A telecommunications revolution

A telecommunications revolution

After three years of exhausting negotiations, delegates at the
World Trade Organization telecommunications forum finally reached
the historic decision to demolish all obstacles that obstruct
investments in basic telecommunications services. Delegates of 68
countries, including Indonesia, last week put their signatures on
the accord that opened their respective
telecommunications markets to investment from other countries.

It is appropriate that we welcome the agreement since the
lifting of national borders to foreign investment in the field of
telecommunications is certain to eventually benefit consumers,
who will profit from lower telephone, facsimile and data
transmission rates. For investors, the agreement is no less
beneficial because it means greater efficiency, easier access
toward investments and the elimination of protection barriers.

For Indonesia, the accord connotes a triumph because, at the
very least, the forum did not present us as being backward. On
the contrary, the Indonesian delegation showed the forum that in
the field of telecommunications we have been a step ahead of many
others, since we had already opened our doors to foreign
investments through projects of cooperation at a time when
others, including some industrially advanced countries, were
still busily debating the issue at the conference table.

In many countries the first to benefit from this
telecommunications "revolution" will probably be the consumer.
The subsequent reduced telephone and data communication rates are
certain to make it cheaper to obtain information for business,
education, entertainment and other purposes. To anticipate the
opportunities before us, it would be advisable to start finding
more effective ways to prepare the public and the business
community -- in particular small businesses as well as
government, educational and other institutions -- to utilize this
approaching inflow of cheap information to maximum advantage.

Clearly, the arrangements that need to be taken include not
merely making available the necessary hardware and software or
controlling their prices. Rather, the emphasis should be on the
human resources aspect. For example, how will our children
utilize the cheap information available when they do not speak or
understand English?

As we are anticipating this era of cheap information, it is
not just the Ministry of Education and Culture that needs to busy
itself preparing for what is to come. All parties involved in the
development of our human resources should take part in the
effort, including the private sector, although indeed the
Ministry of Education and Culture needs to be the front runner.

-- Bisnis Indonesia, Jakarta