TANZANIA

STATEMENT BY H.E. MR MAUA A. DAFTARI
DEPUTY MINISTER FOR INFRASTRUCTURE DEVELOPMENT

Mr. Chairman,
Honourable Ministers,
Secretary General of the ITU,
Your Excellencies,
Distinguished delegates,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

On behalf of the government of the United Republic of Tanzania, my delegation and on my own behalf, allow me to first extend our appreciation to our Turkey hosts for agreeing to host this conference and for the hospitality extended to us in this beautiful city of Antalya since our arrival.

Secondly, I would like to express our congratulations to you, Mr. Chairman on your election to chair this, 17th Plenipotentiary meeting of the ITU. Also allow me and my delegation to join the voices of those who have already expressed gratitude for the Secretary General, Mr. Utsumi, the elected officials, management and staff of the ITU for successfully convening this conference and for the work they have done for the past four years in spearheading the Union towards meeting the objective of the Union. I thank them for their tireless effort.

Mr. Chairman, we are holding this 17th conference just one year after the successful Second World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) a Summit that ITU was mandated by the International Community, to spearhead development of the ICT sector. This therefore is an important conference which will give this gathering ample time to assess the outcome of the WSIS and give proper policy direction to ITU on how the WSIS decisions can produce tangible results.

Mr. Chairman, it is 22 years since the launch of the Maitland Report (‘The Missing Link’) in Arusha, Tanzania, where issues of the telecommunication gaps between the rich and poor, urban and rural were identified and strategies to bridge the gap were proposed. This was a crucial beginning of ITU to start addressing the serious gap between the rich Industrial countries and the poor Developing countries of the South.

Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen, since then our country has been struggling to put in place policies that addresses the need of trying to bridge the digital divide, encourage private investment as well as embrace the technological developments. We are happy to inform you that our ICT policy and legal framework and has enabled us make extraordinary progress, particularly coming up with a vibrant regulatory licensing framework which not only is technologically and service neutral, but has expanded avenue, of allowing even small Tanzanian investors to participate in building an ICT infrastructure, operate networks and deploy new services on a small scale. This move is intended to serve as the catalyst for stimulating the growth not only in the ICT industry, but the overall economy.

We are also proud to say that the policy has paid great dividends as while our initial forecast in 1997 was to have a teledensity of 6 by the year 2020, but today our teledensity stands at 16 percent. This has been possible under the Converged Licensing Framework in Tanzania, where we have the following:-

• 6 Network Facility Licensees who are authorized to own and control electronic communication infrastructure;

• 6 Network Service Licensees who are authorized to operate public electronic communication networks in order to deliver services;

• 24 Application Services Licensees who can provide access services to end users; and

• 61 Content Service Licensees who can provide content on television, radio and other electronic media.

We are delighted to inform you that the Tanzania Communications Regulatory Authority (TCRA) was voted the Best ICTs Regulator in Africa for the year 2005 by Kemlink International. Following this they were presented with the Award by H.E. Paul Kagame the President of the Republic of Rwanda during the meeting of the Ministers of Communications held in Kigali in May 2006.

From the framework, the subscription levels have increased from 284,100 in 2000 to the present figure of over 5.71 million. Thanks to the government deliberated strategy on public-private partnership, an incentive to the private investors both local and foreign to participate in network development and services provision.

Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen, Tanzania is a large and vast territory of about 945,000 square kilometres. About 90 percent of our people live in rural areas where access to basic communications services is very limited. Economic viability of deployment of ICT infrastructure in the sparsely populated areas is a challenge that we have to overcome. Hence the establishment of Universal Communications Service Access Fund to support operators to provide ICTs and other communication infrastructure and services to rural and urban underserved areas.

Establishment of telecentres is a move to enhance rural connectivity. The Centres provide convenient and affordable access to ICT services on community basis, through public facilities including pay phones, internet and e-mail services and privately owned services. I wish to acknowledge the contribution by the ITU BDT to the establishment of some of the centres.

Mr. Chairman, in order for Tanzania to benefit from ICT development for health, education and public services sector, the country needs to have a reliable infrastructure. Efforts are now underway, together with her neighbouring countries to develop a fibre cable, the Eastern and Southern African Submarine Cable System known as EASSy Project. This will cover part of Africa from Mtunzini in South Africa to Djibouti and connect the region to the rest of the world. This is one of Africa’s concerted efforts to bridge the digital divide and ease telecommunications cost.

Mr. Chairman, Distinguished delegates, Ladies and Gentlemen, Communications development in Tanzania is encouraging although faced by some challenges namely:

• High cost of bandwidth, technology and the related software.

• High cost of ICTs terminal.

• Affordability of communication services.

• Inadequate ICTs infrastructure.

• Coverage to rural and underserved urban areas.

The challenges though great, they are not insurmountable. We believe that as the ITU family, we can overcome these challenges and turn them into unprecedented opportunities. Hence I urge this conference to empower ITU to address these challenges by allocating enough resources to the development sector based on the Doha Action Plan adopted in Qatar in March 2006. There is need for ITU to harness world’s resources both public and private to build a better life for all.

Ladies and Gentlemen, Tanzania believes that the main driving force behind the information age is technological change and innovation. In addition, ICTs enhances advancement of new technologies which in turn increases productivity, job creation, economic growth and export competitiveness. Tanzania has to a great extent succeeded in creating a conducive environment to attract investment and promote public-private partnership in order to develop adequate infrastructure for provision of ICTs services.

Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen, despite the fact that we are a Least Developed Country, we are committed to share the little resources at our disposal. To that end I am pleased to notify you that Tanzania has fulfilled her pledge made at the Second Phase of WSIS in Tunis 2005 by contributing Euros 300,000.00 to the Digital Solidarity Fund.

Mr. Chairman, allow me to reiterate Tanzania’s commitment to share and co-operate with other Member States and ITU leadership in responding to the needs and aspirations of the ITU family. As such, Tanzania has put her candidature to the seat of the Administrative Council as part of the Team to represent Region D. Considering the trust and cordial relations existing between us we trust that you will all support us on this.

Once again Mr. Chairman, on behalf of the Government of the United Republic of Tanzania, my delegation and on my own behalf, I would like to express our profound gratitude to the Government of Turkey, and wish the conference successful deliberations.

I thank you for your attention.