The Third Regional Forum for the Digital Arabic Content is held in Dubai, UAE on October 19-20, during the events of GITEX 2015 under the title "Arab Content in the Era of Major Digital Transformation".
The Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (MCIT) plays an important role in this forum as it is a member of the entity regulating that forum which includes the Arab League, the UAE Telecommunications Regulatory Authority, ESCWA and the Arab Regional Office of the International Telecommunication Union.
MCIT has taken part in preparing the agenda, choosing the theme of the forum, preparing the content of the panel discussions and selecting the speakers. It has also been cooperating with the UAE side in preparing an official website for the forum. This is in addition to being responsible for the preparation and management of a panel discussion on the press content and its joint responsibility with the Technical Secretariat of the Arab League in preparing a special session to review the frame of reference.
The forum is mainly an Egyptian initiative that gained its legitimacy from the Arab Telecommunications and Information Council of Ministers resolutions at its round 16 in Algeria in 2012 on promoting digital Arabic content. MCIT hosted, in Egypt, the Regional Forum for Digital Arabic Content for two consecutive years 2013/2014 implementing the recommendation of convening it on a regular basis.
The first forum was held on 8 December 2013 and the second on 12-13 November 2014 under the title "Developmental Impact of Arab Digital Content Industry”.
The Forum has achieved several significant results including the increase in the number of participating Arab countries, the diversity of attendees and participants from the various stakeholders, the development of agenda from general topics to more specialized topics and the issuance of a number of important recommendations.
Following this success, a recommendation was issued by the Second Forum requesting the Technical Secretariat of the Arab League to prepare a comprehensive frame of reference for the mechanism and methodology of the Forum work in a way that makes it an institutional entity and maintains its periodical holding.
Presenting the matter in the meeting 37 of the Permanent Arab Committee for ICT last September in Dubai, the Egyptian administration expressed its desire to undertake the work of the Forum secretariat and the Committee highlighted the importance of coordination with the UAE administration which will host the next Forum on the announcement of the secretariat during the Forum activities.
GITEX is internationally recognized as the largest and most important business-to-business IT trade event for corporates, enterprises and small and medium businesses that exist in the Middle Eastern, African and South Asian markets.
