Dubai – Mubasher: Mobile ecosystems have a positive economic impact on markets across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, according to a recent report by GSMA.

Moreover, mobile technologies and services added $191 billion to the region’s economy in 2018, equivalent to about 4.5% of the regional gross domestic product (GDP).

GSMA released on Tuesday two new reports at the annual ‘GSMA Mobile 360 – MENA’ event, taking place in Dubai.

The reports, titled ‘The Mobile Economy: Middle East and North Africa 2019’ and ‘Realising the potential of IoT in MENA’, also highlighted the transformative impact of the internet of things (IoT) technologies on regional governments’ strategic national visions.

“By 2023, mobile’s economic contribution is forecast to reach more than $220 billion as countries increasingly benefit from the improvements in productivity and efficiency brought about by the increased uptake of mobile services, and 5G and IoT networks are widely deployed,” the report noted.

In five Arab states of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) member countries, 12 operators have launched commercial 5G services, with the aim to be global leaders in 5G deployments, supporting the digital transformation ambitions outlined in strategic national visions such as UAE Vision 2021 and Saudi Vision 2030.

“Meanwhile, IoT connections in the MENA region are growing at a rate second only to Asia-Pacific. There are forecast to be 470 million IoT connections in MENA by the end of 2019, rising to 1.1 billion by 2025. The deployment of IoT across MENA is expected to add $18 billion to regional GDP by 2025,” according to the GSMA report.