Distinguished Delegates, Ladies and
Gentlemen,
It is both a great honor and a pleasure
to be here with you today.
I believe that those gathered in this
room today share common concerns and common goals. We are concerned with the well-being of
our fellow citizens. We have as a common goal the improvement in the quality of life of
our nations.
In other words, we would like to see
sustained economic and social development in our countries.
In this regard, there is already a
widespread awareness that telecommunication infrastructure and services are crucial to
achieve such economic development.
More recently, we have come to
recognize that improvements in telecommunications—and the economy, as a
consequence—are an elusive fantasy without the support of a strong and capable
industry-specific regulator. And that is precisely why we are here today.
In recent years, experience has shown
that the telecommunication sector was in need of profound reforms. Without it,
improvements in the sector and improvements in the economy become less viable.
Developing countries that have opened
their telecommunication sector to competition, for example, have expanded their networks
twice as fast than those that have kept a monopoly.
Increasing private investment has also
had a positive effect. A recent study of 30 developing countries in Africa and Latin
America found that private participation in the sector has had a positive impact on
network penetration.
However, one of the most interesting
findings of the study is that privatization without the presence of an independent and
capable regulator has had a negative effect on the pace of network growth.
A similar trend has been found with the
opening of markets to competition. The accumulated experience has shown that even in the
countries in which a strong, independent, and capable regulator has been set up, it has
been difficult to bring to consumers the full benefits often associated with competitive
markets.
If the existence of independent and
capable regulators is so important for economic development, then what are countries
around the world doing in this regard? How many independent regulators are there around
the world today?
According to the latest survey carried
out by the ITU there were 80 countries—or 42% of all ITU members—that had set up
a separate regulatory agency.
And here I would like to call your
attention to the fact that I said separate and not independent.
Independence is certainly a fuzzy
concept. That is why the Reference Paper under the heading Independent Regulators wisely
refers to regulatory bodies that are “separate from and not accountable
to”.
If we use the criteria developed by the
Reference Paper—that is “the regulatory body is separate from, and not
accountable to, any supplier of basic telecommunications services”—then, 95% of
those countries that made full commitments to the Reference Paper have already set up a
separate regulatory agency.
If the independence of the regulatory
agency is the key to a prosperous telecommunication sector, then these figures tell us
that we are in the right track, and hopefully in the not so distant future the current 42%
of ITU members with a separate regulatory body will rise to 100%.
Yet I would argue that, from the point
of view of users and providers of telecommunication services (that is, investors), the
independence of the agency is not as important as the transparency of its decision making
process, the non-discriminatory nature of its practices, and the professionalism of its
actions.
An independent but non-transparent
regulator can be influenced to adopt discriminatory, unfair, and anti-competitive
practices in favor of one or more of the players in the market. Independence with no
transparency can also tempt regulators to abuse the power with which they have been
invested.
This is why the Reference Paper
correctly emphasize in each of the principles outlined, transparency and
non-discrimination as key elements to achieve a sound competitive environment for the
provision of services.
What the Reference Paper does not
mention, but what is still very important in the context of most developing countries is
the professional capabilities and resources of the regulatory agency.
In most developing countries the
scarcity of well trained professionals poses problems that are often more acute and
pervasive than those posed by the issue of independence—assuming, of course, that the
regulator is separate and non-accountable to any supplier of basic telecommunication
services.
Distinguished Delegates,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
There is little doubt in the industry
today that the existence of an independent, transparent, and capable regulator taking
non-discriminatory decisions is essential to the growth of not only the telecommunication
sector itself, but that of the national economy at large.
If that is the case, then what are
institutions like ours doing to support nations around the world to move in this
direction?
The ITU’s Telecom Development
Bureau, most commonly known as the BDT, is providing technical assistance to countries
that request it. One of the units of the BDT—the sector restructuring Unit—has
been specially set up to provide support to developing countries that are in the process
of opening their markets to competition, setting up new regulatory agencies, or
privatizing their national telecommunication operators.
Let me clarify that since we are an
inter-governmental organization we act only when a country puts forward a request for
technical assistance in a particular area of their telecommunications sector.
Let me stop here with this brief
introduction to our activities in this area. The Director of the BDT, Mr. Hamadoun
Touré,
is here with us today. During the “Technical Assistance Sources and Needs”
session, he will provide you with a more detailed account of what the ITU and, in
particular, the BDT is doing and can do for developing nations in this area.
On that note, let me close my remarks
by thanking you all for your attention. I hope that this brief overview of the issues at
stake will help to enrich and stimulate the forthcoming discussion.
Now let me hand over to our
distinguished panel of speakers. |
