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“ The Office of the
Telecommunications Authority (OFTA) has a wealth of information it can share
with other Members of the ITU Asia-Pacific Centre of Excellence (ITU ASP CoE).
The OFTA experience in setting up and managing one of the most deregulated
telecommunication sectors in the world can benefit many of the countries of the
region. We are delighted to share our own experience and expertise with
countries of the region wishing to deregulate their telecommunication sector and
which are, to this end, striving to ensure that the new competitive framework is
implemented in a way that serves the best interests of their people.
In view of the rapid development of the telecommunications
market particularly in China, OFTA has embarked on providing a Chinese version
of the e-learning modules. We are looking at launching, in the first quarter of
2002, the Chinese version of two modules: “The Role of the Independent
Regulator” and “Competition Safeguards”. With the massive group of
potential Chinese users, and the frequent visits of fellow regulators and
policy-makers, the site is expected to grow into a noteworthy tele-community
base for professionals.
The fact that the hit rate continues to rise steadily,
reaching a high of 1250 to 3300 per week in the November/December 2001 period,
reinforces our belief that it is worthwhile contributing even greater efforts to
further develop and expand the scope of the training. We look forward to
collaborating further with the ITU Regional Office as we plan to add new
modules, including topics such as price control and universal service
obligations.” Anthony S. K. Wong, Director-General of
Telecommunications at OFTA, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (China)
 “The website takes us a huge step forward in having a
common accessible resource of information for regulators and those associated
with regulation. It will cause us to re-evaluate our national skill development
programmes in the future, when we will not be totally reliant on national
self-help and the painful or slow process of first-hand experience and learning
the hard way. A shared information repository will help to accelerate staff
development. And from that we should see earlier benefits from the new
regulatory environments challenging us at present. The Australian Communications
Authority (ACA) looks forward to being one of the continuing contributors to the
ITU ASP CoE information bank.
The parallel challenge is then one of delivery. That is
picking up, packaging and delivering the value which resides in the information
bank in a way that is optimized for the range of regulatory audience we have –
and tailored to local circumstances. This delivery can be physical, virtual or a
combination of both using the very communications technology which we are
charged with regulating. The delivery agents, as physical persons with their own
experiences, are critical to the personalization of the process. Their
willingness to support the process with their time and patience will be rewarded
by advances in regional development to higher levels of social and economic
prosperity. We hope the ACA can help here also.” Bob
Horton, Deputy Chairman, ACA
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