More than 101,000 people from 204 economies attended the 2016 GSMA Mobile World Congress, the largest turnout in the event’s 21-year history.
The annual congress, held this year from 22 to 25 February in Barcelona, Spain, is the mobile industry’s biggest event, where business executives, government representatives and mobile technology enthusiasts gather to collaborate and conduct business.
APNIC was invited to attend and participate in the Ministerial Programme, which attracts approximately one thousand government and industry representatives from 160 economies, and more than 20 international organizations. Strategic Engagement Director, Pablo Hinojosa, represented APNIC at this event.
APNIC activities included:
- Meetings with GSMA representatives to discuss opportunities to expand collaboration with APNIC, for example, in capacity building, as all GSMA members in the Asia Pacific are also APNIC Members.
- Participating in meetings with government representatives from the Asia Pacific region and technical community partners (ISOC and ICANN).
- Attending a number of keynote presentations and panel discussions, including:
- The Mobile World Summit, which included a keynote presentation by Daniel Nabarro, Special Adviser of the UN Secretary General, to present the 2030 agenda for sustainable development and a panel discussion on how the recently adopted Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) relate to mobile connectivity.
- The Asia-Pacific Regional Summit at the Ministerial Programme, which included two keynote presentations – one from the Secretary of the Department of Communications in India and another from an executive from Telstra – as well as two panels on governance and security.
- A session on “New Regulatory Frameworks for the Digital Ecosystem”, during which a study commissioned by GSMA on this subject was introduced – the study proposes significant reforms to adapt current regulatory frameworks to the technological and economic realities of the digital age.
Following the congress in Barcelona, Pablo attended the NETmundial Initiative Inaugural Coordination Council meeting in Madrid, Spain. The meeting served as an opportunity to take stock of activities to date, discuss future directions, and propose a set of activities for the next phase of the initiative.
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