Asian Forum on Information and Communication Technology Policies and e-Strategies, 20-22 October 2003

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Session Summary

Session V - Infrastructure, Access, and the Potential of Wireless

Chair: Mr. Valentine Kambori, Secretary, Department of National Planning and Rural Development, Papua New Guinea
Resource Person: Hon. Virgilio L. Pena, ICT Advisor to the President and Under Secretary for ICT, Philippines

1.	Dr. William T Torres, Co-Chair, Information Infrastructure Committee (ITECC), Philippines
2.	Eng. Hassam Baryalai, Deputy Minister, Ministry of Communications, Afghanistan
3.	Prof. Mohsen Tawfik, Director, UNESCO Asia-Pacific Regional Bureau for Communication and Information

Note: The Roundtable was assisted by a facilitator who posed 11 "Key Questions and Issues" to all the participants.

POINTS AND ISSUES RAISED

-	Need to reassess the importance accorded to broadband infrastructure in relation to development of content and 'killer' applications. Would the latter lead to better and appropriate infrastructure? This needs to be addressed on a country-by-country level.
-	Role of government versus the private sector; when infrastructure is privatized, governments find it difficult to initiate infrastructure expansion, as it has already privatized telecom services (e.g. Philippines)
-	Accessibility to technology is an issue as the poor and marginalized communities find it difficult to bear exorbitant costs to adapt to technological changes (e.g. satellite technology)
-	Challenge for government is to prioritize goals; government may be over allocating resources because it may be deemed urgent but essentially it can be argued that the impact has been minimal on nation building.
-	Convergence is major issue and the implications of convergence on regulation (licensing), structure, laws, etc, are critical.
-	Getting telecom services 'up and running' across the country and to meet large and growing demand places a heavy toll on governments seeking to build the necessary infrastructure while ensuring security and universal access

THE WAY FORWARD: SHARED EXPERIENCES/ PROPOSED SOLUTIONS

-	To guarantee expansion to rural areas deploy social policies (e.g.universal funds; smart partnerships with private sector) as affordability of access devices are the most prohibiting factor for users.
-	Governments are too preoccupied with broadband but rural areas can do with narrowband access.
-	e-Government is the killer application; another killer application is e-learning, but must consist of local content (suggests that all countries should focus on local content development); e-commerce must be developed.
-	Choice of technology should come only after the choices in content/application development.
-	Think big, start simple, scale fast - in relation to MDGs, adopt this approach and scale it fast.
-	Thinking big - how to reach more people and then how to make the cost affordable, because the bigger the infrastructure and therefore more on board; however, infrastructure is just a means, access should be about services and content; the definition of infrastructure to be redefined.
-	Governments need to decide what kind of content will ride on the infrastructure - 'the info-structure'. Cost for building content should be factored into costs of building infrastructure, as content development should drive the optimization of infrastructure.
-	Strengthen government communications network expansion by utilising satellite and microwave technology.
-	Explore means to develop local language capabilities - (e.g. Unicode and Open Source; Dari keyboard facility on Microsoft Operating System).
-	Explore means to generate revenues in telecentres - (e.g. community based tele-centres using subscription or transaction based fees; or alternatively Voice over IP).
-	Encourage the preservation and development of cultural diversity in the region by exploring means for multilingual processing.
-	The equipment and financing cost for Wireless Local Area Network. Investment in wireless infrastructure should be considered. The approach in the past has been supply driven; instead we should adopt a demand driven model. Encourage private sector to investment with financial viability and incentives.
-	Governments could create an e-government fund to development e-government services that does not benefit one single agency as it requires a multi-ministerial approach.

Last modified 2004-05-25 03:31 PM