Abstract
This chapter contextualises the sectoral analysis of telecommunications in MENA countries, with a focus on Egypt, Jordan and Morocco until the early 2000s. Starting with the transformation of the MENA states from independence in the 1940s and 1950s, the chapter focuses on the transformation from large bureaucracies and state-led economies to a partial retreat of the state. Finally, the transformation of the telecommunications sector from a system of state-owned monopolies to the delegation of core state functions to regulatory authorities is addressed.
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- 1.
Egypt, Jordan and Morocco experienced debt write-offs in the 1990s, which can also be considered characteristics of rentier economies (Rivlin 2001:68). Jordan received around USD 300–500 million debt reductions every year between 1992 and 1995. Morocco received USD 2.9 billion write-off in 1991. Finally, Egypt received more than USD 2 billion debt write-off in the 1990s (World Bank 2015).
- 2.
Morocco engaged with the IMF in 1983, Jordan in 1989 and Egypt in 1991.
- 3.
NATPs are financed by the EU. They started in 2001 and were finalised in 2014, with the last funding supporting EMERG activities.
- 4.
Countries of the MENA region are Algeria, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, the Palestinian Authority, Syria and Tunisia. Turkey was initially a beneficiary of the NATP-II programme, but as a candidate country to EU accession, it is no longer part of the beneficiaries of NATP-III. Countries of the European area are Austria, Cyprus, France , Germany, Greece, Italy, Malta, Portugal, Spain and Switzerland. Algeria and Malta have not participated in EMERG since 2008 and 2009 respectively (EMERG 2008:2–3, 2012b:2).
- 5.
This is different from BEREC, which was created in 2006 among European NRAs, as a pan-European platform to ensure a consistent application of the EU regulatory framework. The official membership of the EC in BEREC has notably been criticised by EU member states, as the demonstration of the heavy hand of the EC in the sector (Michalis 2007:214).
- 6.
The EU acquis communautaire is “the body of common rights and obligations that is binding on all the EU member states” (European Commission 2017).
- 7.
Section 2.5b: information society: further progress in electronic communications policy and regulation and the development and use of information society applications, including improving the efficiency of the NTRA and developing a comprehensive regulatory framework (European Union and Egypt 2007a, b).
- 8.
Action 29: regional cooperation shall be supported in various regional projects, such as environment, energy, telecommunications and transport (European Union and Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan 2005).
Action 56: development and use of Information Society applications, steps to liberalise the market for fixed voice telephony, harmonising licensing access, interconnection or universal service and implement plans on e-Government, e-Commerce and e-Finance (European Union and Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan 2005; TRC 2013).
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Wavre, V. (2018). Regulatory Trends in MENA Telecommunications. In: Policy Diffusion and Telecommunications Regulation . Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-70745-7_4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-70745-7_4
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