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Author	Date and source	Quotes

Associate Professor at the School of Journalism and Communication at Carleton University, Dwayne Winseck	22 August 2001 Daily Mail & Guardian	" By the late 1990s the 29 rich countries of the Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) accounted for 60% of all telephone lines worldwide, despite representing only 15% of the world population. During the 1990s analysts at the World bank estimated that more than $7 bilion was needed in Africa alone to achieve just one telephone line for 100 people, while others claimed that $200 billion was needed to achieve modest levels of access to telecommunication services in developing countries. According to these analysts the massive infusion of investment in telecommunications depends on four strategies : privatisation, competition, the World Trade Organisation's (WTO) telecomunication's agreements and adequate regulatory regimes at a national level."
Associate Professor at the School of Journalism and Communication at Carleton University, Dwayne Winseck	22 August 2001 Daily Mail & Guardian	" Nonetheless, the WTO did spur a massive increase in investment. The Basic Telecommunications Agreement and the more general trend of regulatory liberalisation triggered a rush to wire up cities and the globe on a unprecedented scale. From 1997 until 2000, the OECD countries and developing countries alike saw incumbents and new competitors ploughing investment into telecommunication infrastructure. For developing countries investment between 1995 and 1998 tripled the amount of the preceding decade. As a result the global telecommunications system grew from half a billion users in 1989 to two billion last year. Simultaneously the Internet grew from a couple of million users to 200 million and the number of countries connected to the Internet rose from 90 to 200. This narrowed the gap between developed and developing countries, although stark divisions between the information rich and poor persist."

Managing Director of the European Services Forum, Pascal Kerneis

22 May 2001

Speech at an International Conference organised by the Forum of Environment and Development

" GATS is about freedom of the WTO members to make commitments or not. That is a major message which should be repeated here. When numerous governments accepted to make a commitment in more than 34 areas during the last Uruguay round, it is because they felt that their country and their economy would be able to take advantage of this liberalisation. And this indeed has been the case. One should again and again repeat that under GATS, it is only the governments of each WTO member country that decide on which services they want to make a commitment and can attach to them whatever conditions they choose. All WTO members which have, either in their official schedule of commitments during the last services negotiations or by autonomous internal decision, decided to liberalise some of their services sectors will recognise that they have benefited from it."

Managing Director of the European Services Forum, Pascal Kerneis	22 May 2001 Speech at an International Conference organised by the Forum of Environment and Development	" Capacity building has been one of the features of cross border direct investment in developing countries. Investment by Spanish Telefonica in the telecommunications industry in Argentina and Brazil is an example of constructive investment that has considerably expanded the telecommunications market for consumers and brought better choice (+30% of fixed lines; +100% of mobile phone in areas covered) and better prices."
Joint Statement U.S., European and Japanese Service Industries	10 May 2001 European Services Forum Press Release	"If barriers to trade in goods and services were completely eliminated, world economic welfare would increase an additional $1.9 trillion, benefiting developed and developing countries alike. A broader WTO Round should be able to reduce barriers to trade in goods and services by one-third, which would still add approximately $613 billion to the world economy."

Former U.S. Trade Representative, Ambassador Charlene Barshefsky	13 April 2000 Speech at the Graduate School of International Economics and Finance of Brandeis University.	" In the WTO we also created a permanent forum in which governments find new areas of shared interest and benefit, which we used in the past five years to reach … agreements of central importance to the 21 st -century economy…The Agreement on Basic Telecommunications, opening world markets in a sector dominated for 60 years by monopolies and promoting pro-competitive regulatory principles. In just two years, it has eroded the ability of dominant carriers in foreign countries to keep rates artificially high and depress demand for telecommunications services and electronic commerce, helping to bring down rates to levels as low as 10 to 20 cents per minute, for calls between the U.S. and countries such as Japan and Mexico."
South African President, Nelson Mandela	May 1998 Speech at the Summit to mark the 50th Anniversary of the GATT/WTO multilateral trading system	" We are firmly of the belief that the existence of the GATT, and now the World Trade Organization, as a rules-based system provides the foundation on which our deliberations can build in order to improve … As we enter the new millennium, let us forge a partnership for development through trade and investment."

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