Government Policies

Overview

The Venezuelan Government has begun to lay a foundation to provide IT policies. In 1991, The Comisión Nacional de Telecomunicaciones (Conatel) was created by presidential decree, and recently, the Venezuelan Government has created a Ministry of Science and Technology. Prior to the creation of these Government agencies, the private sector IT companies formed a chamber in 1983 called CAVEDATOS. The Andean Group has formed the Andean Region Digital Passage Initiative to pool neighboring countries' resources to create a more technologically advanced telecommunications infrastructure. Furthermore, there are numerous studies and actions already performed to create the Venezuela E-Government.

Bodies Governing Policy

Comisión Nacional de Telecomunicaciones (CONATEL)

The Comisión Nacional de Telecomunicaciones (Conatel) was created by presidential decree No. 1826 on 5 September 1991 to oversee the privatization of CANTV, and is the regulatory watchdog body, which comes under the direction of the Ministry of Transportation and Communications. It has supervisory, licensing and concessionary powers over telecommunications services and promotes investment and technological advancement in the sector (1).

Ministry of Science and Technology

The Chavez administration recently undertook the restructuring of all of the government Ministries and also created of a Ministry of Science and Technology. Its purpose is specifically to promote scientific investigation and more generally to increase productivity through technical advances. To this end, the new Cabinet Ministry is working closely with the Ministry of Education to promote universal computer and Internet access. It is looking at alternatives to fund this initiative through various bilateral agencies and possibly the implementation of a small tax (similar to that proposed in the new telecommunications law to fund Universal Services) (2). The Venezuelan government has not historically deemed science and technology research of great importance, preferring to outsource that responsibility to more developed countries. The new administration appears to have the desire to change that tendency. Another council for IT that is under the Ministry of Science and Technology is the National Council for Scientific Research and Technology (CONICIT) (3).

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