ASEAN COUNTRIES ON TRACK TO ACHIEVE ICT CONNECTIVITY BY 2015

By Christine Lim May Yu

KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 10 (Bernama) -- Asean countries are on track to achieve
Information and Communications Technology (ICT) connectivity by 2015, says a
senior official of the Information, Communication and Culture Ministry.
Principal Assistant Secretary of the Communications Sector Lee Soon Hoe
said 10
projects are now ongoing in Asean member states to achieve the connectivity.

"Most of these projects are funded by Japan with the support of the Asean
dialogue partners. The European Commission also its support in the training for
crime legislators," he told Bernama during the 11th Asean Telecommunications &
Information Technology Senior Officials Meeting (TELSOM).

Lee said Malaysia played a key role in these projects.

"Some of the new projects this year include open source software and
training
for crime legislation. The ongoing projects include tsunami alert, green
technology and e-commerce. We have completed the Cyber Kids project which was
undertaken by the Malaysia International Conference on Communications ( MICC),
Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission(MCMC) and Maxis," he said.

He said the open source projects cost about US$60,000.

"Asean member countries will meet again in a joint working group in March
or April to propose what are the funding required," he said.

At the Joint Working Group meeting this morning, Lee said the development of
these projects were discussed.

The meeting was attended by 120 delegates from all 10 Asean countries
and five dialogue partners including Japan, South Korea, China and European
Union.

-- BERNAMA