ANACOM actively participates in the Global Symposium for Regulators 2025

Sandra Maximiano (Chairwomen of ANACOM's Board of Directors) and Marco Fernandes (Member of ANACOM's Board of Directors) participated in the 2025 edition of the Global Symposium for Regulators (GSR), which took place from 31 August to 3 September in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

Organised by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), this event brought together regulators and other global players from around the world with the aim of promoting the sharing of ideas and experiences on the sector's most pressing and topical issues.

The theme of this year's edition of the GSR was "Regulation for Sustainable Digital Development". The discussion focused on supporting regulators in taking on a facilitating role in building the digital ecosystem, as well as providing practical leadership geared towards an inclusive digital future.

Sandra Maximiano participated in the following sessions:

• Heads of Regulators Executive Roundtable: What will it take for regulators to be digital ecosystem builders? - She took part in this roundtable on 1 September, which brought together regulatory leaders to discuss how regulators can become true builders of digital ecosystems. You can read a summary of the Chairwoman's speech herehttps://www.anacom.pt/render.jsp?contentId=1816755.
• Protect - Shaping Consumer Confidence - This session addressed the policy and regulatory measures that are needed to build an environment of trust and consumer protection in a world increasingly shaped by artificial intelligence and massive data usage, as well as the role of different stakeholders in this process.

In her presentation, the Chair of ANACOM emphasised that behavioural economics demonstrates that our decisions are not purely rational, but are instead heavily influenced by factors such as social pressure and various biases, particularly among young people. She emphasised that these vulnerabilities can be exploited in the digital environment and that artificial intelligence can further amplify this effect by taking advantage of cognitive biases. She therefore argued that, in order to better protect consumers, especially the most vulnerable, regulators need to understand how these distortions work. She also emphasised that this knowledge could be used positively by regulators to promote safer choices and fairer digital environments through the application of behavioural economics techniques.

ANACOM's international activities promoting behavioural economics in various forums were also highlighted. This includes the proposals presented to CEPThttps://www.anacom.pt/render.jsp?categoryId=7872 in preparation for the next World Telecommunication Development Conference, as well as various initiatives at ARCTEL-CPLPhttps://www.anacom.pt/render.jsp?categoryId=56270, BEREChttps://www.anacom.pt/render.jsp?categoryId=162384 and ERGPhttps://www.anacom.pt/render.jsp?categoryId=339291;

• Network of Women (NoW) - This interactive NoW session in the ITU Development Sector brought together regulators, policymakers and other stakeholders to explore how gender-sensitive regulation can promote inclusive and sustainable digital development. NoW facilitated discussions on inclusive regulation and female leadership in digital policies. Sandra Maximiana was one of three global leaders selected by the ITU to facilitate the session.

Marco Fernandes delivered a speech during the Innovate - Building the Ecosystem to Address Global Challenges session, focusing on public policies and regulatory/governance models for digital transformation and artificial intelligence (AI). He emphasised the importance of these models contributing to innovation and entrepreneurship. To this end, he referred to practical mechanisms such as regulatory sandboxes, which facilitate interaction between regulators and entrepreneurs.

During the Symposium, the ANACOM delegation held several meetings, including:

⇒A meeting with Nuno Mathias, the Portuguese Ambassador to Saudi Arabia, who welcomed the ANACOM delegation to his official residence on 31 August and shared his thoughts on Saudi Arabia today and its relationship with Portugal, particularly with regard to the digital ecosystem;

⇒ Haitham Alohaly, Governor of the Communications, Space and Technology Commission (CST), the Saudi Regulatory Authority, also welcomed ANACOM. During the meeting, the CST expressed an interest in finding out more about the European Union's regulations on digital services and artificial intelligence. The CST also presented RegTech, an AI tool designed to support the regulator's core operations.

⇒ At a meeting with Cosmas Zavazava, Director of the ITU Development Bureau, activities undertaken by the ITU in the fields of innovation and entrepreneurship were presented. Another topic discussed was preparations for the upcoming World Telecommunication Development Conference (WTDC-25), which is to be held in Baku in November. In this context, the national proposals for including the national economy in the ITU's development sector agenda were recalled.

⇒ It should be noted that ANACOM also joined a delegation from ARCTEL-CPLP, led by Leonilde Santos (President of the Association of Regulators and of ARME in Cape Verde), which met with the Director of the ITU Development Bureau. During this meeting, Cosmas Zavazava reaffirmed the ITU's commitment to supporting the revision of the CPLP Digital Agenda.

Finally, we would like to highlight the interview given by Sandra Maximiano to the ITU Interviews media channel. In the interview, she discusses the importance of Behavioural Economics for consumer protection, particularly for vulnerable groups, in the digital environment.

Watch the interview: