Telecommunications
Structure and Policy
Efforts have been
made as part of the government programme 1993-1997 to expand and modernise the
telecommunications network. The telecommunications network capacity of 290, 000 lines in
1987 has reached 1,600,000 lines in 1998, whereas the number of connected lines has
increased from 266,000 to 1,400,000 during the same period. Over 4,000 km of fiber optic
cables were installed and the waiting period for a telephone line has been reduced to one
month (from 80 months).
In 1997, Morocco
embarked in a major reform of the post and telecommunications sector which was
materialised by a decree (Dahir no. 1-97-162 of 7 August 1997) on postal and
telecommunications. The reform includes the:
- separation of postal and
telecommunications activities;
- separation of regulatory and
operational activities; and
- liberalisation of the
telecommunications sector.
This led to the
creation of three separate entities:
- Itissalat Al Maghrib (IAM) as a limited liability public company designated to become the legal successor of Office National
des Postes et des Télécommunications (ONPT) to be responsible for public
telecommunication services on a non-exclusive basis;
- The Agence Nationale de
Réglementation des Télécommunications (ANRT) as a legally and financial
autonomous regulatory authority reporting to the prime minister;
- The Barid Al Maghrib (BAM) as a
public company in charge of postal services.
There are plans to partially
privatise the national telecom. A second GSM mobile telephone network licence was awarded
to the Telefonica (Spain) consortium in June 1999.
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ICT
Networking Development
The Secrétariat d'Etat
aux Postes et Technologies de l'Information (SEPTI) was established in March 1998
with a main mission to establish a national and integrated IT strategy which enables the
entry of Morocco into the Information Society. A national IT policy 1999-2003 was
elaborated and approved by the government for implementation. The policy has the following
strategic objectives:
- Implementation of an
intergovernmental network;
- Emergence of an economy based on
knowledge and innovation in Morroco;
- Human resources development;
- Infrastructure development; and
- Extension of the utilisation of
information technologies (IT).
The achievement of strategic
objectives should go along with the following action plans:
- Mobilising human resources to
monitor progress in the area of IT;
- Implementing a legal and
regulatory mechanism for the introduction of I;
- Dematerialisation and
externalisation of procedures by implementing a database system;
- Extension of a new culture based on
steady-flow and transparent information circulation;
- Awareness of policy makers, users as
well as every individual is essential to the success of this plan;
- These priorities as well as all
action proposals gives SEPTI the role of a coordinator and a guide to direct and federate
the actions;
- SEPTI will choose an approach based
on participation and partnership, with selective partners such as local communities and
professional associations whose participation is undeniable to successfully implement the
plans of action.
SEPTI will give priority to the
following areas:
- Implementation of an
intergovernmental network: The government will set an example to the Morrocan society
through the use of IT because the rapid implementation of a government information highway
will promote national effort in information networking.
- Emergence of an economy based on
knowledge and innovation in Morocco: a knowledge-based economy will be the way forward
as it focuses on investment, development of service activities and employment creation.
Therefore, Morocco should not, by any means, be left behind in the the development process
of this new economic system. A statistics agency will be created to keep pace with
progress in the information area and a new framework will be set up enabling, among
others, the emergence of a knowledge-based society.
- Human resources development:
the need to modify the educational and training system by integrating IT in the teaching,
learning and training process.
- Infrastructure development:
infrastructure development should focus on capacity, quality and diversity of services
provided.
- Extension of the utilisation of
information technologies (IT): improving the quality of life of the citizen by
providing information through adequate, rapid delivery and affordable services.
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ICT Partners and
Projects
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