At the Global Symposium for Regulators this week in Riyadh, telecommunications regulators from around the world have endorsed guidelines to help them build digital ecosystems for essential national services like healthcare, education, and finance.
The GSR-25 Best Practice Guidelines, issued during the closing of the three-day event, outline key tools and frameworks to drive regulatory innovation and build sustainable information and communication technology ecosystems – ensuring that digital societies and economies deliver prosperity for all.
The new guidelines reinforce the need to foster innovation, adapt capacity, and strengthen cooperation to support the work of regulators.
“GSR has spent 25 years lighting the path from dial-up to digital society,” says ITU secretary-general Doreen Bogdan-Martin. “With 2,6-billion people remaining unconnected, regulators are the bridge to a future where everyone, everywhere, can thrive online.”
In addition to endorsing the new guidelines, participants at GSR-25 shared insights on pressing regulatory issues in the digital landscape including governance of artificial intelligence (AI), the growing space economy, and sustainable digital transformation.
“The Best Practice Guidelines represent a collective commitment to reimagine regulation for the digital era,” says Haitham AlOhaly, governor of the Communications, Space & Technology Commission of Saudi Arabia, and Chair of GSR-25. “By fostering collaboration and leveraging innovations in emerging technologies such as AI and big data, we can strengthen our economies, empower our societies, and ensure that digital transformation delivers for all.”
Established by the ITU in 2000, the GSR series serves as the world’s regulatory compass on telecommunications, guiding countries toward harmonised, forward-looking regulation in the rapidly evolving digital era.
“For a quarter of a century, GSR has served as a cornerstone of global digital development amid waves of technological change,” says Cosmas Luckyson Zavazava, director of ITU’s Telecommunication Development Bureau. “The Best Practice Guidelines are a chronicle of our digital age and of the central role GSR has played in supporting regulators throughout the years.”