ASEAN DIGITALISATION GETS A BOOST FROM DIALOGUE PARTNERS

FROM ZULKEFLI SALLEH

VIENTIANE, Nov 4 (Bernama) -- ASEAN and its three dialogue partners have
agreed to enhance cooperation in information and media to a new level,
especially in achieving the grouping's target to digitalise television broadcast
of each member country in the next decade.

Senior officials of ASEAN countries and the dialogue partners -- China,
Japan and South Korea agreed at a meeting here Wednesday to forge cooperation in
the field to enable ASEAN nations meet respective timelines to digitalise.

The three dialogue partners expressed their willingness to extend knowhow
and experience in digitalisation at the ASEAN +3 Senior Officials Meeting For
the First Conference of ASEAN Ministers Responsible for Information(AMRI)+3,
which will be held here Thursday.

Malaysian Director-General of Broadcasting Ibrahim Yahaya, who led the
Malaysian delegation to the preparatory meeting, has described that the results
of the meeting would surely bring cooperation at the ASEAN +3 level to new
heights.

"Malaysia certainly welcomes and looks forward to the cooperation in that
field as we intent to achieve our target to digitalise," he said.


ASEAN countries are at various stages of the digitalization process in
broadcasting with some countries likely to be fully-digitalised at the latest by
2015 while the poorer members by 2020, in line with future needs and to keep up
with progesss in ICT.

He said that the first AMRI +3 meeting Thursday, which would be attended by
Malaysian Information Communication and Culture Minister Dr Rais Yatim, was
expected to welcome and endorse the cooperation in the field.

The senior officials had yesterday been briefed by Brunei Darussalam on the
progress and development of digitalisation of all ASEAN states, which
highlighted that some upcoming countries like Myanmar and Vietnam had shown
significant progress in the area.

According to Ibrahim, Malaysia had most of the building blocks for a
successful digitalization already in place and now was just waiting for an
integrated infrastructure provider to be appointed by the government for the
project to go further.


He said that an ASEAN member state had expressed interest to cooperate with
Malaysia to produce the set-up box, which is required by a tv set to receive
digital transmission.

Japan had also expressed willingness to assist ASEAN countries in this area,
he said.

Ibrahim also said that Malaysia's proposal that students of journalism and
mass communication be included in exchange programmes carried out under ASEAN
and ASEAN +3 cooperation framework was well received.

On the broader ASEAN cooperation framework, member countries reckoned the
need for each member country to expedite the setting up an ASEAN Information
Desk to coordinate activities designed to raise the level of awareness about
ASEAN among the people to realise the Asean Community by 2015.

Members acknowledged the need to concretise a National Communication Plan to
enhance information and media cooperation through various activities carried out
under the three pillars of ASEAN, namely ASEAN Political Security Community
(APSC), ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) and ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community
(ASCC).

Indonesia had informed the meeting that it would be organising a media
conference next year to forge closer understanding and cooperation among ASEAN
media practitioners in line with the objectives of the ASEAN Community.

--BERNAMA