The Private Sector Commission (PSC) yesterday said that it is disappointed that the APNU+AFC government’s proposed legislation to liberalise the telecommunications sector is yet to be laid in parliament.
APNU+AFC had said in its manifesto that telecoms liberalisation would be accomplished within 100 days of entering office. This has not been accomplished nine months on and is seen as major breach of its commitments.
A Minister of Telecommunication has since been appointed to underline how important the sector is to the government but the reform bill is still to be presented. The previous PPP/C government had talked about liberalising the sector for more than a decade without accomplishing it. Digicel, one of the main service providers here, has regularly pressed government to end the monopoly held by the Guyana Telephone and Telegraph.
Today, the PSC called on the government to establish and announce specific timelines for when the liberalisation is going to begin and the specific processes that are going to be involved in this exercise.
“The fact is that Guyana’s economic advancement and growth is being seriously handicapped by the country’s limited access to bandwidth and affordable high speed connectivity. The PSC looks forward to a Telecommunications Bill that will ensure unrestricted and unfettered competition by our telecommunications providers.
“The absence of high speed affordable connectivity has left Guyana behind the rest of the world and, indeed, the rest of the Caribbean. It prevents domestic and international investment in the creative innovation of ICT services and the employment and productivity that this investment will produce in every sector of the economy”, the private sector declared.
The private sector said it is of the firm belief that technology driven, knowledge based industries must be the cornerstone of this country’s future.
The PSC said it is ready and willing to work with and support the government, in every way it can, to accelerate the establishment of an ICT sector that can take the country and the economy into the 21st century.
