Three countries to meet on telecommunications issues

Three countries to meet on telecommunications issues

Tony Hotland, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Senior officials of Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand will meet
here for two days next week to discuss cooperation in the
telecommunication sector.

Director General of Post and Telecommunications Djamhari Sirat
is expected to open the IMT-GT (Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand --
Growth Triangle) forum meeting on Monday.

The IMT-GT forum was established in early 1993 to help boost
economic development and business cooperation in several areas of
the three nations. The economic-growth zone covers Nanggroe Aceh
Darussalam, North Sumatra, West Sumatra, Riau, Jambi, South
Sumatra, Bengkulu, and Lampung in Indonesia; Kedah, Penang,
Perak, Selangor and Perlis in Malaysia; and Narathiwat, Pattani,
Satun, Songkhla and Yala in Thailand.

The meeting in Indonesia is the third to be organized by the
forum on telecommunications industry. The first meeting of the
forum was held in Malaysia in 2002, followed with the second one
in Thailand last year.

The Directorate General of Post and Telecommunications said in
a statement that the meeting will start with presentations by the
three countries on their newest policies and regulations in the
telecommunications sector.

Later on, representatives of the three countries are expected
to discuss several project proposals which the three nations may
jointly execute.

The Indonesian delegation will present several project
proposals, including the Connected IMT-GT project from PT Sigma,
the Local Government Based on IP-Broadband Wireless from the
Agency for the Assessment and Application of Technology (BPPT),
and the Rural Telephony project from PT Quasar.