Can you give our readers a brief overview of the Ministry’s responsibilities?
My Ministry presides over agencies that are involved in providing communication services. The oldest is the Postal Service provided by the Department of Posts, which has a history of 180 years and was established by the British rulers of this country and titled as Her Majesty’s Postal Service. The postal network comprises of about 5,000 post offices throughout the country and is manned by about 22,000 personnel. Its operations continue to be labour intensive, and traditional.
We offer various services to the population. For example, the National Savings Bank is linked to the Postal Network, because the savings of the rural population, mainly engaged in agricultural activities, are deposited through the postal network. Pensioners are able to draw their money through the post offices. The postal network provides multi-sectoral services and enables the payments of water and electricity bills of the citizens.
The Central Mail Exchange is located in Colombo, where the mail is sorted for distribution, and the delivery network covers 95% of the surface area in Sri Lanka.
The growth of the technology has prompted the reform of the service, both its style of operations as well as its structure. Nevertheless, there is an ensuing resistance to change in the event of implementing reforms that is one of the major concerns that need be addressed. The work force is very attached to the institution and is not amenable to changes departing from methods, which are primitive and conservative in the eyes of the modern world. It is my challenge as the Minister to improve the efficiency of service and it becomes my lot to educate and hold a dialog with Trade Unions, work force and citizens on the necessity to change for the better. Reform does not imply privatization. In view of the fact that privatization in the past not only has brought the envisaged results but ill effects as well, the citizen is circumspect to the process of privatization and demands better safeguards. It is the policy of government to address all concerns in implementing a free market economy with a humane touch. The word reform unfortunately has created anxiety, as its implementation is unknown to many. One of the inhibitions of the employees is how automation of process resulting in machines taking the place of human beings could affect their interest. Sri Lanka has developed a culture of not retrenching employees in introducing sectoral reforms, and it is our determination to make the sector more vibrant and efficient. Unfortunately the rules of operation in the present Government, which is common to all of them, does not permit this and legislation would be introduced to change the structure, to provide autonomy thus facilitating to take decisions without delay.
We place recovery of costs and investment in the same level of priority as providing an efficient service, since it is our intention to provide more benefits to the employees as well.
For example about 900 post offices out of the 5000 are without telephone facilities. Provision of telephones to these offices is a priority issue, and in some instances due to the geographical location of the office a telephone cannot be provided using a wired line. Use of wireless technology requires electricity and in some locations this is not available. Solar panels have come to the rescue. Once the basic telecommunication facilities are provided, the postal network is geared for modernization. The role of the postal personnel would be to make them fit to the modern era. We have launched an educational programme to upgrade their knowledge and fuse them with new technological advancement in order to create workforce with new technical knowledge, and it seems that the postal service is heading in this direction.
Sri Lanka Telecom has partially been privatized, do you intend to sell more shares in the future?
The Government of Sri Lanka wholly owned The Telecommunication sector, like most countries in the past. Its original administration both regulatory and operational was done by the Department of Telecommunications, which laid down fixed lines. The People Alliance Government, which came into power in 1994, inherited a service consisting of only about 180,000 lines. It was our Government, which gave effect to the spirit of liberalization, and by 1996, we created the Telecommunication Regulatory Commission. The Telecommunication operations were privatized, creating the Sri Lanka Telecom Limited, with 35% of its shares sold to the NTT. Though NTT did not bring in direct investment to the company, revenues collected were re-invested and loans were raised to develop the Network. It has a subscriber population of about 700,000. Our mobile subscriber population is about 400,000 and is steadily growing. During our term of office we opened the provision of fixed line service to other operators and issued two licenses to Suntel (Pvt) Ltd and Lanka Bell Ltd. These operators have a subscriber base of about 150,000. In the Telecommunication sector, we are not immune to changes that take place in the rest of the world, where in some parts the telecommunication market crashed. In Sri Lanka the rates of international telephony have come down to 25 cents per minute. In the past, 60% of the income was from the International Services and 40% from the Domestic Services. Now the roles have reversed. Though privatization introduces competition and therefore a reduction in price, the reverse has taken place due to tariff rebalancing. Another aspect applicable to Sri Lanka is the higher investment per line of telephone services when compared with other countries. Nevertheless, depreciation of the currency too affects the cost payable by public in terms of the local currency.
| Do you have any concrete plans in order to solve this issue?
This is a challenge. Competition between fixed operators has resulted in their concentration on the supposed lucrative metropolitan areas. When licences were issued to the two fixed line operators the understanding was that they would provide for rural areas as well, because it is the intention of the Government to invest in rural areas for economic growth. With the implementation of this policy it would induce the operators to provide telephones to rural areas. But as the initial subscriber density of rural areas is less, the cost per line is high and the return on investment is low. Therefore incentives should be made available, for the provision of rural telecommunication services. For example offering subsidies that is one option, and Her Excellency the President too is of the opinion that investment in the area of telecommunication is fully justified. Since the telecommunication sector is one of the key infrastructure development components due attention is given to it and the Government is negotiating with a Japanese company to give them certain concessionary rates and as well as to the private sector for investment. Currently, there seem to be a great demand for mobile phones, and Sri Lanka has attracted an investment of about Rs. 25 Billion.
Can you tell our readers who is the number one mobile operator at the moment?
The answer depends upon the criteria of judgement. Currently there are 4 mobile operators in Sri Lanka. There is a healthy understanding and a healthy competition between them, because they offer packages catering to the needs of various sectors in society.
How much has been allocated for the development of Posts and Telecommunications sector this year?
For the year 2001 Rs. 6.06 Billion has been allocated for development activities in comparison with Rs 4.21 Billion and Rs. 7.77 Billion for the years 1999 and 2000 respectively. The issue is the development of rural telephony and to find means of attracting private sector investment for rural areas. We are aware that we cannot provide every household with a telephone but we must provide access to services for everyone by establishing call centres with data communication services. We had certain problems in the regulatory framework. The Regulatory Commission established by an act of Parliament, is responsible to determine charges, conditions of licences to operate, resolution of disputes including matters relating to consumer protection etc. Licences were issued to operators to provide enhanced voice but its term was not defined. In the pretext of providing enhanced voice services pirating of international calls took place in violation with the undertaking given to SLT for its International Monopoly. Therefore the SLT lost its expected revenue. Technology is fast developing and it is possible to terminate such pirated incoming International calls in any part of the Sri Lanka Telecommunication Network in the pretext of a Sri Lankan subscriber originating a call. Therefore I appointed a committee to inquire into this matter with a view to bring necessary amendments to the Telecommunications Act. Legislation is introduced based upon certain presumptions. But, these presumptions are no longer applicable with the advancement of technology, and therefore the legislation must adapt to technology. It is our ultimate aim to fully liberalize the sector so that there would be better private sector participation and more competition. The standing example is the mobile telephone sector. In the fixed line sector the SLT has only 800,000 lines and others have about 150,000 lines, thus reflecting an imbalance in the share of the market. The Government, in its Budget speech has indicated its desire to divest its shares in the SLT. The current management agreement with the NTT would expire in August 2002 and there is a search for a partner. Any investor is cordially invited. Another international gateway would be inaugurated once the International Monopoly ceases to be operative, which is expected to be an attractive venture.
Where would you like to take the telecommunication sector three to four years from now?
This is a growing market. The fact that there is a waiting list currently of about 300,000 people who want telephone services reflect that the demand is far from saturation. One million Sri Lankans work outside the country and all of them need to contact their families. There are other indicators confirming this position. It is our intention to attract investment to cater for this growing demand so that this service could be provided on request without delay between two to three years. We have a growing demand for multi-media services. There are several investors in this field and we are providing all the incentives at their disposal. I hope to expand to other areas too, and in the next few years we are looking forward to create investment opportunities not only for the telecom sector but for other areas as well. |
