WB to provide $125m to improve
ISLAMABAD: A multi-billion-rupee project to accelerate growth of telecommunication in remote areas of the country is expected to be launched shortly. The details for the Rural Telecommunications Access Project were being worked out for which the World Bank had agreed to provide $ 125 million financial aid to jumpstart growth of basic telephony. According to the Ministry of Information Technology, the grant being extended by the World Bank would provide the country with an ideal platform to extend telecom services to the un-served areas.
The amount received from the World Bank would be deposited in the Universal Service Fund (USF) as contribution by the government to bring the rural population into the mainstream of the country’s economic development. The benefits of such an intervention would be a higher GDP growth, improved governance and poverty alleviation through enhanced economic activities and job creation. Minister for Information Technology Awais Ahmad Khan Leghari had said the government wanted to invest heavily into the rural telecommunication to bridge the access gap through output-based aid schemes as introduced earlier by many countries in South Asia, Latin America and Africa. “International experience shows that despite deregulation and competitive private sector participation, universal access to telecom services is unlikely to be achieved without intervention, at least in the initial phase of development,” he added.
The government would use USF to extend a one-time subsidy or grant for private operators, and the subsidy would be offered through bidding on a competitive basis to keep the cost as low as possible to ensure maximum private investment in achieving universal service goals. The rural tele-density in Pakistan stood at a dismal 1 per cent of the population and the government was keen to take it to at least 5 per cent by 2010. However, some of the activities being undertaken by PTA in this regard are to encouraging banks to provide micro-credit loans for setting up PCOs and Telecentre.
Source: The News
Date:10/19/2006
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