Download Final Report (MS-Word, 107kb)

The Road Ahead

The Afghan ICT policy is a work in progress. Actions taken on a day-to-day basis are influencing its development. The private sector and international donors continue to invest in new facilities. Businesses and consumers are beginning to seek and demand new choices. The government is also a key player. It is responsible for a number of important legislative, policy and regulatory instruments that will influence the development of ICT systems in Afghanistan.

Many of the questions raised in this report are being confronted now, but they will evolve as advanced networks and new services are introduced. The answers must therefore be flexible enough to remain relevant over the longer term. These public policy issues are too important to be left to any single organization or narrow set of interests. They are too important to be left unanswered for long.

The Afghan national ICT policy can only be achieved collaboratively through the informed participation of all stakeholders and the coordinated investment of collective resources. It is time to start the process of study and consultation with the industries that will build the ICT system; with those who will provide the content it will carry; and with the businesses, institutions, and ordinary citizens who will benefit from its availability.

With this purpose in mind, the Minister of Communications said at the seminar that he would consider establishing a National Information and Communications Technology Council (NICTC). The NICTC could be partly modeled on the Malaysian National Information Technology Council (NITC), which made a presentation to the seminar group earlier in the week. The nucleus of initial members for the Afghan NICTC would be drawn from the original participants of the ICT policy seminar in Kuala Lumpur. To this nucleus, could be added representatives from industry, labour, and public interest groups, as well as the country-at-large. Donor groups might be invited to participate in the NICTC on occasion as observers and advisers.

The NICTC could subdivide itself into working groups to study related issues and carry out stakeholder consultations. Recommendations would be made to the Minister of Communications on a national ICT policy to govern the evolution of Afghanistan’s information and communications infrastructure and services respecting the overall social, economic and cultural goals of the Afghan government.