ITU said it would provide emergency support to Afghanistan govt. ...
ITU said it would provide emergency support to Afghanistan govt. in its effort to restore country’s “heavily damaged” telecom and broadcasting infrastructure. ITU’s Telecom Development Bureau Dir. Hamadoun Toure signed 2-year project agreement with Afghanistan’s Minister of Communications Masoom…
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Timely, relevant coverage of court proceedings and agency rulings involving tariffs, classification, valuation, origin and antidumping and countervailing duties. Each day, Trade Law Daily subscribers receive a daily headline email, in-depth PDF edition and access to all relevant documents via our trade law source document library and website.
Stanekzai saying ITU would strengthen Afghanistan’s institutional competence to govern sector. “Afghanistan has moved backwards towards the Stone Age at a time when we need to enter the Digital Age, and we need the assistance of an impartial international organization like ITU to ensure we again move forward in telecommunication development,” Stanekzai said. He said national framework was needed “to help Afghanistan leap-frog to the Digital Age and create an environment that will ensure our people have the right to access communications.” ITU said it would assist Afghanistan in restructuring its Ministry of Communications, “equipping it to deal with governance issues on a day-to-day basis during the emergency phase and beyond.” ITU said it would help Afghanistan establish internal working procedures and practices for effective functioning of Ministry, assist in drafting telecom sector policy and Telecom Act, propose regulatory structure tailored to specific needs of country and prepare program to develop competence within Ministry in policy, regulation and legislation. It said it also would help Afghanistan to plan and manage orderly national frequency spectrum, establish equipped and operational Frequency Management Unit within Ministry of Communications, develop national frequency plan, install spectrum management system and put in place coherent licensing and assignment procedures. ITU Coordinator for Asia-Pacific Ismet Hamiti said there was “great urgency” in restoring domestic and international telecom services in Afghanistan, “as they represent an essential input to all other rehabilitation and reconstruction activities taking place in the country. However… the rapid deployment of wireless-based services also highlights the importance of managing the radio spectrum efficiency.” ITU said it would fund project with contribution of more than $500,000 from ITU telecom surplus. It said U.N. Development Program (UNDP) joined ITU to provide experts to Afghanistan on cost-sharing basis.