| 13
West Africa Countries
met in Dakar on the 2nd June 2004 with the main objective to
launch the West Africa Common Market and Capacity Building in Regulation
projects. These two projects are sub projects of a five component main
project financed on a cost share basis by the European Commission and
the International Telecommunication Union. |
| Honorable
Joseph Ndong Minister of Posts and Telecommunications of Senegal
officially opened the meeting. |
| 24
participants coming from 13 Western Africa Countries participated in the
meeting in the quality of the project beneficiaries. ECOWAS, UEMOA, the
EU and WATRA actively participated in the meeting as beneficiaries of
the project as well. |
| The
launching of the project was preceded by a one-day stakeholders meeting
held on 1 June 2004 in Dakar. Representatives from ECOWAS, WATRA, UEMOA,
the EU, and ITU attended this meeting. |
| After
an overview of the project, the participants analysed the main outputs
and deliverables as well as the implementation methodologies for both
sub projects. |
| The meeting
confirmed the priorities of the project as they result from the
conclusions of previous studies in particular from ECOWAS and UEMOA for
market harmonization and regulatory framework and endorses the
methodology proposed. |
| For
the Capacity Building component a provisional priority list of the main
training areas was identified and the methodology for its implementation
approved as indicated in Annex I. |
|
| GLOBAL
BENCHMARKING |
| The
meeting identifies the following deliverables as possible results of
data processing: |
|
1. Collect data with a view to:
-
Calculating
benchmarks on interconnection tariffs, taxes and rates (including on
incoming traffic);
-
Maintaining
a demand/price elasticity study base;
-
Following
the development of the national and international ordinary revenue
plans of telecommunication/ICT services with regard to ambient
economic conditions;
-
Capacity
of various ICT network infrastructure;
-
The
waiting list;
-
Telecom
investment as part of Gross Fixed Capital formation;
-
Telecom
revenue as part of Gross Domestic Product.
|
|
2. Furnish to operators:
|
a. Benchmarks relative to telecommunication/ICT services from
different sources combining the following factors: local, sub-regional,
regional, global, wire line teledensity, wireless access density, Atlas
GDP, etc.;
b. A tool to automatically give them various trends, ratios and
forecasts of their own services;
c. A tool to calculate weighted average values that can be shared
with other stakeholders;
d. A
tool to proceed with clientele segmentation with regard to consumption1;
e. Information on national and international markets;
f.
Monthly report generated automatically.
1
ECOWAS countries may limit number of customer segments to two.
|
|
3. Furnish to National
Regulatory Authorities:
-
A
tool to consolidate national data on each service;
-
Weighted
average tariffs, taxes and rate at country level;
-
A
tool to analyze national markets trends and ratios (Global trend,
competitors trends, comparison with countries, sub-regions, regions);
-
A
tool to calculate competition market shares and evaluate repartition of
market power;
-
A
tool to assess the implementation of universal service policies;
-
A
tool to verify Price Caps;
-
A
tool to evaluate operator revenues.
|
|
| Information
available to the public should be usable for benchmarking, but for data
not available to the public only weighted averages should be used for
benchmarking. |
| Comments
made on the raw data for benchmarking are currently taken into
consideration. A revised list of indicators will be sent to all
participants in French and English
|
| As
part of the WATRA initiative to provide a database for benchmarking at
the regional level and the subsequent support being provided by the ITU,
WATRA further requests the following: |
|
1. Technical assistance to the countries to help develop national
database that will feed the regional database. This can be done through
workshops etc. |
2. Develop interfaces to ensure effective interaction with respect
to:
|
a. Collection; and
b. Retrieval of information. |
|
| The
participants expressed their satisfaction for the work accomplished
before, during, and after the meeting that gathered them in Dakar during
four days, 1-4 June. |
| The
participants took the opportunity to express their thanks to the
Government of Senegal, ITU and the European Commission for all the
facilities offered leading to the success of the meeting. |
|
Dakar,
2nd June 2004
|
|
