NEWS RELEASE

COMESA-region ICT regulators gather for 7th ARICEA AGM to debate and decide upon pressing ICT policy and regulation issues

The Honourable Tassarajen Pillay Chedumbrum [3rd from left], Minister of Information and Communication Technology with delegates at the 7th Annual General Meeting and ICT Policy and Regulation Workshop of ARICEA, 14 March 2011 at Maritim Hotel, Mauritius.

7 th AGM of ARICEA

Port Louis: Consumer protection in the ICT sector, Next Generation Networks (NGN), Broadband connectivity and infrastructure sharing will be some of the issues under discussion next week when senior officials from the Association of Regulators of Information and Communications of Eastern and Southern Africa (ARICEA) come together to meet for the 7 th Annual General Meeting at the Maritim Hotel, Balaclava from Thursday 17 th to Friday 18 th March.

One of the key recommendations during the 6 th AGM of ARICEA was the setting up of a Secretariat with a defined Work Programme supported by a clear Marketing and Communications strategy. Delegates attending the 7 th AGM in Mauritius will be presented the key documents pertaining to the Work Programme and Strategy.

Up to 60 delegates from the following member countries of ARICEA are expected to attend: Burundi, the Union of the Comoros, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Libya, Madagascar, Malawi, Rwanda, Seychelles, Sudan, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe. These are countries of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) which promotes regional economic integration through trade and investment. Some 20 delegates from Mauritius will join their ARICEA counterparts.

The AGM will be preceded by workshop/s on ICT Policy and Regulation to discuss the abovementioned issues from Monday 14 th to 15 th March; Executive Committee meetings will be held on 16 th March.

COMESA, ProInvest and the European Union are supporting and sponsoring the ARICEA meeting. The host for the week, the Information and Communication Technologies Authority will take the Chair of ARICEA during the AGM.

Honourable Tassarajen Chedumbrum Pillay, Minister of Information and Communication Technology, will officially open the event on Monday March 14 th .

Covering 12 million square kilometres, the 19 member countries of COMESA with a combined population of 430 million, has an import bill of US $ 152 billion and an export bill of over US $ 157 billion.

9 March 2011