Chin Saik Yoon
Chief Editor

Enabling policies

The e-ASEAN Framework Agreement http://www.aseansec.org/6267.htm is a unique example of a package of enabling policies for ICTs backed by a subregion (the other example is the regional plan of the Pacific Islands described below). ASEAN, or the Association of Southeast Asian Countries, comprises ten member states: Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. The agreement was signed, appropriately enough, with both handwritten and digital signatures in November 2000. It has four stated aims: to promote cooperation and strengthen the competitiveness of ASEAN’s ICT sector; to address the digital divide within and between member states; to promote cooperation between the public and the private sectors; and to liberalise trade in ICT products, services and investments in the subregion. Within this framework, ASEAN countries will eliminate duties and non-tariff barriers on intra-ASEAN trade in ASEAN ICT products in three tranches beginning in 2003. The lifting of trade barriers and removal of duties will be deferred by five years for four member countries: Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam.

Nearly all the enabling policies reported in this publication were designed to nurture national ICT initiatives. One of these policy packages is the Bill of Guarantees http://www.msc.com.my/mdc/msc/bog.asp introduced by the Malaysian government to backstop MSC. It committed the government to provide ten sets of financial and non-financial incentives to companies granted special “MSC status” to locate in and operate from MSC. These incentives include a world-class infrastructure; unrestricted employment of local and foreign knowledge workers; complete freedom of ownership of the companies and their operations; freedom to raise capital globally; tax incentives including waiver of income tax for ten years; intellectual property protection; no censorship of the Internet; and competitive telecommunications tariffs. The package attracted much attention when it was announced; the commitment not to censor the Internet was considered particularly novel. The Malaysian government may be the first, and is probably still the only, government to have formally undertaken such a commitment in the region. This and other features of the Bill of Guarantees are being monitored with interest by the ICT community.

e-Korea Vision 2006 introduced in April 2002 is the Republic of Korea’s third ICT master plan. It is considered more “concrete” and progressive than the preceding plans. The third plan sets out to steer the Korean ICT sector towards three goals. The first is to improve social systems and productivity by reforming methods of conducting business. The second is to transform the relationship between the government and the market, with the government’s role restricted to laying the foundations for the new knowledge-based economy and providing the autonomy for the private sector to thrive and be creative. And the third goal is to encourage the pursuit of a “lead strategy” in key services and technology sectors instead of the “catch-up strategy” adopted in previous plans. These goals are to be achieved through three sets of strategies. The first set aims to increase the value of IT, expand Internet usage to 90 percent of the population, provide B2B networks and secured electronic transactions to 50 types of businesses, and expand and upgrade e-government services. The second set of strategies sets out to upgrade the infrastructure: citizens will soon have access to high-speed Internet connections of 1 Mbps from anywhere in the country at a low cost; Internet Protocol Version 6 (IPV6) will be adopted; wireless infrastructure will be built to operate at a speed of 2 Mbps; and cyberspace will be secured. The third and last set of strategies will see strengthened international collaboration with organisations such as OECD, ITU and APEC. The collaboration will also extend to developing countries with the altruistic goal of closing the digital divide (p. 146).

It is useful to compare Korea’s policies, which are aimed at protecting and extending its global lead in the ICT sector, with those of Vietnam – a country which has recently adopted ICT. The comparison brings out the diversity present in Asia Pacific. Vietnam’s ICT master plan until 2005 aims at bringing 1.3–1.5 percent of the population online as subscribers and 4–5 percent as users. The plan has also astutely given priority to getting institutions online: all universities, colleges and vocational schools will be connected to the Internet. Half of all government-operated schools and hospitals will also be connected. The plan will also nurture a cadre of 50,000 IT specialists, half of whom will have advanced skills and be fluent in foreign languages. It also calls for local industries to assemble 80 percent of the computers required as well as to produce US$500 million worth of software, 40 percent of which is to be exported. Vietnam will implement key programmes in the following areas: human resource development, upgrading the Internet and telecom-munications infrastructure, and developing the local hardware and software industry (p. 301).

The 14 Pacific island states are developing their ICT-enabling policies at the time of writing. This is facilitated by the UNDP e-Pacifika programme http://www.undp.org.fj/RAS-99-064.htm. Three main goals drive the programme. Firstly, it will sensitise policy makers to the usefulness of ICTs in coping with emerging international issues which affect the region, such as global warming, which threatens to raise the sea level and drown many of the islands. Secondly, each country will formulate its own ICT strategy. Thirdly, the programme will collaborate with the respective countries in implementing national programmes which will help in the realisation of their strategies. Pilot programmes are planned for 2003.

The ICT Working Group of the Council of Regional Organisations of the Pacific, chaired by the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat, has begun implementing the Pacific Islands Information and Communications Technologies Policy and Strategic Plan (PIIPP). This regional plan http://www.forumsec.org.fj/division/infra/infrastructure.htm will focus on four areas: human resources, infrastructure, applications for public-private sector cooperation, and governance frameworks. PIIP was approved by the ministers of the Pacific Islands in April 2002. The plan doubles up as a regional policy to coordinate cooperation within the region, besides serving as a guide for action at the national level (p. 314).

Bhutan is also busy preparing its national ICT policies, regulations and master plan at the time of writing (p. 70). As with the Pacific Islands and countries beyond the Asia-Pacific region, Bhutan has a number of interesting policy models and cases within the region to study and reflect upon while evolving its own unique policy package and ICT plan.

Content
Online services
Innovative and key initiatives
Enabling policies
Some trends and concerns