Asean Should Further Address Digital Divide In Rural Areas - Minister

From Noor Farhana Ahmad Norain NAY PYI TAW (Myanmar), Dec 8 (Bernama) -- The Asean telecommunication fraternity has been urged to be mindful of the poor access of telecommunication and information and communication technology (ICT) in the rural areas of member states. In making the call when addressing the 11th Asean Telecommunication and Information Technology Ministers' Meeting (Telmin) here Thursday, Malaysian Information Communication and Culture Minister Dr Rais Yatim said addressing the digital divide remained a very important issue and a major challenge for Asean. "Much remains to be done for our rural citizens if this region is to reap the economic and social benefits that ICT may bring," said Rais, who is the outgoing Telmin chairman, when delivering his speech at the opening ceremony held at Myanmar International Convention Centre. Ten telecoms minister from Asean countries namely Brunei, Cambodia, Laos, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam were present at the ceremony. The meeting was opened by Myanmar President Thein Sein. Rais said the Malaysian government had recognised the problem and had taken steps to ensure that the telecommunication and ICT services were readily available to the furthest reaches of the region and provinces. Among the steps include the distribution of one million 1Malaysia netbooks to underprivileged students and low income households, the setting up of Digital Districts, Community Broadband Centres and libraries as well as 1,400 wireless villages across the nation. "In line with the Asean ICT Masterplan 2015 (AIM2015), the objective of these programmes Malaysia has undertaken is to ultimately connect communities living in the underserved areas to mainstream ICT progress, therefore empowering them to bring about socio-economic development," he said. In the speech, Rais also highlighted the six key accomplishments under 11 months of Malaysia chairmanship of the 10th Telmin. It include the realignment of the institutional structure to cater for the implementation of the masterplan, initialising the Asean Broadband Corridor Project, focusing on small-medium entrepreneurs (SMEs) adoption of ICT, a comprehensive review of Universal Service frameworks in Asean, a significant step in the reduction of mobile roaming charges and setting up the Asean Network Security Action Council. Speaking to Malaysian reporters later, Rais said the accomplishments had been largely a Malaysian driven idea with the contextual contribution from various member states in Asean. "All these will make up the collective driven programmes with Asean and we believe, with the masterplan we have in store, Asean members will follow up," he said. Rais acknowledged that the funding issue might arise in carrying out the projects in the region but he was hopeful that the member states could iron out the differences towards completing them in due course. When addressing digital divide in the rural areas, he said, the best approach was for every country to emulate a more suitable modus operandi for each subjective needs. "The most important thing is that we need to be connected between the rural and urban areas. If Malaysia's modus operandi's useful to them, they're welcome to have a look at it. "But so far with almost 63 per cent broadband penetration in our country, we have reached a level of confidence that this could be a matter of succeeding examples for other member states," he said. -- BERNAMA Malaysia asean