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The art of policy-making
THE policies that have been developed in the telecommunications sector in Pakistan recently have resulted in nothing short of a revolution. The customers are spoilt for choice, competitive pressures have brought down prices and quality of service has improved dramatically.
An improvement of this magnitude in the telecommunication infrastructure is sure to have a dramatic impact on socio-economic activity. The fact is corroborated by many case studies from across the world, with the Grameen Bank example from Bangladesh probably being the closest to home.
The business of parliament, the way I see it, is to legislate. But legislation in itself cannot and should not be carried out in isolation. Legislation flows naturally once appropriate policies are in place. And policies of course are driven by vision. The vision for the telecommunication sector is simple; a deregulated and free marketplace, with government intervention kept to the absolute minimum. All our policies hence adhere to this basic principle.
The task of policy-making for us is not over yet. Apart from the cellular and the fixed line policies that have already been successfully rolled out, we have just finished the first draft of the broadband policy, which should result in an upsurge in the use of broadband internet, along with its attendant benefits of an “always on” connection and very fast downloads. The telecom sector is one where developments are taking place at breakneck speed, hence the need to come up with policies that keep pace with these rapid changes in the technology landscape.
Naturally, policies that involve creating new regulations that govern how businesses and firms will compete with each other are subject to much scrutiny and debate.
In order to provide a level playing field for all the players in the industry, there is a requirement for independent regulatory bodies to be set up so that the policies that have been developed by the various ministries are implemented fairly and that the rules of the game are followed scrupulously by all concerned. The relationship between regulators and policy makers is hence very clear and I am glad that we have been able to work together with Pakistan Telecommunication Authority to ensure that all the actors in our industry are satisfied with the manner in which our policies have been implemented. This phenomenon of regulatory bodies is not specific to the telecommunication sector.
Regulatory bodies exist in other sectors of our economy. Examples from oil and gas, energy and power and the electronic media come to mind immediately. Competition within these sectors is not as fierce as it is in telecommunications which perhaps explains the relatively lower level of activity within these organizations, though their mandate is very much in line with that of the better known telecom regulator, the PTA.
The many months that I was involved in the mobile telephony or cellular policy that the Ministry rolled out have been very productive. I could be the nature of the industry itself, fast moving and technology intensive, that is dictating the dynamics of how it shaped up. It could also be the fact that the average age of those involved in this industry, or at least those that I have come across, is probably in the mid-30s. Indeed, the industry itself is young when compared to the traditional “brick and mortar” industries, and it could be that this translates into the way the policy was developed. I doubt if the other policies that are evolving at the governmental level are being subjected to such intense and at times fierce scrutiny.
The stakeholders in our case are all IT literate, and are used to sharing ideas and documents over the internet. Hence the level of interaction between the ministry and the concerned stakeholders is much higher than it would have been if we were not in this line of business. It would be naive of us to ascribe this interest to the telecom community alone. The stakes are high, what with the relatively enormous sums of money involved in setting up a cellular company.
The upcoming scramble for market share certainly plays a major part in the current interest being shown in the policy by all stakeholders. The same arguments also hold true for the fixed line policy that governed deregulation in this very important sector. The policy too was developed in a very intense fashion, and involved considerable feedback and industry consultation before it was finalized.
We have used a number of approaches to formulate the various policies that we have developed. These range from using external consultants, which was the choice we made when developing the cellular policy, to utilizing inhouse expertise, such as the broadband policy to increase high speed internet access.
We have also experimented with a mix of both approaches, where consultants were hired to provide an initial draft and subsequent versions were refined using our own internal resources. Typically the policies that we have formulated in the telecom sector have been aimed at addressing market failures, and policy options were relatively straightforward.
Classic policy analysis texts categorize telecom policy making into freeing markets, which is what we did when we deregulated the telecom sector. We then stimulated the market by auctioning the frequency spectrum.
Our ministry has two components, with considerable synergy between them. The telecommunications side is the one that is responsible for the cellular policy as well as others that we are currently in the process of finalizing. The other subject that we deal with is information technology. The IT policy was formulated some years ago, but given my more than passing involvement in IT, I had been following it as an interested bystander whilst it was being developed.
It is instructive to compare the approach taken when developing the cellular policy to the one taken when the IT policy was developed. No formal policy analysts were involved in this process. The Pakistani IT industry is typically composed of small companies, run by their owners, who are primarily technology guns. Neither their highly technical training, nor their engineering mindset allows them the luxury to concern themselves with the broader business environment in which they have to operate.
There were thus very few stakeholders amongst the IT community from a policy-making perspective. Neither were they influential enough, nor is there enough money involved in the IT industry within the country yet for people to get really passionate about such a policy.
Should the IT policy also have been formulated in the classic sense? Can it actually be called a policy as opposed to a statement of intent? It is difficult to say with any degree of certainty that formulating the policy through the application of a traditional policy making toolkit would have resulted in a better IT policy. Nonetheless, we are currently revising the IT policy and are in the process of engaging professional consultants to assist us in this endeavour.
At the end of the day, the best policy is one that has the most chance of being implemented on the ground. I feel that we get carried away when given the opportunity to develop policies.
We take pride in the fact that we have developed the most advanced policy document, one that has won us the recognition of other countries in the region.
How well we are able to actually execute against this policy is another matter altogether. This is a tricky matter to comment upon, however. Not having a good policy document would mean that we are setting ourselves up for failure even before we start.
Having a policy document that makes us the envy of the world is the other end of the spectrum, where the policy is so totally removed from ground realities that it has very little chance of actually being implemented.
In my opinion, we should strive for policies that may be modest in their goals, with this modesty itself being their saving grace. After all, the ultimate measure of success of any policy is whether or not the goals have been met within the given timeframe.
Given this commonsensical measure, I am comfortable that our policy making within the ministry is on the right track. Results in our sector are proof positive that we have hit upon the winning combination of the right policies, effective implementation and transparent governance mechanisms.
The writer is federal minister for information and telecommunications. The views expressed in this article are those of the writer in his personal capacity.
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