UN partners with European Commission to boost ICT investment
A new agreement between the United Nations telecommunications agency and the European Commission aims to attract greater
investments in information and communication technology (ICT) infrastructure in the Caribbean, Africa and Asia and the
Pacific.
The collaboration between the UN International Telecommunication Union ITU) and the Commission is a follow-up to
commitments made at the Connect Africa Summit in Kigali, Rwanda, in October when the EC expressed support for the
agency's regulatory reform initiatives in Africa.
In a press statement from its Geneva headquarters, the ITU notes that over the past decade, most countries in Africa,
Asia and the Pacific and the Caribbean have begun reforms in the telecommunication sector, including through setting up
national regulatory bodies and introducing competition. At the same time, large sections of the population remain
without basic access to ICT services.
Many countries still need to undertake crucial reforms that would provide regulators with the tools and authority to
effectively regulate the sector and thereby attract greater investment, promote innovation and build confidence in ICT
markets.
The new agreement aims to harmonize regulatory frameworks within the different regions. It also seeks to build human and
institutional capacity in the field of ICT through a range of training, education and knowledge-sharing measures. An
effective and harmonized regulatory framework will encourage private sector investment, while more competition will lead
to lower prices and better service for customers.
The ITU says a fundamental shift in policy and regulatory frameworks is considered essential to achieve by 2015 the
connectivity targets contained in the set of global anti-poverty objectives known as the Millennium Development Goals
(MDGs).
It will also contribute to achieving the objectives of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), which
recognized that "to maximize the social, economic and environmental benefits of the Information Society, governments
need to create a trustworthy, transparent and non-discriminatory legal, regulatory and policy environment."
As part of the agreement, the European Union has allocated 8 million Euros from the European Development Fund, to which
ITU will add $500,000 of its own resources. The work will be managed and implemented by ITU.
ENDS