Internet use taking root in ASEAN: e-ASEAN Task Force head

Internet use taking root in ASEAN: e-ASEAN Task Force head

Martin Abbugao
Agence France-Presse
Bandar Seri Begawan

Internet use is taking root in governments, schools and with
the public in Southeast Asia despite impediments such as poor
infrastructure and the need for more training, the head of the e-
ASEAN Task Force said.

From depressed Laos, Myanmar and Cambodia to high-tech
Singapore and Malaysia, progress has been achieved since the
private sector-led task force was formed in 1999 and an e-ASEAN
Agreement was signed the following year, Roberto Romulo said in
an interview with AFP.

Speaking on the fringes of the ASEAN economic ministers
meeting here, Romulo recalled that during a summit in Manila in
1999 some ASEAN leaders were "puzzled" when he made a
presentation on the use of information and communications
technology (ICT).

Since then, Myanmar has inaugurated an information technology
park, Vietnam's Communist Party Congress has recognized ICT as a
driving force for economic progress, bureaucracies have taken
steps to computerize operations and Internet cafes have sprung
even in ASEAN's poorer members.

Other members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations
are Brunei, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam.

This year, the task force's pilot projects have been geared
toward helping government bureaucracies computerize operations in
state-owned banks as well as in processing passports and drivers'
licenses, he said.

Middle-level managers from Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam
were brought to tech-savvy Singapore for training, he said.

"Have we moved forward? Yes, we have moved forward," said
Romulo, a former Philippine foreign minister and now one of
Manila's top corporate executives.

"We have progressed, but if you are saying 'is the
infrastructure there in every country?' well the answer is no.

"If you go to Siem Reap (Cambodia), the only way I can get an
e-mail is at an Internet cafe, something like 12 bps or even
slower. But you got it, slow but you got it.

"You go to Singapore and you name it, you can get any speed
you want. So it varies but there is access to the Internet.
That's the beginning," he said.

The business sector-led task force will be dissolved this year
and Romulo suggested to the ministers during a presentation this
week that his group's work should be made an integral part of
ASEAN where the ministers in charge of ICT or telecoms should
take the lead.

He recommended the formation of an e-ASEAN Council composed of
telecom or ICT ministers to act as the collective executive body,
supported by a coordinating committee of senior officials.

An e-ASEAN Center -- similar to the Jakarta-based ASEAN Center
for Energy -- should act as a think tank for the body.

With a tight budget, boosted by grants from the business
community and multilateral institutions like the World Bank,
teams from the task force's secretariat preached the Internet
gospel in seminars to schools and governments and started pilot
projects.

The task force also gave policy advice on how to proceed with
"model laws" on the ICT sector, as well as on intellectual
property rights, cyber laws and online security.

Poor telecommunications infrastructure, high
telecommunications costs and lack of skills remain key
challenges.

"But every year there is movement forward. And now I think the
leaders of each country are starting to understand how important
this is," he said.

Romulo, a former top executive at IBM, said the Internet is a
key tool in ASEAN's dream of regional economic integration and in
the regional bloc's competition with China.

"Malaysia went out of the way to help Yangon to get its IT
park. Malaysia has been going to Cambodia, Myanmar, Laos and
Vietnam trying to upgrade them. Singapore is the same story," he
said.

"We must move on, especially if we want to take on our friends
in China. That's the political imperative."

Romulo identified human resource development as the main
challenge, saying that "to get to the knowledge based society,
you have to start from primary school all the way up."