*** Bahrain, Korea for greater digital ties | THE DAILY TRIBUNE | KINGDOM OF BAHRAIN

Bahrain, Korea for greater digital ties

Manama : Bahrain yesterday signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Republic of Korea aimed at developing and enhancing cooperation in the field of digital content and related technologies. 

The deal, signed by Kamal Ahmed, Minister of Transportation and Telecommunications and Yang Hwan-Jung,  Deputy Minister of Ministry of Science and ICT, the Republic of Korea, is expected to boost investment in the digital content sector as well as facilitate cooperation in R&D and related technologies. 

“It is a delight to work with a country like the Republic of Korea to promote the development and exchange of digital content through various means,” said Kamal Ahmed, after signing the deal which calls for encouraging mutual participation in content-related events held in both countries such as digital content business marketing and conferences.

The deal was signed during the Korea-Bahrain Digital Contents Roadshow held yesterday with the participation of the Ministry of Transportation and Telecommunication and the Ministry of Science and ICT, the Republic of Korea. 

Expressing his pleasure in collaborating with an advanced country like Korea, the Minister told the conference that ICT is a crucial sector in the Kingdom’s development strategy. 

The sector, Kamal Ahmed said, will enable the growth of all economic clusters and further enable innovation and enhance the Kingdom in the ITC sector.

“Our fourth telecommunication policy plan is to help the nation become a digital Kingdom and a knowledge-based economy,” the Minister said adding that Bahrain is now concentrating on investing and developing the infrastructure of the National Broadband Network. 

High-speed network

The Minister said that the National Broadband Network that will be completed in a span of two years is capable of providing a speed of “100 Mbps for home users and 1gbps for business clients”. 

The network, Kamal Ahmed said, is also capable of ensuring that necessary spectrum is available for next-generation technologies like 5G and machine to machine (M2M) communication.

‘Gateway to GCC’

Yang Hwan-Jung, Deputy Minister of Ministry of Science, Republic of Korea and ICT told DT News that the roadshow served as a great platform to exchange ideas on the digital content industry, such as gaming, VR that will mutually benefit the two countries. “Bahrain is one of the most open markets and the Kingdom with helping us be a gateway to other GCC countries,” he said. 

Hyunmo Koo, Ambassador of Korea to Bahrain said: “The roadshow aims to boost bilateral cooperation in the gaming and IT Industry.” “I hope it will attract many people not only from the Bahraini businesses but also future entrepreneurs from the esteemed Bahraini technology universities and colleges.” 

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‘Open to all’ 

Ubaydli Ubaydli, Chairman of BTECH, talked about the importance of developing the ICT sector which is booming all around the world. “Republic of Korea being one of the advanced nations in the sector will help us progress in so many aspects,” he said adding: “The best part of the collaboration is that it is not only limited to private sectors or government but is also open to public institutions or NGO’s like BTECH.”