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LIST OF ACTIVITIES
(Annex to the Chairman's Statement)

The ASEM ICT Ministers welcomed the following activities and encouraged further actions and involvement by stakeholders to realize their potential:

Improving ICT Policy and Regulatory Environment

  1. Strengthening and encouraging the information and experiences sharing of ASEM countries' ICT policy and legal framework for Human Resource Development (HRD) and capacity building;
  2. Promoting the development of best practices of HRD and capacity building on the common policy, particularly through the collaboration of regional organizations, such as the European Commission and the ASEAN Secretariat;
  3. Promoting training and capacity building for ASEM policy and regulatory officials to encourage:
    i. Good policy and regulatory practices
    ii. Competitive ICT markets
    iii. Widespread access to ICT
    in areas such as broadband (wired and wireless) policy, Next Generation
    Network (NGN) migration, Radio-Frequency Identification (RFID), etc;
  4. Joint development by public and private sectors to strengthen public awareness and understanding of ICT as well as programs for ICT HRD;
  5. Enhancing the collaboration and performance of Computer Emergency Response Teams (CERTs) within ASEM by establishing contact points between ASEM CERTs, and through activities such as Asia-Europe CERT drills.

Enhancement of ICT Enterprises' Capability

  1. Fostering business linkages towards strengthening the capacity of the ICT enterprises to face the new challenges of the present and future globalized business environment through dialogue between the Ministers and the ASEM ICT business community;
  2. Acknowledging the value of continued bilateral or regional training programs as a means of capacity building on ICT;

Cooperation of Research Institutes and Educational Facilities

  1. Commending and recognizing the comprehensive work undertaken by the large-scale network initiatives such as TEIN2 in the fields of research, education and other applications;
  2. Taking advantage of regional programs such as Asia-Link Program, regional ICT-Asia Programs or related networks to optimise synergies with other regional or multilateral initiatives currently undertaken;
  3. Enhancing ASEM ICT research co-operation through programs such as the European ICT research programme which is part of the Science & Technology 7th Framework Programme (FP7) to be launched beginning of 2007. To this purpose, research ICT workshops will be organised to raise awareness on the possibilities.

Empowering Local Community in ICT Applications

  1. Devising public-private partnerships for the application of new business models so as to create locally adapted and commercially driven approaches to shape low cost mobile communication solutions in underserved areas;
  2. Activating schools and local communities in formulating and implementing approaches to make use of ICT in primary education, and in turning learning centres into knowledge centres, while bearing in mind cultural and multi-linguistic societies, for raising literacy and other basic skills;
  3. Decreasing the information gap and bridging the digital divide of farmer communities by introducing e-agricultural information exchanging networks;
  4. Working with relevant stakeholders, such as diaspora, local communities, operators and banks, to articulate the demand for the development and diffusion of simple information tools, such as SMS-driven applications to fulfill the development contribution of remittances, micro finance and mobile banking;
  5. Strengthening cooperation between Asia and Europe to secure authentication, traceability and verifiability in digital transactions, and achieving trust and integrity for the individual user;
  6. Considering how local communities can be put in the driver's seat to pull the usage of ICT for better provision of healthcare services, through the establishment of multifunctional local health centers for senior citizens and their relatives, using distant learning and strengthening links to central hospitals with specialist facilities.
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