Egyptian government make ICTs a developmental priority
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The Egyptian government has made information and communications technologies (ICTs) a developmental priority and has modernised and upgraded the sector’s infrastructure, services, regulations and human resource capacity. Egypt had an antiquated ICT infrastructure until the early 1990s.
People waited sometimes for years to have fixed phone lines installed, and the old copper infrastructure made connections unstable. Phone lines outside major cities were failing. Mobile technology aided in the diffusion of phones, but the government also extended fibre optic connections throughout Egypt, upgraded the copper lines and data centres, improved the integration of applications[2] and in general provided more fixed-line connections. Now it only takes a few weeks to have a fixed line installed. The liberalisation of Egypt’s telecom sector is linked to the country’s economic reform programme initiated in 1991 and has been set as a World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) priority. Egypt has signed the World Trade Organisation’s (WTO) Basic Telecommunications Agreement (BTA), which sets up a framework for the integration of its ICT industry with the global economy.[3] The telecom sector has sustained good performance for nearly a decade, despite Egypt’s economic slowdown during 2001 to 2004. The government sees the sector as a prerequisite for attracting foreign investment and supporting the local private and government sectors. While liberalisation is progressing relatively smoothly, there are signs of the over-protection of the incumbent telecoms operator in the liberalisation process. Other challenges to completing liberalisation include the role of the minister as the final decision-maker for the regulator and for Telecom Egypt, a dual role that does not favour deregulation. At the same time, the lack of public participation opportunities in the ICT policy-making process makes liberalisation a technocratic process without adequate public checks and balances. The average Egyptian is not the main beneficiary of the liberalisation process. It is driven by pressures from the global market and not by mass internal demand to make the price structure for certain services like international calls and broadband internet more competitive. The user base for high-level services in Egypt are the local and foreign business sectors and, at home, the upper-income strata. Egypt’s ICT diffusion ranking between 1997 and 2004 hovered around 135 (ranging between 132 to 137 over various years). It is one of the countries with the least diffusion of ICTs, with Niger rating lowest at 180 (UNCTAD, 2006). This report was completed through desk research, interviews with role players in the sector, and the author’s own participation in the ICT for development sector in Egypt. Ends Source: http://www.globaliswatch.org/en/node/455 |
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