MINISTRY ACTION PLAN
The President of the Union of the Comoros, His Excellency Azali Assoumani, in his policy and vision for the emergence of the country by 2030, placed the ICT sector as the cornerstone of this vision given its cross-cutting nature.
Thus, in the implementation of this policy of emergence and the various objectives of the 2020 resolution, we first understood that the expected growth of the ICT sector and the improvement of access cannot be conceived in the framework of a monopolistic market.
From 2015, we liberalized the sector both through the arrival of a second mobile operator and the establishment of an operator in charge of managing underwater infrastructure. These two measures have enabled us to achieve a tele density of 71% and a national coverage rate of around 92%. Indeed, a little over 600,000 inhabitants out of the 815,000 that make up the Union of the Comoros today have access to a mobile phone and potentially to internet access, all these subscribers being all connected to the 4G network and 4.5G from both carriers. We continue to see a substantial drop in telecommunications rates and a proliferation of products and services.
Regarding connectivity, the Union of the Comoros now has international and national submarine optical links with a capacity exceeding 50 Gbp/s through the EASSy, AVASSA cables and the inter-island network. Last October, another submarine cable, the Fly Lyon3 cable, financed by IDA funds through the RCIP4 project, will extend and secure this capacity. But already, efforts to fill access to the Internet network and provide broadband to all, are being carried out with the installation of a terrestrial backbone on each of the three islands from the end of 2016. Negotiations are also underway to join the Simba Systems cable, of which you are one of the initiators. We take this opportunity to express our gratitude and gratitude for your willingness to support us in the search for the funding and investments necessary for this infrastructure.
From these infrastructures, the Comoros is planning towards generalized access to services and at lower costs for the entire population, objective 2 of the “connect 2020” resolution. The government, within the framework of the new sectoral policy and the digital Comoros strategy, also intends to proceed with the digital development of the territory to bring fiber or other broadband technologies to the homes of users to allow a large part of households by 2020-2021 to have the Internet. The incumbent operator Comoros Telecom has undertaken work in this direction through the FMC Project financed through a loan from Exim Bank China.
From these infrastructures, the Comoros have established a program to digitize the administration with an important component relating to the development of a cybersecurity strategy to establish digital trust and protect personal data. We also recorded the birth of two mobile banking players for the financial inclusion of unbanked populations as well as promoters of e-commerce.
From these infrastructures, the Comoros have also set up a space aimed at better integrating young people in the use of digital technology and demonstrating innovation through a co-working space set up by the government but managed by the consumer association.
The geographical position of the Comoros combined with these infrastructures, a flexible sectoral regulatory framework, an attractive business environment, a young population, trained and qualified in several fields and moreover multilingual, are all elements and assets that justify our membership to the principles laid down by the draft declaration of a digital Arab society.
We also invite you to translate into action the last principle of this declaration concerning the necessary cooperation of the Arab States for the development of digital through offshoring activities, call centers, translation centers and other outsourcing professions in the Union of the Comoros. We invite you to adopt these new organizational forms and come to outsource your business there.