---

World Bank Consultant Team visits Pohnpei and Chuuk

Palikir, Pohnpei (FSM Information Services): January 28, 2011 - Pursuant to the FSM Government's request for technical assistance to conduct an options assessment in the telecom sector, the World Bank has dispatched a team who arrived in Pohnpei on January 25, and will depart from Chuuk on January 29.

The team members, Bruno Viani, Andrew Fyfe and James Neumann, are reviewing and assessing practical options for increasing access to telecommunications services, reducing costs to consumers, and extending coverage more equitably throughout the Federated States of Micronesia.

Following their visit, the World Bank team will prepare an Option Assessment Report with their analysis and recommendations on: the economic and fiscal impacts of different market structures (competitive/monopolistic), the implications of market transition for FSM Telecommunications Corporation, and the options for future infrastructure financing, including the feasibility of submarine fiber optic and other satellite broadband alternatives for the States of Chuuk, Kosrae and Yap.

In a letter addressed to Robert Jauncey, World Bank Acting Country Director for East Asia and the Pacific region, President Mori expressed his sincere appreciation to World Bank for supporting telecommunications and ICT - information and communications technologies- development in the FSM.