India-Pak trade 1
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2006%5C01%5C10%5Cstory_10-1-2006_pg3_5
VIEW: Public-private partnerships and development —Syed Mohammad Ali
Kuppam, a small village in the state of Andhra Pradesh in India, has become one of the most connected villages in southern India since Hewlett Packard launched its initiative. Poor and previously marginalised villagers are now able to access data including agricultural information, education resources, and healthcare records on the web by visiting community information centresMultilateral development agencies, including those operating under the umbrella of the UN system, have been advocating public and private sector partnerships for over a decade. Given that most developing countries’ governments seem unable to provide their citizens the basic services, there is a need to find more effective means for doing so. The contribution of the private sector in development can extend beyond providing capital — it can infuse effective management in inefficient public sector organisations. Non-governmental organisations, in particular, have stronger ties with local populations and can provide social services effectively. Conversely, the public sector has the authority to influence policy frameworks; its developmental role cannot be ignored either. The ultimate goal of public-private partnerships is to combine and leverage the strength of social, economic, and policy stakeholders to maximise development impact. The cycle of collaboration can be started by establishing a revenue-generating public-private-NGO partnership for a social venture. If this proves successful, the partners can secure venture capital to become a private enterprise. This may lead to a positive social change that is profitable and sustainable. This rationale was the driving force behind a recent conference, ‘Global Marshall Plan’, held to devise innovative strategies for global development problems. This conference ended with the consensus that innovative public-private partnerships for development can be forged if adequate financial and institutional support is available. Advocates of public-private partnerships are recommending a mechanism for connecting social and business entrepreneurs in developing countries with social and venture capitalists. However, some hurdles must be overcome. These include the reluctance of governments in developing countries. Moreover, the unequal asset distribution in developing countries, which has disempowered the people, makes engaging them in profitable ventures difficult. While there is an urgent need to address these concerns to bolster public-private partnerships, some precedents give hope. Several African countries, for example, have obtained significant bilateral support to extend telecommunications connectivity. Hewlett Packard’s e-inclusion programme to provide technology access to underserved communities is another example. Kuppam, a small village in the state of Andhra Pradesh in India, has become one of the most connected villages in southern India since Hewlett Packard launched its initiative. Poor and previously marginalised villagers are now able to access information on agriculture, education resources, and healthcare records on the web by visiting community information centres instead of making trips to government offices.Another organisation, GlobalGiving, has established an online community, enabling corporations and individuals to directly fund small non-government organisations. This virtual space allows potential donors to connect with recipients. It also encourages a higher percentage of financial assistance for local projects, unencumbered by the traditional means of aid delivery, which involves a range of intermediaries and accompanying bureaucratic hurdles.Micro-credit programmes are also an example of public-private sector collaboration. These programmes — based on the idea of social rather than conventional financial collateral — extend small loans and other financial services to low-income individuals for small businesses. Poor people form groups to serve as mutual guarantors for other borrowers to qualify for micro-credit loans. There have been some interesting spin-offs of this approach. Consider the case of Grameen Phone which provides high-quality GSM cellular services to remote locations in Bangladesh. In collaboration with Grameen Bank, the famous micro-credit financial services provider, Grameen Phone lends money to clients to retail telecom services in rural areas. This has significantly bridged the communication gap between the urban and rural areas of Bangladesh.Public-private partnerships are being promoted under devolutionary frameworks to help address local level needs. A study on non-state providers of basic services has cited Jaranwala where collaboration with non-state organisations was prompted by the awareness that the skills of local government staff were insufficient. Restrictions on recruitment of new staff, retrenchment and inadequate salary scales, have encouraged use of non-state providers. Jaranwala’s tehsil municipal administration entered into contacts with NGOs to act as intermediaries in replicating the component-sharing approach of the Orangi Pilot Project to provide water and sanitation services. The Jaranwala tehsil contracted out the cleaning and maintenance of drains; over 300 sweepers were engaged during the tenure of the previous local government. Other tehsils and districts around Pakistan are also planning to contract out municipal services. This trend may strengthen now that the new local governments are in place. However, increased institutional and financial support is needed for public-private partnerships. At the same time, new ways are needed for ensuring that the public is the primary beneficiary. Ensuring greater access and improving the quality of basic services must have precedence over curbing public sector costs, or increasing profit margins of private enterprises involved in providing social services. The author is a development consultant and an international fellow of the Open Society Institutes network. He can be reached at syedmohdali555@yahoo.com
http://www.ameinfo.com/74071.html
United Arab Emirates: Wednesday, December 14 - 2005 at 15:51 GMT+4
SEA-ME-WE-4 submarine cable officially inaugurated and declared fully operational
A consortium of 16 partners comprising leading global telecom carriers announced yesterday the completion and inauguration of the high-capacity fiber-optic submarine cable that stretches from France to Singapore.
This latest cable named SEA-ME-WE-4 (South East Asia- Middle East- Western Europe) is the fourth in a series connecting three continents over a distance of almost 20,000 kilometers with a capacity of 1.28 Terabits per second. The announcement was made at a high profile event bringing together the sixteen consortium partners involved in the SEA-ME-WE-4 project, as well as government, business and media representatives in Dubai. The event was organized by UAE telecom operator and a key consortium partner - Etisalat - to celebrate the launch of the submarine cable. The 16 companies that form the consortium include Algeria Telecom (AT), Bharti Tele Ventures (India), Bangladesh Telecom (BTTB), Telecom Thailand (CAT), France Telecom, MCI, Pakistan Telecom (PTCL), Singapore Telecom (SingTel), Sri Lankan Telecom (SLT), Saudi Telecom (STC), Telecom Egypt, Telecom Italia Sparkle, Telecom Malaysia, Tunisia Telecom, VSNL (India) and Etisalat (UAE).
12/29/2005
http://www.upi.com/Hi-Tech/view.php?StoryID=20051229-013515-3146r
Terror enters India's IT community
By INDRAJIT BASUUPI Correspondent
CALCUTTA, India, Dec. 29 (UPI) -- Late evening on Dec. 28 terror finally struck Bangalore, India's IT sector hub. A masked gunman opened an indiscriminate fire on a group of delegates at an international conference on the peaceful campus of Indian Institute of Technology, killing, an ex-IIT professor and injuring four others.
Undoubtedly, this has shaken the industry and the country. But besides the fact that this attack has finally brought terror to the country's showpiece IT sector doorsteps, what may have emerged as more unnerving is that perhaps the success of India' IT industry has ultimately made it vulnerable to terror threats.
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2006%5C01%5C03%5Cstory_3-1-2006_pg7_1
Submarine Internet cable inaugurated: Pakistan to be linked with India through Wagah: PM
Awais said Pakistan faced international connectivity problems a couple of months ago but that phase was over now as Pakistan was already in the process of adding redundancy to its existing international connectivity through SEA ME WE 4 which would become operational within this week.
He said two more submarine cables were also being laid to connect Pakistan to UAE while efforts were on to link up with Iran and India as well.
http://www.pakistanlink.com/Headlines/Jan06/03/06.htm
Pakistan expects $5 billion investment in IT sector
KARACHI, Jan 03 : An investment of 4 to 5 billion dollars is expected in the IT sector of Pakistan in the next 2-3 years.
This was stated by Federal Minister for Information Technology Awais Ahmed Khan Leghari while talking to mediamen after inauguration ceremony of the SEA-ME-WE-4 submarine cable system network at a local hotel.
The Minister pointed out that in the telecommunication sector there was firm investment of up to 3 billion dollars during the last one and a half to two years.
He said that uptill now there was one submarine cable in Pakistan which has now been doubled with the inauguration of SEA-ME-WE-4.
Leghari informed that soon there would be two more submarine cables in the country with these Pakistan would become one of the most developed country in terms of reliable connectivity which had remained a big issue.
He said this issue is successfully tackled with right strategy and investment in time. Now the country is in a position to meet its requirements for the next 15 years and onward, he added.
About connectivity with India, the Minister said that we has a fibre optic main backbone in Lahore from where a cable of up to 28 kilometre was laid upto Indian border.
Leghari said we do not have any national security concerns nor the Indian side has as earlier they had expressed willingness.
Now if permission from Indian side is not given to their operators to link up with Pakistan then the Indian business will suffer too, the minister said and added, this will also be a negation of the global business openness as claimed by India by not permitting their companies to link up with Pakistan.
About the investment in the IT sector in Pakistan, Leghari said according to his estimate there will be an investment of four to five billion dollars during the next two to three years.
To a question, the Minister said that the complete details of PTCL-Etisalat transaction will be presented in the next few days before the Cabinet Committee on Privatisation which is headed by the Prime Minister.
VIEW: Public-private partnerships and development —Syed Mohammad Ali
Kuppam, a small village in the state of Andhra Pradesh in India, has become one of the most connected villages in southern India since Hewlett Packard launched its initiative. Poor and previously marginalised villagers are now able to access data including agricultural information, education resources, and healthcare records on the web by visiting community information centresMultilateral development agencies, including those operating under the umbrella of the UN system, have been advocating public and private sector partnerships for over a decade. Given that most developing countries’ governments seem unable to provide their citizens the basic services, there is a need to find more effective means for doing so. The contribution of the private sector in development can extend beyond providing capital — it can infuse effective management in inefficient public sector organisations. Non-governmental organisations, in particular, have stronger ties with local populations and can provide social services effectively. Conversely, the public sector has the authority to influence policy frameworks; its developmental role cannot be ignored either. The ultimate goal of public-private partnerships is to combine and leverage the strength of social, economic, and policy stakeholders to maximise development impact. The cycle of collaboration can be started by establishing a revenue-generating public-private-NGO partnership for a social venture. If this proves successful, the partners can secure venture capital to become a private enterprise. This may lead to a positive social change that is profitable and sustainable. This rationale was the driving force behind a recent conference, ‘Global Marshall Plan’, held to devise innovative strategies for global development problems. This conference ended with the consensus that innovative public-private partnerships for development can be forged if adequate financial and institutional support is available. Advocates of public-private partnerships are recommending a mechanism for connecting social and business entrepreneurs in developing countries with social and venture capitalists. However, some hurdles must be overcome. These include the reluctance of governments in developing countries. Moreover, the unequal asset distribution in developing countries, which has disempowered the people, makes engaging them in profitable ventures difficult. While there is an urgent need to address these concerns to bolster public-private partnerships, some precedents give hope. Several African countries, for example, have obtained significant bilateral support to extend telecommunications connectivity. Hewlett Packard’s e-inclusion programme to provide technology access to underserved communities is another example. Kuppam, a small village in the state of Andhra Pradesh in India, has become one of the most connected villages in southern India since Hewlett Packard launched its initiative. Poor and previously marginalised villagers are now able to access information on agriculture, education resources, and healthcare records on the web by visiting community information centres instead of making trips to government offices.Another organisation, GlobalGiving, has established an online community, enabling corporations and individuals to directly fund small non-government organisations. This virtual space allows potential donors to connect with recipients. It also encourages a higher percentage of financial assistance for local projects, unencumbered by the traditional means of aid delivery, which involves a range of intermediaries and accompanying bureaucratic hurdles.Micro-credit programmes are also an example of public-private sector collaboration. These programmes — based on the idea of social rather than conventional financial collateral — extend small loans and other financial services to low-income individuals for small businesses. Poor people form groups to serve as mutual guarantors for other borrowers to qualify for micro-credit loans. There have been some interesting spin-offs of this approach. Consider the case of Grameen Phone which provides high-quality GSM cellular services to remote locations in Bangladesh. In collaboration with Grameen Bank, the famous micro-credit financial services provider, Grameen Phone lends money to clients to retail telecom services in rural areas. This has significantly bridged the communication gap between the urban and rural areas of Bangladesh.Public-private partnerships are being promoted under devolutionary frameworks to help address local level needs. A study on non-state providers of basic services has cited Jaranwala where collaboration with non-state organisations was prompted by the awareness that the skills of local government staff were insufficient. Restrictions on recruitment of new staff, retrenchment and inadequate salary scales, have encouraged use of non-state providers. Jaranwala’s tehsil municipal administration entered into contacts with NGOs to act as intermediaries in replicating the component-sharing approach of the Orangi Pilot Project to provide water and sanitation services. The Jaranwala tehsil contracted out the cleaning and maintenance of drains; over 300 sweepers were engaged during the tenure of the previous local government. Other tehsils and districts around Pakistan are also planning to contract out municipal services. This trend may strengthen now that the new local governments are in place. However, increased institutional and financial support is needed for public-private partnerships. At the same time, new ways are needed for ensuring that the public is the primary beneficiary. Ensuring greater access and improving the quality of basic services must have precedence over curbing public sector costs, or increasing profit margins of private enterprises involved in providing social services. The author is a development consultant and an international fellow of the Open Society Institutes network. He can be reached at syedmohdali555@yahoo.com
http://www.ameinfo.com/74071.html
United Arab Emirates: Wednesday, December 14 - 2005 at 15:51 GMT+4
SEA-ME-WE-4 submarine cable officially inaugurated and declared fully operational
A consortium of 16 partners comprising leading global telecom carriers announced yesterday the completion and inauguration of the high-capacity fiber-optic submarine cable that stretches from France to Singapore.
This latest cable named SEA-ME-WE-4 (South East Asia- Middle East- Western Europe) is the fourth in a series connecting three continents over a distance of almost 20,000 kilometers with a capacity of 1.28 Terabits per second. The announcement was made at a high profile event bringing together the sixteen consortium partners involved in the SEA-ME-WE-4 project, as well as government, business and media representatives in Dubai. The event was organized by UAE telecom operator and a key consortium partner - Etisalat - to celebrate the launch of the submarine cable. The 16 companies that form the consortium include Algeria Telecom (AT), Bharti Tele Ventures (India), Bangladesh Telecom (BTTB), Telecom Thailand (CAT), France Telecom, MCI, Pakistan Telecom (PTCL), Singapore Telecom (SingTel), Sri Lankan Telecom (SLT), Saudi Telecom (STC), Telecom Egypt, Telecom Italia Sparkle, Telecom Malaysia, Tunisia Telecom, VSNL (India) and Etisalat (UAE).
12/29/2005
http://www.upi.com/Hi-Tech/view.php?StoryID=20051229-013515-3146r
Terror enters India's IT community
By INDRAJIT BASUUPI Correspondent
CALCUTTA, India, Dec. 29 (UPI) -- Late evening on Dec. 28 terror finally struck Bangalore, India's IT sector hub. A masked gunman opened an indiscriminate fire on a group of delegates at an international conference on the peaceful campus of Indian Institute of Technology, killing, an ex-IIT professor and injuring four others.
Undoubtedly, this has shaken the industry and the country. But besides the fact that this attack has finally brought terror to the country's showpiece IT sector doorsteps, what may have emerged as more unnerving is that perhaps the success of India' IT industry has ultimately made it vulnerable to terror threats.
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2006%5C01%5C03%5Cstory_3-1-2006_pg7_1
Submarine Internet cable inaugurated: Pakistan to be linked with India through Wagah: PM
- Country to have five international links by June 2006KARACHI: Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz said on Monday that Pakistan will be linked to India with a cable laid through the Wagah border as part of an international cable system.“All work in this regard has been completed at our end. We are waiting for the Indian government to grant permission to its telecom carriers, which we hope will be soon,” Aziz said at the inaugural ceremony of the South-East Asia-Middle East-Western Europe 4 (SEA-ME-WE 4) cable at a local hotel.SEA-ME-WE 4 is a consortium of 16 international telecommunication companies for a new cable system linking Asia with Europe via the Indian subcontinent and the Middle East. It has terminal stations in Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Italy, Tunisia, Algeria and France. The prime minister said that PTCL has invested $30.41 million in the project.He said that the SEA-ME-WE 4 submarine cable covers 20,000 kilometres and is expected to ultimately take the data transfer rate to 1.28 terabits per second. He said that the increased bandwidth will benefit Internet service providers, carriers and multinational corporations.
Awais said Pakistan faced international connectivity problems a couple of months ago but that phase was over now as Pakistan was already in the process of adding redundancy to its existing international connectivity through SEA ME WE 4 which would become operational within this week.
He said two more submarine cables were also being laid to connect Pakistan to UAE while efforts were on to link up with Iran and India as well.
http://www.pakistanlink.com/Headlines/Jan06/03/06.htm
Pakistan expects $5 billion investment in IT sector
KARACHI, Jan 03 : An investment of 4 to 5 billion dollars is expected in the IT sector of Pakistan in the next 2-3 years.
This was stated by Federal Minister for Information Technology Awais Ahmed Khan Leghari while talking to mediamen after inauguration ceremony of the SEA-ME-WE-4 submarine cable system network at a local hotel.
The Minister pointed out that in the telecommunication sector there was firm investment of up to 3 billion dollars during the last one and a half to two years.
He said that uptill now there was one submarine cable in Pakistan which has now been doubled with the inauguration of SEA-ME-WE-4.
Leghari informed that soon there would be two more submarine cables in the country with these Pakistan would become one of the most developed country in terms of reliable connectivity which had remained a big issue.
He said this issue is successfully tackled with right strategy and investment in time. Now the country is in a position to meet its requirements for the next 15 years and onward, he added.
About connectivity with India, the Minister said that we has a fibre optic main backbone in Lahore from where a cable of up to 28 kilometre was laid upto Indian border.
Leghari said we do not have any national security concerns nor the Indian side has as earlier they had expressed willingness.
Now if permission from Indian side is not given to their operators to link up with Pakistan then the Indian business will suffer too, the minister said and added, this will also be a negation of the global business openness as claimed by India by not permitting their companies to link up with Pakistan.
About the investment in the IT sector in Pakistan, Leghari said according to his estimate there will be an investment of four to five billion dollars during the next two to three years.
To a question, the Minister said that the complete details of PTCL-Etisalat transaction will be presented in the next few days before the Cabinet Committee on Privatisation which is headed by the Prime Minister.
posted by Salman Siddiqui at 2:29 PM
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