The acting head of the Afghanistan Telecom Regulatory Authority (ATRA) has pledged to accelerate work on the World Bank-funded ‘Digital CASA (Central Asia and South Asia) Afghanistan’ programme.
ATRA in a statement has said that the main goals of the five-year, USD51 million project are to provide Afghans with more affordable internet access, to attract private investment in the ICT sector and to improve the government’s capacity to deliver digital government services to the public.
According to the statement, acting ATRA Chairman Omar Mansoor Ansari said: ‘ATRA will take crucial steps together with the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (MCIT) and World Bank as an important shareholder of the project to ensure that citizens have access to the best and most satisfactory telecom and internet services.”
“ATRA has [completed the] basic works of this project, such as issuance of optical fibre expansion licenses, encouraging investors and controlling prices, and is also ready to have an important role in implementing the project through comprehensive coordination,” he added.
