High internet costs scare investors - BE
MBABANE – BE Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Nathi Dlamini says the country is losing a lot on foreign direct investment (FDI) because of high internet costs.
Dlamini was speaking during the breakfast meeting with the Minister of Information, Communication and Technology (ICT), Savannah Maziya and BE executives and members.
The CEO said the cost of internet services were some of the issues businesses or investors looked at when thinking of investing in other countries.
He, therefore, implored the Ministry of ICT to address the issue in the digitisation strategy that the ministry was working on.
Meanwhile, Mmilidzi Habangaan, the Managing Director (MD) of Nett Comm raised a number of issues, including the need to protect local companies from international players, who came into the space and competed without having direct engagement with local companies.
Solution
Forming part of the agenda of the meeting was also the provision of solutions and not only the problems that affect the industry. When making his contributions, Ali Resting, the Co-founder and Managing Director of Real Image Internet, mentioned that one thing they were already pushing for as a sector was the encouragement of the country’s tax authority to remove value-added-tax in ICTs.
“This could be done for a short period of time to allow industry players to bridge the digital divide at much lower costs, both for the operator and the consumer.
“It will also do-away with taxes on items that are damaged and need to
go back to manufacturers,” he said.
According to Resting, this was a practical approach that could be done to adopt the acceleration of ICTs in the country.
The director went on to extend an invite to government parastatals in the ICT sector to join hands with the private sector.
These include entities like Eswatini Broadcasting and Information Services (EBIS), the Royal Science and Technology Park (RSTP) and others.
“A lot of the time we have no idea what projects they are busy with. We would like to know what part we can play for them to see these projects to fruition,” he said.
Revealed
In her remarks, the minister revealed her ministry’s plans to come up with a government digitisation strategy.
The strategy, according to the minister, will focus in part, on how government can work well with captains
of the industry in the communication sector.
The minister mentioned that the first step in fixing a lot of what is not going well in the communications sector was to come up with a strategy that would include all the stakeholders in the industry.
“The issue is that we want to be close to the people. These people come in different formats; it is everybody from young people in school to, business owners and ordinary citizens,” she said. Maziya mentioned that the whole point of the process was to see government digitised.
In relation to how business is done in the country, the minister highlighted the issue of slow services that in turn affect the way businesses make money.
Observations
She mentioned that through their research and general observations as a ministry, business people spent a lot of time waiting for services, especially from government institutions, than in their actual businesses, and that affects productivity.
She further went on to state that the point of the meeting was to find out from the service providers what problems they face as they carry on with their duties and also find out how they can work well with government as well as find out how all of these stakeholders can work together towards the same goal.