APEC summit to pledge increased Net access<\/p>\n
TOKYO (Reuters): Leaders of the Asia-Pacific are set to pledge
\nnext week that every person in the region should have access to
\nthe Internet by the year 2010, Japan's Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper
\nsaid on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
The group plans to double or even triple the number of people
\nin the region who have Internet access by 2005, according to the
\ndraft of a declaration to be adopted at the Nov. 15-16 Asia
\nPacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Brunei, it said.<\/p>\n
One focus of the summit will be how to strengthen the economic
\nsystems of each APEC member to cope with the information
\ntechnology (IT) revolution, the newspaper said, quoting the
\ndraft.<\/p>\n
APEC leaders are particularly concerned about the digital
\ndivide between countries that are IT-capable and those that are
\nnot, with its members stretched geographically from Russia to
\nChile and economically from Third World Papua New Guinea to Japan
\nand the United States.<\/p>\n
To narrow that gap, they are considering setting up local
\nInternet centers, even in thinly populated areas of developing
\ncountries, to expand the number of people in the region with
\naccess to the worldwide web.<\/p>\n
This will be the first time that IT issues have been placed on
\nthe agenda for APEC, where discussion usually focuses on
\nliberalization of trade and investments.<\/p>\n
Information technology is currently a hot issue in Japan,
\nwhere a government panel on Monday drafted proposals aimed at
\nputting the country at the forefront of IT technology in five
\nyears.<\/p>\n
The draft also includes a call to resume a new round of global
\nfree trade talks under the World Trade Organization (WTO) talks
\nnext year, the Yomiuri said.<\/p>\n
APEC groups Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, China, Hong
\nKong, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, New
\nZealand, Papua New Guinea, Peru, the Philippines, Russia,
\nSingapore, Taiwan, Thailand, the United States and Vietnam.<\/p>",
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