ICT Policy Formulation and e-Strategy Development: A ... - un-apcict

significant achievement in international collaboration. However, they risk being one of the
last far-reaching global trade agreements to be concluded in the foreseeable future. This is
because of the failure of the international community to reach an agreement at the Fifth WTO
Ministerial meeting under the Doha Development Agenda in Cancun in September 2003. The
main stumbling block was the issue of subsidies, especially agricultural subsidies paid by
developed countries to their farmers. This situation may change, but a resolution in the shortterm
is unlikely, given its immense political impact on the developed countries that pursue
these distortionary measures.
Of special interest to ICT policy formulation are trade rules affecting telecommunications
regulation and licensing. These rules are especially important in opening up the
telecommunications sector to competition and foreign investment. Some observers consider
the break-up of monopolies a prerequisite of increasing information flows and for encouraging
the diffusion of ICTs. Until the WTO agreements, the telecommunications markets in most
countries had been closed to competition and had been operated by de facto monopolies, the
national telecommunications operators. This is still the case in many of the non-signatory
countries and it is changing slowly in some of the signatory countries 10 as well. For signatories,
the end result will be similar in all cases – more open national and international markets for
telecommunications goods and services.
However, getting from one state to another is not that straightforward. Many factors influence
the real and potential value of an operator in the eyes of a private sector investor. These include
the size of the market in terms of number and density of potential customers (population
density) as well as the geographic spread of these customers and their ability to pay for services.
The actual and perceived value of the market and thus of the operator, the way privatization
takes place, and the change management capacities of personnel are also issues that affect
the success of privatization and delivery of services.
Geographic spread is especially important because of the provision for universal access. There
is a need to provide services to remote dwellers. However, the provision of rural telephony is
completely unprofitable and therefore unattractive to investors, for instance, in island
communities of the South Pacific or for larger countries with small population bases such as
Mongolia and many of the countries in Africa. If privatization is not properly managed, private
operators will skim off the most profitable telecommunications services and leave remote,
rural and poorer users out in the cold. Disparities increase, tensions rise, the country suffers
and everyone loses.
The transition can be made less difficult by proceeding cautiously, in a planned and stepwise
fashion, with advice from experts in the field such as the International Telecommunication
Union (ITU), other international agencies and private sector specialists. By adopting an
integrated ICT strategy, including universal access provisions based on sound market data
and an analysis of best practices, a jurisdiction can avoid some of the pitfalls discussed above.
However, there is no magic solution. One of the most challenging areas of ICT in support of
10
The full listing of WTO signatories can be found at http://www.wto.org/english/thewto_e/whatis_e/tif_e/
org6_e.htm.
ICT Policy Formulation and e-Strategy Development
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