DIGITAL REVIEW of ri LA V i. L I 2007 2008 REPORTS ON 31 ECONOMIES 2 SUB-REGIONAL ASSOCIATIONS ICT4D in Asia Pacific: An Overview of Emerging Issues Mobile and Wireless Technologies for Development in Asia Pacific The Role of ICTs in Risk Communication in Asia Pacific I Localization in Asia Pacific I I Key Policy Issues in I Intellectual Property and Technology in Asia Pacific I State and Evolution of ICTs: A Tale of Two Asias ARCHIV 127081 www.digital-review.org DIGITAL REVIEW of Asia acjfic 2007-2008 I Supplementary news, reports and analyses are available for download at: http ://www. digital-review. org DIGITAL REVIEW of As 2007—2008 <dirAP> 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 Them Oo Rajesh Sreenivasan Donny B.U. Sushil Pandey Knshnamurthy 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 Massood Saffari Hj Abd Rahim Derus Lorraine Carlos Joâo Câncio Freitas 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 International Development Research Centre Kyungmin Ko Sangay Wangchuk Thaweesak Koanantakool Ottawa Cairo • Dakar • Montevideo • Nairobi New Delhi • Singapore Chanuka Wattegama Shelah Lard izabal-Vallarino Esther Batiri Williams HeeJin Lee Andy Williamson Lawrence Liang Yong Chee Tuan Los Angeles • London • New Delhi • Singapore Yu-Ii Liu www.sagepublications.com Zhang Guoliang SAGE Geoff Long Zhang Xinhua The views expressed in this publication are those of the authors and editor and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publishers. 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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 ofAsia Pacific wishes to acknowledge the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) for its technical and financial support, for its commitment and encouragement to regional research and authorship, and for its dissemination of research results within and beyond the Asia Pacific region. This edition of the Digital Review of Asia Pacific 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. Contents Foreword Muhammad Yunus ix Preface Claude-Yves Charron and Maria Ng Lee Hoon x Introduction Felix Librero xi Acronyms xiv . S - •I I ICT4D in Asia Pacific—An overview of emerging issues Danny Butt, Rajesh Sreenivasan and Abhishek Singh 3 Mobile and wireless technologies for development in Asia Pacific Tan Geok Leng and Suranart Tanvejsilp 19 The role of ICTs in risk communication in Asia Pacific Krishnamurthy Sriramesh, Chanuka Wattegama and Frederick John Abo 29 Localization in Asia Pacific Sarmad Hussain and Ram Mohan 43 Key policy issues in intellectual property and technology in Asia Pacific 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 v'jjj Digital Review of Asia Pacific 2007—2 008 .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 .Ia 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: Them 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 Pacific 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 .1k Sri Lanka: Nalaka Gunawardene 296 .tw Taiwan: Yu-li Liu and Eunice Hsiao-hui Wang 304 .th Thailand: Thaweesak Koanantakool and Kalaya Udomvitid 313 .tI/.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, Pacific in this edition of Digital Review of Asia Pacific (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 nificant 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 define 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.