ICT BEE charter in final stages
Edwin Tshivhidzo
13 August 2004
The information, communication and technology empowerment charter is to come into effect in March next year, the ICT empowerment working group said on Thursday.
Chairperson Dali Mpofu said the fourth and final draft of the charter would be released on 23 August.
"Once the document is out constituencies in the industry will be given an opportunity to comment until the end of September when it will be handed to the government."
The communication department would then submit the document to the Cabinet.
"We expect the charter to be operational in the next financial year by 1 March 2005."
Mpofu also announced that an agreement was signed between the working group and the American Chamber of Commerce, which represents multinationals.
He said agreement was reached on Wednesday night and the pact was signed on Thursday.
"This development is significant because it was a major issue and now we can comfortably say the
end is in sight," he said.
"We've had robust discussions which had caused some delays, but we were able to stick to the task at hand and the results prove this."
Mpofu said another cause of delay was the large number of suggestions received from the local industry in response to the third draft of the charter.
Bilateral talks between the government and the industry had reached significant consensus on a number of contentious issues, which were raised in the third draft, he said.
There were still a few outstanding issues. Stakeholders expected these to be resolved by the end of August and to be in the final draft.
The document would also include the results of discussions with the Independent Communication Authority of SA and trade unions.
Mpofu said the government and the working group were confident the intended commencement date of the charter would be achieved.
Source: BuaNews
| 
