Telecoms congress to call for local purchases, competition

Argentina's national telecoms congress is expected to call for operators to dedicate more of their budgets to local suppliers and greater competition for the local market in the final documents to be delivered to the communications ministry (Secom) on Thursday, local press reported. The congress' seven committees have been discussing various aspects of the telecoms business for three weeks, and the conclusions presented Thursday are expected to form the basis of a new law for the sector. The two most contentious commissions were reported to be numbers three and four, which were discussing local production and the role of the private sector, respectively. Commission three, coordinated by Raul Martinez, is reported to have backed application of the Buy National Law, recently passed by the government. Committee four, coordinated by communications ministry advisor Osvaldo Maques, debated the role of the state in promoting competition, and the extent to which the regulator should be allowed to interfere in pricing. Meanwhile, the president's renegotiating commission has called natural gas transporters and distributors to start discussing terms of their concession contracts, and the process is scheduled to end in September 2004. Electric power companies are scheduled to begin talks on Tuesday; other sectors, including telecoms and water, have not yet been given a date.