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| Sunday, 6 March 2005 |
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Features |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
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Once more on telecom regulation - a postscript Mr. K.K. Gunawardena, the author of the two articles with the above title which appeared in the Sunday Observer of February 20 and 27 has sent the following postscript to his articles. This article published last Sunday referred to three articles published in the Sunday Observer under the caption "Telecom Regulator Should Regulate": the first article on 12th December 2004- a presentation made by the Deputy Speaker in Parliament reporting escalation of affordability of services offered by the telecom sector and; the second article on 2nd January 2005 a response to the first article by Mr. R. Samarajeeva stating that the claims made by the Deputy Speaker are incorrect and the third article, the first part of the response to the second article published on 20th February 2005. This response referred to the presentation made to the Institution of Electrical Engineers, London, Sri Lanka Branch that highlighted the crucial role of public goods, to sustain a healthy balance between the profit-making motive of the private sector investments and the joint interests of the nation and the consumer through strengthening of market competitiveness. It highlighted reliable symptoms of erosion of market competitiveness and affordability, the causes thereto and stressed the importance of these entities managing the social capital allocated for strengthening of public goods being held accountable for the measurability/ productivity of its outputs. The Public Interest Program Unit (PIPU) -set up on the advice of Mr Samarajeeva to the previous regime to overcome shortcomings of the liberalized sector to promote public interests with Mr. S as its head is an illustrious example of what such an entity managing public goods should NOT be. The article published last Sunday reported few of the notorious instances of the PIPU that manipulated the weakening of the public good, interconnectivity of networks and abused use of colossal funds allocated for the strengthening of the sector reform. These illustrated with supporting data the deceptive role of the PIPU while pretending to be the guardian of the telecom sector that caused erosion of affordability of services offered to the market by the sector." (This correspondence is now closed - Editor) |
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