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DIGITAL REVIEW of AsiaPacific 2007–2008 ii Digital Review of Asia Pacifi c 2007–2008 Supplementary news, reports and analyses are available for download at: http://www.digital-review.org DIGITAL REVIEW of AsiaPacific 2007–2008 CHIEF EDITOR: Felix Librero CONTRIBUTING AUTHORS: ASSOCIATE EDITOR: Patricia B. Arinto Frederick John Abo Salman Malik EDITORIAL BOARD: Musa Abu Hassan Muhammad Aimal Marjan Ilyas Ahmed Jamshed Masood Danny Butt Zorayda Ruth Andam Ram Mohan Claude-Yves Charron Lkhagvasuren Ariunaa Charles Mok Suchit Nanda Batpurev Batchuluun Rapin Mudiardjo Maria Ng Lee Hoon Axel Bruns Frederick Noronha Milagros Rivera Danny Butt Thein Oo Rajesh Sreenivasan Donny B.U. Sushil Pandey Krishnamurthy Sriramesh Elizabeth V. Cardoza Adam Peake Jian Yan Wang Claude-Yves Charron Phonpasit Phissamay Kapil Chawla Gopi Pradhan Masoud Davarinejad Ananya Raihan Deng Jianguo Naomi Robinson Hj Abd Rahim Derus Massood Saffari João Câncio Freitas Lorraine Carlos Salazar George Sciadas John Fung Basanta Shrestha Atanu Garai Abhishek Singh Goh Seow Hiong Rajesh Sreenivasan Lelia Green Krishnamurthy Sriramesh Nalaka Gunawardene Tan Geok Leng Shah M. Ahsan Habib Suranart Tanvejsilp Mohd Safar Hasim Myint Myint Than Sarmad Hussain Tran Ba Thai Jong Sung Hwang Tran Ngoc Ca Malika Ibrahim Kalaya Udomvitid Seungkwon Jang Brian Unger Jihyun Jun Sajan Venniyoor Keisuke Kamimura Eunice Hsiao-hui Wang Kyungmin Ko Sangay Wangchuk Thaweesak Koanantakool Chanuka Wattegama Shelah Lardizabal-Vallarino Esther Batiri Williams Heejin Lee Andy Williamson Lawrence Liang Yong Chee Tuan Yu-li Liu Zhang Guoliang Geoff Long Zhang Xinhua The views expressed in this publication are those of the authors and editor and do not necessarily refl ect the views of the publishers. The designations employed and the presentation of material throughout this publication do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the publishers concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area of its authorities, or concerning the delimitations of its frontiers or boundaries. The publishers do not guarantee the accuracy of the data published here and accept no responsibility whatsoever for any consequences of their use. Copyright © Orbicom and the International Development Research Centre 2008 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, photocopying or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publishers. SAGE Publications India Pvt Ltd B1/I-1 Mohan Cooperative Industrial Area Mathura Road, New Delhi 110 044, India www.sagepub.in SAGE Publications Inc 2455 Teller Road Thousand Oaks, California 91320, USA SAGE Publications Ltd 1 Oliver’s Yard, 55 City Road London EC1Y 1SP, United Kingdom SAGE Publications Asia-Pacifi c Pte Ltd 33 Pekin Street #02-01 Far East Square Singapore 048763 International Development Research Centre International Network of UNESCO Chairs in P.O. Box 8500 Communication, Orbicom Ottawa, ON, K1G 3H9 Suite J-4351 Canada Université du Québec à Montréal www.idrc.ca P.O. Box 8888, Downtown Station ISBN (e-book) 978-1-52550-377-5 Montréal, QC, H3C 3P8 Canada www.orbicom.ca Published by Vivek Mehra for SAGE Publications India Pvt Ltd, typeset in 9.5/13 Times by Star Compugraphics Private Limited, Delhi, and printed at Swan Press, New Delhi. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Available. ISBN: 978-0-7619-3674-9 (Pb) 978-81-7829-840-5 (India-Pb) The SAGE Team: Sugata Ghosh, Maneet Singh and Rajib Chatterjee The Digital Review of Asia Pacifi c wishes to acknowledge the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) for its technical and fi nancial support, for its commitment and encouragement to regional research and authorship, and for its dissemination of research results within and beyond the Asia Pacifi c region. This edition of the Digital Review of Asia Pacifi c is dedicated to the memory of Professor Vanniarachchige Kithsiri Samaranayake whose contribution to ICT institution building and human capacity development in Sri Lanka was outstanding, as was his commitment to and engagement with regional and international ICT4D platforms. This page intentionally left blank Contents Foreword Muhammad Yunus ix Preface Claude-Yves Charron and Maria Ng Lee Hoon x Introduction Felix Librero xi Acronyms xiv Issues for the region ICT4D in Asia Pacifi c—An overview of emerging issues Danny Butt, Rajesh Sreenivasan and Abhishek Singh 3 Mobile and wireless technologies for development in Asia Pacifi c Tan Geok Leng and Suranart Tanvejsilp 19 The role of ICTs in risk communication in Asia Pacifi c Krishnamurthy Sriramesh, Chanuka Wattegama and Frederick John Abo 29 Localization in Asia Pacifi c Sarmad Hussain and Ram Mohan 43 Key policy issues in intellectual property and technology in Asia Pacifi c Elizabeth V. Cardoza and Lawrence Liang 59 State and evolution of ICTs: A tale of two Asias George Sciadas 73 Review of individual economies .af Afghanistan: Muhammad Aimal Marjan 89 .au Australia: Lelia Green and Axel Bruns 92 .bd Bangladesh: Ananya Raihan and Shah M. Ahsan Habib 102 .bt Bhutan: Sangay Wangchuk and Gopi Pradhan 109 .bn Brunei Darussalam: Yong Chee Tuan and Hj Abd Rahim Derus 117 .kh Cambodia: Brian Unger and Naomi Robinson 122 .cn China: Zhang Guoliang, Zhang Xinhua and Deng Jianguo 131 .hk Hong Kong: Geoff Long, John Fung and Charles Mok 142 .in India: Frederick Noronha and Sajan Venniyoor 150 viii Digital Review of Asia Pacifi c 2007–2008 .id Indonesia: Donny B.U. and Rapin Mudiardjo 161 .ir Iran: Masoud Davarinejad and Massood Saffari 172 .jp Japan: Keisuke Kamimura and Adam Peake 180 .la Lao PDR: Phonpasit Phissamay 188 .my Malaysia: Musa Abu Hassan and Mohd Safar Hasim 196 .mv Maldives: Malika Ibrahim and Ilyas Ahmed 204 .mn Mongolia: Lkhagvasuren Ariunaa and Batpurev Batchuluun 211 .mo Macau: Geoff Long 217 .mm Myanmar: Thein Oo and Myint Myint Than 223 .np Nepal: Sushil Pandey and Basanta Shrestha 230 .nz New Zealand: Andy Williamson 236 .kp North Korea: Kyungmin Ko, Seungkwon Jang and Heejin Lee 244 Pacifi c Island Countries: Esther Batiri Williams 251 .pk Pakistan: Jamshed Masood and Salman Malik 263 .ph Philippines: Lorraine Carlos Salazar, Shelah Lardizabal-Vallarino and Zorayda Ruth Andam 268 .sg Singapore: Goh Seow Hiong 278 .kr South Korea: Jong Sung Hwang and Jihyun Jun 289 .lk Sri Lanka: Nalaka Gunawardene 296 .tw Taiwan: Yu-li Liu and Eunice Hsiao-hui Wang 304 .th Thailand: Thaweesak Koanantakool and Kalaya Udomvitid 313 .tl/.tp Timor-Leste: João Câncio Freitas 321 .vn Vietnam: Tran Ngoc Ca and Tran Ba Thai 325 Review of sub-regional associations Association of Southeast Asian Nations: Lorraine Carlos Salazar and Shelah Lardizabal-Vallarino 335 South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation: Atanu Garai and Kapil Chawla 345 About the contributing authors 348 Index 362 Foreword The overview of emerging issues in information and services in the villages where they live. In this endeavour, we communication technologies (ICT) for development in Asia see the linkage between microcredit, our established strategy, Pacifi c in this edition of Digital Review of Asia Pacifi c (DirAP) and ICT, our newer strategy. Today, Grameen Phone is the takes up the question of whether ICT ranks equally in priority largest phone company in Bangladesh and serves more than with other sectors of development for investing the scarce re- 12 million subscribers. sources of poor countries. It then takes the position that ignoring Social businesses such as Grameen Phone can play a sig- ICT will only lead to further excluding poor countries from the nifi cant role in creating opportunities that will help societies circuits of power and prosperity. and their members to continue in the path of progress. Social Indeed, this is a small world today and ICT is making it business is a very important concept to me and very close to even smaller. The list of Impossibles in this world is shrinking. my heart. I defi ne social businesses as a non-loss, non-dividend We should not wait too long to cross off a few more items from company, dedicated to achieving social objectives. Investors this list: can take back their investment money, but they cannot get any dividend beyond that. Promoters of social businesses are the • It is impossible to eliminate poverty from this world. catalyst for positive change in a society. • It is impossible to provide basic education to all. Today, I would like to challenge our intellectuals, innov- • It is impossible to ensure necessary health care to the ators, business leaders, corporations and institutions to help iden- needy. tify ways and means to help create social ICT businesses locally, • It is impossible to make universal access happen. nationally and internationally. Social business is a promising ICT is quickly changing the world, creating a distance-less, concept that I would like to bring into the ICT world, for we are borderless world of instantaneous communication. Increasingly, applying it in earnest to our work with the poor in the villages ICT is becoming less costly. Thus, ICT has much potential to of Bangladesh. I would like to emphasize that my challenge to create opportunities for growth and development in the rural our thought leaders is not only to create social business ideas in areas of Asia. As ICT begins to create income generation ac- the ICT arena, but also to develop replicable designs that will tivities in rural areas and as it becomes an instrument of rural help others in non-ICT sectors to be innovators of social ideas economic and social activities, it begins to pay back on our and social businesses. hard-earned investments. In the future, I look to DirAP to document the stories of The Grameen Bank in Bangladesh, one of the poorest grassroots ICT innovation and learning for the Asia Pacifi c countries of the world, long ago made the choice to invest the region, in technology deployment and research, as well as in present and future of the poor in ICT.