State-owned Etisalat's monopoly of the telecommunications network in the United Arab Emirates will "no doubt" be broken as the Gulf states embrace the information technology age, OECD experts said here Tuesday.
The Organization for Economic and Cooperation Development "believes very much in competition and opening up the market. There is no doubt that the UAE will do that for the users' sake," said Swiss telecoms head Marc Furrer.
Furrer, who said he had been "impressed" with the depth of Dubai's "information society", said that the monopoly would likely be broken for economic and technological reasons.
Michael Tiger, chair of the OECD's information, communication and computer policy (ICCP) working party, said he had held discussions with non-member officials on OECD models of privatizing the telecoms sector.
"In the OECD, the introduction of competition in telecommunications has been beneficial, so we leave it to others to see and decide," Tiger told journalists on the sidelines of an OECD Emerging Market Economy Forum in Dubai.
"If you are a modern country, you want modern telecommunications," Tiger said. "The UAE must look at its model and its investments. It is critical for any country to keep up with the times."
Dubai is rushing headlong into the electronic age, and has launched a series of multi-billion-dollar projects in a bid to become the region's e-capital.
Dubai Internet City — dubbed the world's first free trade zone for e-business — Dubai Ideas Oasis and Dubai Media City have all been trumpeted to much acclaim as the triangle of enterprises needed to establish the emirate as the Middle East capital for information technology.
But Etisalat is the sole Internet service provider (ISP) in the Emirates and has been repeatedly criticized for its constant disruptions.
"The OECD message, very clearly, is that users of telecommunications want competitive services," said Ewan Sutherland of the International Telecommunications Users Group.
Sutherland added that although the process of dismantling the telecommunications monopoly — even in some OECD countries — was often long, the actual switch was very sudden.
The telecoms sector in all six Gulf countries remains state-owned but there has been talk in Oman and Saudi Arabia of privatization. — (AFP, Dubai)
© Agence France Presse 2001
© 2001 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
