Government will make several announcements in the near future concerning ministerial directives targeted at reducing local and international connectivity costs, says public enterprises minister Alec Erwin.
These announcements will be directly related to a framework being developed by the economic cluster of ministries as determined by the Cabinet in its Accelerated and Shared Growth Initiative for SA (ASGISA) policy.
Directly related to the overall ICT industry, the announcements will deal with reducing the costs of communications, funding for national signal distributor Sentech`s wireless broadband network, and the terms and conditions for participation in the East African Submarine Cable System (Eassy), and the development of the business process outsourcing and off-shoring industry.
Government departments within the economic cluster are the Department of Communications, Department of Trade and Industry, Department of Science and Technology, and the Department of Public Enterprises.
Briefing the media yesterday in Parliament on the objectives of the economic cluster of ministries, Erwin said government departments are developing a framework that will combine efforts and synergies with the focus on planning and implementing projects and identifying bottlenecks and obstructions.
According to Erwin, most if not all of these announcements will be made by June. However, ITWeb has learnt that a number of these announcements will be made by 25 May, when communications minister Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri will present the communications department`s budget to Parliament.
Reducing communication costs
"In terms of bringing down the costs of ICT connectivity, the Electronic Communications Act, in terms of which the minister of communications will be announcing new policy directives targeted at reducing the cost of communications, has now been signed by the president, making it possible for these directives to be issued on schedule, by the end of June 2006," Erwin said.
He did not say when the ICASA (Independent Communications Authority of SA) Amendment Bill, which is closely related to the Electronic Communications Act, is expected to be passed by Parliament.
Erwin added that a meeting of ministers of the 22 countries participating in the New Economic Policy for Africa`s Development terrestrial and sub-marine broadband network project will take place in the first week of June. They will consider the recommendations of officials regarding the main principles in terms of which Eassy will be built, namely, open, non-discriminatory and affordable access.
Erwin said the sub-marine cable is scheduled to be operational by 2008.
Business process outsourcing and off-shoring is one of the immediate priority sectors for ASGISA and Erwin said an initial incentives package has been developed for it.
"Government is in the process of marketing the initiative to international investors and 11 investors of at least 1 000-seat operations focused on offshore business have already been short-listed. Progress on the development of call centres in five poor communities has advanced with the identification of FET [Future Education and Training] facilities for utilisation as call centres to a maximum 100 seats."
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