Date: 15 September 2001
Venue: Mutaria Hotel, KL, Malaysia
Chair- Ms. Maxine Olson, UNDP Resident Representative, Malaysia

Introductions
The Chair opened the workshop with brief remarks highlighting the importance of ICTs in development. Mr. Bhargava (UNOPS) added by emphasizing the need to raise the awareness of senior decision-makers to this potential and the need for more investment and capacity building activities. Mr. Akhtar (APDIP) concluded the introductory session by re-emphasizing a recommendation of the DOT Force report, such as the need for a multi-dimensional and multi-stakeholder for ICT development in the region.

Programme Briefs
Following the opening session, participants made brief presentations, highlighting their respective ICT programmes. Annex B maps out the key programme areas of interest to each participating organization.

Regional Needs and Priorities
The Chair opened the session by asking participants to highlight their main concerns and priorities for ICT development in Asia-Pacific. Mr. Parmar (APDIP) highlighted content and language fonts development as important issues in Asia Pacific (AP). Mr. Jayaweera (UNESCO) added the divide between the urban and rural areas, the need for communities to develop their own content, and the need for government's to digitise their own information as priorities. Dr. Bischoff (APCTT) stressed the need for the identification of "best practices" on content development.

Content Development
Mr. Narayan (APT) pointed out that people in rural area needed to see the benefits of information, and that it was very important to ensure that websites were regularly up-dated. Ms. Kang (NITC) stressed that the capacity levels of the users was an important issue that needs to be addressed. Ms. Hubbard (World Bank) added that there was also a need for developing countries to be more involved in the decision-making process and technical discussions, concerning issues such as standards (e.g. XML).

Up-scaling Pilot Programmes
The workshops moved onto discuss the need to measure the impact of pilot and other programmes and disseminating results out to wider audiences. Mr. Akthar (APDIP) highlighted that there were a wide variety of successful pilot programmes, however, very few of them had been scaled up to national or region-levels. The workshop agreed that there needed to be up-scaling of pilot activities for wider implementation. Mr. Mathur (UNOPS) added that sustainability of programmes must always be taken into consideration in the design of any programme.

Access
The workshop noted a number of issues ranging from technical barriers, such as poor infrastructure to insufficient incentives for the private sector, to investment in ICTs in rural areas.

Mr. Parmar (APDIP) noted that access to information was a universal right and that it was not the technical but rather social and economic factors that were the greater barriers. Mr. Jayaweera (UNESCO) added that in respect of a number of technological developments, such as cable and broadband that provided a number of possible solutions to the problem of the urban-rural divide, development agencies had a key role in facilitating and promoting private sector development in rural areas. Ms. Yuksel (CIDA) acknowledged this and stressed that it was important that the private sector be part of the policy-making process, especially in terms of ICT regulations and policies.

Ms. Kang (NITC) added that the Internet, unlike broadcast technology, provides access to the information when you want it, anywhere, and at any time; and that we need to look for a mix of technologies to enable greater access.

The Chair concluded that access has less to do with infrastructure, and more to do with economic and social factors.

ICT Policies and Strategies
Mr. Parmar (APDIP) started the session by highlighting the need to raise awareness amongst the high-level decision- and policy-makers to the benefits of ICTs. Mr. Jayaweera (UNESCO) agreed and added that UNESCO was developing a website to host information on ICT policies and best practices. Further, he highlighted the following issues that need to be addressed in terms of policy development:

• the need to raise awareness on the need for a national ICT policies- which provide an enabling environment for almost everything else that needs to be done;
• the need to identify who will be responsible for preparing the policy- which Ministry or Government institutions will be responsible?
• the need for a regulatory framework for this policy?
• the need for the policy process to be all-inclusive.

Mr. Lim Kheng Joo (NITC) re-enforced this by describing the Malaysian policy-making process, and how it was inclusive of a number of governmental and non-governmental parties. Mr. Jayaweera (UNESCO) added that the focus should be on "universal access to information", and less on technological aspects.

The Chair concluded the session by summarizing that policy should focus on developing an "equitable society".

Areas for Synergies and Collaboration
The workshop considered what focus should collaboration take- should it focus on specific theme areas or should we study the landscape and identify each of our own little niches?

The Chair noted that from the morning and afternoon's discussions, two common areas of interest were emerging: (1) application and content development, and (2) policy development. Mr. Jayaweera (UNESCO), while noting regional co-operation is not always easy, suggested that a possible starting point could be for us to focus on one/two countries and identify areas of collaboration. However, the workshop as a whole thought it best not to focus on a few countries.

Mr. Parmar (APDIP) suggested that one approach would be look to thematic areas of collaboration at the regional level and then focus on national areas. One result of the meeting could be a matrix outlining each organization's respective area of interest. Mr. Akhtar (APDIP) added that a major objective of this workshop was to reduce duplication and enhance synergies and partnerships. In addition, the meeting should try and identify a mechanism that will allow interested parties to share information on their respective ICT development and their separate programmes, without too much expense or effort. Ms. Yuksel (CIDA) applauded such an effort, emphasizing the need for all parties to share knowledge on their respective activities and plans. Dr. Jurgen Bischoff (APCTT) agreed with this, emphasizing there was a need to reduce the "chaos". Ms. Hubbard (World Bank) stressed the need to widen the network to non-UN agencies. Ms. Yuksel (CIDA) added that qualitative assessments of on-going ICT programmes would also be valuable information.

Mr. Narayan (APT) highlighted to the workshop a number of items on the APT website, such as research reports, guidelines for e-commerce, e-governance, IT policies of the region, etc. In addition, he saw UNDP playing a key role in facilitating synergies and partnerships in the region.

Mr. Akhtar (APDIP) stated that APDIP will follow up on the ideas emerging out of the workshop, and hoped that this will lead to greater partnership in ICT development.

The Chair thanked all the participants and concluded the workshop by summarizing that the workshop saw content development, access, knowledge sharing, and policy development as key issues in the region, and that there was need to reduce the duplication of activities, and enhance the number of partnerships and areas of collaboration.

Table 1 - Mapping Out Organizational Areas of Interest in ICT Development