South Africa has entered the “last consultative stage” for the modernisation and alignment of its information and communication technology (ICT) policy environment with the latest discussion document gazetted for comment.

Industry stakeholders had until January 15 to submit their views on the National Integrated ICT Policy Options Paper, before the Department of Telecommunications and Postal Services (DTPS) tabled the White Paper by the end of March.

Telecommunications and Postal Services Minister Siyabonga Cwele urged members of the public, sector stakeholders and government departments to engage with the current document to “strengthen proposals that would form the basis of the new policy” that had been under development for the past two years.

The former Department of Communications, which had been split into the Department of Communications and the DTPS earlier this year, initiated a policy review process in 2012, from which a framing paper emerged in April 2013, followed by a Green Paper in January 2014.

“The gazetting of the [discussion document] is the latest milestone in the department’s implementation of the National Development Plan, which envisages that a new policy framework will be needed to realize the vision of a fully connected society,” Cwele commented.

The latest discussion paper incorporated the inputs received in response to the Green Paper, as well as views that were obtained from consultations held across South Africa’s nine provinces.

The ICT options paper examined approaches to deploying and using ICT to bolster the South African economy and to creating an integrated society and reviewed the effects of the convergence of technologies and its practical impact on the entry of new services to better meet the needs of South Africans.

Principles of regulatory parity, technological neutrality and an open Internet were discussed, while debates on universal access to affordable communications services, competition issues, enabling ease of participation for new ICT entrants, spectrum policy, rapid deployment of infrastructure, the postal infrastructure and the possible role of the Post Office in the converged environment were tabled.

Other discussion points included the development of a national e-strategy to build the envisaged digital society, including considerations around issues of e-government and e-commerce, and what needed to be done to empower the institutions that govern the sector to “better fulfill their roles”.

Strategies necessary to promote growth and transformation in the sector and promote the expansion of the national system of ICT research, skills development and policies to develop a manufacturing base for electronic goods were also scrutinised.

“We are making steady progress in ensuring that we develop progressive policies that will ensure that we are on par with the world’s best practices in the deployment, use and regulation of this fast-changing sector,” Cwele said, adding that it was critical for the ICT sector to contribute to the country’s ambitions of 5% economic growth and modernise the way government delivers services and how citizens access these services.