1.

The First ASEAN Telecommunications and IT Ministers (TELMIN) and e-ASEAN Business Council (e-ABC) Meeting was held on 5 August 2004 in Bangkok, Thailand. The list of delegates is attached as ANNEX 1.

2.

The Meeting was co-chaired by H.E. Dr. Surapong Suebwonglee, Minister for Information and Communication Technology, Thailand and Professor Dr Srisakdi Charmonman, Chairman of the Board and CEO, College of Internet Distance Education, Assumption University.

AGENDA ITEM 1 : WELCOMING AND OPENING REMARKS

3.

On behalf of the Ministers from ASEAN, H.E. Dr. Surapong extended a warm welcome to his co-chair and his delegates to the inaugural ASEAN TELMIN and e-ASEAN Business Council Meeting. In his opening speech, he highlighted the importance of each of the topics to be presented by members of e-ABC to TELMIN, namely infrastructure, eLearning, eTourism and Software Pricing. The full text of his Welcoming Remarks is attached as ANNEX 2.

4.

On behalf of the e-ASEAN Business Council, Professor. Dr. Srisakdi Charmonman introduced the members. The list of e-ABC members is attached as ANNEX 3.

5.

The agenda of this Meeting is attached as ANNEX 4.

6.

The Meeting was conducted in plenary.

7.

The following presentations were delivered:

• An overview of the ICT issues in ASEAN, by Professor Dr. Srisakdi Charmonman, Chairman of the e-ABC;
• Infrastructure, by Mr Wei Chong Beng, Malaysia;
• e-Learning Accreditation in ASEAN, by Dr Srisakdi Charmonman;
• Software Cost, by Dr Sudhiporn Patumtaewapibal, Thailand.

8.

The presentation slides and papers are jointly attached as ANNEX 5.

9.

During the discussions on the presentations, the following views were raised:

9.1

Philippines applauded the e-ABC for the good organization and support given to TELMIN within the short notice and time. He supported the proposal by the e-ABC for them to be invited to the Special TELSOM Meeting next year to facilitate the e-ABC to prepare for the next TELMIN. He provided suggestions on three areas that the e-ABC could look into for future support to TELMIN. The three areas were as follows:

• It would be helpful for TELMIN to have recommendations from the e-ABC on possible policy changes or regulatory issues that they may wish the government to look into to support the private industries in terms of their own industry objectives,
• It would be helpful if the e-ABC’s activities are aligned with projects of TELSOM working groups such that e-ABC’s activities could support any or all of the TELMIN / TELSOM working groups’ projects, and
• The e-ABC could provide updates to TELMIN on new technologies and information regarding the industries to allow TELMIN / TELSOM to prepare appropriate policy interventions.

9.2

Singapore thanked the co-chair of e-ABC for a comprehensive presentation and the rest of the presenters for good follow-on reports. Singapore noted a recommendation to work on improving trustworthiness of e-Business and mentioned that is a valid and relevant observation. He stressed that if there is a lack of security, lack of confidence in the system, e-Commerce is not going to really take off (be it b2b or b2c) in a substantial way. He added that there is a need for ASEAN to develop trust mark, to build up an ASEAN-wide public key infrastructure (PKI) that will help to enhance security in the e-transactions and for both the government and the private sector to begin to be involved in this discussion and to look at this issue of trust mark and PKI in order to improve the security of e-Commerce.

On the harmonization of cyberlaws, he mentioned that it is important and especially when it comes to intellectual property right (IPR). He stated that in the harmonization of cyberlaws, ASEAN also need to look at some areas such as the misuse of computers and spamming. The e-ABC should also begin to discuss how the private sector can contribute to the effort to defeat the spammer and create an environment that the spam will no longer clogged up the “e-arteries” and threaten the system with collapse just by the sheer volume of spam pumping around. He stressed the need for good cooperation between concerned stakeholders, namely, the government, the private sector and the people sector by way of educating the consumers and the end-users.

9.3

Vietnam thanked the e-ABC for the good effort and presentation. Vietnam supported the recommendations of the e-ABC to establish the ASEAN Internet Exchange to allow the sharing of cost. On the reasonable pricing for software products for developing countries, Vietnamese government will promote own “open source code” as part of the effort to address the high cost of software products. He requested ASEAN Member countries to share experiences in this area of open source development and build capacity

9.4

Cambodia commented on why the software price is not affordable and the cost of infrastructure and software products. He mentioned that there is a need to avoid comparing cost from one country to another and stressed the need to understand the local conditions and the need to look at the real cause of high cost and unaffordable price. He mentioned that the cause could come from individual utilization and agreement on reducing corporate or individual actions to use software or infrastructure would contribute towards lower price. He supported the recommendation of the e-ABC on the need to have a balanced protection of IPR.

9.5

Indonesia congratulated the e-ABC for the establishment of the Council and added that the e-ABC will become a close partner of TELMIN. He supported the Philippines’ proposal for the e-ABC to look at the three areas for future support so as to assist the government to solve key issues.

9.6

Thailand congratulated e-ABC for their excellent job. She mentioned that the recommendations of e-ABC were in line with policy and interest of TELSOM/TELMIN. The recommendations will be further looked into by the appropriate working groups especially on the recommendation on cross accreditation of e-learning degree which could fall under the working group of e-society and ICB. She informed the e-ABC that as chairperson of the TELSOM, Thailand would be happy to extend an invitation to the e-ABC to attend the special TELSOM meeting next year.

9.7

Malaysia expressed appreciations to the e-ABC for the good organization within a very short time and for the developing the proposals for TELMIN’s considerations. He added that TELMIN need to give due considerations to the recommendations from the e-ABC as it is now timely to move ahead with TELMIN’s agenda on ICT. On the certification and accreditation, he mentioned that this is an important issue since e-Learning is now fast becoming a form of profession in every country, and ASEAN is looking at different directions without any standards. He stressed that it should be the goal of the e-Learning where ASEAN can have people that can work everywhere in ASEAN countries. He mentioned that given the current state, ASEAN would have to look into this matter seriously and to consider the proposal of establishing an ASEAN-based accreditation agency to coordinate with ASEAN Member Countries on the issue of the accreditation and certification. He also commented on the area of Internet. He noted the recommendations on the ASEAN Internet Exchange and on Internet governance. He stated that TELMIN should facilitate the effort towards ASEAN own version of Internet governance. He stated that Malaysia supported the recommendation for the e-ABC to be invited to the special TELSOM next year.

9.8

The Secretary General of ASEAN added one comment to follow-up on what Thailand and Malaysia have said about the accreditation. He mentioned that accreditation of the kind that has been envisaged by the e-ASEAN Business council requires the ICT Ministers to go out to the education sector, and also to the trade Ministers’ sector as education services is now a cluster of services in the trade ministers’ purview in some aspects. He called for a concerted approach to start this process of accreditation and work purposefully with the rest of the ASEAN bodies to get a common accreditation. He mentioned that this idea of accreditation is quite important as right now the trade ministers in the services sector are looking things like mutual recognition arrangements or MRA He mentioned that if it is handled purposefully, the ICT sector has a very strong case to have such an accreditation programme set up for e-learning and this will also be to the credit of the related ASEAN Ministerial bodies and agencies. He summarized the way to advance this area is for the e-ABC to be a bit more specific, identify a few specific institutions and once TELMIN has given the endorsement and with the appropriate mandate the ASEAN Secretariat can go to the education ministers and the trade ministers and other bodies involved to try to develop this proposal and get some concrete results.

9.9

Singapore noted the benefits and the potentials of cross certifications and joined the Secretary General of ASEAN in urging for a more pragmatic and focused approach towards cross-certification. He mentioned that if TELMIN were to adopt an across-the board approach in terms of trying to achieve ASEAN-wide cross certification of e-Learning, the process could become very tedious and be bogged down over many issues as the area will transcend traditional boundaries of education, trade and industry. He stated that cross certifications of ICT-related area would yield greater control over the progress and the development. He cited an example of the Singapore Infocomm Technology Federation’s training course leading to a certification of Network Manager Certificate. He mentioned that this Network Manager Certificate has gained recognition overseas and if ASEAN could start with ICT training and ICT-related area, ASEAN could begin to build up a pool of cross-recognition of particular ICT skills that will enable ICT professionals in ASEAN to move freely across boundaries and boarder and be engaged and be employed within the ASEAN region. He added that this approach would yield results faster. He supported the approach as advocated by Secretary General of ASEAN.

9.10

Chairman supported Singapore’s comment that implementing the accreditation across the board would be difficult and would take some time. He mentioned a strategy to “Think big, start small and scale fast”.

9.11

In response to Chairman’s comment of “Think big, start small and scale fast”, Singapore commented that the same strategy was used for the ASEAN MRA on Conformity Assessment for Telecommunications Equipment. He mentioned that ASEAN has set an objective to achieve an ASEAN-wide MRA and ASEAN do not have to wait for everyone to be ready to get going. Instead, ASEAN encouraged Member Countries to begin bilateral MRA MOU so that ASEAN could build up a network. In that context, Singapore had already achieved MRA MOU with Indonesia and Brunei Darussalam and has signed the letter of intent with Malaysia to proceed to develop a MOU on MRA. He added that this is the way to get concrete results and likewise for cross recognition, course and training and certifications that have achieved certain level of service standards and also recognition on their quality and consistency can well be the ones that ASEAN should launched first, starting with ICT area.

9.12

The Chairman of e-ABC agreed with Singapore on the need to concentrate on a few areas related to ICT for accreditation. On the issue of trustworthiness, he added that the e-ABC would need a committee to get people to trust e-Commerce and e-Learning.

9.13

Secretary General of ASEAN suggested for members of the e-ABC to discuss this area further and once they reach some agreement to forward it to the special TELSOM for deliberations. He mentioned that the timing is good as there is a feeling among ASEAN Leaders to do more of this kind of across the board ASEAN programme and from the Bali Summit last year the Leaders have laid down certain general principles for ministers to consider some of these things and to advance it through the systematic channels. The Leaders are meeting in the Summit in November in Vientiane, Lao PDR, and the e-ABC could use that as a timeline to prepare something and let the various sectors look at it and give their inputs.

9.14

Chairman mentioned that there is only three months before the Summit, and it may be too short a time for the e-ABC to prepare inputs for the Leaders. He suggested that work could be done in parallel, for the specific sector such as the ICT sector the e-ABC should commence the work and along the way if there were suitable ideas those ideas could to be forwarded accordingly.

9.15

The Chairman of e-ABC mentioned that three months is short, however the e-ABC probably could do it. The e-ABC will form the committee and let the committee find the information. The e-ABC will identify the e-Learning institutes in ASEAN, and which institutes offer ICT-related programme and invite members of those institutes to a conference through the Internet. In that way, the e-ABC could prepare the necessary within three months.

9.16

On the issue of secretariat support for the e-ABC, the Chairman of e-ABC offered the services of his staff to provide necessary secretariat support during the tour of his chairmanship.

9.17

9.18

On another topic on the Internet traffic, Singapore mentioned that there could be another reason for the balance of Internet traffic to be US-centric - mainly, the lack of sufficient compelling ASEAN content to meet the demands. He encouraged the e-ABC to discuss how the private sector can add to ASEAN content so that ASEAN can begin to attract eyeballs to our web sites and have more hits. He added that apart from improving the infrastructure connectivity within ASEAN, ASEAN must also begin in the private sector arena to develop compelling content so that more ASEAN people would want to access ASEAN sites whether it is for information, whether it is for to support their research, their work, their study of e-Learning or just for general entertainment purposes. He stated that it is very important, given the areas mentioned of e-Tourism, e-Commerce and e-Learning, all are typical areas where ASEAN have to begin to enhance the available content so that ASEAN can attract more users to our web sites and have a vibrant and growing Internet traffic within ASEAN. He urged the business partners and private sectors partners to take it upon themselves to look at it more seriously.

9.19

The Chairman of the e-ABC added that five years from now, more than 50% of the contents and the largest number of users will be in China and there may be possible language barrier and hence a need to have some programme to do automatic translation from Chinese to ASEAN language.

9.20

Singapore concurred with the Chairman of the e-ABC that language could act as a barrier too in terms of Internet usage. However, he added that technological solutions are already available and recalled at yesterday’s TELMIN plus 3 Meeting that the senior vice-minister from Japan did mentioned that among the various projects that the Japanese government is ready to support is one project on translation, automatic translation. In that context, he urged the ASEAN senior officials to begin to look at this and to develop proposal for the Japanese government to utilize the overseas development assistance (ODA) for such automatic translation which can then make all ASEAN web sites more user friendly, more accessible to our people and transcend the language barrier.

9.21

The Chairman of TELMIN recalled that from the information provided by the Minister of India, India also has this kind of software. He added that both the Japanese and Indian’s help and expertise could be tapped.

9.22

Mr William Torres, a member of the e-ABC, Philippines thanked the Ministers for the opportunity to listen to the Ministers and to get the reactions on the recommendations of the e-ABC. He mentioned that in his opinion, the issue of infrastructure has become broader. He proposed to take a broader view of the term “infrastructure” and broaden the term to “information infrastructure”. In that context, the e-ABC could do things like the enabling of e-Learning which would be an infrastructure concern. He added that the TELMIN and e-ABC could focus on the policies and the harmonization of both within the governments and across ASEAN or policies that update the role of infrastructure in dealing with applications. He mentioned that this proposal will be discussed further in the e-ABC. The e-ABC will focus on the generalized information infrastructure that will enable various applications that have been discussed.

9.23

Chairman mentioned that ASEAN has a working group on ASEAN Information Infrastructure and the e-ABC could coordinate with that working group.

9.24

Singapore clarified in response to the comment from Mr William Torres. He mentioned that for ASEAN to adopt a focused approach, it was not a focused approach on e-Learning or ICT-related area. It was a focused approach for cross-certification and accreditation. He added that e-Learning should be proliferated and should be made pervasive to serve all sectors of the population from the schools, the primary, secondary and the university. He further clarified that it would be more relevant to concentrate on cross-certification of ICT-related skills and ICT-related areas of training as that will allow ASEAN to achieve faster progress and it is not about ASEAN having only e-Learning on ICT-related skills.

9.25

Philippines mentioned that since the Philippines is shepherd of the WG on AII, the Philippines will coordinate with the e-ABC in terms of the work that the working group is contemplating and get appropriate inputs from the e-ABC on that area.

10.

The Meeting agreed to the following:

• That the e-ABC could be invited to the Special TELSOM next year to prepare for the next TELMIN.
• On the e-Learning Accreditation for ASEAN, for the e-ABC to adopt the approach outlined in the discussion and to use the ASEAN Leaders’ Summit as a timeline and prepare necessary recommendations for TELSOM and other sectors to provide inputs to be submitted to the next ASEAN Summit on 29 November 2004..

11.

The e-ABC will be guided by the views and suggestions given by the Ministers during the discussions and will take appropriate next steps as required.

12.

The Co-chair from TELMIN thanked all the delegates for the hard work, efforts and contributions in the discussions towards making the Meeting a success and the Co-chair from the e-ABC expressed deepest gratitude to the TELMIN Meeting for allowing the e-ABC the opportunity to have the discussions and to provide recommendations on key issues.

13.

There were no other matters discussed.

14.

The Meeting thanked the delegations from the e-ABC for their participation in the first ASEAN TELMIN and e-ABC Meeting.

15.

The delegations from the e-ABC, Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Lao PDR, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Vietnam and the ASEAN Secretariat expressed their appreciations to the Government and people of Thailand for the warm hospitality accorded to them and the excellent arrangement made for the Meeting.

16.

The Meeting was held in the traditional spirit of ASEAN cordiality and solidarity.