Annual Conference of Ministry of Communications & IT Provincial Directors

A 3-days conference aimed to have better cooperation between central and provincial Directors of MCIT, Afghan Telecom managers, identifying problems and challenges of provincial telecommunication plans, normal and devolvement budget for covering the rural area.

The conference was held at ICTI. The participants were Minister of MCIT, Deputy Minster (Technical), Deputy Minster (F&A), Board of  Directors of MCIT, a delegation of Telecommunication Sector of National Assembly, provincial directors and authorities of Afghan Telecom representative of media.

The meeting was opened with the recitation of few verses of the holly Quran; subsequently the national anthem was played.

At the beginning H.E. Eng. Amirzai Sangin Minister of Communications and IT said!

Our goal is to achieve 7 major targets, which are listed below:

1. Installation of Satellite into 50 degree at east. 

2. Delivering Services to remote area, which are not covered with telecom services.

3. Broadcasting TV channels from Analog to Digital System.

4. To provide internet with high speed.

5. Design & distribution of electronic ID cards (Tazkira).

6. Expansion of OFC (Optic Fiber Cable) network.

7. Applying electronic governance in the country.

His Excellency talked about Satellite in detail. He was expressing the improvement of Telecom Sector in Afghanistan in the last decade. He mentioned that location for the satellite is one of the natural resources of the country. It is negotiated with ITU. It could be installed & utilized soon at 50 degree at east. After that through satellite broadcasting of the whole country will be covered by providing communication facility of it. It is very important for the governance to be in touch with all areas with better performance.

Secondly, there should be some rules & regulations for Afghan TVs, everybody can't run TV anymore. This issue is discussed with the MoC as well. You know that MCIT provides frequency for them therefore MCIT has to play a role in it. For the time being broadcasting of TVs is Analog and will be converted to Digital system. It will be broadcasted via Satellite in future and Afghan broadcasting will be accessible in each angle of the country as well as abroad. It will increase in the revenues of state treasury.

 With analogue broadcasting each TV has to install a tower in each province, therefore often of TVs running companies can't afford to do the job. With satellite services, a single tower will be installed in each province and every TV can broadcast their programs from the same tower, so it will decrease expenses.

Later, Mr. Mussa Khan Nasrat Member of Telecommunications Sector at National Assembly, appreciated  

that Afghanistan has significant progress in telecommunication services in last few years and he added MCIT has great achievements, on behalf of Telecom Sector at National Assembly, I promised further supporting MCIT and Minister Sangin.

After that, consequently Mr. Khair Mahmad Faizi member of ATRA, Mr. Ajmal Ayaan Director of Plan and Policy at MCIT, Mr. Gul Ahmad Rastman Director of Afghan Telecom have presented their relevant presentations to the participants.

Second day of Conference: all the provincial Directors of MCIT consequently   presented their annual reports to the audience.

Third day of Conference:    Directors of MCIT and Afghan Telecom Mangers were divided in six working groups, and all the groups began to work on their existing problems and ways of solutions, then representative of each group presented their presentations to the participants.

 At the end:  Achievements of the conference evaluated by H.E. Wahabudin Sadaat Deputy Minister (F&A) of MCIT.  Sadaat added:  “we all work together to accomplish the problems and challenges that we face in provincial levels as for as possible”.

Finally: H.E. Eng. Baryalay Hassam Deputy Minister (Technical) of MCIT Said: “Ministry of Communication & IT is working on the projects, which are utilized to the people of Afghanistan such as Electronic ID Card project”.

The conference ended with recitation of few verses of holy Quran and prayers for enhanced future.