The 2006-08 focus of LIRNEasia’s research was indicators of sector and regulatory performance. Indicators should not be collected for the sake of collecting them. They should be collected based on a common standards and reported at standard intervals in a timely manner, so that regulation and policy can be improved. For example, we believe that good price information can allow a simplification of the tariff regulation process in a way that will make all stakeholders, including incumbents, happy.

We were thus gratified when the Chief Executive of the Telecom Authority of Maldives invited us to conduct a workhop on indicators and benchmarking. The workshop will be conducted on the 6th of December by LIRNEasia’s Rohan Samarajiva and Helani Galpaya. An almost final version of program is at: maldivesrevised12.doc

This demand-induced workshop constitutes a significant success in our indicators work program and also adds to the countries LIRNEasia works in.

LIRNEasia compiled a ‘Telecommunication and ICT Sector Performance Indicator Handbook’ as part of a IDRC funded project. The handbook lists a minimum set of indicators that should be collected by the NRA’s. The intention of this publication is not to present every possible indicator that can be collected, but to provide a minimal set of indicators that are useful for Asian economies.

A draft version of the handbook can be found attached.

The Samarajiva presentation on benchmarking regulation is here: maldives_benchmarking.ppt

The Galpaya presentation on indicators is at hg_comparativeindicators.ppt