MCIT Celebrates WTISD-World Telecommunication &Information Society Day

The   Ministry of communication & information technology celebrated, world Telecommunication information society day during a gathering at the press conference Hall of GMIC (government Media Relation and information center). The meeting opened with the recitation of the few verses of the holly Quran; subsequently the national anthem was played.

17 of May is an international day for the Telecommunication and celebrated by WTISD members across the world.

 Mr. Amirzai sangin Minister of Communication and  IT I.R of Afghanistan, Mr. Wahabudin Sadat ,D deputy minister of communications & IT Ministry and  board of directorates, directors of Communications   and information of both the upper house and lower house of the parliament of Afghanistan , representatives of the private telecommunication companies  and Media representative attended the celebration day.

At the beginning Mr. Wahabudin Sadat  welcomed the guests and participants. Then a short film which was made on the 2011 GSM international award, granted to the Minister of communication and IT I.R of Afghanistan, was played to participants.

Later on,  Mohammad Karim Khalily the second vice president’s  message delivered by his chief of staff on the occasion of celebrating WTISD

Mr. Amirzai Sangin delivered an informative and inclusive speech and said:” the reason of celebrations of this day is that the WTISD member countries provide their people with information about the importance of this day in order to disseminate   Information to its people to get better use of IT in their lives”.

One particular issue is focused on this day every year. The extension of IT services to rural area is the issue of this year to be brought to lime light said the minister. The minister continued that “half of the populations of the world are living in rural area, and urban area is enjoying more from information technology services. And those who are living in villages in most of the countries are deprived of telecommunication and IT facilities”. Mr. Sangin added:” I observe a real revolution in the field of Telecommunication and IT; a very big change has taken place in two dimensions of telecommunication and IT, - particularly in Mobile and internet services, even we can’t not imagine of.

The minister also mentioned that” all these changes from the beginning till now had been achieved within 25 years,  from the Total Population of the world ,now 5 billion people in the world  has Telephone. Those who don’t have telephone are children or those who can’t use telephone it means that every individual in the world enjoys having Telephone”. The minister of Communication and IT shed some light on the internet services, and added: internet services started in 1984 and came to market for public usage in 1995 ever since people began to use internet”. It has been 16 year since the internet turned to be used by the public and I was amongst those who first used internet 16 year ago; within this short period of time this much advancement is really a revolution in the world of Telecommunication and IT.” said Mr.Sangin. Later on the Minister provided the participant with information about status of Telecommunication and IT service in Afghanistan. In the past  in  for the development of Telecommunication in Afghanistan  a little bit work had been done but because of civil war and blood shedding all infrastructures of Afghanistan had been damaged, with establishment of new government in Afghanistan we haven’t had telecommunication services” the minster explained. Mr. Sangin mentioned of the accomplishment of new government in providing communications services in Afghanistan he said that all these achievement had been done within 8 years which is unique in all over the world we don’t trace any  country in the world to have had this much advancement in such a  short period of time.” As compare to our neighboring countries, we are ahead from them if, not ahead but definitely we are equal to them in providing these services.

Likewise the minister of Communication and IT talked about the  honoring the GSM 2011 international  award to the I.R of Afghanistan, which is organized by GSM international community and given to the countries based on certain criteria.”Government and The people of Afghanistan are proud to have owned the GSM international award; three criteria were considered for granting the GSM award-vision, courage and transparency. Afghanistan had  substantial attainment in these three dimensions, thus the GSM community decided to grant 2011 GSM international award among 194 countries to Afghanistan”  the Minister said.

He also talked about the revenue of the ministry of communications &IT:”in 1386 we had 85$ dollar; in 1387 was 105$ million; in 1388 129$millon dollar; this year as per our estimation the revenue would be around 150$ dollar”. Mr. Sangin also added that: “there are a lot of people demanding Radio Television frequency, but   we don’t have space for frequency in Kabul and can’t provide any more, we decide to solve this problem through Cable networks. We also planned to control cable networks broadcasting and we have talked in this regard with ministry of culture and information”

Our rular area which have not come under our coverage, 30$ million dollar have been allocated, so in a very near future, they will get Telecommunication &IT services” the Minister promised.  He also informed of giving each and every afghan a number that he/she can get mobile service from any Telecommunication company. This number will remain with them forever.