The Covid-19 pandemic is “a wake-up call” to mankind, says Ooredoo Maldives’ Managing Director.
Najib Khan made the statement in an exclusive interview to RaajjeTV on Sunday night.
Noting that this is a wake-up to mankind, Khan stressed that everything will change from here on. He added that how things will change is not clear and that it will continue to evolve.
“This is wakeup call for mankind. It is almost like somebody has pressed the reset button. When I say that, it is because everything we do from now on is going to be different, meaning to say that our social interactions, our official interactions, our interactions with different types of things will be different. Our expressions, our communications, our body language, everything is going to go through a change and I don’t know what that will look like because that will evolve as we go along”Najib Khan, MD of Ooredoo Maldives
Khan, who was appointed as MD in April 2019, stated that technology “definitely is going play a major role” in this and added that it already is.
Noting that there are some common practices being adopted across the world following the crisis, he said that this includes the transformation of e-commerce, cashless digital payments and other ways to avoid physical interactions as much as possible especially in regards to mundane work.
“Most important thing will be the access control. Earlier the access control used to be for allowing physical access or information security access. There is going to be, I think, a huge amount of health-related access mechanism which will be put in place by corporate, government, resorts. I think everywhere”Najib Khan, MD of Ooredoo Maldives
He added that the word “less” is going to very important following the pandemic but that this will make people “more efficient”.
Speaking on World Telecommunication and Information Society Day, which is marked on May 17, Ooredoo Maldives’ top official noted that technology has evolved a lot in recent years and stressed that it “is at the heart of everything we do”.
Highlighting that it will play a lot in terms of connectivity, Khan said that the Covid-19 pandemic has “accelerated” digitalization and brought it to the forefront.
However, he noted that Maldives has a long way to go to see the impact and that there “is a world of technology [the country] should expand into”.
Khan also spoke on cyber safety, and revealed that hacks and other such attacks on Ooredoo’s networks have already increased.
Noting that “every new thing has an issue or a problem”, he said that Ooredoo is keeping this in mind during the design process of its networks and other applications.
“In the design of our networks and all the applications we are introducing, what is in the heart is data privacy and ensuring that nobody is allowed to hack. We are incorporating ethical hackers on the background who will keep on continuously testing and checking what are the loopholes because most hackers are two steps ahead all the time. We will continue this journey and digitalization will not stop. You cannot stop an idea whose time has come”Najib Khan, MD of Ooredoo Maldives
While the MD did not reveal much about Ooredoo’s plans for its customers in the near future, he noted that the plans will include “more on information security and cyber security”.
Noting that these are areas that the company will focus on, Khan said that they will also be focusing on the health and education sectors as there "will be more online requirements" in these areas.
He said that Ooredoo Maldives' current work also includes finding ways for people to have easier access to services, especially in terms of expenses.
