00:00Your task is, well amongst other things, to bring Syria back online. How's it been going?
00:05Well, it's been going very well, I'd say.
00:09Bringing a country back online is not only about infrastructure.
00:14So what we do at the Ministry of Telecommunications and Information Technology
00:19is rebuild institutions, rebuild markets and rebuild infrastructure all at the same time.
00:26And together, this is what makes the digital state that we're looking also to build.
00:37It's easier to say that Syria is going through a process of reconstruction,
00:42because this is something that's physical, you can feel it.
00:45But it is actually a process of nation building.
00:47We're building a new state on new rules and with a new ambition.
00:53And a modern state in the 21st century is a digital-first state.
01:01And we need to enable that.
01:03You enable it through infrastructure.
01:06Infrastructure has been damaged or neglected for many, many years.
01:10Unfortunately, this is a price that Syria had to pay, and the price was immense.
01:17And now we need to start with building infrastructure.
01:20To be able to do that, you need to have the right economic incentives for partners
01:25that can come forward and help do that.
01:29So we're rebuilding the markets.
01:31We're restructuring the markets, whether it's in mobile connectivity
01:37or whether with the fixed services where now we need to lay fiber.
01:44And at the same time, what we want to do is align our interests
01:48with the interests of regional partners so that Syria's comeback is not only good for Syria,
01:54but for the region as well.
01:55And that unlocks some investment opportunities.
01:58So that regional integration that we have, that we seek,
02:03that we've sought in the region for many, many years,
02:05is possible now through building new data routes and data corridors.
02:12So our geography gives us the potential to build a data corridor
02:17that runs from the Mediterranean to the Arab Sea and the Indian Ocean,
02:25creating a new corridor that supplements existing ones,
02:30giving the world probably shorter routes, but also the diversity that it needs.
02:38So in wanting to do that, I think the evidence was in STC's investment in Silk Link.
02:46That's an evidence of that regional integration is actually an executable investment proposition.
02:55In actually being able to attract such investments, such partners,
03:00creating these big opportunities and giving them to credible partners through credible processes,
03:07I think Syria is demonstrating first we're open for business.
03:12Two, our ambition is to build an infrastructure and an environment that enables the future,
03:20that enables not today, and that's not to just bridge the gap that has emerged over the past 15 years.
03:29It's about building the new economy, preparing for the new talent to be able to start
03:36startups, launch apps, and so on.
03:42All of that needs re-engineering of the entire telecom sector,
03:48and this is, I would say, what we need to deliver for Syrians and to Syria.
03:55Remember that we may not want toh let us wrap this up.
03:59Thank you hahaha
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