East Africa to integrate ICT sector to attract foreign investment
CCK Director General Francis Wangusi
Officials from Communication Authority of Kenya (CA) has plans to harmonize the information communication technology (ICT) sector in order to attract more foreign direct investments (FDI) into the region.
Francis Wangusi, director general of Communication Authority of Kenya (CA) told a media briefing in Nairobi that the six partner states, including, Burundi, Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda and Uganda have small fragmented markets that have limited appeal to foreign investors.
He said the EAC countries have started initiatives to harmonise all ICT sector laws in order to create a seamless regional market of over 160 million consumers. Wangusi noted that experts within the six partner states have already developed draft polices that will be domesticated by each country.
According to the communications regulator, the regional trading bloc has already made significant progress towards developing one area network for the telecom sector. So far Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda have joined the EAC One Area Network that eliminates mobile telephone roaming charges while Tanzania and Burundi will soon join the initiative.
Wangusi said that harmonized tariffs on voice calls within the partner states will help promote regional integration by reducing communication costs in the region. The CA official revealed that cross border mobile frequency coordination is also progressing as planned. He observed that uncoordinated investments in mobile systems meant that some mobile telecom firms put powerful transmitters on border towns that cab be detected deep in the territory of neighbouring states.
Edited by Neo Sesinye
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