Azerbaijan, Baku, August 16 / Trend /
Trend Commentator Huseyn Valiyev
Growth of Azerbaijan's information and communication technologies market and constantly increasing interest in this industry leads to the necessity of establishing an independent industry regulator. Despite the fact that talks on creating an independent regulator are held in Azerbaijan since 2005, the real work in this direction will be conducted in the coming two years, which is clearly envisaged in the "State program on development of communication and information technologies in Azerbaijan for 2010-2012" (e-Azerbaijan) approved by the Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev's order.
The executors of the project are the Cabinet of Ministers, Ministry of Communications and Information Technologies (MCIT), Ministry of Economic Development and other state bodies of Azerbaijan.
The first step towards establishing a regulatory body was made by the MCIT in 2005, when a Regulatory Department was created under the Ministry. In recent years the Ministry has conducted enough works to get closer to the commercial sector. The MCIT has done much for businesses, private operators, companies to operate in more favorable conditions. Tariffs of public and private operators have been significantly reduced, legislative legal documents have been adopted, which is a significant step towards liberalization of the market.
Such structures as the ITU (International telecommunication Union), World Trade Organization (WTO) and World Bank are unanimous in the fact that independence of regulators of the communications from the state is also important in the development of telecommunications.
Some post-Soviet states (Georgia, Moldova and Kyrgyzstan) were able to create market regulators of communication market, and some are still in the beginning of this path.
Unfortunately, not many countries have been able to achieve regulator's independence of the state. The key moment in the regulator's work is its impartiality and objectivity. Such an approach may actually stimulate the flow of investment in the sector, which in turn will profit the economy.
Nevertheless, the independence of the regulatory body doesn't speak about its independence from the existing legislation. They should be accountable to the relevant legislative acts and government authorities of the republic. This in turn, is ensured by mechanisms such as annual reports, hearings and presentations, during which the regulator should declare the works conducted by them.
Funding pays an important role in establishing the regulatory body.
The creation of an independent regulatory body in the sphere of information and communication technology is designed to pave way for liberalization of the telecommunications market. Given the realities of the Azerbaijani market is, first and foremost, coordinating the relationship between existing operators and regulation of conflicts between GSM operators and fixed communications operators, service providers and operators, regulation of tariffs for connection to public networks, offsets (traffic that is passed from one operator to another), etc.
Today, relations between telecommunications operators are mainly regulated under the Azerbaijani Law "On Telecommunications", where, the need to create an independent regulatory body is indicated.
The independent regulatory body will have a significant impact on the liberalization of the telecommunications market and, in particular, the processes of privatization. The privatization of telecommunication enterprises in Azerbaijan, as well as worldwide, is a fairly complicated process.
So far, companies such as Bakcell, Azercell, CATEL, Ultel, as well as state-owned enterprises and Bakteleqraf Qasid have been privatized in Azerbaijan. The agenda includes privatization of production units Aztelekom and Baku Telephone Communications, including satellite earth stations "Teleradio", used to organize an international communication.
Denationalization of telecommunications industry is also one of the conditions for Azerbaijan's accession to the World Trade Organization. The situation on the world market dictates taking serious steps for denationalization, as well as creating favorable competitive environment. This should facilitate the further development of the market, improve the quality and quantity of the offered services, and finally reduce tariffs.
Creating a competitive atmosphere and a favorable climate for increase of investment and expansion of the existing telecommunications network should be one of the important components of an independent regulatory body's activity.