned, I think it's a little early, but I think you are seeing different approaches and really different markets are going to have to address it different ways because they have different resource needs and different expertise. Thank you. Excellent. Thank you. Thank you, John. Different approaches, different markets and certainly great to be able to have these kinds of fora to share experiences and learning. Thank you for that. Now we're going to hear from David. David Rodgerson. So David is the director of insight consulting. He's a leading experts on economics, working on telecom regulation and policy and developing markets. David, you led the piece on competition and economics of the of the handbook. And we've seen some related questions on this issue as well in the chat. David, is regulatory leapfrog possible? Can you jump straight into digital regulation? Share with us briefly, two minutes if you can, your thoughts. David. Great question, Doreen. Thank you. It's a different way of expressing the question we had earlier do the basics of ICT regulation still apply. And I suppose actually it was quite interesting watching that video at the beginning and thinking back 20 years and when we first looking at telecom's regulatory handbook and the principles that were talked about there were very much the same that we were hearing about from Ethiopia in the current moment. And I think it's true to say that the basics of the the basics remain fundamental and need to be done well. And unfortunately, as we heard from Dan Joblin from Sweden that we have to add to that a great deal more in order to cope with digital regulation effectively. And that's a twin challenge. We've got to keep what we're doing, do it better, provide more certainty as well as flexibility, provide the investment environment that we heard about from the requested from the private sector. And at the same time collaborate to address the emerging challenges of digital regulation. I particularly like and commend the questions and comments in the chat from Emmanuel Giovannetti. I hope I pronounced your name correctly about the developing of new approaches to markets. You know, we're in Europe 20 years ago with 18 markets. Now we've only got two that are being analyzed and regulated. But there's a whole lot of other markets that we need to consider not just within countries but internationally because of the growth of digital applications and platforms. And as already been said, it's not. We can't use exactly the same structures because value in these digital markets is often not in dollar terms. It's in user content and the sharing of data about consumers. So we need new methodologies as well. So it's not a case of total leapfrog. We can do a bit of leapfrog but we need to do the basics and do it well as well as adding on new forms of regulation as described in the handbook. Okay, excellent. So we can't just leapfrog. We still need to understand the basics and do that well. But we do need new methodologies and of course you've stressed as well the importance of collaboration. Thank you for that. Ladies and gentlemen, we've heard from our amazing speakers and our incredible authors on different experiences on the tools and the measures needed to navigate the complexity of the digital transformation process. Now we're going to shift over to part two. We're going to go back to Bhutena and we're going to look at how does this all fit in when we address bringing into market disruptive technologies. Keep sending your questions in and commenting in the chat and I hand over to you Bhutena. Thank you. Thank you so much Doreen. The first conversation was very insightful and I wouldn't have hoped for a better way to start a new month and a new week better than the discussion this morning. It was really insightful. So one could say that catching up with the fast moving technology and industry dynamics make the job of the regulators one of the most exciting jobs of our days. Definitely not a boring one and it's amazing all the insights we heard on the first part. So let us continue this conversation on the evolving regulatory environment by spending a little bit more time on current and future regulatory implications related to disruptive technology, technological development. And many questions come to mind. One, how can new technologies better inform the regulatory decision making process of regulators? How can regulatory definitions, tools, levers adopt to innovation, innovative data driven business models? How do we balance the need to foster innovation with technology for consumer protections and safeguards? How do we collaborate at the national, regional and global level on the new regulatory issues around new technologies and data driven development? As you see emerging around data driven development, digital platforms around latest generation of connectivity, et cetera, et cetera. And I'm sure many of you around this virtual table are dealing with these issues on a daily basis. So we're going to start. We're going to have the same approach as the first panel. We start with a discussion with our distinguished panelists and then we'll invite two authors from the handbook to share with us their insights and take questions at the end. To get started, let me warmly welcome our speakers for this segment. Ms. Mersi Wondrow, Acting Director General of the Communication Authority of Kenya. Mr. Konstitinos Masilis, President of the Telecommunication and Postal Commission, EETT of Greece. Mr. Omar Mansour Ansari, Chairman of the Telecommunication Regulatory Authority of Afghanistan. Mr. Mario Formo, Commissioner at the Federal Telecommunication Institute of Mexico. And then from the voice of the industry, Ms. Jennifer Manor, Vice President of Regulatory Affairs of EcoStar, which provides global solutions of satellite communications. Let me start with you, Mersi. And you know, one of the most important aspects of regulation in every sector is around the idea of how do we strike balances? How do we strike balances between competing approaches and priority? At the end of the day, it is a balancing act. So in our days of this very rapid technological development, this balancing act gets a deeper meaning if we think about multiple dimension, a regulator needs to take in mind. Consumer protection, citizen protection, flexibility and incentives for business innovation, need for efficiency on the supply side and trust on the demand side, etc. So we'd love to hear from you that you share your views on this balancing act and whether and how the regulatory tools of today can address some of the tensions and strike the right balances. Over to you, Mersi. Thank you very much, Buthina. It's really a pleasure to appear here because when I watched the video at the beginning, it really was a throwback moment because I did the launch of the first handbook in Geneva about 20 years ago. So this was really such a testament of movement of time. But even 20 years ago, regulation was never meant to be easy. And even then it was still a balancing act, a consideration between commercial interests and the public good and the consumer welfare at the end of the day. Moving fast forward to this time of our pandemic, I think it only took things to a whole new level of complexity. Where about you find that we had old models that seems to work quite fine. But now there has been a lot of the definition that is happening. And I find that to a large extent there has been a lot of need for speed, having to make decisions that took a longer time of a short period, which leads to a situation where the city building is about learning and learning and re-learning because also the considerations are changing. 20 years ago it was really about opening up the market for business and for competition. But over the years, the role of technology has been recognized and appreciated that digital transformation is not just about business. Digital transformation is also about service delivery to the citizen is also a huge contributor to economic development. So that even as we open up our markets, depending on the regulatory tools and the licenses that we bring up, the balancing actually defines itself because it then becomes what is the greatest good in terms of impact. Is it about the costing for the licenses or is it about the impact that these licenses will deliver into the market? This has been a real change and a real balancing part. Secondly, with digital transformation, assets that we all carried around like data have now assumed a new value. But is the consumer really aware of this kind of redefinition of value? And this then becomes a whole new amplified role for a regulator in terms of capacity building and awareness creation for the consumers. So I would say that even going forward for regulators, the balancing acts only got more complex and the requirement for decision making to be faster has only escalated and therefore to appreciate these kind of forums where you sit and you benefit from the wisdom and experience of others. So I do really appreciate this forum hosted by the World Bank and the ITU for making this possible. Because it is through these kind of forums that we are then able to conduct our work as effectively as we can in the circumstances. Thank you. Thank you so much, Merci. Thank you for your views and for highlighting that the balancing act these days is getting even more complex, highlighting the importance of data and the question, you know, how much people know about the importance of this data and the role of the regulator to adapt. Thank you so much. So my next question is to Costas Masilos. I want us to focus on the new normal we are experiencing and ask you about lessons learned from your experience and what are the collaborative approaches needed to support digital development. Over to you. Thank you, Boutaina. Good afternoon. I'm really pleased to join you today online and let me start by conveying my thanks to the organizers in ITU and World Bank for inviting me as a speaker in this great event. First of all, I would like to stress that the role of regulators in my opinion is to promote with every means the innovation process brought by the digital technologies which are the driving force in bringing the digital development. The collaborative approach or more specifically the collaborative regulations supports the innovation, investment, socioeconomic growth and digital development in a different way for each one of them and to a different extent. In the case of investments, the supporting impact I believe is obvious and can even be quantified as an example in telecommunications and mobile network infrastructure we can mention the sharing investment agreements. Consequently, since the other three elements innovation, socioeconomic growth and the digital development are highly dependent economically on the size and type of investment outcomes, the benefits stemming from the investments can be reflected to them even with the multiplier effect. The collaborative approach represents a crucial driver for the socioeconomic development while by facilitating the penetration of digital technologies will create new markets, will offer new types of employment, will contribute to the innovation process for the benefits of the consumers and the business. Also the collaborative approach will offer additional benefits to the business sector by harmonizing rules and by ensuring a consistent implementation of policies and of regulatory frameworks that have evolved independently in many sectors over the years. The collaborative approaches are broadening out the regulatory frameworks beyond the ROICT sector to embrace and underpin all sectors of the digital economy. Regarding the lessons learned during the last year concerning the digital responses to COVID-19 pandemic I consider that the digital technologies are playing a catalytic and direct role in efforts to manage our lives even in an environment with minimum economic activities and trying to find some ways to contain the pandemic. In particular AI and associated technologies such as machine learning are finding innovative applications to a wide array of COVID-19 driven challenges. Still the collaborative approach took a special meaning during this pandemic and proves its importance in dealing with COVID-19. The crisis has also illustrated the capacity of regulators for agile, adaptive and innovative action and lessons can be drawn for flexible and responsive regulation for the post-crisis period. In the short term, regulators led and took part in a suite of short-term emergency measures during the COVID-19 crisis and these have targeted immediate threats to the operation of markets and have addressed issues such as continuity of service, the increase in vulnerable customers and the financial security of operators. In the longer term, the transparent monitoring and phasing out of emergency measures will be important to maintaining predictability of state action in the economy. The rapid implementation of the wide range of measures following a collaborative approach has been a stress test for evidence-based, outcome-based, incentive-based holistic decision-making. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you. This is really good and very nice to see the collaborative approaches really helping in the context of the COVID and also after that as we think about building a resilient recovery, the importance of thinking outside of the box, the importance of all the principles that you put on the table, adaptability, agility. Thank you so much for sharing. I'd like to go now to Mr. Omar Mansour Ansari. As we dive into the new regulatory priorities linked to disruptive technologies and new topics linked to new frontiers, we also should not lose sight that in many cases this goes hand in hand and in parallel with more traditional agendas around coverage, around access, and in most cases, regulators on a daily basis have to deal with these two issues in parallel. So Mr. Omar, I'd like to invite you to share with us Afghanistan experience on regulatory measures. What can regulators do? What are you doing to expand the coverage, the quality, and adoption of ICT services in Afghanistan, and how can disruptive technologies play a role in the approach you're taking? Over to you. Thank you very much, Portina. Thank you very much for the session. I really enjoyed the conversation. Congratulations for the session. At the time of digital revolution and digital transformation, Portina, we are facing a number of challenges as regulators. These include speed, regulatory enforcement, which is related to institutional and boundary issues. Speed, when I say technologies are moving in being developed in a very fast manner, while the regulators, most of the time, are not ready to not only understanding the new technologies, but also kind of adjusting the regulatory procedures and the regulations to address the potential challenges and also ensure that there is a competitive market in that it's successful and it's in the benefit of the consumer. An approach that we're taking here in Afghanistan, that's a whole of the government approach. We believe in coordination. We have been discussing and coordinating with many government institutions because we understand that many items are related to many different organizations. So a collaborative approach, a whole of the government, is needed for us to be successful in the future regulation. Also, stakeholder engagement. We are placed in a very difficult position. As a regulator, we are bound to ensure the rights of the consumer and also helping the investors to make their businesses profitable or their ventures profitable and also helping the government have their revenues from different industries and businesses. So a stakeholder engagement, that's what we are doing in Afghanistan. We have been having regular meetings with the mobile operators, with the internet service providers, the enterprises that provide IT services as well as IT-enabled services in Afghanistan. The purpose for this is in order for us to understand where the industry is heading, what are the new technologies that are utilizing and what are the innovations they're working on so that we can prepare ourselves as a regulator for the future. And also understanding the potential challenges in the future that these disruptive technologies, the ITES and other industries might bring and how we can ensure that the Afghan network is ready for the future attack. We are also doing risk assessments in continuous evaluation of what's going on in the market. As well as we're interested in working with other countries, other regulators to understand what their experiences are and how we can learn from the experiences in the knowledge they have gained throughout. For your information, there are about 822 sites that ATRA, the Afghanistan Telecom Regulatory Authority, funded throughout the country. That includes like 12% of the overall number of sites, the total network. We have supported over 100 institutions, government institutions with fiber connectivity. There are over 70 educational institutions where we have laid fiber, supported laying fiber, so they have fiber connectivity. We're planning to connect over 100 more villages across Afghanistan to connect with the fiber. And also looking for other ways that we can and means that we can connect the remotest areas in Afghanistan. We're also working with other ministries, as I said earlier, we are taking a whole of the government approach. The fiber licenses are facing a tremendous challenge when they lay fiber across highways and district roads. They face security issues or they face barriers in terms of some of the local authorities will not allow them to lay fiber. So right now we're working with the Ministry of Public Work so that we can invest on the passive infrastructure to make it easier for the fiber. That includes ducks in pipes across the highways, especially the new ones and then the old highways that we're building. In addition, we have re-strategized our TDF. We're investing on five big programs. One is telemedicine. Second one is digital media. Third one is education. Fourth is EIDs, identities that doesn't only include the national ID, but many other IDs that would be utilized electronically. And then innovation and industries development program which includes entrepreneurship because we want to help young people understand what the new technologies are and how they can set up their companies properly and make them sustainable in the current digital revolution. Also, as a regulator, we have a responsibility to provide spectrum resources to many companies who would require them. But it's a little tricky. As I said, the speed is tremendous of the technology development, but we have to keep up the pace. The WRC recommendations for 5G, in others, updating our national frequency allocation table, which is a little very old. We have to adopt that and adjust ourselves with the recommendations coming from the ITU. Very good. Thank you so much. I think this was very detailed tour de raison of all the excellent initiatives that you're leading. And I very much appreciate this. I think you highlighted some important elements around the importance of a whole-of-government approach, the importance of stakeholder consultation and the examples you've given around spectrum, around issues about fiber. I mean, very, very good examples. And I'm sure there will be a lot of discussion around the points you raised and the experience. I'm sorry, we have to move to the next speaker. So let me invite Mr. Mario Fromo in a digital-driven environment. Digital technologies are bringing a host of potential innovation to increase consumer welfare, but also require greater attention regarding protecting consumer data. So what are the new regulatory aspects and tools to consider when making regulatory decisions? And I'll ask you to be brief, sorry. Over to you, Mario. Okay, thank you. Good morning, good afternoon, and good night to all. First, I would like to thank the ITU and the World Bank, especially to my friend, Doreen Bogdan-Martin, and to you, Botania Guermasi, for the invitation to participate in this very important event. Excellencies, distinguished guests and friends, it is my deep honor to be with you in this session and to share briefly what the Federal Telecommunication Institute, the IFT, the Telecommunication and Broadcasting Regulator of Mexico, and also the competition authority in this sector is considering when making regulatory decisions on disruptive technologies. The IFT was considered a four-generation regulator by the ITU in the ICT Regulatory Tracker last year. In the last year, digital technology has become an important part of the agenda of different government since, thanks to them, it has been possible to face the great challenge than the COVID-19 pandemic generated. Digital technology are a driving force for the development and digital transformation of societies, promoting and improving the well-being of consumers by reducing production, transaction, and distribution costs, and also by improving, for example, government health, education, and financial services. In order to improve the use of technological advance that are developed every day, it is essential to establish regulatory mechanisms to promote a better adoption for the digital transformation. In this sense, the IFT defined new lines of regulatory action for the medium term, which were established in a document we call Roadmap 2021-2025. In this way, we identified the most relevant regulatory topics which were organized in five pillars related to infrastructure, promote economic competition, development of digital ecosystem, and adoption of new technology, rights of users and audiences, and institutional innovation. Some of the regulatory topics incorporated are emerging technologies such as IG, artificial intelligence, Internet of Things, machine learning, big data block change, among other issues such as OTT application, user empowerment, intersectional cooperation, and net neutrality issues. However, it is important to recognize that these topics are not an exclusive tax for the telecom regulator, but they involve a wide range of actors and stakeholders. Therefore, collaborative regulation will allow the use of new regulatory tools through participation of all stakeholders in decision making. We are working to become a fifth generation regulator, a collaborative regulator, as defined by ITU in the ICT regulatory tracker. Thank you very much. Thank you so much for sharing this, and thank you for the vision also becoming, you know, a fifth generation regulator with the collaborative approach. This is really insightful. Thank you so much. So I'd like to bring the voice of the private sector now. And we heard from many speakers earlier the importance of this dialogue between the regulators and the industry. So we're very happy today to have with us Jennifer. And the question to you, Jennifer, is how can cross-border collaboration on regulatory aspects support digital transformation across different sectors? Over to you, Jennifer. And first off, thank you so much for inviting me today. I'm honored to be here today with such esteemed panelists. So first I just want to touch on collaboration because really it wasn't a term that I was that familiar with. Regulatory collaboration. And the more I think about it, the more I like it. You know, I like it both from a collaborative effort between countries and governments, but also between the private sector and governments. And I think on cross-border, it's particularly important, especially with our reliance, a growing reliance on standards. You know, private industry, including my company spend a fair amount of time now in the standards bodies, especially as we're looking at developing 5G, 6G beyond. And understanding, and for governments, as they're looking at the sorts of requirements they have, and what's been really interesting, the standards bodies have typically been private sector, but today we have governments who also participate. So that's a new form of collaboration. Of course, the standard bodies are voluntary standards. But I think understanding the standards as regulators and allowing operators to use the standards that they think are the most appropriate. Is really, really important as we're deploying these networks. It's in everyone's interest to have standard-based services, one, you know, you have greater interconnection among technologies and especially with, as you're going to see more and more networks that are networks of networks, not just a mobile network, not just a satellite network, not just a fiber network, everyone's going to be combined. So having the understanding of standards and spectrum harmonization, I would say continues to be critically important when we go to the ITU, when we go to the work where we work on regional bodies, whether it's CTEL or CHI, participate in APT, your name, your SEPT. So I think for both from cross-border, those remain incredibly important, both spectrum harmonization and standards. But I also think best practices among industries. So many of our companies today are multinational and we use, you know, we implement standards or best practices across the globe. So this is something the satellite industry has been very good. For instance, we have a global approach on best practices for cyber. You know, I still don't think where industry has stepped up. Perhaps regulators don't have to regulate quite as hard or maybe come up with something new. But I think having that collaboration where regulated industries step forward and say we're going to start taking action and so forth, we'll, you know, using this as opposed to regulation is important. So I see my time is up. So thank you so much. Thank you so much, Jennifer. Thank you. Indeed collaboration is a golden word. It's collaboration between regulators, collaboration between the industry and regulators. And it's amazing how much we can go faster by talking more and collaborating more. And thanks also for highlighting the issues around the network of networks and standards. So very good. Thank you so much. So we're reaching now the last part of this panel. Hopefully we have a discussion. So please continue to post your questions on the chat box and we'll kickstart the discussion by inviting two authors from the regulatory handbook to share with us their views. We're happy to have with us today, Giraldo Neto and Ian Walden. Giraldo is the technical and policy director of a telecommunication management group, a consulting firm specialized in ICT regulation. And he wrote chapter six on spectrum management and Ian is a professor of information communication law at Queen Mary University of London. And he wrote the chapter five on data protection and trust. So we'll start with you, Giraldo. It is very difficult to imagine any discussion around regulation without spectrum being front and center to the discussion. As different wireless technologies become key to provide access to the internet. In your view, what are the key applications to the future use of spectrum? How the combination of these technology can support the expansion of connectivity, bridging the digital divide by connecting those that currently do not have access to the internet. Thank you. Thank you, Bettina and good day and evening to all. Yes, as you mentioned, spectrum is an asset very important when you're talking about connectivity and especially one of the teams of the event that is connected, the unconnected. So in terms of technology, when you see the current discussions and what you see for the future, they are basically what are we dividing center on the applications. And for that, we see, for example, new discussions around the Wi-Fi technology, new spectrum being needed to support new applications, indoor applications replacing wires within a home or indoor environment. As has been mentioned, we talk about a lot about 5G and all the spectrum required in the different bands for 5G, but this is related to the different applications those networks can provide from the IoT environment from lower spectrum where you can see, for example, applications in the agriculture sector, or we are talking a lot also about connected cars. So each of these applications require a different type of bands and a different approach on how we license those spectrums to the new players. We are talking a lot about private networks, for example, something that we might not have in a recent past. But also in terms of technology, we need to look at how to expand coverage and expand connectivity. So in this sense, we have seen developments, well, we have seen the panelists mention like Jennifer mentioned about the role of the satellite and how much satellite has been providing broadband in areas that the traditional networks cannot reach. And we've seen new technology, these new constellations of satellites that now we have thousands of satellites to cover different areas. And also, related to the coverage point, we see the high altitude platforms, these platforms on the stratosphere that tries to combine a little bit of the advantage of the terrestrial network, but also the greater coverage of the satellite. So we see, and here I wanted to highlight some of the comments of the panelists. I mean, we do see a need for balance in terms of the approach we have in inspector management. It is an engagement of the different technologies and the different actors stakeholders on this. But the flexibility is to support innovation, but also to protect the existing applications. So in this sense, I think from the private sector and from the industry, we see a lot of different technologies. But certainly, these developments bring a lot of challenges from a regulated standpoint to make sure the different views are taken into consideration. But just to the point of mercy in the beginning, there always have been regulatory challenges from the regulated perspective. But I think the main one that is connected, the unconnected, it still remains. And I think now we have new tools to address this point. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you, Giraldo. Thank you. Let's go now to when we talk about digital economy, it's data economy. And we've heard throughout the discussion from the first panel to the discussion we just heard now the issues around data is very important. So can you take us into the main issues you covered in your chapter and how can data protection issues relate to the issues around trust, around cybersecurity, around consumer protection over to you. Thank you very much. In my chapter, I looked at the nature of data protection regimes because we talk about it as if it's a singular body of law, but it is often a whole collection of both laws and regulations, guidance and standards which govern the way in which organizations, whether they be public sector or private sector, collect and process personal data. And I think the concern that's become manifest is the need for us as individuals to be able to exercise meaningful control over the use of our personal data in an online environment. And by being able to exercise meaningful control we thereby engender trust in using online for our social and our economic and our political activities. So I looked also at the critical role of the regulatory authority because any regulatory regime is not just dependent on a set of rules or statutes but it's also dependent on the behavior of the regulator acting often as a surrogate for individual data subjects, protecting data subjects. I considered some of the trade implications because clearly there are potential barriers to data flows arising from data protection legislation and it's a highly controversial issue at the moment, not least between the European Union and the United States over appropriate adequate or equivalent rules. And finally, obviously data security, consumer protection and data protection are overlapping topics and it's really important to bear in mind that data protection is not achievable without adequate cybersecurity. Consumers cannot be protected unless they can ensure that their personal data is not abused against them and therefore it's again this matter of trying to see the synergies between what have historically been seen as discrete areas of regulation unless we see them as a from a holistic perspective then regulators will miss out on some important issues and our regulators will not be subject to strong enough regulation. Thank you. Very good. Thank you so much. Thank you. So I think we're reaching the end of the panel today. Thank you for including a lot of questions. I think the topics that were highlighted are important the issue around collaboration the issue around working together, collaborative regulation is very important and it's definitely a time in history where the definitions the tools, the levers need to be updated to keep up with the technology and with the promises that technology could offer for development. For those who have not yet seen the toolkit and the material I think we provided a good overview today of a lot of depth into those elements and I wish all of you will have a chance to look at it in details. So Doreen, over to you to close the event. Thank you everyone. Thank you so much Boutena and what a great discussion. I wish we I wish we could continue. So many important contributions from our amazing panelists are brilliant authors and great inputs made by you, our participants in the chats. Of course, Mercy, I too remember as Boutena does 20 years ago when we launched the first time and I think overall we're very pleased that this work remains valuable to so many of you and I'm happy that you were able to note that this afternoon. We will continue deepening our analysis. This is a living platform and so many of the points that came up this afternoon the things that you have raised in the chat the discussion will continue online. We do have new new components that are under development on child online protection and cyber security coming soon. And I think Boutena one of the big take takeaways for me would be this focus of course on collaboration and while we look to the future, we look to recovery things seem very uncertain even in this new year of 2021 and I think all eyes are on policymakers and regulators to really help show the way out of the crisis and lead economies and societies towards recovery. I think that point that you mentioned Boutena about togetherness we need the government's private sector international organizations all of us together and we really do need to redouble our efforts to speed up recovery and digital transformation we heard from many of you the importance of shared leadership of commitment so that we can together tackle the challenges around digital connectivity for all. We heard also from many of the importance of connectivity, agility. That's really what I see as the new normal for digital regulation. We need to push our regulators to get a bit off script and to design new regulatory patterns and apply new tools while at the same time of course those regulatory basics still apply. And of course thinking about the new skills that are needed and the new thinking and mercy coming back to your point about the learning that is important. These new regulatory models need to be grounded in market realities and make sense for both industry and consumers because we want to get to that multiplier effect with digital markets and economies as a whole. We need of course and we heard from many we have to avoid that regulatory fragmentation we can't afford to be to be set back and we need to build common ground around these high level regulatory principles to ignite digital markets and again innovation is key and of course collaboration collaboration and with that I really want to thank you all and I want to if I can do a little promotion for tomorrow's road to Addis event join us it's on partnerships and join us in the WTVC process and of course today's event is an example of a longstanding partnership one that we've had with the World Bank for many years and I'm really it's a privilege to have a great colleague but then leading the work at the bank and really we are so delighted that we were able to do this with you and I want to thank you and your amazing team and also to thank the ITU team and with that but then I hand back over to you. Thank you. Thank you so much everyone hope to see you soon and the discussion definitely will continue. Thank you so much. Take care everyone.