Today, the coconut wireless is comical, a pun that means rumour and speculation. Historical moments need not be documented in the spoken but rather in the verbatim. The evolution of communication has been fast that even the written word is becoming outdated. After all, modern technology and infrastructure has made it possible to capture time immemorial in the quickest and efficient period possible.
ICT has indeed rocked the world, moreso in the Pacific where transition in modes and medium of communication have become apparent. Phone calls, emails and the internet have made it all the worthwhile to correspond.
Yet, information, communication technology or ICT though riddled with promises of improved opportunities for people in the region has its own set of challenges—infrastructure, technology, communication, local content and significantly liberalisation.
Liberalisation is a priority under the Pacific Regional Digital Strategy. This simply means the removal of inappropriate regulatory structures to allow an open and competitive ICT environment.
Some critics argue that opening the market may pose problems of ownership for governments in the region.
In a report prepared for the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat on the review of the Pacific Regional Digital Strategy, several successful liberalisation scenarios were presented.
For instance in Samoa, mobile usage surpassed that of landlines when a second mobile operator was licensed in 2007.
“The number of mobiles in Samoa has increased from 30 000 in 2006 to more than 100 000 in 2009. Furthermore, mobile coverage is now 95-96% of Samoa compared to the previous concentration on the more populated centres alone,” the report said. Other increases in the penetration and coverage of the ICT liberalised markets have occurred in Vanuatu and Tonga.
“However, across the Pacific there are still a wide range of structural arrangements from monopoly and exclusivity (such as in Micronesia and Niue) to fully liberalised environments with independent regulators (Samoa and Vanuatu),” the report said.
The report was tabled at the Pacific Regional Information and Communication Technology (ICT) meeting in Nuku’alofa, Tonga in June.
At the same meeting, officials looked at why ICT offers an opportunity for social and economic development in the region. While converged applications (such as e-government, e-commerce, e-health and e-education) are non-existent officials realised the progress in these areas is difficult to obtain and the accessibility and cost of communications technology are significant barriers.
The governments in the Pacific have now begun to slowly stake their claims in the development of ICT in their respective countries; after all, they own spectrums and bandwidths.
The challenge is to ensure that community interests and the development of people are prioritised and given emphasis over commercial interests at the national level. This will be the mammoth task of ICT regulators and planners in respective countries in the Pacific.
During the Tonga meeting of ICT officials, former senior diplomat and now chief executive officer in charge of telecommunication in Tuvalu, Enele Sopoaga raised challenges that small islands states confront. Unique, he said, because of the smallness of our islands.
But how small these challenges are will be realised when actions reflected in a document are implemented. The new ‘Framework for Action on ICT Development in the Pacific continues the vision of Pacific islands leaders in their meeting in Cairns, Australia, last year when they called for the review of the Pacific Regional Digital Strategy which is an arm of the Pacific Plan.
This framework aims to promote governance and sustainable livelihoods.
What is hoped is that it will complement existing national plans and provide a guide on how regional and international level fit into national ICT plans and not the other way round. Vigilance and close monitoring mechanisms must be put in place to ensure this happens.
In discussing the plan at the meeting of the ministers which followed the officials meeting in Nuku’alofa, Tonga, Secretariat of the Pacific Community’s Director General, Dr Jimmie Rodgers said unlike its forerunners the new framework “heralds a new approach in ICT development, based on a ‘many partners, one team approach’ where all stakeholders contributing to the development of the ICT sector are recognised and their respective roles acknowledged.
The framework has seven themes, underpinned by twelve guiding principles. Each theme has clearly articulated long-term objectives, priorities, targets and milestones.
“Never before has our region seen so many opportunities in the ICT sector that could unite our members and our people to pull together and move forward as a region with one common purpose, to make a positive difference in the lives of Pacific Islands people,” Dr Rodgers said.
If anything, the framework tries to put into place what many other frameworks in the region have aspired to do; effective coordination and the bringing together of all stakeholders where there will be one implementation plan and one reporting and monitoring mechanism.
Noble intentions, yet the challenges for countries are to be able to allow for the sharing of information where the left hand is made aware of what the right hand is doing in ICT developments in their respective countries and be open to discuss the capacity gaps that must be addressed.
“The framework also allows for lateral thinking,” Dr Rodgers said.
Measuring success is another objective.So what do we anticipate? For one thing ICT officials have realised that access to ICT has improved and in the process prices have fallen. But in some countries, problems remain with limited and unequal access, high costs of equipment and services, insufficient telecommunications bandwidth, low investment in networks, and a limited number of Internet Service Providers.
Bigger countries in the Pacific have opted for fibre optic links and the challenges of small islands states like Tuvalu in connecting with other PICTs would be in collaboration.
With the framework in place stakeholders particularly regional and international organisation must now work together, collaborate and not only share information but resources to ensure that the vision of Pacific islands leaders to use ICT tools to address sustainable socio-economic development in the spirit of good governance is realised.
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Autor(en)/Author(s): Secretariat of the Pacific Commission
Quelle/Source: Island Business, 11.07.2010
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