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SADC to cooperate to strengthen ICT sectors

Staff Writer
By Staff Writer, ITWeb
Johannesburg, 26 Mar 2014
Communications minister Yunus Carrim hosted the Southern African Development Community postal strategy conference.
Communications minister Yunus Carrim hosted the Southern African Development Community postal strategy conference.

Southern African Development Community (SADC) ministers have agreed to cooperate more effectively in strengthening ICT sectors because of the considerable interdependence of countries in the region.

The region is also looking at a way to trim telecommunication costs across the region through the "Roam Like a Local" project. Ministers agreed, as far as possible within policy constraints, to seek greater cooperation from mobile operators for this programme.

These outcomes came after a Johannesburg meeting of SADC ministers responsible for communications, ICT and postal services to discuss postal services, mobile roaming, broadband and digital migration.

As the chairman of the Global Postal Strategy Committee of the Universal Postal Union, communications minister Yunus Carrim hosted the SADC postal strategy conference, which focused on the role of the post office in the digital age. This was followed by an extraordinary meeting of SADC ministers, which focused on other ICT issues.

The meetings were also attended by the regulators, and representatives of the postal sector and regional and international organisations.

Technological shift

In a statement, the ministers said: "Postal services, broadband, mobile roaming charges and digital migration are all linked and are crucial aspects of the ICT sector's contribution to economic growth and development in our countries. Given the considerable interdependence of our countries in the Southern Africa region, we agreed to cooperate more effectively in strengthening the ICT sector in the region.

"We all agreed that the post offices in our countries need to adapt and take advantage of the new age of technology. We also recognised that they have a huge footprint and have a crucial role to play in meeting the needs of the poor, especially in rural areas.

"We decided that where possible, taking into account the regulations on fair competition in our respective countries, governments and state-owned companies should make more use of the post offices, including through the delivery of government services."

SADC secretariat director for infrastructure snd Services, Remmy Makhumbe, stressed the importance of implementing the SADC Regional Postal Strategy for 2014 to 2016, which focused on improvements in corporate governance; review of regulations; corporate restructuring and operational reorientation; re-skilling; seamless financial services across the region; strengthening the capacity of regulators; within budgetary, resource and other constraints, rolling out Internet; and the use of technology in an integrated way across the SADC region.

Broadband focus

The extraordinary meeting agreed to accelerate progress towards universal broadband access. They also agreed to harmonise policy and regulations for effective use of spectrum, as well as continue harmonising frequency allocation plans to maximise economies of scale and meet increased demand for broadband services.

It was also agreed to undertake a wide-ranging review of policies across education, science, technology and innovation, to enhance efforts to build the knowledge economy.

In addition, due to uneven progress in rolling out digital television, the meeting agreed that SADC heads of states should be made more aware of the urgency to complete the digital migration process by June 2015, not just to meet the International Telecommunication Union deadline, but release radio frequency spectrum to roll out affordable and universally accessible broadband.

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