  |
            |
  |
|
SUMMARY RECORD OF
THE PRELIMINARY MEETING OF THE e-ASEAN BUSINESS COUNCIL
14 June 2004, Singapore INTRODUCTION 1. The Preliminary Meeting of the e-ASEAN Business Council was held on 14 June 2004 at the Grand Plaza ParkRoyal Hotel, Singapore. Nominated members of the e-ASEAN Business Council, Chairman of ASEAN TELSOM and staff of the ASEAN Secretariat attended this Meeting. The list of participants is attached as ANNEX 1. AGENDA ITEM 1 : WELCOME REMARKS AND INTRODUCTION 2. On behalf of the ASEAN TELSOM, Mr Leong Keng
Thai, Deputy Chief Executive & Director-General (Telecoms),
INFOCOMM DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY OF SINGAPORE, the current Chair
of ASEAN TELSOM, extended a warm welcome to representatives of
the e-ASEAN Business Council. In his opening remarks, he shared
information on the background, rationale, objectives, policy intentions
and selected areas of the proposed terms of reference for forming
the e-ASEAN Business Council and highlighted that the purpose
of this preliminary meeting is to allow the e-ABC to meet and
to prepare for the Inaugural e-ABC – TELMIN Meeting scheduled
to be held in August 2004 in Bangkok. The presentation slides
and the meeting agenda are jointly attached as ANNEX
2 (agenda,
presentation). 4. The following key points were clarified during the Q&A session, namely that (i) the e-ABC is an independent group formed for the purpose of providing feedback to TELMIN on key issues and that while TELSOM welcome inputs and dialogues from the e-ABC, such an approach ( ie for e-ABC to engage TELSOM before engaging TELMIN ) need not be the norm, (ii) the e-ABC would have an annual dialogue with the TELMIN and the format of the engagement would be left to the discretion of the Council and the host country.
5. The Meeting discussed the various modalities as a basis for the election of the Chairman. Noting that adopting and following the current TELSOM / TELMIN chairmanship and order of alphabetical rotation of Chair amongst the ASEAN Countries would allow for better logistics and administrative coordination with the host country, the Meeting agreed to follow the current sequence of TELSOM / TELMIN chairmanship and the established alphabetical order of rotation of the chair. The Meeting elected Mr Alex Siow, Singapore as the Chairman of the e-ABC and Professor Srisakdi Charmonman, Thailand as the Vice-Chairman for the period June - August 2004. Then at the meeting in Thailand in August 2004, Professor Srisakdi Charmonman becomes the Chairman and representative from Vietnam the Vice-Chairman. AGENDA ITEM 3 : ISSUES FOR e-ABC – TELMIN Meeting. 6. The Meeting noted ASEAN Secretariat’s update on the ASEAN Cooperation in Telecommunications and Information Technology covering background information on ASEAN, institutional mechanisms, the ASEAN ICT work programs and cooperation efforts with dialogue partners. The paper and presentation slides are attached as ANNEX 4 (paper, presentation). 7. The Meeting discussed and noted the views
of some of the Council Members on their current telecommunications
and IT developments and industry needs. The Council identified
the following initial broad issues / opportunities that could
be highlighted for TELMIN’s consideration:
8. Professor Dr Srisakdi Charmonman offered to set up a website where the issues / opportunities could be complied for further refinement. The Meeting agreed to submit for each country, a list of top three issues and a brief description of these issues to be sent to Professor Dr Srisakdi Charmonman by 23 June 2004. The Council will continue to filter and refine the issues via Internet and email exchanges and will target to have an appropriate list of critical regional issues for sharing with the TELMIN by 25 July 2004. 9. On the format of the e-ABC and TELMIN engagement, the Council agreed to recommend that the e-ABC and TELMIN meeting session take the format of a facilitator cum moderator and designated speakers from the Council. The Meeting noted that the outgoing and incoming e-ABC Chairmen could serve as facilitators cum moderators during the e-ABC’s presentation to the Ministers and that the country that proposed the issues could be the “issue / topic champion” and would also serve as the designated speaker of that issue / topic. The papers to be prepared by designated speakers for circulation should not exceed five (5) pages. 10. The Meeting agreed that the designate speakers will circulate the draft paper / synopsis to all e-ABC members by 23rd June 2004 for comments and for uploading to the website and agreed for the speakers to finalize the paper by 9th July 2004. The final draft and agenda of the Inaugural e-ABC and TELMIN Meeting could be forwarded to TELMIN through TELSOM by 25th July 2004 together with the complete CV of the speakers. This is to allow senior officials enough time to brief their Ministers. 11. The Meeting agreed that the speakers could also liaise with their respective country’s TELSOM leaders for views and comments before sending the issues to be posted at the e-ABC website.
12. The Meeting noted the draft TOR attached as ANNEX 5 and agreed to review and finalize the TOR at the next Meeting. Members of the Council were encouraged to send any comments or inputs to the ASEAN Secretariat.
13. The next Meeting will be held on 3rd August 2004 in a suitable venue hosted by e-ABC representatives of Thailand. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The delegations Brunei Darussalam, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Thailand and Viet Nam expressed their appreciation to the Government and people of Singapore for the warm hospitality accorded to them and the excellent arrangements made for the Meeting. The Meeting was held in the traditional spirit
of ASEAN cordiality and solidarity. |
Last update :: 17-06-2004
eAsean Business Counsil // Designed by ABAC-KSC :: Webmaster