Hon Chairperson, the ACDP supports the Electronic Communications Amendment Bill before the House today.
Electronic Communications has taken the world by storm in recent years and has changed the way people in all spheres of life communicate with one another by using computers and cellphone connections; the world has become a village called a global village.
According to the 2006-07 South African Survey, in 2004, 82 out of 1 000 people had access to a personal computer and 78 out of a 1 000 were Internet users. I am sure that three years down that line these numbers must have been doubled by now, at the same time the UK had 628 per 1 000 Internet users and the USA had 630.
The competition among service providers has drastically increased with more and more mind-blowing products and unique facilities coming onto the market. The ACDP has no doubt that the explosion of electronic communication technology is of great benefit to South Africa and African markets as a whole. We need to be informed and in contact in order to keep up with the rest of the world.
The ACDP welcomes the investment and the possible reduction in infrastructure cost, the improvement in service delivery and the support that will flow forth through Asgisa and the benefits consumers will receive in general. Thank you.