Telecoms Bill held hostage in Select Committee – Govt.

Feb 20, 2014 News

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–    Works moving quickly- APNU

Works to amend the Telecommunications and Public Utilities Commission legislations are in full swing in the Parliamentary Special Select Committee to which they were referred last November, says Carl Greenidge, Chairman of the Committee.
But Government believes that the Bills are being held hostage in the Parliamentary Special Select Committee whilst the country is depending on their passages to have connectivity transformation.

Greenidge, also A Partnership for National Unity (APNU’s) Member of Parliament, said that the Committee has identified experts to assist with the examination of the legislations since Telecommunication is a technical area that could be confusing to persons, who do not work in the field.
He added that while the Committee is working apace on the legislations it has just touched on the controversial section, which includes treatment of existing service providers; how to deal with companies that monopolize certain services; role of Public Utilities Commission; and Role of the Minister.
However, more indepth works have to be done on the controversial areas. Though, he is unaware as to when works in the Committee will conclude Greenidge is confident that Committee members are moving quickly.
The passage of these Bills will provide the legislative framework to transform the connectivity of Guyana, says Presidential Advisor Gail Teixeira, at last week’s post-Cabinet press briefing.
She was at the time lamenting on Guyana being a cash-based economy. Strides are being made to facilitate electronic banking and reduce the citizens’ dependency on cash to transact business.
According to Teixeira, Guyana has a lot of catching up to do in this area. As such, it is therefore important for the Telecoms Bill to be passed in the National Assembly.
“The Telecoms Bill has been held hostage for a number of reasons just the like the Anti-Money Laundering Bill. We are stymied from moving forward…The Telecoms Bill came in 2011. Remember that while moving forward by the government and based by a number of interventions that we stopped the process.”
“We didn’t take it to the next stage to pass it…We could have passed it but there were very strong different views with the Opposition Parties and even with the companies involved so a lot of discussions have taken place between 2011 and now,” she said.
Teixeira said that Government hopes to succeed this time around because that would have an impact on the speed with which the country would move.  And, even though, the physical and logistical issues would have to been done for connectivity the legislative framework has to be resolved.
“Even if you put transmission lines, repeaters and transmitters, if you do not have the legislative instrument it would be stalled or paused. And, these are all issues that affect the speed with which you could pass the Bills,” she said.
According to Teixeira, when she looks at Guyana 30 years ago and to present, there is a big change with the presence of more commercial banks in areas such as Lethem and Bartica; introduction of ATMs; and there are quite a number of banks that persons could access credit cards.
“…Bringing in e-commerce legislation to allow to expedite for example e-banking because now depending on the amounts you are moving it could take a long time and it should not be taking a long time it is easier up until this period to send money overseas than to send from one commercial bank to another commercial bank…so that I think it is far easier than years ago,” she noted.
She said that Guyana would remain a cash-based economy until there is connectivity throughout the country to facilitate electronic transactions such as e-banking. Nonetheless, there are still parts of the country that do not have connectivity, and there are still some businesses that do not readily accept cheques. Credit cards are not widely used in Guyana.
However, while Government and the Opposition are working on the passage of the legislations the Guyana Telephone and Telegraph Company introduced its Mobile Money service under the name ‘Mobile Money Guyana’ (MMG) in March 2013 with approval from the relevant authorities.
According to Eshwar (Shawn) Thakurdin, Managing Director of MMG, “The introduction stemmed from the concept proving very successful in other developing parts of the world since its introduction…The aim is to provide financial inclusion and encourage economic development.”
He said that since its introduction internationally, mobile money has gone through massive transformation and growth. The service in its current form not only covers those previously neglected, but also banked segments who value the convenience and simplicity it brings.
“The main obstacle we foresaw was the general cash-based nature of the public. How would we get our customers to trust our technology to store money and make payments? Indeed, in the first few months of launch this was very evident,” he added.
However, with consumer education, mainly through regular community outreaches, the public has surprisingly embraced the service. The company now has thousands of persons using MMG monthly to buy Credit (C-Point), pay bills and send money across Guyana.
Thakurdin stressed, “Our main task is emphasizing to users that the technology is safely used around the world, and protected by their PIN (4-digit number) just like a bank card. This means if you lose your phone, you don’t lose your money. So, storing your money in your ‘mobile wallet’ is safer than carrying cash. Lose your phone and you can get back your money. But if you lose your purse or wallet, chances are it’s gone for good.”
“We can build such an extensive network because the service runs on GT&T mobile network. Internet access is not mandatory. As such, we have been able to bring our services to many remote locations where internet connectivity may not be strong.
Our agents in Annai, Mabura, Lethem and Mahdia have earned the trust of their communities. So it seems that communities which may be considered ‘cash-based’ have warmed up to using MMG. Through our best form of advertising…word-of-mouth, we see the activity increasing,” Thakurdin said.

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