ASEAN confab in Puerto Princesa to focus on ICT

Key projects aimed at improving telecommunication and ICT services in the remote areas of Southeast Asia will highlight discussions at a private-sector led forum on ICT slated in Puerto Princesa City next week. The 4th Brunei Darussalam Indonesia Malaysia Philippines-East ASEAN Growth Area (BIMP-EAGA) CEO Forum on ICT, which will be held at Hotel Centro in Puerto Princesa City on June 22, will gather chief executives and key representatives of companies engaged in ICT and telecom services to discuss and agree on ICT projects needed to address digital divide and improve ICT services in the sub-region. The CEO forum is a private sector platform created for ICT companies in BIMP-EAGA to network, discuss and agree on programs and projects under the BIMP-EAGA working Group on ICT with the goat of improving telecommunications and ICT services in the sub-region, especially in the remote and border areas. Among the priority ICT projects to be discussed are the $15O-million alternate submarine cable link project dubbed as the BIMP-EAGA Rink, an alternative network routing through either submarine cable and/or satellite. The proposed BIMP-EAGA Rink shall cover the entire Mindanao in Southern Philippines; Sandakan and Tawau in Sabah and Tarakan via the terrestrial Kalimantan. Kalimantan, Sulawesi and Papua in Indonesia are also eyed as potential international gateways in the project. In 2006, four undersea cables were damaged when two consecutive earthquakes hit Taiwan and disrupted telecommunication services in Southeast Asia. “The Philippines was among the badly affected with its business process outsourcing (BPO) industry immobilized", said MinDA chairperson Ms. Luwalhati Antonino, adding that alternative gateways can help safeguard the country’s telecom industry from the adverse impact of earthquake and other natural disasters. With the project, Antonino said that the Philippines can expand its links with the rest of the Asian countries particularly with Singapore and Hong Kong which are among the world’s innovative providers of fast Internet connection. Also up for discussion in the forum is the BIMP-EAGA Intelligent Clearance identity (ICLID) project, a solution that would facilitate cross-border trade by leveraging on ICT as a tool. Using Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) and Web technology, the project seeks to reduce customs paperwork with the use of machine-readable tags for purposes of verification. The BIMP-EAGA ICT development cluster is also looking at developing BIMP-EAGA Android, a mobile application platform for the tourism sector. Other priority ICT projects in EAGA include Tariff Rationalization, Rural ICT Reach-Out Project (IROP), Green ICT, and the Heart of Borneo Satellite Monitoring System. Antonino said that improving ICT connectivity is being pushed as one of the strategic imperatives for Mindanao’s development under the Mindanao 2020 Peace and Development Framework Plan for 2O11-2030. According to Mindanao 2O2O, Mindanawons envision a state of the art ICT technology infrastructure that provides reliable, affordable, and high speed connectivity which link peoples and systems through effective exchange of information and knowledge. — Newsbytes.ph