Telecommunication Services and World Trade Organization: A Developing Economy's Perspective

被引:0
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作者
Kumar, Surendra [1 ]
机构
[1] Univ Delhi, PGDAV Coll, Delhi 110007, India
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中图分类号
TP39 [计算机的应用];
学科分类号
081203 ; 0835 ;
摘要
The new paradigm of the ICT technology does not alter much the explanations that we get through the dependency theory - whether it is infrastructure or equipment or high-end consultancy. Today, services as economic activity dominate the world. It constitutes the dominant share of the GDP of the Developed countries and the world. Its share is also increasing in world exports. With the global society becoming knowledge-based integrated economy in this digital age, policy makers in every country are putting more emphasis on this sector. Developed countries have already gained competitive advantage in services and therefore to suit their interests are justifiably demanding global rules and regulations governing services sector and progressive liberalisation of these sectors. The General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) became the first multilateral agreement, under the aegis of the Uruguay Round, to provide legally enforceable rights to trade in a wide range of services along with their progressive liberalisation. Although there are arguments that suggest that "GATS provides developing countries with an opportunity to integrate into the global economy through adopting more liberal policies with regard to trade in services", these fall short of dwelling further on the nature of relationship among nations in such a liberal environment. Telecommunications services are a global market worth over US$ 1.5 trillion in revenue. Mobile services account for roughly 40 per cent of this, while mobile subscribers worldwide currently outnumber the use of fixed telephone lines by more than two to one. Over the past decade, the market has witnessed far-reaching changes, with the introduction of competition into a sector that was once principally a monopoly. Telecommunication service is core to many services, whether it be banking, entertainment, travel, or any other. Telecommunications is often referred to as Core services facilitating the delivery of services produced by other sectors as well as generating its own processing, transaction and delivery, of services. Of the services sector, telecommunication sector is fast becoming the key sector of any progressive and developed economy. The systemic benefits of a mature and modern telecommunication sector are tremendous. All the benefits of liberalised trade in services are duly applicable to trade in telecommunication, namely, 1) services could bring huge benefits over the next 50 years; 2) allowing foreign suppliers to compete with domestic ones a) lowers prices, b) improves quality, c) increases choice., d) increases access to vitally needed technology, and e) increases access to capital investment in infrastructure; 3) services could increase efficiency of manufacturing activities, particularly those which use many types of services such as telecommunication., banking, insurance, accountancy, and transports systems. Besides these general arguments in favour of liberlaised trade in services, telecommunication liberalisation can bring improvement in economic efficiency of many sectors that use telecommunication services, like, electronic commerce, software development, hospital services, as well as many other sectors like agriculture, and manufacturing. In fact, in times to come., there will not be any sector, which would not benefit from the telecommunication services. And in that sense, it has an all pervasive beneficial effect on the national economy of developing and developed economies of the world. The present paper is a study to focus on the interests of the developing countries and therefore., there is a major caution that has to be kept in mind and that is of dependency on the technology which is primarily controlled by MNC's hailing from developed economies of USA, Europe, Japan or Australia. Even Canada and Korea may be included in this list. In the net terms, does an argument in favour of liberalised telecommunication sector stands the test of scrutiny. To understand, and analyse., may be we look at some of major developments of last four decades in brief, and of the current decade in detail with a focus on cellular services. As such, wireless internet and mobile commerce and services are the fastest growing sectors of the world economy. And supposing our analysis suggests to the contrary, do we have alternatives, which better serve the national interests of developing countries. What are the implications of WTO Agreement on Basic Telecom Services in 1997? What relationship it establishes among natios of the world with regard to telecommunication industry? What are the implications of convergence on telecommunication, and other sectors of the economy? Is it good or bad for developing countries? Do these countries have choice?
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页码:98 / 109
页数:12
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