World major IT companies join technology exhibition

World major IT companies join technology exhibition

JAKARTA (JP): The world's largest information technology
companies are among the 33 corporations taking part in the Techno
Pre-Eminence 1999 exhibition, which opened here on Wednesday.

Participants at the fifth annual expo include cellular
telephone makers Ericsson, Siemens, Motorola and Alcatel, mobile
phone operators Telkomsel and Satelindo, and other information
technology-related companies like Astra Graphia and Marconi.

The latest information technology (IT) products, ranging from
mobile telephones, telephone cards, multimedia and Internet
systems, are on display at the exhibition which will run through
Saturday at the Jakarta Convention Center.

The chairman of the expo's organizing committee, Suryatin
Setiawan, said almost 1,000 people had registered to participate
in a series of discussions and conferences being held during the
event, which is sponsored by PT Telkom Indonesia.

"The number of participants has grown by 70 percent since the
event was first held in 1995," he said.

Suryatin, who is also the director of Telkom's research and
information technology division, said the increase in foreign
participants was pushing Telkom to turn the event into an annual
gathering for the telecommunications community in the Asia-
Pacific region.

He said the event, which previously was held in Bandung, West
Java, had always attracted telecommunications experts from local
and overseas companies.

Minister of Communications Agum Gumelar in his opening speech
read out by Director General of Post and Telecommunications
Sasmito Dirdjo, said the government was committed to providing
more support for the development of the telecommunications
infrastructure, especially those frameworks using information
technology-based applications.

"The emphasis of information infrastructure development should
be placed on planning, research and innovation, while priority
should be given to accessibility rather than density," he said.

He said the government's support of information technology was
important to accelerate the development of the country's
telecommunications sector, which was considered underdeveloped
both in terms of technology used and variety of services offered.

Suryatin said the development of information technology-based
telecommunications in Indonesia was hampered by numerous factors,
including a lack of investment.

The prolonged economic crisis has also discouraged some local
companies from investing in more advanced technologies for their
products and services, he said. (cst)