Policy Statement
by
The Hon. D. Jeeha
Minister of Information Technology and Telecommunications
Republic of Mauritius

Tuesday,19 March 2002

Mr Chairman,
Colleague Ministers,
The Director of BDT
Distinguished Delegates,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

First of all, let me thank the Government of Turkey for having kindly accepted to host the World Telecommunication Development Conference and I thank the people of Turkey for their warm welcome and hospitality.

ICT is changing our lives today: the way we work, do business, communicate with each other and entertain. The application of new technologies in this respect, offers unlimited opportunities and choices. The Internet has proved to be the main catalyst behind this phenomenal change. It has been reported that about 150,000 people log on to the Internet everyday for the first time in their life. Content on the web increases by almost two million pages daily. However, despite the ever-growing use of the Internet, we have to recognise that there are still significant discrepancies in its adoption owing to issues relating to gender, education and literacy levels, income, language, race and ethnicity. These are issues, which compound the Digital Divide problem. More than half of Internet users live in the United States although the country makes up less than 5 per cent of the world population. We therefore face an uphill task to ensure that man, irrespective of his origin, has a fair and equitable chance to take full advantage of the benefits of the new technology and enjoy a better quality of life. ICT should be built around people and not the other way round.

People who cannot access Internet in the new economy are the equivalent of those who cannot read and write in the old economy. Like wealth and mobility, access to information is becoming a critical factor by which countries, regions, sectors, and socio-economic groups are judged by society as either haves or haves-not – information rich or information poor.

There is probably no government in the world that is not implementing today programmes to bring new technology closer to the citizens. But for ICT to impact effectively, the Internet has to be as omnipresent in society as electricity and water, that is accessible any time anywhere. Next Generation Systems and network designers should therefore endeavour construct these systems and networks around people.

However there are people who will never want to use a computer to communicate with government, or with anybody else. This will compel governments to maintain the traditional methods of delivering public services even after they are all made available online.

Ladies and Gentlemen, allow me to tell you about the initiatives which the Government of Mauritius is taking to promote the ICT sector. Government has the ambition of transforming Mauritius into a cyber island and a knowledge hub. This vision is backed by strong political commitment with the Prime Minister himself spearheading the move. To realise this vision, Government has adopted a three-pronged approach, namely, the setting-up of dedicated ICT infrastructure including high capacity digital highways, the provision of qualified human resources through a comprehensive e-education and training programme, and the online delivery of all its services to citizens by 2005.

In addition the regulatory framework to facilitate the development of the ICT industry is fully in place with the various cyber laws covering electronic transactions, privacy and data protection, electronic consumer protection and prevention of computer misuse and cybercrimes. In the context of convergence, we have recently passed an ICT act to provide for a common regulatory body.

Ladies and Gentlemen you will appreciate that without a strong telecommunication backbone, it would have been difficult to embank on this venture which I have just mentioned. You may be surprised to learn that the telephone was first introduced in Mauritius in 1883, i.e only 7 years after it was invented. Government had for the past 11 years imposed low-access charges in order to bring down the threshold of telephone affordability. As a result Mauritius enjoys one of the highest teledensity for Middle Income countries with 28 fixed lines per 100 inhabitants on a 100% digital network offering basic and advanced services alike. In addition we have the same penetration for mobile telephony. The telecommunication infrastructure is now entirely digital and is secured through underground fibre optic cables and microwave links. On the international side, Mauritius has had to rely on satellite communications for its overseas links. However this situation will change in a matter of weeks with the putting into service with the SAFE/SAT3 submarine fibre optic cable linking Mauritius to Malaysia and Portugal via South Africa. This fibre optic cable system will provide reliable high quality high speed circuits with uninterrupted service even during cyclones.

We believe we have still a long way to go to catch up with those who are in the forefront of ICT development. We have the advantage however of being small and we are confident that we will be able to realise the vision we have set ourselves, that of being a cyber island and being an information-based society.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I would like to conclude here by commending the International Telecommunication Union for the excellent work it has been doing over the years to assist member states especially developing countries to address their problems. I think that it is the fervent wish of all participants in this conference that ITU pursues this noble task with greater effort to further bridge the digital divide in the world particularly in the least developing countries.

Thank you for your attention.