Parliament Select Committee resists plans to recall communication bill
Somalia’s information and communication portfolio committee in the parliament has resisted plans by some MPs to delay the tabling of communication bill in the house.
This comes as this week the World Bank has warned potential risk of cramping the Somali economy by the lack of framework for both the Information Communication Technology.
In a statement the World Bank said “The ICT sector, particularly mobile communications could soon reach a tipping point where market competition, equitable distribution and demand-driven efficiency can grow exponentially and transform operating environments for both government and individual citizens,” .
According to the chairman, the committee had submitted the bill to the parliament on 5th of July, and on 23rd of July the speaker has added new members to committee who then requested for the recall of bill since they were not consulted.
“This bill was submitted on 5th July and these members came after wards, we cannot accept to back on our foot prints, we invested quality time and resources, we produced the best bill, and it’s here to stay and up for debate in the parliament” he said.
The chairman has also explained the importance of the bill saying it has huge financial benefits for the country as it regulates booming telecommunication industry in the country. He said Somalia would be fully independent financially if passed.
Multi Million Domain
The bill talks about of the nation’s domain name (.so) or otherwise the Internet Protocol resource of Somalia which the chairman explained that the government had an agreement with a Japanese company in 2009.
“According to the agreement, Somalia would get %70 of the generates revenues from the domain name, and the rest goes to the company, but that was not the case, I know .so generates $300 million dollar each year, and there is no cent that comes to Somalia, because we don’t have the necessary bill to regulate it” said MP Abdi Hashi Abdullahi
In the bill is also the country codes and calling tariffs “I can tell you in one instance we did an electronic tally of phone calls, outgoing or incoming to Somalia, for example Somalia-USA, we found that there were 37.9 million minutes incoming calls from USA to Somalia compared to only 250,000 minutes outgoing from Somalia to USA, when you do the math and subtract you would find that huge sum of money is lost here” said the chairman.
According to committee during the drafting of the bill three things were considers, security, economy and the social needs.
According to the bill, it’s designed not only to regulate telecommunication firms and generate revenues, it also encourages scientific advancements, free expression, and spread trade through online businesses.
It makes provision of independent telecommunication directorate which would be tasked to regulate, issue licenses, and exercise its authority as long as its within the frame work of the law.
The telecommunication ministry is required to review the bill every three years and come up with relevant policies to keep the pace with the ever changing world of technology.
Goobjoog News