Windhoek, Namibia — Prime Minister Hage Geingob says the launching of Telecom Namibia's Internet Service Provider, Iway, is without doubt a further significant development in the expansion of the information and communications technologies in Namibia.

Officially launching Telecom's Iway on Friday, Geingob stressed: "Namibia has made progress in creating the necessary infrastructure to bring the benefits of the information revolution to our people.

"The challenges posed by the global information revolution is leaving us no choice but to restructure, renew and reposition our telecommunications industry in order to meet the demands of our customers."

According to him, the adoption of the policy and regulatory framework for telecommunications in Namibia has successfully paved the way for competition in this field.

"It is also concrete evidence that Namibia is seriously moving forward in laying the foundations for a competitive marketplace in the telecommunications, information and communications industry," he noted.

Geingob added: "We have made remarkable progress in the development and expansion of services across Namibia during the past 10 years. The striking difference between the current network and the pre-independence network is, therefore, indicative of the tremendous effort that went into the establishment of one of Africa's finest telecommunications networks.

"I am told that world class Internet Provider backbone network services were offered last week to private institutions in Namibia. I should, therefore, like to urge the private sector to look very seriously into these offerings, and see how it can benefit their commercial activities.

"We need to support our own infrastructure and institutions in order to advance our nation."

He further stated that encouraging private sector participation in telecommunications would, therefore, stimulate growth in the telecommunications sector.

Thus, to attain the short term goal of the telecommunications policy, the telecommunications sector needs to be liberalised at a much faster pace, and the private sector must be encouraged to invest and be an active player in the sector.

Advising Iway, Geingob said: "It is my sincere hope that Iway will focus on connecting our schools and rural communities to the Internet Information Highway. And I believe that this is the first step in bridging the digital divide between the poor and the rich, between the urban and the rural areas of our country."