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Bandar Seri Begawan – The aspiration of implementing
e-ASEAN will top the agenda of ASEAN delegates currently attending the 7th ASEAN
Telecommunications & IT Senior Officials Meeting (TELSOM), hosted by
the Sultanate. The event was held at Indera Kayangan Ballroom, The Empire Hotel & Country Club.
The official opening session of the 7th TELSOM was held yesterday
morning with Awang Haji
Ibrahim bin Hj Mohd Ali, Acting Permanent Secretary
at the Ministry of Communications, receiving chairmanship of the 7th TELSOM
from Vietnam, on behalf of Brunei.
Awang Haji Ibrahim in his opening
address said, -'Over the last couple of years, the four ASEAN TELSOM
working groups have been working relentlessly in their effort to develop
and implement various projects in further realising
the main objective of e-ASEAN.
"Our working groups have met to align and even taken over
projects that have previously been under the purview of then e-ASEAN
Working Group. Despite the fact that the e-ASEAN initiative through its
working group and task force were dissolved a few years ago, the 'e-ASEAN
spirit' or rather the vision to create an' ICT enabled and e-community for
the ASEAN region lives on."
He added that the ASEAN TELSOM Working Groups continue to push for
an e-ASEAN vision, which will be dealt by four main drivers namely the ASEAN
Information Infrastructure (ALL), the e-Society and ICT Capacity Building, the e-Commerce and ICT Trade
Facilitation and the Universal Access, Digital Divide and e-Government
component.
He also pointed out that one of the major challenges posed in
implementing any project or initiative is the lack of funding to fully
accomplish ICT projects.
To overcome the challenge, Awang Haji Ibrahim said ASEAN TELSOM would have to come up
with and agree on the establishment of an ASEAN ICT Fund, as a funding
mechanism for the implementation of ICT projects.
Among the major tasks for TELSOM this year is to focus more on the
concept of "getting things done" by determining priority on
projects that need to be funded urgently, he added.
In concluding his speech, Awang Haji Ibrahim said, "This year, TELSOM will give us
the opportunity to meet our dialogue partners once again. With the theme
`Enhancing ICT Competitiveness: Capacity Building', we will be able to share
and exchange our knowledge and skills particularly with our dialogue
partners China, Japan, Korea and India."
The 7th TELSOM meeting was attended by senior telecommunications
officials duly designated from each ASEAN member country.
Among the TELSOM's mandate are to
identify, implement and monitor cooperation programmes
and activities to meet telecommunications and IT requirements of the ASEAN
region; to serve as a forum for exchange of information, discussion and
constitution on major regional or international issues and development in
telecommunications and IT of common interest to member countries; and to
provide the mechanism to promote participation of the private sector,
regional/international organisations and
non-governmental organisations in the development
and implementation of its programmes and
activities.
It also aims to establish as and when necessary, working group
expert groups to assist in the development and implementation of its
cooperative programmes and activities; to report
progress to the ASEAN telecommunications ministers meeting (TELM I N); and
to carry out other activities mandated by the TELMIN and requested by other
relevant ASEAN bodies.
There are four working groups under TELSOM, with each working
group having its own terms of reference, work programmes
and activities. The working groups are Working Group on ASEAN Information
Infrastructure (WG-ALL), Working Group on e-Commerce and ICT Trade Facilitation
(WG EC-ITF), Working Group on Universal ACCESS, Digital Divide and
e-Government (WG UA, DD & EGov) and Working
Group on e-Society & ICT Capacity Building (WG ES-ICB).
TELSOM will be followed by the 6th ASEAN Telecommunications and IT
Ministers Meeting (6th TELMIN) to be held September 18 and 19, at The
Empire Hotel & Country Club.
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