Le
lundi 17 octobre 2016
6時、快晴、26℃、35％。
世界で初めてドローンを商用運航しているのはルワンダ（首都キガリ）である。
今のところ血液を運搬しているだけだが、一日に50回から150回も運んでいるという。運賃はバイクで運ぶよりも安いらしいから、十分に利用者（病院）も運航会社（米系ジップライン）もペイしているといえよう。将来は、薬やワクチンも運ぶ予定。
何故ルワンダが初と思うが、これはルワンダの外資導入政策の成功例である。ニーズがあり、許可関連が簡単で安価なことである。ケニアではテロを恐れてドローンの商用利用禁止、ガーナでは厳しい登録と許可制度がひかれ、ナイジェリアではドローン登録にとんでもない料金が課されている。南アはといえば、遊びでドローンを飛ばすのは自由だが、商用となると複雑な行政手続きを覚悟しなければならない。といった具合にルワンダが理想的環境を提供してくれたということである。
RDCコンゴの場合、この投資環境がっとのっていない。ドローンに限らない。外資を呼ぶには政府行政・立法の整備（簡易さ）が先ずできていなければならない。
 |
| 世界初 ドローン商業活用はルワンダ |
The
world’s first commercial drone delivery service has launched in Rwanda
October
14, 2016 Quartz Africa
The
world’s first commercial drone delivery service is in Rwanda, and it’s
delivering blood.
The
service is operated by Zipline, a US robotics and drone company. The drones
drop blood parcels on parachutes outside remote health centers. Rwanda’s
government pays Zipline for the deliveries, each of which costs about the same
as the motorbike deliveries used previously, according to Keller Rinaudo,
Zipline’s CEO. (The company declined to say how much that was, saying it would
defer to the government to release the figure.)
Health
workers can request a blood drop via text message, and it arrives around 30
minutes later. That makes a big difference in a country where short road trips
can take hours. Blood loss after birth is one of the reasons maternal mortality
is much higher in poor countries than rich ones; it’s the leading cause of
death in Rwanda for pregnant women. And blood has to be stored carefully and
matched to the recipient.
For
now, Zipline will make between 50 and 150 deliveries per day to 21 clinics in
the western half of the country. UPS, the US delivery and logistics giant,
helped ship all of Zipline’s equipment to Rwanda. The UPS Foundation, the
company’s charitable branch, earlier this year invested $1.1 million in a
project to investigate how such drone delivery could be expanded to other
medicines, and other countries.
And
while for now the Rwanda service will just deliver blood, there are plans to
expand into other medical areas, such as vaccines. Gavi, a public-private
partnership which promotes vaccination, is partnering with UPS and Zipline on
the research.
But
while drones are being hailed as a solution to many problems across Africa,
ranging from HIV testing to elephant conservation, they aren’t a simple
business. Rwanda’s regulators are treating them favorably, but those in many
countries don’t.
Kenya,
worried about terror threats, banned commercial drones in January 2015. Ghana
wants all drones registered and licensed, and is threatening hefty prison terms
for anyone who doesn’t follow the guidelines. Nigeria has sought to cash in by
making such licenses prohibitively expensive. South Africa, meanwhile, appears
more lenient, though perhaps not so commercially savvy as Rwanda: it allows
anyone over 18 to fly a drone for fun, but using one for business purposes
requires onerous paperwork.
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