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‘ICT POLICY DELAY ENCOURAGING MARGINALISATION’
Related to country: Malawi

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‘ICT POLICY DELAY ENCOURAGING MARGINALISATION’

The civil society has expressed concern that delay by government to process the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) policy, whose draft was submitted two years ago to government for scrutiny, is promoting marginalization among people in the country.
Speaking during an ICT for Development workshop in Lilongwe on Monday, acting board chairperson of Young Advocates for the Advancement of ICT (YAAICT) Grey Nyali said, “Since ICT was creeping into every aspect of work, members of the civil society must be awake so that they does not bring further marginalization into the society, especially women and people in rural areas”. But Minister of Information and Civic Education Mrs. Patricia Kaliati (MP), said the policy was at an advanced s tag.

“Some of these things are supposed to be done with care and thoroughness. We had to consult before coming up with the final draft but the Policy is now at an advanced stage,” said Kaliati.

According to Nyali, it was the civil society’s responsibility to ensure that messages on ICT get through both members of the society both in rural and urban areas.

“As Civil society, we have been there since 1998 when the policy draft was first developed and it’s disappointing to note that up to now, the final draft is not yet out,” said Nyali.

According to him, some of the people involved in formulation of the policy draft are computer vendors and civil society members.

Among other things, the policy contains issues of surtax removal on IT accessories such as Computers and other computer peripherals.

“Even though government has removed duty on computers, when they come and surtax is added they become even more expensive,” said Nyali

In other development the government regulatory body on communication has warned that it would take an unspecified action on all telephone bureaux and Internet cafes operating without a licence. But this has irked some local operators who accuse the regulator of trying to kill their business and being out of tune with the prevailing economic environment on the ground.

The body said, some internet operators are connecting the internet at slow speed modems thereby disadvantaging their customers, but some people in the business argued with the body and said that, this is so because of the poor communication system and expensiveness of the Internet Service Providers ISP in the country. It therefore could have been better for the government to take control measures on the charges of these ISP so that people can afford to pay the internet at a lower price hence improving the speed of the internet by subscribing to the higher band width.

This means that people in the rural areas will have a chance of using the internet facilities because more people will join the business of internet cafes which will make the price for surfing on the net be cheaper because they will be more competitors.

January 24, 2008 | 4:25 AM Comments  0 comments

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