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The Sasakawa Pacific Island Nations Fund of the Sasakawa Peace Foundation (http://www.spf.org/spinf/) is working collaboratively with the University of Hawaii Telecommunications and Information Policy Group (UH TIPG) in sponsoring the “ICT Policy Reform and Sustainability in the Pacific Islands Region: Developing Multisector and Leadership Understanding, Support and Capacity for ICT Policy and Regulatory Change” project. ICT capacity development is a key component of this project. The Telecommunications and Information Resource Management (TIRM) provides an opportunity for ICT education and training. Through SPINF’s support, Pacific Island representatives are able to participate in the TIRM distance learning certificate program.
Project Background: In the Pacific Islands region, the dominant form of telecommunication governance is government owned “corporatized” monopolies that control all forms of telecommunication services. These corporatized monopolies often have the authority to determine tariff prices without independent policy or regulatory oversight. The exceptions are the U.S. territories of American Samoa and Guam, and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, where telecommunications is competitive even though the local exchange telecommunications carrier may be a corporatized entity.1 A select few private companies operate in other parts of the Pacific Islands.2 However, these telecommunication service providers are permitted only to provide only a limited range of services. The strong hold and control of the government monopolies, especially over off-island telecommunications, results in high-priced services that are an obstacle to the social and economic development of the country.
In 2000, the Okinawa Declaration of the G8 countries identified a “digital divide” and the need for policy and regulatory reform. The Declaration served as a catalyst to increase the awareness of the importance of ICT to the economic and social development of countries in the world. Regional and international organizations began to focus on the digital opportunity and ICT issues. In the Pacific Islands region, the Pacific Island Forum, Japan-Pacific Islands Leaders Meeting (PALM), Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), World Summit on Information Society (WSIS), Asian Development Bank (ADB), World Health Organization, World Trade Organization (WTO), Asia-Pacific Telecommunity, and others established ICT policy declarations, encouraged countries to develop ICT national strategies and enabling regulatory infrastructures to support ICT development, and initiated ICT projects.
In the Pacific Islands region, the “ePacifika project” of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) assisted the small Pacific Island countries to develop strategic national ICT policy directions.3 This led to the development of national ICT plans to address the policy, regulatory, technology and human resources needs of countries. Many of the plans developed through the ePacifika project are calling for policy reform and the establishment of governance regimes that would promote competition, improve the quality of telecommunication services, and establish universal service programs for education and health care. Unfortunately, there has been little progress since the plans were developed.
There are several reasons why these countries are having a difficult time in implementing the ICT plans. One reason is the difficulty policymakers in the Pacific Island countries have in developing policy and regulatory infrastructure for telecommunications. There is a lack of knowledge and expertise to help the policymaker understand the technical nature of telecommunications and ICT, the business costs and issues that underlie tariffs, and the policy/regulatory/service provisioning roles. A second reason is that the governing government ministries and agencies in the Pacific Island countries are not well prepared or have the human resources to deal with the complex policy/ regulatory/ technical issues. Third, there has not been a systematic or sustained regional and international effort to assist these smaller countries to implement the national ICT plans. The carriers have the financial and technical resources that could help. Unfortunately, the carriers do not find it in their interest to initiate the policy and regulatory reforms and/or may view it as a government function to develop the policy and program infrastructure.
Pacific Islands Digital Opportunity: The Pacific Islands Digital Opportunity (PIDO) project of the Sasakawa Pacific Islands Nations Fund (SPINF) has provided a means to continue the facilitation of the dialogue and technical assistance needed to assist in the implementation of national ICT plans. The PIDO has served to bring together experts in development telecommunications and ICT together with policymakers, government education and health care agencies, carriers, and program specialists. PIDO has organized meetings with national and regional organizations and has helped to sustain the effort by countries to implement national ICT plans and programs. PIDO has also issued recommendations regarding some of the next steps in collaboration with country and regional organizations.
The PIDO has recognized that efforts to facilitate the implementation of the national plans, especially in the telecommunication policy development and implementation, is critical toward achieving access to affordable ICT services in the islands for health, education, governance, emergency management, and economic development.
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1 The local exchange telecommunications carriers in Guam and the Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas Islands are wholly owned private companies. The Local Exchange carrier in American Samoa is a government corporation. In each of these jurisdictions, there are several private sector companies that offer competitive long distance, Internet service, and wireless services. A key is that each of these companies are able to establish their own off-island telecommunications. All of the carriers contribute to a universal service fund for low income, education, and health care telecommunication services.
2 Private wireless companies operate in Fiji and Samoa, and there are competitive Internet Service providers in Samoa and Fiji. However, there are many restrictions on these companies. For example, the companies can only re-sell off-island telecommunications and are unable to operate their own off-island telecommunications.
3 The ePacifika project was initiated as a result of the Second Japan-South Pacific Forum Summit Meeting in Miyazaki, Japan, April 2000. The project goals including improving the understanding of high-level policy makers in the Pacific Island Forum countries on ICT issues and to assist in the development through on-site workshops, national ICT strategies and plans. Project ended in September 2004. ePacifika total funding was $1,000,000 US. See << http://www.undp.org.fj/RAS-99-064.htm>>.
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