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ICT will fight crime, says Mbeki

Paul Vecchiatto
By Paul Vecchiatto, ITWeb Cape Town correspondent
Cape Town, 09 Feb 2007

President Thabo Mbeki's State of the Nation address today emphasised ICT as a vital part of SA's strategies to stimulate economic growth and reduce crime.

Speaking this morning at the opening of Parliament, Mbeki also alluded to concrete steps being taken to reduce call termination rates and make SA competitive in the global business process outsourcing (BPO) arena. High termination fees are a major contributor to the country's high telecommunications costs.

"With regard to communications, I am pleased to announce the Department of Communications, together with the mobile telephone companies and Telkom, are finalising plans to address call termination rates this year for the benefit of all consumers.

"In addition, Telkom will apply a special low rate for international bandwidth to 10 development call centres, each employing 1 000 persons, as part of the effort to expand the BPO sector. These centres will be established in areas identified by government. The special rate will be directly comparable to those for the same service and capacity per month offered in any of the comparable countries," Mbeki said.

Bringing SA in line

He said the special rate will be directly comparable to those for the same service and capacity per month offered in any of the comparable countries.

"We will also take a variety of steps to improve competition in the economy, among others to lower the cost of doing business and promote investment, including practical introduction of the Regulatory Impact Assessment system, developing high-speed national and international broadband capacity, finalising the plan to improve the capacity of the rail and port operators, and strengthening the effectiveness of our competition authorities," Mbeki stated.

This statement relates to government's Accelerated Shared Growth Initiative for SA economic policy, headed by deputy president Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka.

The speech also stressed the importance of the role technology plays in reducing levels of crime through solving cases and monitoring the criminal justice system.

Mbeki said this would include investments in new forensic technology systems and an information system so the SA Police Service head office in Pretoria could monitor the performance of every police station in real-time.

You can read the complete State of the Nation address at:
http://www.info.gov.za/speeches/2007/07020911001001.htm

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