relying on messengers, vehicles, and other parties. It also provides a much faster link in helping Government to work with the private sector and the civil society. 1.2.1 Telecommunications Objectives GoL’s objective is to stimulate the development of the national telecommunications infrastructure needed to support the delivery of ICT services throughout the country and provide universal access which promotes an information and knowledge-based society. The specific objectives are to: a. Encourage partnerships or consortia of corporations and institutions to pool resources together in building the necessary IT infrastructure. b. Attract and mobilize internal and external investment. c. Coordinate the efforts of Government, the private sector, civil society, development partners and individuals in order to ensure a shared national development vision in telecommunications and ICT. d. Optimize the utilization of scare resources such as spectrum, land, and IT Infrastructure. e. Encourage a medium that will enhance research and development. f. Establish new regulatory standards and rules and ensure standardization of the national spectrum and frequency usage. g. Establish new revenue regimes in the sector to address undervalued license fees; new regulatory fees; new annual operating fees; and spectrum and frequency usage fees. h. Establish a Board of Trustees to oversee the management of the Universal Access Program and the Universal Access Fund 1. i. Liberalize the telecommunication sector to ensure competitive service markets and affordable prices. j. Establish service penetration in the rural areas based on the ITU recommended minimum teledensity of 1 fixed line telephone per 100 inhabitants by 2015 2. k. Establish Local Area Networks (LAN) and Wide Area Networks (WAN) in central and local government offices; urban and rural communities; educational institutions, health facilities; commercial related agencies, security related agencies and financial related institutions. l. Collaborate with the Ministry of Education and establish telecommunications curriculum in the high schools, colleges and universities and to build capacity in telecommunications related careers. m. Provide five thousand (5,000) career employments for Liberians in the telecommunications and ICT sectors in technical, administrative, operational, teaching, and project management areas by 2013. n. Put in place a mechanism for the divestiture of the state-owned telecommunications entity and the promotion of private investments by 2011. 1 See comments in Universal Access Section – need for any oversight body to include representatives from mobile, fixed and ISP telecom subsectors. 2 Note: this requirement may be obsolete or less important now – Internet access or broadband is more relevant measure. We recommend including a policy objective for internet penetration. 5