MobileMonday Palestine Officially launched on July 26th, 2010
Posted on: July 26, 2010 – Filed under: Palestine
26 July 2010 – Ramallah – Attendance: 150
Under the Patronage of the Prime Minister, Dr. Salam Fayyad, the Palestinian mobile community is proud to announce the official launch of MobileMonday Palestine Chapter, among the first MobileMonday chapters in the Arabic World to host the Palestinian mobile community of mobile operators, mobile application providers, startups, developers, consultants, and visionaries. They gathered to share the same vision “Mobile Innovation: Putting Palestine on the global map”.
MobileMonday Palestine encourages the open exchange of ideas and innovations in an informal networking event.
In his remarks, His Excellency, Dr. Mashhour Abu Dakka, Minister of Telecommunication and IT representing Dr. Salam Fayyad, said “Today we are celebrating the launching of the Mobile Monday Palestine Chapter.
Such event is good forum to explore many new and exciting opportunities of our mobile industry. The Ministry of Information and communication technology (MTIT) is committed “To establish a Palestinian information society based on access to knowledge for all and the utilization of all means of ICT to support sustainable and comprehensive development, improve the quality of life for the Palestinian people, advance and fulfil their aspirations, and assist with the creation of an Independent State. You can notice many steps taken and achievements into that direction by the government. Our major aim is to prepare for the liberalisation of the Telecom market. The ICT sector is considered a major contributor to the Palestinian economy especially so since Palestine does not have an abundance of natural resources. The development of the telecom and mobile sector is essential to the State Building vision and the policy lead by our PM Dr. Salam Fayyad. The priorities for the Palestinian Telecom Sector are clear to all and consist of the release of the spectrum, the facilitation for the import of equipment and finally, construction of infrastructure especially for site plans in Areas C.”
Ammar Al Aker The chief executive officer of Paltel Group said ” It is our pleasure that Jawwal is the main sponsor for”Mobile Monday Chapter”, Jawwal has always been keen since its start to remain updated with the cellular communication world and the latest technologies. Supporting the MoMo Palestine Chapter will foster the linkage between all the major stakeholders. We at Jawwal strogly believe that we can deliver high caliber mobile solutions and applications.” Mr. Aker added “believing in the importance of the up-to-date technologies’ impact in the development of the Palestinian society, Jawwal always aims at providing its customers with the most competitive services and products and will continue supporting the mobile community.”
Additionally, Eng. Ala Alaeddin, the PITA Chairmain added “The launch of MobileMonday chapter in Palestine is a testimonial event of the vitality and leadership of the ICT sector as a major pillar of the Palestinian economy. Mobile devices today are in every hand and in every family which have a socio-economic impact. We at PITA consider the launch of MobileMonday chapter an important step among many others to come to foster and encourage the entrepreneurial culture and spirit and may put Palestine ICT sector in the mobile global map. PITA is taking this opportunity to call upon the international community to help us attaining the 3G and WiMax frequencies from the Israelis”
In his remarks, Dr. Yahya Al-Salqan, the chapter co-founder, said “Mobile Monday has the following objectives: To encourage innovation within the Palestinian mobile sector; To facilitate networking between small and large companies, and between local and foreign; To help local companies effectively participate in international initiatives through the import and export of visions, concepts, technologies, know-how and best practices; To present innovative visions, trends, studies and forecasts from the mobile marketplace; and to facilitate and create partnerships within the local market and with international players. Today, we marked a significant stride towards building an innovative Palestine and putting Palestine on the global mobile industry.”
Founded in 2000 in Helsinki, MobileMonday now has chapters in over 100 cities around the world. ”We already live in a mobile society, now we need to enable the mobile development ecosystem to work together to best serve the customer needs,” according to Jari Tammisto, CEO and President of MobileMonday Global.
The launch of Mobile Monday community in Palestine enables the local industry
influencers, SMEs, operators, and regulators to connect with global peers
on an equal level to learn, share, and promote innovation in Palestine, explains Tammisto.
“The mobile phone is bound to become one of the main means for Palestinians – particularly the youth – to access the Internet and to join the global community. They will be hungry for local content, for things relevant to their personal success, stories, an outlet for their creativity and more. Getting such content and more applications into their gadget is an exciting challenge, can Palestine play a major role? MoMoPal is here to help” observes Dr. Safa’ Nasser Edin, the Chapter co-founder.
The MobileMonday community is a networking living laboratory of ideas, demos, pilots, benchmarking and socio-economic developments. The goal is to enable the membership to meet with their peers in order to encourage smart ideas to develop into commercially successful products and services.
MoMoPal launch was sponsored by Jawwal, the major GSM operator in Palestine and held at Ankar Suites and Hotel with more than 150 professionals and companies actively participated in the event.