UAE Chairs 9th GCC Legislation and Regulation Committee

The Telecommunication Regulatory Authority (TRA) on behalf of the United Arab Emirates has chaired the regular 9th Meeting of the GCC Committee on Legislation and Regulation. The three-day event was held in the GCC Secretariat Office in Riyad, from 7 to 8 February 2011 and was chaired by Engineer Nasser Bin Hammad, Senior Manager International Affairs of the TRA with a participation of Eng. Abdulrahman Al Marzouqi, Manager Internet Developments at the TRA.
The committee, is one of the supreme and dedicated groups at GCC league in Riyad that is responsible and mandated for addressing and discussing important ICT related matters such as but not limited to enhancing the environment for joint investment on Telecom and ICT project, possibility for unifying the tariff costs between GCC countries or to reduce them to become local charges, Voice Over Internet Protocol, transition from IPv4 to IPv6, establishment of specialized center at the GCC for Telecom and Technology Observatory.
H.E. Mohamed Nasser Al Ghanim, TRA Director General commented on the meeting saying: “The 9th meeting of GCC Legislation and Regulation Meeting has many important issues on its agenda. Members of the committee are eager to take action steps towards enhancing the environment for joint investment on Telecom and ICT projects and reducing the GCC settlement charges to become local calls.”
One of the issues discussed at this meeting was to develop the human resources within the GCC countries in the field of legislation and regulation of telecommunications.
The meeting thanked Qatar for their input on this matter and urged other GCC to study the matter and to come back to the next meeting with their recommendations.
Furthermore, agreeing on a mechanism to allow for Voice Over Internet Protocol, was on the agenda of the meeting and UAE has presented a detailed document on this matter which was approved. The committee addressed also the possibility of establishing Unified Licensing system for the GCC countries. Aiming at enhancing and improving the ICT sector in the GCC, tariff reduction and consolidation of services such as SMS and content were discussed during the meeting.
The findings and outcome of this committee will be addressed for approval at the next GCC steering committee which is planned to be hosted in Abu Dhabi in next May 2011.