Botswana has been honored by GSMA for its significant achievements in driving the growth and socio-economic impact of its mobile industry. Lebanon, Spain and the United Arab Emirates also received the prestigious Government Mobile Excellence Awards.
Expanded to include four categories: Government Leadership, Spectrum for Mobile Broadband, Economic Policy for Sustainable Mobile Growth and Connected Government, the awards acknowledge government policies and regulation that encourage investment and support transparency, competition and regulatory independence.
“The governments of Botswana, Lebanon, Spain and the United Arab Emirates have demonstrated a clear commitment to putting mobile at the top of their digital agendas,” said Tom Phillips, Chief Regulatory Officer, GSMA. “We encourage administrations from around the globe to be inspired by their achievements and adopt similar best practice measures in order to encourage greater mobile industry investment, support innovation and increase the provision of mobile services for their citizens.”
Government Leadership Award – Government of Botswana
The 2014 Government Leadership Award was presented to the Government of Botswana and the Honourable Minister of Communications, Mr. Nonofo Molefhi. The Minister and his Government’s leadership and vision for a digital Southern Africa were the catalyst for a regional collaboration at the “Encouraging Digital Inclusion in Southern Africa” Ministerial Summit held in Kasane, Botswana in September 2013. This summit culminated in the signing of a joint communiqué by six countries, supported by a commitment from the GSMA to expand capacity-building efforts in the region. The agreement serves as a framework for enhanced regional policy coordination.
UAE received the Spectrum for Mobile Broadband Award its Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) has been at the forefront of the international drive to increase the spectrum available for mobile broadband. The government of Spain received that Economic Policy for Sustainable Mobile Growth Award for its Digital Agenda which aims to develop Spain’s digital economy and society with a €2.3 billion budget while the Government of Lebanon received the Connected Government Award – for its “Open Your Tomorrow” project which seeks to provide every student with an affordable 3G tablet, purpose-built with academic content and robust security.
The governments received the awards at the GSMA’s annual Ministerial Programme at Mobile World Congress which has attracted over 1,200 key government and regulatory representatives from around the world and mobile industry leaders to discuss its development.
