APDIP and the e-ASEAN Task Force, along with ITU's Asia-Pacific Centre of Excellence and the Government of Singapore, collaborated to organize a series of seminars/workshops on e-Government (Oct-Nov 2002).

At the regional level was the "ASEAN Executive Seminar", which included representatives from all ASEAN countries. At the sub-regional level, the emphasis was on the Least Developed Countries (LDC) of ASEAN - Cambodia, Lao PDR, Myanmar, and Vietnam (CLMV) - for which there were two seminars, the "e-Government Workshop for CLMV", and the "CyberLaw Seminar for CLMV". At the national level, were "e-Government Strategic Planning Seminars" for Myanmar, Indonesia, and Brunei Darussalam.

ASEAN Executive Seminar

The ASEAN Executive Seminar was a venue for senior public sector officials on global best practices and trends in e-Government. Unlike other initiatives, the Executive Seminar was focused on best practices from developing states, using existing ASEAN successes as prime examples of e-government initiatives.

Topics that were presented and discussed in the Executive Seminar included the role of government in the digital age; technology, accountability and transparency; best practices of private-public partnerships in implementing e-Government; privacy and security; taxation and administration, and health and human services.

e-Government Strategic Planning Seminar: Myanmar, Indonesia, and Brunei Darussalam

The main objective of the e-Government Strategic Planning Seminar was to equip national participants with key skills required to successfully create, implement, and monitor an e-government programme. Participants learned how to analyze the objectives of an e-government programme and to determine the appropriate components.

Modules for the e-Government Strategic Planning Seminar included Objectives and Framework for an Effective e-Government Programme; Components to an e-Government System; Planning, Managing, and Operating an e-Government System; e-Learning Strategies for Government Agencies, and Action Planning.

e-Government Workshop for Cambodia, Lao PDR, Myanmar, and Vietnam (CLMV)

The e-Government Workshop for CLMV was essentially the same seminar package as the e-Government Strategic Planning Seminar targeted for individual ASEAN state. The difference here was that the e-Government Workshop was focused on the Least Developed Countries (LDC's) of ASEAN states - Cambodia, Lao PDR, and Myanmar, and Vietnam.

Cyberlaw Training Seminar for CLMV

One of the objectives of the eASEAN initiative was to create a legal and regulatory environment that will be conducive to the development of e-commerce in the region. In this regard, the passage of e-commerce legislation by the member-states of ASEAN was deemed important. The Cyberlaw Training Seminar for Cambodia, Lao PDR, Myanmar, and Vietnam (CLMV) aimed to help create e-commerce-friendly legal infrastructures, to share the experiences of ASEAN countries with e-commerce laws with those who are in the process of drafting/passing their own law(s), and to promote uniformity of e-commerce legislation in South-East Asia in order to encourage and open avenues for inter-country e-commerce.

For more information, please contact:

Phet Sayo
Asia-Pacific Development Information Programme
United Nations Development Programme
Wisma UN, Block C
Kompleks Pejabat Damansara
Jalan Dungun, Damansara Heights
50490 Kuala Lumpur
Email: phet@apdip.net