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ABI: Mobile Voice Revenue to Decline from 2011

Mobile voice service revenues are on a trajectory to reach their peak in 2010, after which they are likely to start declining, according to the latest forecasts from ABI Research. Vice-president for forecasting Jake Saunders comments: "Mobile voice has had a meteoric rise since digital cellular networks such as GSM were deployed in 1992. "ABI Research forecasts annual mobile voice revenues to reach $580 billion in 2010. From 2011 on, rising subscriber saturation will increasingly erode mobile voice revenues, not just in developed markets but also in a number of emerging markets. By 2014, mobile voice revenues will have contracted by 9.6 percent."

While mobile operators have received a substantial boost from value-added services such as messaging and Mobile Internet, competition is squeezing margins for a variety of services and carriers.

Total mobile data services should generate $169 million in 2009 and will grow at a CAGR of 9 percent until 2014. By the end of 2009 the declines in annual average revenue per user (ARPU) will have been felt most severely in Asia-Pacific (-8.7 percent to $105) and Africa (-7.8 percent to $134).

ARPU in 2009 in North America will have contracted, but only by -0.6 percent to $526). Mobile Internet revenue ($52) from use of smartphones, netbooks, etc. will help to prop up overall service revenue for the region. Wireless capital expenditure, on the other hand, shrank 5 percent in 2009 to $132.5 billion.

The global recession was widely felt in all parts of the world. Saunders notes: "As handset sales plummeted in 4Q-2009, end-users did not return their handsets nor did they put their handsets aside and refuse to use them. They did, however, try to cap tariff plan usage. Carriers therefore held up a number of CAPEX-related projects to free up some cashflow." As the economy has stabilized in the second half of 2009, carriers have started to resume capital expenditure. Key areas of spending are core network and radio access network upgrades to support higher data throughput. (by Lexton Snol)

From http://www.networkworld.com/ 11/23/2009

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ARMENIA: Introducing E-governance in 2012

The electronic governance will be introduced in Armenia in January 2012. According to the press office of the Secretary of National Security Council, an inter-agency working group will elaborate a concept of introduction of e-governance within a three-year Armenia-EU program by September 2010. As secretary of the National Security Council Arthur Baghdasaryan told today's meeting of the working group, new governance system must include not only public authorities and municipalities, but also create an opportunity for businesses to communicate with state bodies via e-mail. According to him, a new governance system will reduce corruption risks and eliminate the red tape. Elaboration and implementation of the concept will be carried out accordingly with legislative changes.

From Today.Az 02/04/2010

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AUSTRALIA: E-Health Bill Introduced to Parliament

The Federal Government has introduced a bill to Parliament will allow every Australian to be issued with electronic identification. If passed, the bill will see unique 16 digit numbers created for individuals and health care providers by the middle of this year. The Individual Healthcare Identifier (IHI) is a step towards an e-health system that will eventually give citizens comprehensive electronic health records that can be used by multiple healthcare providers. Last year, the National Health and Hospital Reforms Commission (NHHRC) also recommended that the e-health system allow individuals to determine which practitioners their information can be shared with, and how their records will be stored, backed-up and retrieved. "The government is currently undertaking the most important overhaul of our health system since the introduction of Medicare 25 years ago," said Nicola Roxon, Minister for Health and Ageing.

"This bill establishes the healthcare identifiers, without which there cannot be an integrated, consistent, e-health system in Australia." Roxon said that safeguards would be put in place so that minimal demographic information would be collected and no clinical information would be held by the service operator. Only authorised healthcare providers would be able to access the records of their existing patients, and independent regulators would manage a "robust complaints handling framework", she said. According to the bill, minor amendments would be made to the Privacy Act to ensure that the Federal Privacy Commissioner can act against any individual or company that misuses an individual's healthcare identifier.

From http://www.itnews.com.au/ 02/12/2010

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INDIA: National Knowledge Network to Be Set Up

The establishment of the National Knowledge Network (NKN) has been accorded the approval of the Cabinet Committee on Infrastructure. The knowledge network is planned to be implemented by the NIC and will inter-connect all knowledge institutions trough high speed data communication network. NKN would encourage sharing of knowledge, specialised resources and collaborative research among scientists, researchers and students from diverse spheres across the country to work together for advancing human development in critical and emerging areas. It will catalyze knowledge sharing and knowledge transfer between stakeholders seamlessly. NKN would enable use of specialized applications and allow sharing of high performance computing facilities, e-libraries, virtual classrooms and very large databases. The government announced setting up NKN in 2008-09 and an initial amount of Rs 100 crore was allocated to the Department of Information Technology, Ministry of Communications and IT for establishment.

From http://www.egovonline.net/ 01/27/2010

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JAPAN: 19 Prefectures Scale Down Online Services

Financial difficulties have forced 19 prefectural governments to cancel or scale down their often-inefficient online administrative procedures for citizens, according to an Asahi Shimbun survey. With the costs of running online systems high and the number of users low, many prefectural governments have switched to cheaper systems to reduce expenses. Total operating costs for online systems around the country are expected to decrease to less than 1.61 billion yen in fiscal 2010, or two-thirds of 2.44 billion yen in fiscal 2008. The Asahi Shimbun carried out the survey concerning 10,759 administrative procedures that can be conducted online at the 47 prefectural governments. Officials were interviewed on the number of annual online applications and what percentage they accounted for, the costs to operate the online systems, and whether they have reviewed, or plan to review, the electronic procedures and the overall online system. Many prefectural government systems suffered from inefficiency, with a single application from a resident costing more than 10,000 yen to process in 22 prefectures. Okinawa topped the prefectural inefficiency list, with one application costing 91,463 yen, followed by Kagoshima (79,783 yen), Yamagata (61,216 yen), Ehime (43,209 yen), and Gifu (25,680 yen). Aichi Prefecture has the most cost-efficient system, with one application costing 67 yen to process, followed by Shiga (534 yen), Tokyo (540 yen), Niigata (745 yen), and Osaka (935 yen), the survey showed. These five prefectures simplified their online procedures by, for example, not requiring electronic authentication. In that way, they cut costs by increasing the number of users.

The central government has urged prefectural governments to promote online usage for 19 procedures because of their high volumes of applications. But online applications accounted for less than 10 percent in 10 of these procedures, such as one to change addresses for an automobile tax and another concerning food business. Some procedures had rates exceeding 80 percent for online usage, such as one for reserving sports or cultural facilities and two related to bidding for contracts, which only certain companies use repeatedly. Two prefectural governments have scrapped their online systems altogether. The Kochi prefectural government saved 32 million yen when it halted its electronic procedures at the end of fiscal 2005, while Gifu Prefecture saved 48 million yen when it did the same at the end of fiscal 2008. Under the central government's strategy for information technology, central and local governments rapidly introduced electronic filing of administrative procedures starting in 2001. However, the ease of use and cost efficiency took a backseat, prompting the Board of Audit to point out inefficiencies of the systems. An Asahi Shimbun survey on electronic procedures at the central government conducted earlier this month found that less than 1 percent of all applications in nearly 20 percent of administrative systems at ministries and agencies were conducted online. One application cost the government more than 8 million yen to process. (IHT/Asahi)

From http://www.asahi.com/ 12/01/2009

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MIDDLE EAST: ICT Sector Shows Highest Growth Potential Among Global Markets

Research covering the international information and communications technology (ICT) markets shows that the Middle East has the best growth potential in 2010. IDC MEAIDC MEA, the top market intelligence and advisory firm serving the Middle East, Turkey and Africa (MEA) territories, will gather 100 of the region's top ICT decision makers to discuss industry opportunities, trends and best practices at the upcoming IDC Middle East CIO Summit 2010 to be held from January 24 to 25, 2010 at the Madinat Jumeirah Resort in Dubai. Injazat Data Systems, the leading information technology and business process managed services provider in the UAE and the Middle East and the Summit's Gold Sponsor, will deliver a presentation on the use of managed IT services as strategic business tools. The company will also identify key prospects within the Gulf's thriving ICT sector, which has the potential to expand into a USD45 billion industry this year. The Summit will address vital industry issues in areas such as data centre efficiency, data and storage management, security, regulatory compliance, virtualization, and enhanced ICT-business alignment. It will also feature other key presentations from industry leaders.

"The impacts of government stimulus programs undertaken across the region during the past year are expected to be felt during the first half of 2010. The ICT industry thus needs to be prepared to meet the demands that will emerge from an expected recovery. ICT products and services are still viewed as essential by most organizations; it is the CIO's task to convince partners and customers of the importance of ICT in optimizing business performance and ensuring competitiveness amidst today's challenging markets," said Ibrahim Mohamed Lari, CEO, Injazat Data Systems. Injazat has been able to gain a leadership position in the Middle East's rapidly growing data centre segment by opening the region's first and only Tier IV design-certified data centre. Its support for the latest edition of the IDC Middle East CIO Summit continues its active participation in major industry gatherings; last year, Injazat hosted the inaugural Data Centre Strategies Middle East Forum and sponsored the first-ever Cloud Computing / SaaS Summit in the UAE. The IDC Middle East CIO Summit 2010 is the regional leg of global market intelligence firm IDCIDC's third annual CIO Summit Series 2010, which will also tour Turkey and Africa. To be held under the theme 'From Pressure to Performance,' the three-part Summit will run until March 2010 and will focus on the cost reduction, optimization and efficiency challenges faced by CIOs in light of today's difficult business environments.

From http://www.zawya.com/ 01/23/2010

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MMA: Next Billion Mobile Users to Come from Asia, Industry Group Predicts

The next billion users of mobile devices and services will likely come from Asia, a region that continues to lead the pace of the global mobile growth, the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA), predicted. Industry group MMA, which recently released its top mobile industry predictions, said with roughly one-third of the over 4 billion mobile subscribers in the world already coming from Asia, mobile telecommunications is definitely an area that has come of age. Growth across all areas of mobile telecommunications - whether it be infrastructure, mobile phone subscriptions, mobile Internet, SMS, or gaming - is happening at an explosive pace all across Asia, as the adoption of mobile communications is outpacing internet adoption across the region, and by substantial amounts, the MMA said.

Aside from industry growth, the MMA also predicted mobile data use increase in the APAC region, brought by innovative smart devices and killer applications. Mobile use will also increase with the ongoing proliferation of high data consumption services that include video or peer-to-peer applications, the MMA said. On the user plan side, the MMA predicted that applications for smartphone devices like the Apple iPhone in the APAC region will compel carriers to include mobile data plans as value-added services. Applications that are specifically developed for the iPhone, Android phones, Blackberry devices and others will eventually convert many to mobile data use for internet access, the MMA said. This is a pull factor for subscribers to add mobile data VAS - in turn this will add to the ARPU for each subscriber and improve the bottom line for operators.

Mergers and acquisition will also impact the mobile industry, the MMA said, noting that the recent merger of Google and Admob validates the power, reach and value of the wider mobile marketing industry. For big brands that already leverage Google's vast suite of online advertising tools, there will be an expansion across mobile channels, as well as more integrated campaigns that captivate and engage across web, mobile, print and experiential channels, the MMA said.

In terms of security, higher mobile data use will raise concerns over online/mobile privacy, particularly as users share important personal information over social media, the industry group said. Platforms such as Facebook have already had to address the use of user data and put new privacy policies in place, and this will only increase with the more pervasive use of social media and as other online services go mobile. The MMA further said other mobile-based services, such as mobile payment, will continue to grow, with the global remittance moving through the Asian population. Currently, Singapore and Hong Kong are the most mature electronic payment markets in Asia. The industry is growing rapidly and provides significant opportunities for all electronic payment channels including mobile platforms. Mobile healthcare is another fast growing segment in Asia with its aging but tech-friendly population, as well as mobile music, the MMA said. Lastly, mobile application appealing to gamers will also rise, the MMA said. Smartphones can double as mobile game machines, and the delivery of advertising within mobile applications for games will only grow in the next year, the group said.

From http://www.mb.com/ 01/10/2010

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PACIFIC Prepares for Mobile Phone Banking

By the end of this year thousands of people in the Pacific may be able to do their banking using a mobile phone. Mobile phone banking has already been used to great effect in Asia and Africa, giving people in remote and rural communities access to banking services. Now the service is being extended across the Pacific, with assistance from the Pacific Financial Inclusion Program - a joint project of the United Nations, the European Union and the Australian and New Zealand Governments. Program spokesman Till Bruett has told Pacific Beat, pilot projects could get underway within the next three months in Pacific nations with strong mobile networks - including Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu and Samoa. "We've been working [with] different types of companies, banks, mobile network operators, micro-software firms, etcetera, to put together test solutions for how mobile phone services can be delivered in the Pacific," he said. "We think between all of them in the next quarter of probably in the first half of the year, we'll see some of these pilot projects get up and running."

From http://www.radioaustralianews.net.au/ 02/05/2010

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REPUBLIC OF KOREA: E-government Given Best Rating by United Nations

Korea secured top spot in a recent e-government evaluation conducted by the United Nations, said the Ministry of Public Administration and Security on Thursday (Jan. 14). The result was based upon a survey of the 192 UN member states and Korea also placed first in the category of people's online participation. The 2010 UN e-Government Survey, completed in December 2009, has presented various roles for e-government in addressing the ongoing world financial and economic crisis. Korea has gathered momentum to lead the world's e-government development by significantly raising its standings in the "E-Government Development Index" and the "E-Participation Index" to the top, said the ministry. The country was placed 6th and 2nd in each category, respectively, in the previous survey conducted in 2008. The ministry said it would boost promotion of the country's advanced e-government status, enlarge investment into digitalization and further induce online involvement of citizens. The ministry also plans to enhance Korea's contribution to the international community in the areas of online administration by sharing the country's knowhow on the development of e-government and by exporting the country's e-government model to developing countries.

From http://www.korea.net/ 01/15/2010

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UNITED KINGDOM: All Public Services to Be Online by 2014

Nearly 100% of government transactions will be carried out online by 2014 if new targets announced today are met. The government is accelerating plans to get all services online, and is hoping it will save £400m over three years. The Putting the Frontline First report outlines how the government expects to free-up money for public services by streamlining back-office processes. The government hopes that putting all services online will lead to better services and free-up staff to deal personally with individuals.

Prime minister Gordon Brown said in his speech to launch the report this morning: "I can also state that as a result of the work of Martha Lane Fox, our aim is - within the next five years - to shift the great majority of our large transactional services to become online only." The report says: "We will accelerate plans to drive more rapid transition to online and personalised services." Departments will be required to write strategies that show how transactions for each service will move online "as rapidly as possible, with a view to targeting near 100% by 2014". Each strategy must address funding, and how internet access will be extended to the digitally excluded population. The strategies will then be used to produce a Digital Britain Roadmap, to be announced by the end of next year. This roadmap will detail how major services like student loans, job seekers allowance, child tax credits will go online. A timetable for an online child benefit service will be in place by the Budget in 2010. All VAT returns and employer tax returns will be exclusively online by 2011, and there are plans to join up Directgov, NHSChoices and Business Link so they "provide a platform for departments to design and deliver personalised digital services". The plans could see a large amount of work in store for local authorities, with the government encouraging them to process at least 80% of applications for school places online by 2011/12.

From http://www.computerweekly.com/ 12/07/2009

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UNITED NATIONS: Leveraging E-government at a Time of Financial and Economic Crisis

The 2010 United Nations e-Government Survey: Leveraging e-government at a time of financial and economic crisis was completed in December 2009 and launched in early 2010. The report presented various roles for e-government in addressing the ongoing world financial and economic crisis. The public trust that is gained through transparency can be further enhanced through the free sharing of government data based on open standards. The ability of e-government to handle speed and complexity can also underpin regulatory reform. While technology is no substitute for good policy, it may give citizens the power to question the actions of regulators and bring systemic issues to the fore. Similarly, e-government can add agility to public service delivery to help governments respond to an expanded set of demands even as revenues fall short. Since the last edition of the survey, in 2008, governments have made great strides in development of online services, especially in middle-income countries. The costs associated with telecommunication infrastructure and human capital continue to impede e-government development. However, effective strategies and legal frameworks can compensate significantly, even in least developed countries. Those who are able to harness the potential of expanded broadband access in developed regions and mobile cellular networks in developing countries to advance the UN development agenda have much to gain going forward.

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Preface
Acknowledgements
Acronyms
Introduction
PART I: Leveraging E-government at a time of Financial and Economic Crisis
Chapter 1: Stimulus Packages and Financial Bailouts
Chapter 2: Financial Regulation and Monitoring
Chapter 3: Public Service Delivery
PART II: Global E-government Readiness
Chapter 4: The State of E-government by Region
Chapter 5: The State of E-government by Economic Grouping
Chapter 6: Access and Diversity

From http://www2.unpan.org/egovkb/global_reports/10report.htm

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UNITED STATES: Washington, D.C. to Get Massive 'Cyber Shock' in Mock Cyber-Attack

Familiar faces from the federal government will be tested Tuesday, Feb. 16, to see how well Washington, D.C., would handle a cyber-crisis. Pass or fail, their performance will be seen by spectators - and then broadcast on CNN for the world to see. The Bipartisan Policy Center (BPC), a nonprofit that develops multiparty solutions in public policy, will host Cyber Shockwave, a simulated cyber-attack on the United States, during an exercise at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Washington, D.C. The participants will be former senior administration officials who will be put through their paces, but they won't know exactly how until it actually happens. "We've basically gathered a great group of former national security officials and administration officials, and we've actually switched up their roles, so I think it's going to be pretty interesting," said Eileen McMenamin, the BPC's vice president of communications.

At least 10 people will perform the test. They include Michael Chertoff, former secretary of U.S. Homeland Security; John Negroponte, former director of national intelligence; and Fran Townsend, former White House homeland security adviser. "The jobs that they had held are not necessarily going to be the positions that they're holding in this exercise," McMenamin said. Chertoff will operate as national security adviser for the simulation, and Negroponte and Townsend will play the roles of secretary of state and secretary of homeland security, respectively. They will be performing on a stage set up as a White House situation room, and they'll be watched by the press and other invited guests. CNN will record the happenings and air it as a special the weekend of Feb. 20. "We have gone to great lengths to work with our sponsors, General Dynamics in particular, to work with experts who have written the scenario to ensure that it is actually realistic and could happen in real life, so they will be reacting in real time," McMenamin said. "We'll have different information coming in on the screens. We'll have runners run up with cards and inject new information into the scenario, and they'll have to react."

After the exercise is completed, the BPC will issue another press release about the results. The public doesn't get to see what happens in the Pentagon or the White House situation, but the BPC will allow people the rare chance to see how something like this actually unfolds, according to McMenamin. The BPC hosted a similar series of simulations in 2007, Oil ShockWave, which addressed the country's dependence on foreign oil as a major threat. "I think a large reason that we did this is to educate the public that these threats to exist and that government needs to know how to react in real-time, and hoping to draw a larger awareness to this," McMenamin said. "I think it will also be a good tool for not only government officials, but private-sector companies as well to see what possible threats are out there, and that we really need to be ready in case an attack of this sort occurs." (by Hilton Collins)

From http://www.govtech.com/ 01/15/2010

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Egypt Aims to Boost Broadband Penetration

Egyptian communications minister Tarek Kamel has announced a plan to increase broadband penetration fourfold in the next four years to 4 million households, Reuters has reported. 'Egypt needs to invest $1bn within the next four years for broadband penetration within a plan that I'm going to announce in the first quarter of 2010 for boosting access in Egypt,' Kamel said.

From http://www.ameinfo.com/ 12/16/2009

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AFRICA: Nigeria to Mandate SIM Card Registration

Nigeria to to start requiring prepay SIM cards to have their ownership details registered with the network operators next year, the regulator has announced. The registration process will start next March and will last six months. SIM cards that are not registered after then will be shut out of the mobile networks. The Head of Consumers Affair at the Nigerian Communications Commission, Lolia Emakpore said "The SIM card registration is in line with complaints that the commission had gotten that mobile phones are used to aid crimes and government has instructed the commission to adopt a mode to help stop crime. "Nigeria does not have an effective database and that is why we think six months is enough to cover the six geo-political zones in the country and even get to the local government areas," she said. Telecoms operators are, however pessimistic about whether the process will be well conducted. According to Ms. Emakpore, the process will require subscribers to produce their National Identity card. Biometrics will also be taken, to curb fraud, during the process of registration.

From http://www.cellular-news.com/ 12/21/ 2009

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EUROPE: ICT Results Issues New Reports on E-Inclusion and Networked Devices

Brussels, Belgium (PRWEB) - Want to gain insight into what future connected technologies could look like? Check out two new policy reports on EU-funded technology research - one on helping more Europeans get connected to the internet, the other on the communications devices we may be using in the future. The two reports are published as part of the ICT Results' Policy Perspective series. ICT Results showcases the achievements and activities of ICT research projects funded by the European Union. The service, supported by the Directorate-General for Information Society and Media, offers analysis and insights into future technologies that will affect our lives over the coming years.

Bridging the digital divide
The first report, 'ICT for all: Technology supporting an inclusive world', explores Europe's vision of a society where every individual can make a valuable contribution. As a policy, e-inclusion aims to leverage technology to make society more inclusive. "Investments in pioneering and commercially focused research will produce information and communication technologies (ICTs) that should help everyone - including the elderly, disabled and marginalised - to fulfil their potential," the report states. The report provides numerous examples of EU-funded research projects that work to bridge this digital divide: almost one-third of the EU's citizens, or about 150 million people, do not actively participate in this high-tech, connected world for various reasons. For example, the UNIC project developed a cost-effective way to use satellite technology to connect those living in remote areas to fast internet services. Other research projects worked to develop assistive technologies to help specific disadvantaged groups make the most of existing ICTs. One of them, the ENABLED project, developed software applications with tactile, haptic and audio feedback devices to help visually impaired people feel and hear digital maps of where they want to go. Meanwhile, the SOPRANO project is developing stand-alone assistive technologies to help older adults compensate for any motor, sensory and cognitive difficulties they may experience due to ageing.

Next-generation internet
The second new Policy Perspective report, 'The future of media in a networked world', examines a future where media channels - from mobile phones to cinema - are interconnected online. The evolution of the internet is making it possible for all our media channels to connect to the internet. And there is a growing "network of things" - everyday objects embedded with chips to make them smart, networked and accessible over the internet. This diverse network of the future will provide us with new, powerful applications that deliver more interactive, personalised and "experiential" content than ever. "European R&D is embracing the many benefits of networked media, which paves the way for the next generation internet," the report states. For example, Semantic Hi-Fi developed software to help music lovers visualise the structure of a piece through a graphic display which will enable them to navigate and even to modify elements of a musical composition. The 2020 3D Media project is developing high-quality presentations through stereoscopic or immersive images in the home and for public venues, such as cinemas. And the Mobile3DTV project is developing the core elements of the next generation of 3D TV television for mobile devices.

ICT Research for everyone
The two policy reports are part of the updates on EU-funded research published by the ICT Results service. In addition to regular Policy Perspective reports, ICT Results has published more than 150 features and some 60 fact sheets in 2009 alone.

From http://news.yahoo.com/ 01/07/2010

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UK: IT Heads Target Strategy and Business Change in 2010

Strategic planning and process change are the keys to better enabling business in 2010, according to a survey of IT professionals by the British Computer Society.Almost 60% of survey participants said strategy and planning were key priorities in the coming year, while 45% targeted business change. Nurturing the talent and skills of the IT workforce followed in third place with 37%, just ahead of resource management at 36%."Current predictions of a fragile recovery for 2010 don't reveal the necessary strategic business changes and tough decisions that will be needed to make that happen across all sectors," said Cliff Lineker, strategic business development director at the BCS.The survey of 119 IT decision-makers found that 97% of participants agreed it would be important to know exactly what skills their IT team possess; 87% wanted to map those skills against business requirements.The BCS has developed a framework called SFIAplus to help firms produce skills-based job profiles and create development lists, objectives and plans.Some 55% of IT professionals said that timely, accurate job profiles would deliver more successful IT projects.

From http://www.computerweekly.com/ 01/05/2010

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UK: Lords Propose Changes to Digital Economy Bill

The House of Lords has proposed amendments to the controversial Digital Economy Bill after debating its second reading this week. The changes are aimed largely at softening its more draconian provisions and restoring balance between the rights of copyright holders and of internet users, and between administrative and judicial justice. One of the most controversial aspects is Clause 17, which deals with copyright in the online world. Earlier, online companies including Google, Facebook, Yahoo and eBay asked business secretary Peter Mandelson, who is sponsoring the bill, to scrap the clause.

The UK's Internet Services Providers' Association (ISPA) said, "The proposals grant far too much control to the secretary of state, who will have the power to make specific recommendations on costs and impose an obligation on ISPs to use technical sanctions." Lords Razzall, Clement-Jones, Whitty and Lucas gave notice of their intention to oppose the clause as it stood. The lords also tried to protect cloud service providers such as search engines, hyperlinkers and aggregators by limiting their liability for the use of their services for illegal purposes without their explicit knowledge. They also tried to draw a line under the past by calling for all forms of civil and criminal liability under Clauses 17 and 19 to become actionable only after the act came into force. Further hearings are scheduled until the end of January.

From http://www.computerweekly.com/ 01/09/2010

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NORTH AMERICA: Canadian Anti-Spam Legislation Unanimously Passed by the House of Commons

The Honourable Tony Clement, Minister of Industry, is pleased to announce that the proposed Electronic Commerce Protection Act has passed third reading unanimously in the House of Commons and is proceeding to the Senate as the next step in the legislative process. The legislation, which is meant to deter the most damaging and deceptive forms of spam and other online threats and create a safer online marketplace for both individuals and businesses, will help to grow online commerce in Canada. "Our government took action through this legislation to reduce a considerable threat to electronic commerce in this country. This bill will make Canada a leader in the digital economy by providing a safer marketplace," said Minister Clement. "Now that the House of Commons has unanimously passed this bill, our hope and expectation is that the Senate will act on this legislation immediately to ensure protection for Canadian consumers."

From http://www.ic.gc.ca/ 12/02/2009

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US Official Plans to Champion Global Net Freedom

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is preparing to deliver a major speech later today elevating the importance of Internet freedom and placing the influence of the United States' diplomacy behind efforts to protect it, according to multiple people who have been briefed on the speech's contents. Clinton's speech at the Newseum in Washington, D.C., is intended to announce that support for online liberty and press freedom will become a State Department priority and will address the importance of cybersecurity, people who have been briefed said. For example, the U.S. could be prepared to require countries to declare support for basic principles around Internet freedom as part of the conditions for receiving foreign aid, sources told ZDNet Asia's sister site CNET News. The speech will come just nine days after Google's blunt declaration about Chinese censorship and illegal electronic intrusions, including allegations of theft of intellectual property. As many as 30 other companies may have been targeted, including Yahoo, Symantec, Juniper Networks, Dow Chemical, and Northrop Grumman.

One question left unanswered during the briefing by Assistant Secretary of State Michael Posner, which took place Wednesday morning, is whether the State Department would risk offending the Chinese government by addressing last week's charges lodged by Google. "We did not get the impression that there would be any particular reference to the Google China incident," said Robert Mahoney, deputy director of the Committee to Protect Journalists, one of the people briefed. But a State Department official, speaking on background, told ZDNet Asia's sister site CNET later in the day that the Google-China incident will be included in the speech. The speech comes at a precarious time in Washington-Beijing relations, which have been stressed by a dispute over carbon emissions at the Copenhagen summit and controversy over the valuation of China's currency, the yuan. "If people are looking for a laying out of a 1-through-10 Internet agenda, they're going to be disappointed," said Leslie Harris, the president of the Center for Democracy and Technology, who was also briefed. "But if they're looking for the United States to put the power of its diplomacy on the line for Internet freedom, it's going to be a very important speech." Google's blunt admission that it believes the Chinese government is behind intrusions into its internal network, and perhaps theft of source code, has roiled political and technological circles since last week. It has led the State Department to indicate that it would lodge a protest in a formal letter - called a demarche - with Beijing.

In the last few days, State Department officials have had multiple meetings with their Chinese counterparts and say they plan to continue the discussions. During a press briefing on Wednesday, however, Assistant Secretary Kurt Campbell declined to say whether the demarche has been sent. "We take this matter very seriously and, as Secretary Clinton said last week, that the whole issue does raise serious concerns," Campbell told reporters. "Now, it is also clear that China has denied the allegations made by Google. But we also think that the Chinese are in the best position to explain this, and we are asking them for an explanation." Expect to hear about more than China, however. Sources familiar with the development of the policy said it dates back to last summer, when violent protests in Iran were all over Twitter and YouTube despite attempts by the Iranian government to censor the communications. Even some countries like South Korea, home to widespread Internet usage, have enacted laws such as requiring those uploading videos to YouTube to use their real names instead of pseudonyms.

And there are dozens of countries in which citizens are just starting to access and appreciate the global Internet. Some of the governments in those countries are attempting to figure out how they will respond to these new freedoms, and could potentially be swayed one way or another by a carrot-and-stick approach from the U.S. government tied to foreign aid. Human rights groups cautioned on Wednesday that a high-profile address by an administration official may be forgotten within a year or so. They said that happened in February 2006 when then-Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice created the Global Internet Freedom Task Force (GIFTF), convened a few meetings, and then let the effort languish. "I would hope that it's not GIFTF 2, but a decided evolution from that," said Arvind Ganesan, director of Human Rights Watch's business and human rights program. "It'll be interesting to see if they're not only supporting openness online, but supporting it to a particular end." Sharon Hom, executive director of the Human Rights in China advocacy group, also stressed a wait-and-see approach. "It's important to make a strong policy statement," Hom said. "More important is how it will become implemented."

From http://www.zdnetasia.com/ 01/21/2010

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SOUTH AMERICA: Dominican Republic Guarantees Women's Equality in Technology Initiatives and Policies

The Dominican Republic is the first Latin American country to act on their commitments to involve women in the information society nationwide. This Caribbean island nation of ten million has promised to include a "gender perspective" in every information and communications technology initiative and policy developed by the government from now on. "This is great news for women's equality in the Dominican Republic," said APC's Dafne Plou who trained government officials in November. "And it's potentially a breakthrough for millions of other women in Latin America because the Dominican Republic is leading Latin American governments' thinking around gender and technology as part of the regional eLAC2010 plan". The tool the Dominicans have chosen to design and evaluate all the public policies is the APC gender evaluation methodology (GEM).

From http://www.apc.org/ 09/07/2009

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Grenada: Prime Minister Tillman Endorses the CARICOM eGovernment Strategy

Prime Minister of Grenada, the Honourable Tillman Thomas has agreed to be the Champion for the 2010-2014 CARICOM eGovernment Strategy. He endorsed the Strategy as the Prime Minister with lead responsibility for ICT in the region, at a meeting in Grenada, earlier this year. CARICAD is the CARICOM institution with lead responsibility for developing an eGovernment Strategy for the region. During the past year, CARICAD has worked assiduously with national eGovernment representatives from across the region, regional experts, organizations and institutions to develop the 2010-2014 CARICOM eGovernment Strategy.

In an effort to raise awareness, receive feedback on and support for the Strategy, CARICAD's eGovernment Advisor, Mr. Adam Montserin and Senior Officer, Mr. Richard Madavo, engaged Prime Minister Thomas, as well as, various representatives of the CARICOM and OECS Secretariats, Permanent Secretaries & eGovernment representatives with responsibility for ICT and Public Sector Transformation in the region in a series of consultative meetings. These meetings will guide the CARICAD team to: - Synchronize the CARICOM eGovernment Strategy with public service reform programmes and national development plans
- Build consensus on the strategy, anticipated outcomes and planned work items
- Develop a resourcing and partnering strategy that leverages current and planned activities
- Design a governance framework that enhances implementation success and reduces risks

The CARICOM eGovernment Strategy was created to significantly improve the performance of government services to meet the changing needs of Caribbean people. It is founded on a philosophy that as a region, working together we can do more than the sum of our individual achievements.

From http://unpan1.un.org/ 01/14/2010

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Global Standard for SIM Cards to Be Unveiled

EUROPEAN authorities may soon approve a global standard for SIM cards designed to operate in harsh conditions that could open new enterprise markets for mobile carriers. France Telecom's enterprise group Orange Business Services, said that the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) could ratify the standard as early as next year. Anne-Marie Thiollet, machine-to-machine (M2M) marketing vice president for Orange Business Services, said ETSI was close to achieving consensus between carriers, and modem and SIM card manufacturers. "Since the beginning of this year France Telecom (has been) chairing this committee and we are very close - at the beginning of next year we should announce that we have at the ETSI level, between different carriers and module (modem) manufacturers and SIM suppliers, a standardised M2M SIM card," Ms Thiollet said.

The new SIM cards would be built specifically to withstand harsh operating climates within machines. The cards would operate reliably in temperatures ranging between -40C and 105C. Currently, standard SIM cards can only operate between -20C and 75C. The cards would also be able to withstand high-levels of vibration, shock, and corrosion, and have life expectancy up to five times those of regular cards. Having the extra resilience would allow the cards to deliver sophisticated mobile services to devices operating in environments including inside car engine management systems. In a more extreme example, Orange has been trialing a device that can monitor dilation levels in cow uteruses which warns farmers when the animal is to give birth - helping to improve calf mortality rates. More pedestrian uses of the technology would be in transport logistics, smart meters and e-health. It's not clear whether the SIM standard would immediately be adopted in Australia; however, the federal government has cited smart infrastructure as one of the key benefits of its $43 billion national broadband network plan. Also Australian energy providers have begun exploring using mobile networks to implement smart meters.

From http://www.theaustralian.com.au/ 12/21/2009

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Nokia Urges Mobile Developers to Focus on Poor Nations

LAS VEGAS, Nevada (AFP) - Nokia chief executive Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo praised the mobile phone on Friday as a history-changing tool and challenged developers to create programs for poor countries."These little devices have done more to improve people's lives than perhaps any technology in history," the head of the Finnish mobile phone giant said in a keynote address at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) here.The Nokia CEO said relatively cheap mobile phones had done much to improve the lives of people in developing nations."Here is the Nokia 1616, nothing to get too excited about," he said. "(But) it includes a built-in flashlight, a dust resistant keypad, an FM radio, a speaking alarm clock."Farmers in India and Indonesia can use it to get the latest information on crops," Kallasvuo said. "The mobile device has become a necessity for upward mobility."For the majority of the world's people, their first and only access to the Internet will be through a mobile device - not a PC," he said. "And this access is spreading very, very fast."Kallasvuo said there were 4.6 billion mobile subscriptions among a global population of 6.8 billion people. "We are near the day where we can talk about the whole connected world," he said.He also announced that Nokia was putting one million dollars behind the first "Nokia Growth Economy Venture Challenge" to encourage developers to design mobile products or services that raise the standard of living in poor nations."We want you to come up with new and innovative ways to help people," Kallasvuo said."We've seen what the tech community can do when it focuses on problems that are also opportunities," he said. "We want to channel that energy toward improving lives in the developing world."Nokia said the Venture Challenge is not limited to software or hardware that uses its devices or software platforms. The million dollars will be invested in the organization with the best idea with the winner announced in June.

From http://news.yahoo.com/ 01/09/2010

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ASIA: Govts Eye Gains from Setting Data Free

More of the huge reserves of information locked away in the basements of government buildings should be made available to the public. So say government modernisers in Hong Kong, South Korea and Australia following the news that the Mayor of London has sparked an "information revolution" in the British capital by putting data online for public consumption for the first time, free of charge. The 'London Datastore' web site, which is the same in principle to the Apps for Democracy initiative launched in Washington DC in 2008, gives London's software developers the opportunity to unlock the commercial value of data and create applications that are useful for citizens, government and society as a whole. London Mayor Boris Johnson (pictured) told reporters at the CES electronics show in Las Vegas last week (January 7th 2010) that the London Datastore initiative would unleash information that has "been languishing for far too long in the deepest recesses of City Hall." "I firmly believe that access to information should not just be the preserve of institutions and a limited elite," he said. "Data belongs to the people, particularly that held by the public sector. Getting hold of it should not involve a complex routine of jumping through a series of ever decreasing hoops." Johnson added that the initiative would boost transparency and accountability in government, and help trust between the authorities and Londoners.

Daniel Scott, who heads up ICT Strategy & Architecture for Landgate, the Western Australian Land Information Authority, called the London Datastore (to see a prototype go to data.london.gov.uk), a "bold move" that governments in Asia are likely to embrace. "It is a familiar scenario in government - lots of data languishing in paper format for decades, its value unrealised. Too often we don't how useful this data could be, or even if this data exists," he told FutureGov. "But the more information goes online, the closer we will move towards citizen-centric government." Landgate has a familial link with Ordnance Survey, the UK government's national mapping agency, which recently announced that it would make map data available to the public as part of Prime Minister Gordon Brown's Data.gov.uk open government information policy announced late last year. The Shared Land Information Platform (SLIP) is one way the Western Australian government has been using and sharing public data, noted Scott. "Government, developers and business users now have online access to over 350 datasets that were previously only available directly through the individual agencies, if at all." Landgate is now looking into new ways of making public spatial data more accessible. Meanwhile, the federal initiative Government 2.0, launched by the Australian Government Information Management Office's (AGIMO) last year, echoes the British data.uk.gov policy by focusing on improved access, collaboration and governance rather than technology per se, Scott added.

But how can governments make use of open data sources? "Though the London Datastore will house archival data, which perhaps does not have the more obvious commercial value of live data, it is of huge value for research purposes," Scott said. "Western Australia's hub of advanced computing, known as iVEC, has a petabyte storage array and hosts shared research data from a number of organisations." As one of the oldest agencies in Western Australia, Landgate has acted as a repository for regional location knowledge for over 170 years. In the modern era, this includes a wide range of aerial photography and satellite imagers that can now be used to spot geographical trends such as changes to vegetation cover. "Some types of information only become valuable with time. With an issue like climate change, archival data comes into its own," said Scott.

The government of Hong Kong is also looking at ways to benefit from more open public data. Building on pioneering initiatives that saw local TV companies use data from the Transport Department's video cameras for traffic reports, the Office of the Government Chief Information Officer (OGCIO) is working with the Lands Department and the TD on a pilot scheme to open up transport and geospatial data for wider public dissemination and re-use. "We recognise the potential economic benefits to be gained from the opening up of public sector information (PSI) for public access," Bassanio So, Deputy Government Chief Information Officer (Policy and Customer Service), told FutureGov. "We hope that the pilot program will assure us that opening up PSI will spur creativity and innovation."

It is still early days for open public data in Hong Kong, as it is for most governments in Asia. The Digital 21 Strategy Advisory Committee, the highest-level government advisory body on IT matters in the territory, met last month to discuss how demographic, economic, geographical, meteorological and historical data could be effectively accessed and re-used (click here for more). In Korea, Dr Jeongwon Yoon, Director of the country's IT Policy Division at the National Information Society Agency, told FutureGov that while he is all for open government data in principle, it is important that governments decide what type of data they feasibly - and legally - make available. "Government data consists of statistics, practices and processes, to name a few examples. Personal data cannot be a consideration due to privacy issues, I would assume. But some of this data might be hugely useful, if made publically available. Whether or not this information is organised enough to be useful is another matter," he said. Weather information may translate into lucrative revenue streams for software developers and service providers that are in the business of customised weather services, Dr Yoon suggested.

But the concept is not without challenges. Scott cautioned that users in rural areas may run into bandwidth issues. A bigger issue is cost. "When government says it will make information available for free, it may be free for the end user - but government needs to work out how to pay for it," Scott said, listing storage, equipment, additional staff and licensing as budget-draining overheads. A solution to high costs could be new technology, including cloud computing, Scott suggested. "We have started to say that if we have a new service, we'll put it into the cloud. The same could apply to how we set public data free." (by Robin Hicks)

From http://www.futuregov.net/ 01/13/2010

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CHINA: CNNIC Halts Website Domain Name Registration for Individuals

Chinese domain name supervision organization China Internet Network Information Center announced that starting from 21:00 on December 14, 2009, it closed domain name registrations for individual users who are not purchasing domains on behalf of companies or organizations. Prior to this sudden announcement, China's central television station criticized domain name registration service providers and agencies for false, inaccurate or incomplete information in the registration process. In response to the criticism, CNNIC said it has implemented an examination and punished three domain name registration service providers and agencies, including Zhengzhou Dahuang Network Development Company, Beijing Xinnet Digital Information Technology Company, and Beijing Blinux Network Technology Company. According to the latest report published by CNNIC, users who want to apply for domain names should provide written application materials to domain name registration service providers while submitting applications online. The application materials include a domain name registration application form with official seal (original); an enterprise business license or organization code certificate (copy); and the identification of registration contact (copy). In addition, because individual users are not able to provide enterprise business licenses or organization code certificates, they will not have the qualifications to register domain names. CNNIC said as the domain name registration management organization in China, it will indeed fight adverse online information and will crack down on false information in the domain name registration process. CNNIC has set up a national domain name complaint center and will 24-hour accept complaints with the customer service line of 010-58813000.

From http://www.chinatechnews.com/ 12/15/2009

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Chinese Vice Premier Urges More Efforts for 3G Development

Chinese Vice Premier Zhang Dejiang Wednesday said the country should step up efforts to promote the development of third-generation (3G) and domestically-developed TD-SCDMA technology. Zhang urged accelerated construction of the 3G network, strengthened technological innovation and enhanced information security management, during a visit to the country's four major 3Goperators including Datang Telecom, China Telecom, China Unicom and China Mobile. Zhang said the 3G technology should be given full play to promote the informationization and upgrading of the traditional industries and boost the development of modern service industries. He required the four major telecom operators to make unswerving efforts to develop the TD-SCDMA technology, explore new business opportunities and improve the construction of a full-fledged industrial chain, so as to sharpen the competitiveness of the TD technology. Zhang also asked the technology developers to enhance information security management to ensure a safe and steady operation of the 3G technology. China issued the long-awaited 3G licenses January last year, with China Mobile getting the TD-SCDMA standard, China Telecom receiving a license for the U.S.-developed CDMA2000 and China Unicom getting permission to operate Europe's WCDMA. As of now China has invested 160.9 billion yuan (23.6 billion U.S. dollars) in building 325,000 new 3G base stations covering the country's major cities, according to Zhang.

From http://www.chinaview.cn/ 01/06/2010

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China Lowers Corporate Income Tax Rate for 186 Software Enterprises

Chinese government departments have jointly issued a notice about key software enterprises included in China's national planning layout for 2009, stating that these enterprises can pay their corporate income tax at the preferential rate of 10%. These departments, including the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, National Development and Reform Commission, Ministry of Commerce, and State Administration of Taxation, will implement the State Council's policies to encourage the development of China's software industry and integrated circuit industry, and to promote the rapid development of key software enterprises. They have jointly checked and added to the list of key software enterprises included in China's national planning layout for 2009. According to the notice published by the four departments, enterprises included in the list that did not enjoy a corporate income tax rate of lower than 10% in 2009 can pay their tax at the preferential rate of 10%. The 186 enterprises include well-know names such as Datang Software, UFIDA Software, Hanwang Technology, Kingdee Software, Hundsun Technologies, Alibaba, Samsung, Canon, Ricoh, and Tencent.

From http://www.chinatechnews.com/ 01/13/2010

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China's National Institute for Digital Copyright Research Opens in Beijing's Zhongguancun

Supported by the government of Haidian district, Beijing, China's National Institute for Digital Copyright Research has recently opened in China Technology Exchange Mansion in the western area of Zhongguancun, Haidian district. Zhang Ping, director for the institute, told local media that this newly established organization will serve the implementation of China's intellectual property rights strategy and will strive to make innovations in technology and operations. Prior to this, the institute published a Self-service Copyright Agreement, which creates several new digital copyright authorization options, aiming to provide an example for copyright protection and copyright transaction to lawyers and businesses. At the opening ceremony, the National Institute for Digital Copyright Research also signed strategic cooperation agreements with China Technology Exchange, National Copyright Trade Center, and 17xie.com.

From http://www.chinatechnews.com/ 01/18/2010

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China Says Internet Regulation Legitimate, Reasonable

China's regulation on the Internet industry is in line with the laws and should be free from unjustifiable interferences, a Chinese government official said Sunday. A spokesperson with China's State Council Information Office told Xinhua in an exclusive interview, that China is regulating the Internet legally to build a more reliable, helpful information network that is beneficial to economic and social development. Such regulation, the spokesperson said, are based on laws and regulations such as the Constitution, the Law on the Protection of Minors, and the Decision on Internet Safety pass by the National People's Congress Standing Committee. Online information which incites subversion of state power, violence and terrorism or includes pornographic contents are explicitly prohibited in the laws and regulations, the spokesperson said. China has full justification to deal with these illegal and harmful online contents, the spokesperson said. This has nothing to do with the claims of "restrictions on Internet freedom", the spokesperson stressed. Different countries have different conditions and realities, thus they are regulating the Internet in different ways, the spokesperson said. China's regulation on the Internet industry is proved to be suitable for China's national conditions and in line with common practices in most countries as well, the spokesperson said. China is willing to cooperate and exchange opinions on issues about Internet development and management wit other countries, but opposes firmly to any defiance of Chinese laws, or intervening Chinese domestic affairs under the pretence of "Internet management" regardless of the truth, the spokesperson said. According to the spokesperson, as of the end of 2009, the number of netizens in China reached 384 million, and websites topped 3.68 million. China has millions of online forums and more than 200 million blogs, and every day, there are more than four million new blog entries posted online, the spokesperson said. Chinese netizens' right to express opinions within the law is well protected, and their opinions are given full consideration by the government in policy making process, the spokesperson said.

From Xinhua News Agency 01/25/2010

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China Welcomes Foreign Internet Firms: Minister

Access to the Internet in China is "completely open" and foreign firms are welcome to work in the thriving sector, China's Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi said on Wednesday. Beijing is locked in a dispute with US Internet giant Google which has threatened to pull out of the Chinese market over cyberattacks and Web censorship in China. "We are always very happy to welcome foreign firms (in China), including Internet firms," Yang told a joint press conference with his French counterpart Bernard Kouchner on a visit to Paris. "We will continue to provide them with a suitable environment for their business. But at the same time, they must take into account China's realities and cultural tradition." "The Internet in China is completely open and China is one of the most dynamic markets in the field of Internet," added Yang, visiting Paris Wednesday. But he said foreign firms operating in China must do so while respecting "the law and the interests of the Chinese people." The Chinese government has denied any responsibility for the cyber attacks and Yang said that China wanted to cooperate with the outside world in fighting such attacks. "In fact China is the victim of attacks from hackers and we are in favour of cooperation to fight it together," he said. Prior to Yang's visit, Kouchner said he would ask for an explanation from his Chinese counterpart on Beijing's dispute with Google, describing reports about Internet surveillance as "quite troubling." Google said last month that following cyberattacks on the Gmail accounts of Chinese human rights activists it was no longer willing to censor Web search results in China even it that means it has to leave the country.

From http://news.yahoo.com/ 02/03/2010

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Consumer Protection Enhanced for Hong Kong Mobile Phone Users

Hong Kong's Office of the Telecommunications Authority this week issued a new code of practice to provide telecommunications companies with guidelines on the drawing up of service contracts for consumers. "Hong Kong has one of the most competitive telecommunications markets in the world, and telecommunications services are also highly pervasive in our society. As a result, the number of consumer complaints has been substantial. A large proportion of these complaints are disputes about contractual matters," stated a spokesperson from OFTA. The rules will be implemented on voluntary basis and takes effect immediately, replacing two similar codes which OFTA issued in 2004. OFTA issued a voluntary Code of Practice for the Service Contracts for the Provision of Public Mobile Radiotelephone Services in 2001 and the code was subsequently revised in 2004. They also issued the Code of Practice for the Service Contracts for the Provision of Public Telecommunications Service in 2004. These two codes provided that, among other things, language should be plain and words legible and salient points of a contract should be presented in a prominent place or highlighted in the contract. In addition to the new code, OFTA has also been running a pilot alternative dispute resolution scheme since September 2008. Under this pilot scheme, selected cases of contractual disputes which cannot be resolved between the service providers and the customers are referred to independent professionals for adjudication on a voluntary basis. The aim of running the pilot scheme is to assess whether it may provide faster and more efficient out-of-court resolution of contractual disputes.

From http://www.chinatechnews.com/ 02/04/2010

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Gov't Mulls New Regulations for Online Stores

While online shopping has become increasingly popular among the Chinese, the government is mulling further regulations for online stores. The State Administration for Industry and Commerce (SAIC) is expected to publish new regulations on C2C (consumer-to-consumer) online trading next month, media has reported. The reports said major C2C sellers will have to register for a business license and pay taxes, while small-level sellers will not be required to do so. New year purchases on Taobao are expected to rise from 280 million yuan in 2009 to 1 billion yuan this year. Administration officials said late last month that a regulation for online trading services is under "research and analysis". They would not give further details. The expected tightened management has stirred speculation and discussion among online sellers. "I've heard about the new rule. At least 50 percent of online stores will close if the government levies taxes on them," says Hu Chao, a C2C online store owner. The number of online shoppers reached 108 million in 2009, up 45.9 percent year-on-year, according to figures from the China Internet Network Information Center released on Jan 15. The volume of China's online business market reached 268 billion yuan ($39 billion) in 2009, and is expected to total 464 billion yuan this year, according to the latest research results from the China IntelliConsulting Corporation. But some B2C (business-to-consumer) online storeowners do not have such worries, and, in fact, welcome the regulations. According to Han Jun, president of a popular B2C company named Yihaodian, more government intervention will help build fair competition and help stop counterfeit products from being sold online. SAIC began to work on the regulation last July. The regulation is not only directed against C2C online stores. According to media reports, several firms that sell their goods on the Internet have received a copy of the draft, and have submitted their feedback to the SAIC. "I don't think the government will directly levy tax on individual C2C sellers. They will fix different policies for different groups," said Zhang Yanping, senior analyst of the iRearch Consulting Group, a professional organization specializing in the Internet. Generally speaking, online sellers are divided into two groups: business sellers and consumer sellers. Business sellers are generally well-established companies, which are already obliged to register for a business license and pay taxes. '

But consumer sellers are different. Usually only one or two people run an online store. They often operate their store on online-shopping websites, such as taobao.com, and neither have a license nor pay taxes. Of all the online stores in China, 86.2 percent are consumer sellers, according to research results of the iRearch Consulting Group. Hu Chao is a consumer seller, and he worries about the coming policies. "I opened a store on the Internet because it is cheaper. You don't have to rent a storefront, you don't have to register a license, and you don't even have to pay taxes." He worries that his costs will have to increase if the regulations impact storeowners like him. Zhang of the iRearch group says that consumers need not worry about increasing prices. Taxation doesn't necessarily result in surging prices, she told China Daily. "Big sellers have enough capital to bargain with suppliers. So increasing prices is not the only possibility." However, B2C sellers hope that large C2C sellers will raise their prices. Many B2C sellers open stores on C2C websites. And they are making use of the legal loophole to evade taxes, says Yihaodian president Han. "They are more flexible than normal business sellers. They can lower their cost by evading taxes," he says. Zhang confirmed that, adding that many consumer sellers have developed into small companies, which are not under government regulations. "This is common; more and more are doing so. But no statistics are available now." On the other hand, if the government levies taxes on big C2C sellers, counterfeit products will lose their place in the market, Han said. Since C2C sellers will be forced to ask for receipts of their incoming goods, counterfeit products will be squeezed out because unlawful suppliers can't provide receipts. "That will be good for the overall online business," Han says. iResearch's Zhang avoids making any judgment so far. "Since the regulation is not published yet, it's hard to predict its influence ... but my suggestion is to set principles instead of detailed regulations, because China's electronic commerce business is still at a budding stage."

From China Daily 02/12/2010

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JAPAN: Ministry Begins 2nd Rehearsal for Shift to Digital Broadcasting

The communications ministry began rehearsing for Japan's shift to digital television broadcasting on Friday in Suzu, Ishikawa Prefecture, to prepare for the switch from analog slated for July 2011, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications said. The rehearsal, the second of this sort, will be conducted for 48 hours from noon Friday. The first rehearsal was implemented for one hour on July 24 last year in the same city at the northern tip of the prefecture's Noto Peninsula, which protrudes into the Sea of Japan. During the rehearsal, Japan Broadcasting Corp (NHK), and private TV broadcasters will stop airing analog programs. NHK will display a message in Japanese saying, ''The rehearsal for terminating analog broadcasting is under way,'' on TV screens that cannot receive digital signals. The private TV broadcaster channels will just show ''snow,'' a term referred to as ''sand storm'' in the Japanese television industry. If the affected households complain about the suspension, local business operators, designated beforehand by the ministry to respond to such claims, will scramble to the households to hear the claims and lease decoders to enable their TVs to receive digital signals, if they wish. When the ministry conducted a survey in the wake of the first rehearsal, only 2 percent of the affected households lodged complaints, it said. If only a small number of TV viewers are negatively affected by the second rehearsal, the ministry said it will implement a complete shift to digital broadcasting for the city of Suzu on July 24 - one year before the shift is implemented nationwide.

From http://www.japantoday.com/ 01/23/2010

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SOUTH KOREA: Gov't to Invest 610 Bln Won in Computing Market

The government will spend 610 billion won ($522 million) by the end of 2014 to boost the country's competitiveness in cloud computing, one of the latest information technology services, government officials said Wednesday, according to the Yonhap News. Cloud computing allows users to save, store and retrieve data and files on remote third-party host servers. Users can access the data from any computer with an Internet connection, and don't have to make their own backups. The government plans to quadruple the domestic market for cloud computing services to 2.5 trillion won within four years and increase South Korean companies' global market share to 10 percent, the Korea Communications Commission (KCC) said in a statement. "Cloud computing has stood out as the next generation Internet business model as it is cost-effective and speedy," the KCC said in a statement. "But we came in late in adopting the service and developing technologies." The cloud computing industry is expected to grow by $343 billion in 2014 from its current $80 billion, according to the KCC report.

From http://www.koreaherald.co.kr/ 12/30/2009

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Korea Planning to Shake up Software Industry in 2010

The government is planning to shake up the local software industry this year and address structural issues that have been holding the industry back in order to improve its competitiveness. The Ministry of Knowledge Economy's operations report for the year showed that it plans to reorganize the software industry environment and strengthen the local industry's basis for globalizing their operations. According to the ministry, Korea's software market accounts for only about 1 percent of the world's $1 trillion market. Of this limited market, the ministry estimates that only a 6 trillion won ($5.3 billion) segment is open to competition. In addition, large companies that rely heavily on in-house dealings account for 44.4 percent of the industry's output, causing excessive competition among smaller companies resulting in 2,000 companies being founded and closed down each year. In order to address such issues, the ministry plans to introduce measures to prevent large companies abusing their dominance and give SMEs advantages in biddings for contracts. In addition to the government addressing such fundamental issues, the local industry is expected to see a larger injection of public funds into IT project.

According to a survey conducted by the National IT Industry Promotion Agency, Korea Software Industry Association and the council of public sector hirers, the government and state-run organizations have a 2.17 trillion won budget, 7.4 percent larger than that of last year, for IT projects this year. Of the total, 142.4 billion won will be used to purchase software, while 1.65 trillion won is slated for projects establishing systems and developing new software. The software industry is also set to receive public sector support in expanding exports, which remain far behind other nations. According to the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency, the country's software industry's exports were recorded at about $5.7 billion won in 2008, equivalent to about 3 percent of India's software exports and 20 percent of Israel's. As part of the efforts to address the problem, KOTRA and the Korea Software Industry Association signed an agreement to collaborate in seeking out overseas buyers, distribution routes and in drawing up guidelines for overseas expansion. Supporting local software firms expand overseas is also on the Ministry of Knowledge Economy's agenda for 2010, with the ministry planning to launch a body spanning all government ministries to support the industry's exports.

The ministry is also planning to promote collaboration in the private sector to facilitate expansion into the U.S. and Japanese markets, and breaking into emerging economies by taking part in projects organized by international organizations. In addition, smartphones are opening up new areas in the software industry and allowing individuals to enter the market, which has generally been dominated by larger companies. Local telecom and electronics firms have opened up applications stores to cater for the rising demand for such software. Of the 700 users registered to sell applications on SK Telecom's T-store, from which more than 1.6 million downloads have been made since its launch in September, 500 are individual developers.

From http://www.koreaherald.co.kr/ 01/12/2010

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Gov't to Spend 225 Bln Won to Turn Daegu into 'Global Mobile Cluster'

The government said Thursday that it will spend 225.3 billion won (US$200.6 million) in the next five years to transform the industrial city of Daegu into a "global mobile cluster" that can strengthen South Korea's leading position in wireless phones. The buildup plan for the city 302 kilometers southeast of Seoul aims to counter challenges posed by Apple's iPhone and foreign-made smart phones, the Ministry of Knowledge Economy said. South Korea currently controls 30 percent of the global market for mobile phones making it one of the top three manufacturers of the product along with Finland and the United States. Of the total to be used from 2010 through 2014, 157.4 billion won will come from the central government. The government plans to use the money to enhance research and development infrastructure in mobile convergence needed to make next-generation mobile phones, and create a effective testing environment for prototypes and new products. "Daegu is an ideal site for the cluster since 51.1 percent of all locally manufactured mobile phone handsets are in the city and there are over 400 companies engaged in such businesses in and around the city," an official said. Companies based in the city churn out 18 trillion won worth of mobile phone products per year. "Making a cluster is expected to help companies save up to 50 billion won per year on test related costs and reduce development time by around 30 days," he said. This can translate into a 10 percent increase in sales and creation of 5,000 new jobs.

From http://www.telecomskorea.com/ 02/04/2010

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Gov't to Spend 400 Bln Won to Train IT Workers

South Korea plans to inject 400 billion won (US$341.1 million) by 2013 to help train quality information technology (IT) industry workers to sharpen its competitive edge, the government said Monday. The Ministry of Knowledge Economy said state and some private companies will train 35,000 qualified workers within the cited period along with 4,000 high-grade experts. A further 2,000 engineers specializing in product convergence will also be trained in the coming years. Qualified workers will have the necessary skill level to hold jobs in this sector. South Korea is a global leader in high-speed Internet access and hardware areas such as semiconductors, displays, mobile phones and hightech electronic appliances. The country has a large number of experts, but there have been steady calls to train more skilled workers that could help establish longterm growth strategies and cope effectively with changing trends. Seoul said earlier in the month that it will pour 1 trillion won into the country's software industry over the next three years. The ministry will support the creation of "university IT research centers" and the introduction of a local version of the MIT Media Lab program aimed at utilizing an unorthodox research approach to find emerging technologies.

From http://www.telecomskorea.com/ 02/08/2010

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Gov't to Inject 988 Bln Won to Fuel IT Industry Growth in 2010

The government said Tuesday that it will inject 988.1 billion won (US$845.6 million) to fuel research and growth in the information technology (IT) sector this year. The total represents a 6.1 percent gain from 931.3 billion won used in 2009 with the money to come from the country's ICT Promotion Fund and the state budget, the Ministry of Knowledge Economy said. It said the government will offer support in the form of contributions that do not require repayment and loans, with emphasis placed on such areas as IT convergence, the buildup of original technologies and eco-friendly green growth businesses. The support scheme is focused on the acquisition of original technologies vital for maintaining the country's lead in the IT field, which will receive 700.9 billion won, including 112.5 billion won for the state-run Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute. In the past, South Korea had to borrow technologies from foreign sources that hampered development of cutting-edge products and services. A further 108.2 billion won is to be given to expanding the country's knowhow in convergence areas like linking IT to cars, ships, textiles and machinery, with 65.8 billion won to be set aside for overall infrastructure building, the ministry said.

From http://www.telecomskorea.com/ 02/09/2010

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Korea Throws W370b behind Wireless IT

The government plans to spend billions of won to support venture companies in wireless IT-related fields, Korea Communications Commission Chairman Choi See-joong said Wednesday. Speaking at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Choi said that a second "venture boom" is required for the country to become a "wireless IT powerhouse," and that the government will use the 370-billion won ($322-million) Korea IT Fund, KIF, to support venture companies in related areas. "Policy support will be provided so that star companies like NHN and NC Soft can be created from the mobile sector," Choi was quoted as saying by the Yonhap news agency. Choi also said that he is hoping that the scale of the KIF will expand from the current 370 billion won next year. The KIF was established in 2002 by the country's three telecom operators to invest in the IT sector. Although the fund was originally scheduled to be dissolved in December, the dissolution date will be postponed. The KIF is operated by a six-member committee whose seats are filled by three KCC-nominated individuals, and one recommended by each of the three telecom operators. Choi said that investments will be focused on venture companies in the early stages of development that specialize in a number of wireless IT-related fields including content, advertising and smartphones. The KCC's plans for the mobile IT sector includes establishing a center providing support to application developers, and encourage mobile carriers and handset makers to collaborate in related fields including operating applications stores. In order to facilitate the establishment of a collaborative environment between the concerned parties, a conference for the heads of mobile carriers, device makers and contents providers will be held on March 5, the KCC said. As part of its plans for stimulating the growth of the mobile IT field, the KCC will also form a taskforce with mobile carriers, device makers and contents providers that will oversee the execution of related projects. The KCC also plans to create an optimal wireless environment for smartphones by expanding Wi-Fi and WiBro coverage. The KCC will also review plans for introducing payment plans that will facilitate the spread of smartphones, officials said.

From http://www.koreaherald.co.kr/ 02/19/2010

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PHILIPPINES: Angara Stresses Creation of ICT Department

Senator Edgardo Angara emphasized on Wednesday the importance of the creation of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) department to boost the country's global competitiveness. "Ensuring the capability of the country in providing accessible and competitive information and communications technology services fosters growth and opportunities for Filipinos to compete in a fast-evolving ICT environment of the world," explained Angara, chair of the Senate Committee on Science and Technology. "ICT is a tool to boost a country's overall competitiveness by improving the efficiency of production processes across sectors and industries, accelerating the growth of knowledge-based services, and empowering people to access unprecedented sources of information and markets," he added.

Angara said the ICT department shall coordinate with various public and private agencies to facilitate different government initiatives such as the e-government objectives in particular and national objectives in general. The E-Government Fund which shall be created for the Department will serve as a special fund for cross-agency and government-initiated ICT projects. "The fund will be used to support and co-finance projects that enable the government to expand its ability to conduct activities electronically and provide frontline services through the development and implementation of innovative uses of the Internet or other emerging technologies," he said. Angara said the Senate Bill 2546 seeks the creation of the Department of Information and Communications Technology. "We must develop our government's ICT capabilities in order to provide our Filipinos with adept ICT-enabled programs that will equip them to be globally competitive individuals. Coordination between the private, government and even the academe is perceived to be a good way to combine different perspectives for ICT development," said Angara. (PNA)

From http://http://balita.ph/ 01/13/2010

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Enrile Wants Passage of Bill Seeking to Reorganize NTC

Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile called on Thursday for the immediate passage of a bill that would reorganize the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) to further develop the information and communications sector in the country. In his sponsorship speech of Senate Bill No. 3465, Enrile pointed out that since a number of new industry players have emerged in the past years and advancements in technologies have changed the industry from a monopolistic industry to one that provides a wider choice for consumers, the government should now provide a better regulatory environment for the industry.

Enrile's proposal is to reorganize the NTC by strengthening its existing organizational structure and capabilities to meet the rapid developments of emerging technologies in the fields of information, communications, broadcast, cable TV and other multi-media infrastructure and services. "As the regulatory agency overseeing the business operations of the telecommunications industry, the NTC structure needs to be re-engineered and transformed into a politically-independent and fiscally-autonomous body to insulate it from political pressure," Enrile said. At present, the NTC is an attached agency of the Commission on Information and Communications Technology (CICT). Its mandate is "to develop an integrated nationwide transmission system by itself or through or together with other entities in accordance with national and international standards to meet all telecommunications requirements." "The agency's powers and functions need to be enhanced for them to be able to cope with the evolving information and communications technology landscape. More importantly, the NTC must be able to independently regulate and equalize the playing field for all industry players while affording better protection for the consuming public," Enrile explained.

The proposed NTC reorganization, Enrile said, would "foster a competitive business environment through a fair and professional market behavior among industry players and ensure universal access to reliable and affordable services." Moreover, Enrile added, this would "protect the interests and welfare of both the industry players and the consuming public." Enrile said that through Senate intervention, the NTC is now in the process of undertaking reforms in its regulatory policies. These reforms include load expiry, where the NTC ordered the extension of the validity of prepaid loads; push messages, where the NTC bans telcos and content providers from sending push or unsolicited messages such as ring tone alerts, etc.; dropped calls, where the NTC has ordered the service providers to improve grade of service to lessen the incidence of dropped calls among cell phone users; and the 6-second per pulse unit of billing, where cell phone users are now billed on a 6-second per pulse unit, instead of a per-minute-rounded-up-rate.

The reorganized NTC would be empowered to impose fines and penalties on persons and entities that operate without authorization, or violate the terms and conditions of any authorization issued by the agency. The revamped NTC would be a collegial body of three Commissioners, composed of a Chairperson and two Commissioners, all of whom shall be appointed by the President on recommendation of the CICT. The Commissioners shall have a fixed term of five years with an option to be reappointed for another term of five years. The reorganized agency, Enrile added, should enjoy fiscal autonomy and all moneys appropriated and earned by the Commission should be utilized solely for its operations. (PNA)

From http://http://balita.ph/ 01/28/2010

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THAILAND: Private Sector Meets with Sipa - Agencies Propose Tax Incentive Measures

The private sector has urged the Software Industry Promotion Agency (Sipa) to effectively promote local software by addressing tax incentive measures and become the centre of government agencies to buy software. Seven IT associations last week met the Sipa board to acknowledge the direction of software promotion policy and approach to incorporating with Sipa to exercise the budget most effectively for the software industry as a whole. These are the Association of the Thai ICT Industry (ATCI), the Thai Software Export Promotion Association (Tsep), the Thai e-Learning Association and the Thai Embedded System Association (Tesa), the Association of Thai Software Industry (Atsi), the Thailand Animation and the Computer Graphics Association (Tacga) and the Thai Game Association (TGA).

As the policy maker, Sipa should define the direction so that the private sector can walk on the same course, according to ATCI president Bunrak Saraggananda, who proposed the idea of tax measure incentives. "One way that Sipa can promote the industry without spending its budget is by offering an incentive tax measure," he said. Sipa can coordinate the government agencies in promoting IT utilisation and IT entrepreneurs. Acting as a payroll, Sipa can accumulate the IT budget spending of those government agencies, and this will help drive and promote the local IT industry. Bunrak also proposed to have the private sector partake as advisor to the board who provide information and make recommendations so that the industry can go on without stumbling because Sipa is now getting involved in politics and this always affects changes in policy.

Atsi director Somkiat Ungaree noted that he would like to see the 2010 action plan of Sipa. "We would like to have a body to promote the industry," he said, adding that three problems that have not been solved for a long time include capital, labour and technology. He urged Sipa to urgently tackle those problems and have a clear roadmap in software promotion. Chalermpol Punnotok, Tsep president, pleaded with Sipa to cease symbolic activities, MoU signing and flagship projects as these offer no benefits to the country. The sick industry needs the right health indicators. It's not quantitative KPI, but it must consider the value of software that substitute the import products and services, and the value of export. "These are two essential issues for designing all activities of Sipa," Chalermpol said, proposing Sipa consider an incentive program whereby the government helps promote the local industry by offering a tax reduction for those who buy software from Thai companies.

Meanwhile, he said, there should have been incentives for Thai people who work with local companies so that they will be not lured away by foreign companies. "How Sipa will spend the budget to tackle with these two issues," he said, citing the example of Vietnam where the government promotes the local industry by eliminating personal income tax for Vietnamese programmers. Tesa president Apinetr Unakul noted that the embedded system was one of the key technologies promoted by Sipa in the past, but many years ago the investment environment of this sector was getting worse. "We would like to have a clear direction from Sipa to promote this sector," he said.

Apinetr suggested Sipa allocate the budget with a healthy balance. One third should be cross-industry, one third for specific industries and one third for others. Projects endorsed by the industry should be the same direction of industry development. Precha Am-oaj, e-Learning Association vice president, said the association was launched two years ago and has support from Sipa for one project worth less than one million baht. "We would like Sipa to be a centre between the public and private companies," he said, pointing out that the government has a budget of 480 million baht for universities to do e-learning and this is the opportunity of the members of the association. He asked Sipa to have a concrete mechanism helping private companies to work in this project.

Pravit Chattalada, ATCI executive director, noted that the first thing that Sipa should change is its the internal administration regulations to make them modern and flexible. The auditing system need not to be only done by the Office of the Auditor General, but by a body that is widely recognised. According to Sipa chairman Jeerasak Pongpisanupichit, the agency is now rationalising everything and trying to have all information transparent to the public. "We try to utilise the present limited resources to support the industry at most and try to have others partake in the activities as much as possible," he said. Sipa continues to encourage the government agencies to use Thai software as a substitute for exported software.

From http://www.bangkokpost.com/ 12/09/2009

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VIETNAM: Appropriate Measures to Be Applied to Websites Violating the Law

The Foreign Ministry has confirmed that in response to public concern, official agencies are evaluating the contents of certain social websites. At a press briefing on December 3, the Foreign Ministry's spokeswoman, Nguyen Phuong Nga, was asked on if "it is true that Vietnam is blocking Facebook and a number of other social websites?" Ms. Nga replied that the State has created favorable circumstances for the Internet in Vietnam and it has developed strongly. Nearly 22 million Vietnamese, more than 25 percent of the population, access and use it. This is higher than the Asian average. There are more than four million bloggers.

However, according to the Ministry spokeswoman, just as in other countries, rules out Internet uses that affect habits and customs, social virtue, public order and national security. That, she explained, is consistent with international conventions on human rights, in particular the UN Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. "Recently, many people in Vietnam have been upset that a number of social websites have been misused to convey information with contents that oppose the Democratic Socialist Republic of Vietnam in contravention of Vietnamese law, threatening information security and causing a bad influence on Internet users. Responsible [Government] agencies will examine and evaluate the incidence of violations in order to apply appropriate measures in conformity with the stipulations of the law," Ms. Nga said.

From http://english.vietnamnet.vn/ 12/04/2009

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Financial Efficiency Key to Software Industry

Finance is the key to developing the software industry, director of Vietsoftware Tran Luong Son has said. Son made the comment during a panel discussion concerning the development of a fund to support the software industry. The panel was held by the Institute of Software Industry last week. The establishment of the fund is a result of a decision made by the Minister of Information and Communications. Son said setting up a fund to support the claims was extremely necessary for the business sector. He added that software companies have not received financial support from the State. Meanwhile, banks had largely been unwilling to give loans to software companies, which has stalled the development of the sector. Son said Vietsoftware were seeking for investment sources. However most investors operating in Viet Nam had very little professional experience. Therefore many investments were not efficient.

According to Son, investors must have thorough knowledge of the field before providing funds to the IT sector. Nguyen Quang Trung, director general of the Viet Nam Union Securities Investment Management Fund, said capital was very necessary for business, but the mechanism of how the funds are used should be re-examined. He said if the capital was invested without the proper, preliminary research, then the investments would not be profitable. Therefore, market mechanisms would help the funds and be more effective than direct investment from the State. Hoang Le Minh, director of the Institute of Software Technology and Digital Content, said the institute would study to create two or three models in order to find out the most effective methods. For efficiency, the fund will consider new investment methods for projects starting in April and will choose a pilot project first.

From http://english.vietnamnet.vn/ 12/08/2009

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Telecommunication Law to Take Effect Next July

VietNamNet Bridge - The President's Office on December 17 made public the Telecommunication Law and the Radiotelegraphy Law, which will take effect on July 1 2010. Deputy Minister of Information and Communications Le Nam Thang said that the Telecommunication Law will facilitate individuals and organizations of all economic sectors to invest and do telecom businesses to quickly develop and modernize the country's telecommunication infrastructure. Under this new law, the state will only control the charges of the fixed telephone service, which is defined as a social service for all citizens. Service providers will have the right to set the telecom charges for other services but they have to register with the Ministry of Information and Communications before they apply new charges for important services like mobile telecom services or the Internet.
 
The new law has regulations to control competition among service providers. The law also clearly points out the duties and missions of telecom service users in providing personal information for the service providers and they have to be responsible for the information they transmit on the telecom market. Those who use telecom equipment to bug or to steal personal information will be prosecuted under the law.

From http://english.vietnamnet.vn/ 12/18/2009

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Foreign Social Networks on the Way Out

VietNamNet Bridge - This year Vietnam will build its own social network to gradually replace foreign social networks like Yahoo and Google, stated Minister of Information and Communications Le Doan Hop at a meeting in HCM City on January 9. In the meeting with agencies under the aegis of the Ministry of Information and Communications (MoIC) in HCM City, the Minister listened to reports on the situation of the information and communication sector. He cited ten important tasks for 2010, including boosting and developing information technology and IT infrastructure as well as developing a local social network to replace foreign ones.

According to Hop, despite many challenges, the sector developed strongly and obtained many achievements in 2009 and "The ministry completed its plans to turn Vietnam into a strong country of information and communications." He admitted that decentralization in ministry management for 2009 was incomplete, resulting in ineffective management of publications and the press. MoIC will set up a publication assistance fund, establish some new agencies, drastically decentralize management to curb unnecessary procedures and improve the responsibility and management effectiveness of its agencies. The Minister said that this year MoIC will restructure television and broadcasting stations speed up the development of the information and communication sector from now to 2020.

From http://english.vietnamnet.vn/ 01/11/2010

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Legal Corridor Needed to Accelerate IT Sector

Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung has urged the Ministry of Information and Communications (MIC) to exert a greater effort to provide a more favourable legal climate for its sector to develop strongly and sustainably. He also asked the ministry to quicken the completion of a project to turn Vietnam into an international power in the field of IT. The government leader emphasized the urgent need to build mechanisms and policies to facilitate human IT resources training, manufacturing, and infrastructure construction. He said attention should also be paid to the application of IT in state management and the building of national IT and telecommunications groups that are capable of penetrating the global market.

PM Dung requested that the ministry boost the progress of IT application in localities to support administrative reform and promote transparency. He highlighted the government's policy to encourage the use of electronic documents (instead of conventional paper), and video conferences as cost-saving and ecological measures as well as the creation of online socio-economic services in education, consultancy, medical diagnosis and treatment, and commerce. Addressing the 2010 conference of the MIC in Hanoi on January 15, Mr Dung praised the IT sector for having played an important role in helping the country weather the socio-economic difficulties of 2009. He said that last year the sector strived to maintain its high growth rate, modernize IT and telecommunications infrastructure, devise more laws and policies for its development and enhance state management in the field.

Press and publishing agencies also actively disseminated information about measures to curb inflation, stabilize the macro-economy and ensure social security, according to Mr Dung. PM Dung asked the MIC to cooperate with press agencies to fully inform people of the state's policies in a timely and responsible manner, and requested that the media refute erroneous arguments, serve as a forum for people and act in the interests of the nation.

From http://english.vietnamnet.vn/ 01/16/2010

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Ha Noi Gets Tough on Internet Shops

The Ha Noi department of Information and Communications just began its stricter management initiative on internet shops, due to the large number of violations in trade registration and using distorted and pornographic information. According to the department's inspectors, one-third of 800 internet shops recently checked had made such violations. Duong Ky Lan, deputy director of the department, said that internet management was difficult because there were more than 2,500 internet shops registered, but they could not check the number of unregistered ones.

The department, in co-operation with the city police and other relevant departments, will make regular checks on the activities of internet shops, and has started to hold training courses on internet management skills for district and commune-level officers so that they can assist the department to actively boost supervision on internet shops in their localities. Lan said that if any violations were discovered, relevant authorities would have the right to punish the businesses according to the law. Nguyen Ba Bo, a lawyer from the Ha Noi Bar Association, said that the Government decree noted that fines related to trade registrations and the operation of internet shops could be up to VND70 million (US$3,684), 1.5 times higher than the previous level.

Specifically, fines of VND1-2 million ($52-104) will be given for violations on regulations of fire prevention or operation times. This figure will be raised to VND50-70 million ($2,631-3,684) for internet shops that provide or do not prevent downloading information from websites with distorted or pornographic information, and those without licences. Ha Noi People's Committee has asked internet service providers to actively supervise internet shops' implementation of their contracts, and stop providing services to violating locations. Lan said that the department was also responsible for drafting legal documents related to the management of internet shops in the city, as well as the management tools to supervise the information posted on websites. Nguyen Thanh Huyen, head of the Electronic Information Department of the Ministry of Information and Communications, said that the ministry would also assign more inspectors to make checks on the contents of websites to prevent the illegal ones as well as to ask software companies to work on new online games with healthy and useful content, originating from Viet Nam's traditional tales.

From http://english.vietnamnet.vn/ 01/22/2010

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Vietnam Aims to Have 1000 Int'l Network Security Experts

VietNamNet Bridge - Developing human resources, building institutions and technical infrastructure for national information security are key goals in the plan for national information security development up to 2020. Under this plan, Vietnam will develop standards for information security experts and train 1000 up to international standards to ensure information security for national information systems. IT human resources will be also trained with skills on information security at the same level of leading countries for IT in Southeast Asia. By 2020, 100 percent of system managers of the national information systems will be trained and granted national certificates of information security. To raise social awareness of information security, users will be equipped with necessary knowledge about how to use available information security functions. The users of information services and equipment will be updated on newly emerging risks.

Nearly 770 billion dong for six priority projects
From now to 2020, the state budget will pay 765 billion dong for six key projects to build institutions and technical facilities for national information security. The Ministry of Information and Communications will preside over three projects totaling 500 billion dong to build the National Centre for Network Security Technology, a system to evaluate and verify national information security, train information security experts for government agencies and the national key information systems. The three other projects will be carried out by the Ministry of Public Security, the Government Secrecy Committee and the Ministry of Industry and Trade, including: building cyber crime warnings, a discovery and prevention system, a verification and security system for the government's information systems and a system to ensure information security for e-commerce activities of the industry and trade sectors.

The National Agency for Information Security will be established in the second quarter of 2010, by the Ministry of Information and Communications. In addition, computer security incident response teams (CSIRT) will be set up at agencies to build up a national network of CSIRT to cope with information incidents. The legal aspects of information security will be developed to deal with violations of information security regulations and combat information security crimes. Laws on cyber crime will also be designed.

From http://english.vietnamnet.vn/ 01/22/2010

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BANGLADESH: To Auction 3G License in 2010

In a bid to invite billions of dollars of investment, 3G auction will be organized by Bangladesh's telecom regulator this year. A number of top telecom companies have already indicated their interest in the four slots of bandwidth that will be sold off at open auction by the end of 2010. According to Zia Ahmed, head of Bangladesh Telecommunications and Regulatory Commission, BTRC would open up its international telecommunications gateway to the private sector, which would for the first time allow operators to lay underwater cables and connect terrestrial lines with India. The announcement has come after Bharti Airtel's deal while U.K. mobile phone giant Vodafone had approached the commission for a 3G license. Last year, Japan's NTT DoCoMo Inc bought a 30% stake in operator AKTEL. In 2005, Singtel bought a 45% stake in Bangladesh Telecom and in 2004, Egyptian Orascom took over Sheba. However, lack of infrastructure investment has slowed down the growth in Bangladesh's mobile market thus inviting the moves to attract investment for 2010.

From http://wirelessfederation.com/ 01/08/2010

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Govt Activities to Be Digitised: Law Minister

Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Barrister Shafique Ahmed said yesterday that the government had taken measures to digitise the activities of the government offices. " The registration department provides significant revenue to the government exchequer since its function is increasing day by day. The activities of the department should be digitised so that the people of the country could get maximum benefit," he said as the chief guest of the annual general meeting of 'Registration Service Association' at the auditorium of LGED at Agargaon in the capital. Munshi Nazrul Islam, convenor of the association's ad hoc committee presided over the function. State Minister for Law Advocate Quamrul Islam and additional secretary of the ministry Md Shahidul Haque, among others, were present. The Law Minister urged the officials of the registration department to initiate measures to digitise the land registration and preservation system of relevant facts and information. Replying to a question he said the trial of war criminals would commence from March this year. " The services and glory of the registration department have drastically tarnished. The registration process should be digitised and the officials of the department should be people oriented to bring back the heritage of the registration department," said Advocate Quamrul Islam.

From http://nation.ittefaq.com/ 01/30/2010

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BHUTAN: Launching Mobile Infosystem for Farmers

The launch of the advanced mobile-based information system last week will boost the local farmers income, by helping them find the right place to sell their farm produce in Bhutan. Providing access to information in four languages, it reads out to the caller a range of prices. A farmer's greatest concern after every harvest is whether their returns would be in proportion to the hard work they put in on the field. Lyonpo Pema Gyamtsho launches most advanced market information system of its kind in the world/ Photo credit: Kuensel Determining which auction yard to take their produce to can be a tricky venture as an auction yard in one dzongkhag could offer a better deal than the other. With the recent launch of mobile phone-based market information system (MIS) in Gelephu, farmers can be assured of finding the right place to sell their farm produce, as this facility enables farmers to keep abreast of the latest market prices for farm produces like potatoes. "If a farmer can be given up to date market prices for his produce, he or she is in a much better position to make arrangements with middlemen, and to control the marketing of his products," the agriculture minister, Lyonpo (Dr) Pema Gyamtsho said. "If a farmer can't access this information, he's at the mercy of middlemen, who may exploit the situation, and pay lower prices." The new technology offered by B-Mobile promises farmers across the country access to going market rates prices of vegetables in four languages, Dzongkha, Sharchopkha, Lhotshamkha and English 24/7. The farmers can simply dial 2009 on their B-mobile phone and press 1 for Dzongkha, 2 for Sharchop, 3 for English and 4 for Lhotsham. The system will further allow them to dial 1 for Phuentsholing auction prices, 2 for Samdrupjongkhar, 3 for Gelephu, 4 for Samtse and 5 for Thimphu. The latest prices for each of the main commodities for that market will then be read out to the caller, giving a range of low and high or average prices. "Around 80% of the farmers, who send produce to market, are able to receive the MIS signal," said Lyonpo Pema Gyamtsho. "Our pre-launch test of the system showed that 87 %of areas tested had clear signal, and that message was understood and appreciated by almost 100% of the farmers who received it," he said. Farmers welcomed the agriculture ministry's initiative. "So far, we've been relying on BBS radio to learn about potato prices in Phuentsholing and Gelephu," said a farmer from Ura, Bumthang. "But their information was irregular, which made it difficult for farmers to stay abreast with up-to-date prices on vegetable," said Pema, 30, a potato grower from Ura. "We're looking forward to reaping the benefits of this new technology." Lyonpo Pema Gyamtsho said that the new technology, called the interactive voice technology (IVR) acquired by Bhutan Telecom, was probably the most advanced market information system of its kind in the world today.

From http://southasia.oneworld.net/ 01/13/2010

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INDIA: National Knowledge Network to Be Set Up

The establishment of the National Knowledge Network (NKN) has been accorded the approval of the Cabinet Committee on Infrastructure. The knowledge network is planned to be implemented by the NIC and will inter-connect all knowledge institutions trough high speed data communication network. NKN would encourage sharing of knowledge, specialised resources and collaborative research among scientists, researchers and students from diverse spheres across the country to work together for advancing human development in critical and emerging areas. It will catalyze knowledge sharing and knowledge transfer between stakeholders seamlessly. NKN would enable use of specialized applications and allow sharing of high performance computing facilities, e-libraries, virtual classrooms and very large databases. The government announced setting up NKN in 2008-09 and an initial amount of Rs 100 crore was allocated to the Department of Information Technology, Ministry of Communications and IT for establishment.

From http://www.egovonline.net/ 01/27/2010

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E-Governance Project of Rs 180-Crore Launched in Karnataka

The Government of Karnataka launched the Karnataka State Wide Area Network (KSWAN) on December 7, 2009 which is a part of the National e-Governance Programme (NeGP). The aim is to establish a State Information Highway connecting the Government from the State level to the taluk level administration. The project will be introduced at the offices of the Deputy Commissioners of Dakshina Kannada and Shimoga on a pilot basis. It would be extended to other districts in phases. The project has been executed at a cost of Rs 180 crore by the Centre for e-Governance of the State Government. The main objective of the project is to establish a reliable and secure communication corridor at all levels of the Government - State, district and taluk. It would help the Government take quick decisions and delivery services at effectively and efficiently.

From http://www.egovonline.net/ 12/08/2009

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E-Literacy Program Launched in Bihar

Bihar Information and Technology Minister launched the e-Literacy program, a project under the World Computer Literacy Mission. For the state to develop, the need for computer literacy was stressed to make people familiar with the current technology. The Bihar government is trying to push the e-Governance agenda by connecting each department with the other to improve efficiency. Emphasizing the need of computer literacy among the state government employees, the minister urged private companies to step up and help the government set up the required infrastructure for a better-managed Bihar.

From http://www.egovonline.net/ 12/10/2009

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India's First Level 3 Data Centre Soon at Karnataka

Karnataka will soon have the country's first level 3 data centre. The data centre will be used to host government applications and related data, and will have a massive storage capacity of over 90 terabytes to meet the digital storage needs of Karnataka. The state government has already prepared a request for proposal for the project and is awaiting approval from the central government. A level 3 data centre typically has advanced storage capacity and has 98.98% availability, making it operational almost 24 hours a day, seven days a week and 365 days a year.

From http://www.egovonline.net/ 01/07/2010

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Revised ICT Scheme of HRD Ministry Cleared by Cabinet

New Delhi: The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs today approved a Revised Scheme of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in schools during the XI Plan. The scheme is aimed at bridging the digital divide. Priority would be given to educationally-backward blocks and areas with special attention to Scheduled Castes (SC), Scheduled Tribes (ST), minority and weaker sections and the disabled. Use of ICT in schools is expected to improve quality of teaching, learning, school administration and information management system. Under the programme, computer literacy and ICT-enabled teaching and learning will be promoted in about 1.08 lakh Government and Government-aided secondary and higher secondary schools during the XI Plan. The schools would be provided the required computer hardware, software and e-content for the purpose. Dependable power supply and internet connectivity, preferably broadband, would be provided to the schools. More than 10 lakh teachers will be able to use ICT-based tools for teaching through induction and refresher trainings. Besides, appropriate e-content in the regional languages will be developed to enhance comprehension levels of children in various subjects. A scheme of rewards for teachers and schools for encouraging use of ICT in the teaching-learning process will also be instituted. It is estimated that an amount of Rs 6926.13 crore would be required during the XI Plan. The actual expenditure by the Central Government would be restricted to the Plan allocation of Rs 6,000 crore for the scheme. The funding will be provided on a 75:25 sharing basis between the Centre and the states, except for North-eastern states, including Sikkim, where the sharing pattern would be 90:10. Recurring cost will be provided for a period of five years from the year of sanction. All students of Government and Government-aided secondary and higher secondary schools (more than 1.5 crore) would be benefited from the revised scheme. The existing Centrally-sponsored scheme 'Information and Communication Technology in Schools' is being implemented through the state governments and Union Territories since 2005-06. Sanction has been given so far to more than 53,000 Government and Government-aided secondary and higher secondary schools for establishing and using enabled infrastructure for ICT-based teaching-learning processes. A need was felt to expand the outreach of the scheme. The revised scheme focuses on coverage of more schools, development and sharing of appropriate e-content and capacity building of teachers.

From http://www.newkerala.com/ 01/09/2010

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L&T Infotech Completes E-Governance Project

L&T Infotech has completed the first phase of an e-Governance project for the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), an institution affiliated to the Union Ministry of HRD, Government of India. In addition to bringing visibility into the governance process, this project aims to enhance productivity and standardization by automating various approval and accreditation processes and work flows across bureaus and regional offices. The project also includes a four-year support of the applications and hardware. L&T Infotech will be integrating payment gateways and biometric features in the e-Governance solution. During the next phase of this project, students would also be able to have a single window to genuine national academic institutions, thereby replacing the current multi-directional process.

From http://www.egovonline.net/ 02/05/2010

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Extensive Use of ICT in Indian Forestry

The Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) is planning extensive use of ICT. The aim is to set up national forestry knowledge forum, national forestry information network, fire monitoring and detection and forest genetics resource network. The knowledge forum in Delhi will facilitate virtual interactions of experts in the Forestry Department and will help in sharing issues of forestry with national and international experts in the department. The objective of the network is to identify, characterise and preserve the valuable germplasm of a wide number of forestry species in the country. This will help the Ministry to protect valuable genetic resource against extinction and exploitation. The national forestry information network is being established using remote sensing, GIS and MIS. All land based forestry interventions will be geo-mapped and monitored on a time scale, and will be put in the public domain.

From http://www.egovonline.net/ 02/08/2010

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PAKISTAN: 'Government Taking Steps for IT Promotion'

LAHORE: Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif has said that the government is taking solid measures for the rapid development of the province and promotion of information technology for equipping the youth with the modern knowledge. He expressed these views during a briefing given by senior representative of Microsoft Chris Bunio and Kamal Ahmad regarding promotion of information technology in Punjab here on Friday, disclosed an official. Additional Chief Secretary and Secretary Information Technology were also present on the occasion. He said the setting up of IT labs in more than 4000 schools of the province would prove to be a milestone in the uplift of education sector. He also said an information technology park (ITP) would be constructed for promoting IT activities and all out encouragement and facilities would be extended to private sector for this purpose. According to him, the Punjab government would set up an IT park in the province, which would be a hub of IT activities. Private sector would be offered all out facilities regarding establishment of the park. He said IT is essential for speedy development, therefore, the government has completed IT labs project in 4286 schools of the province at a cost of Rs 5 billion in a record period of time. More than 3.4 million students would benefit from this project annually. IT would also be used for improving efficiency of government machinery that would result in capacity-building of government departments and solution of problems of the people expeditiously, he added. He said that Microsoft is one of the leading companies in the world and the government is interested in collaboration with this company for the promotion of information technology in the province. The Microsoft representatives paid tributes to the Chief Minister for the completion of the historic project of IT Labs and assured that they are interested in working with the Punjab government for the promotion of IT and practical measures will soon be taken in this regard.

From http://www.brecorder.com/ 12/05/2009

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A Large Amount of Illegal Communication Means Has Nabbed

Afghanistan Telecom Regulatory Authority (ATRA) monitoring team evaluates and investigates telecom activities regularly and permanently and reacts legally with violators in accordance with their action plan. In continuation of the activities of this authority, we were informed in January 24, 2010 that some violators have illegally installed telecom equipments in one of the areas of Kabul city and operate practically telecom illegal activities. Receiving the information, monitoring team of the ATRA, including representatives of Attorney General and relevant district police station spontaneously went to the area of telecom network operation at 4:00 PM in January 24, 2010. When the aforementioned team and representatives went to the area, it was found that four Sim box machines were illegally providing telecom services.

Using these equipments, the violators have breached the law in accordance with following issues: 1. They have used radio frequency without legal license. 2. They have provided telecom services without legal license. 3. Without receipt of approval form ATRA, they have imported illegal equipments to the country. 4. They have caused government and telecom companies thousands of US dollars damage per day. 5. Anti security activities may have been performed by violators through importing the mentioned telecom equipments. 6. Use of mentioned equipments has caused decrease of the quality of services of Afghanistan domestic telecom companies. 7. The telecom equipments have been used illegally.

According to provisions of telecom law, whenever someone resorts to providing telecom services, using frequency or importing telecom equipments to the country without legal license, their telecom equipments are seized on the basis of wireless regulation and more over the person is convicted to pay fines from (2) up to (200) million Afghani, performing any of the mentioned cases. The violators were arrested by joint efforts of aforementioned representatives and illegal activities prevention team of ATRA with the cooperation of telecom companies, and the received equipments were seized. Observing the provisions of telecom services law, wireless regulation, penal code and temporary code of penal executions, the case is being carried out by law protection organs for tracing different dimensions in order to investigate it.

From http://www.mcit.gov.af/ 02/14/2010

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AZERBAIJAN: Keep Cutting Internet Prices

Price of broadband Internet services will continue to decline in Azerbaijan, said Elmir Velizade, Deputy Minister of Communications and Information Technologies. He added that the current prices are at the level of prices charged in the CIS area. "Providers need time to make next wave of discounts. Each company makes every effort to provide quality services and the quality of broadband Internet is at an acceptable level," he added. Internet prices were last cut from AZN 130 to AZN 60 per 1 mbps on September 1. The prices were down fivefold from early this year.

From http://www.today.az/ 12/03/2009

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Political Uncertainties Won't Hamper Iran's Telecom Growth

Despite formidable regulatory and legal hurdles, Iran's telecom market will grow to $12.9 billion by 2014, a CAGR of 6.9 percent, according to a new report from Pyramid Research. From a revenue point of view, Iran is one of the most attractive markets in the Middle East region given its size - by year-end 2009, it was the fourth-largest market in the region at $9.2 billion and is expected to grow to $12.9 billion by 2014 at a CAGR of 6.9 percent, notes Dearbhla McHenry, Senior Analyst at Pyramid Research and author of the report. "However, regulatory and legal hurdles forbid foreigners from owning majority stakes in telecom companies, and with most of the fixed sector still under the monopoly of the government-owned incumbent, TCI, the Internet sector in particular is still only beginning to enter the growth phase," she adds.

"The country's comparatively late introduction of competition means that the market is still in a rapid-growth phase, with the data segment in particular (both fixed and mobile) developing very fast in terms of number of users and amount of use," says McHenry. "We expect data's share of total revenue to double over the next five years, reaching $4.5 billion by 2014; important drivers of new growth in both segments will keep the split between fixed and mobile services steady over the forecast period," continues McHenry. "On the mobile side, Pyramid expects the launch of a third operator to boost adoption and revenue, while on the fixed side, the launch of new WiMax operators will herald the beginning of Iran's broadband era."

From http://www.cellular-news.com/ 01/24/2010

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KAZAKHSTAN: Intend to Increase Share of Info-Communicational Branch in GDP Up to 5%

According to the project master plan presented by the Agency of Kazakhstan for Informational Support and Communication at the Coordination Council for forced industrial-innovative development Kazakhstan intends to increase the share of info-communicational branch in GDP up to 5 percent in 2014. According to the Agency the share of this branch in GDP of the country amounted to KZT 521 bln or 3.3 percent in 2008. In 2014 this index is expected to be KZT 1 100 bln.

From http://www.inform.kz/ 01/05/2010

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Prime Minister Assigned ICA to Develop Project on Expansion of 4G System in Astana

The Prime Minister of Kazakhstan, Karim Masimov, assigned Information and Communications Agency (ICA) to develop the pilot project on expansion of 4G mobile communication system in Astana by the middle of 2010, the agency reports. "I set a goal: to develop the pilot project on expansion of 4G mobile communication system in Astana by the middle of 2010," the Prime Minister said, addressing ICA chairman, Kuanyshbek Esekeev. According to the Prime Minister, realization of this project "will provide an opportunity to make the next step forward." He has also assigned to speed up the work on further development of digital TV in Kazakhstan.

From http://www.kt.kz/ 01/15/2010

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AUSTRALIA: Funding to Support Strong Broadband Demand

The Rudd Government has committed to bring forward $23.8 million in funds to meet strong demand for the Australian Broadband Guarantee. "The Australian Broadband Guarantee is an important program and bringing forward funding will ensure more people are able to benefit this financial year," said the Minister for Broadband, Communications, and the Digital Economy, Senator Stephen Conroy. "It is important that people are able to access broadband services while we deliver the National Broadband Network, and that is why we have brought forward Australian Broadband Guarantee funding for this financial year." "Such strong demand for the Australian Broadband Guarantee is further evidence of a growing demand for better broadband services across the country and the need for better services in regional Australia." The Rudd Government has demonstrated strong support to the Australian Broadband Guarantee, providing a four-year funding commitment and enhancing conditions for consumers and providers.

The Government has also enhanced the services delivered under the program, tripling the monthly download limit for a metro-comparable service. Bringing forward funding of $23.8 million will ensure providers can accommodate all new subscribers for the remainder of the financial year. "The Australian Broadband Guarantee remains a very popular and successful safety-net program while the National Broadband Network is rolled out," Senator Conroy said. "The National Broadband Network will ultimately provide high-speed, high-quality services to 100 per cent of Australian homes and workplaces, but it is important that people have access to basic services in the interim."

From http://www.minister.dbcde.gov.au/ 11/27/2009

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Realising Our Broadband Future

A major two-day discussion and planning session for the future of Australia's digital economy began today in Sydney. "Australia stands on the cusp of a digital transformation," said the Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy, Senator Stephen Conroy. "We stand at a time of great opportunity to improve education, to better our health and aged care systems, to create new business opportunities, to make more efficient infrastructure, and to strengthen our communities." "This is why the Government is investing in the National Broadband Network as the enabling infrastructure for this emerging environment and it is why we are here today to consider how to maximise Australia's digital potential." Realising Our Broadband Future is a major two-day forum exploring how Australia can maximise the benefits enabled by the National Broadband Network. Discussion will focus on five main themes - Smart Infrastructure, Digital Education, e-Health, e-Business and e-Communities.

Key speakers include:
* Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd.
* Premier of Tasmania, David Bartlett.
* Jeffrey Cole, Director of University of Southern California's Annenberg School Centre for the Digital Future.
* Vint Cerf, Google Vice President and Chief Internet Evangelist.
* Mike Quigley, NBN Co Executive Chairman and CEO.
* Genevieve Bell, Intel Director User Experience.
* Brad Wearn, BHP Billiton Iron Ore CIO.
* Jane Bennett, Ashgrove Cheese CEO.
* Craig Mundie, Microsoft Chief Research and Strategy Officer.
* Abigail E. Thomas, Australian Broadcasting Corporation Head, Strategic Innovation and Development.

"The National Broadband Network will turbo-charge our digital capacity and enable Australia to become a global leader in the digital economy of the 21stcentury," Senator Conroy said. "Over two days, this forum will discuss and debate the new applications and business models that will emerge in an NBN-enabled world. We will conduct a reality check of where we are now, and establish priorities take full advantage of our high-speed broadband enabled digital economy," said Senator Conroy. Forum participants and the general public can contribute to the discussion via Twitter and assist in planning our next steps via a wiki. Plenary sessions of the forum will be webcast live, with audio streaming of other sessions.

From http://www.minister.dbcde.gov.au/ 12/10/2009

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Digital Dividend Green Paper

The Rudd Government today released a Government green paper seeking public comment on the benefits and costs of maximizing Australia's digital dividend. The 'digital dividend' is the term used to describe the radio-frequency spectrum made available up as a result of the switchover to digital-only television. "The transition to digital-only television will free up spectrum that is currently used to deliver analog television services," Senator Conroy said. "This valuable resource will potentially provide a once in a generation opportunity to encourage the introduction of new communications services and to improve existing services for the benefit of Australian businesses and individuals." "Releasing the digital dividend will be an important microeconomic reform that will boost productivity in the Australian economy by enabling new services and applications."

The green paper establishes a Government target of 126 megahertz (MHz) of contiguous ultra-high frequency spectrum. Achieving this will involve moving some digital television services to new channels. "Technical studies demonstrate that this target is feasible," Senator Conroy said. "It is anticipated that a contiguous block of dividend spectrum will be suitable for a larger number of potential communications uses, maximizing the potential benefits that the spectrum could provide to Australians." The Government is committed to achieving a maximized digital dividend while maintaining Australians' existing access to free-to-air digital television services.

However, before making its final decision on the size and location of the digital dividend, the Government is inviting comments on the benefits and costs to the Australian community and economy of realizing its target."I encourage all interested parties to access the green paper and provide comments by the 26 February deadline," Senator Conroy said.

From http://www.minister.dbcde.gov.au/ 01/05/2010

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E-Health Legislation Faces Parliament

Legislation required to introduce a national e-health identifier for all Australians was introduced into parliament today. The Healthcare Identifier Bill will allow a unique 16-digit number to be assigned to individuals and health care providers, which will enable the transfer of patient information between those involved in an individual's care. The numbers will be assigned by the middle of this year and are expected to reduce current excesses of patient treatment in the current healthcare system, like running a test more than once or doubling up on patient histories. Deloitte stated in 2008 that "studies have found that up to 18 per cent of medical errors are due to the inadequate availability of patient information."

Implementation of the health identifiers is expected to assist in privacy issues related to healthcare; however, there have also been privacy issues raised. The minister for Health and Ageing said in a release that amendments would be made to the current Privacy Act to enable the Federal Privacy Commissioner to act against those found to be misusing identifiers. The identifiers will be the backbone of a national e-health system, which has been in the hands of the National E-Health and Transition Authority (NEHTA) which last year developed a four-part e-health strategy for 2009 to 2012. These included: "urgently" developing the foundations to enable e-health, coordinating the progress of priority e-health solutions and progresses, accelerating adoption, and leading the progression of e-health in Australia. The strategy was formed based on recommendations by the National Health and Hospitals Reform Commission (NHHRC) and Deloitte, which found record-keeping practices in Australian hospitals to be a "relic of the pre-computer age".

From ZDNet.com.au 02/10/2010

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SA Gov Moves to Cut ICT Industry Greenhouse Emissions

The South Australia government and the state's Technology Industry Association (TIA) have struck a new deal aimed at reducing electronics and ICT industry greenhouse gas emissions. The Business Sustainability Alliance within State Government will initially see a range of resources to five electronic businesses as a trial to demonstrate the commercial benefit in energy and greenhouse gas emissions reduction. Specific resources include eco-efficiency training modules and information materials, assistance for resource audits, support and mentoring, strategic planning support, monitoring and data collection, and assistance in implementing lifecycle management assessment. According to TIA president Peter Charlesworth, the SA Government entered into the agreement in order to achieve State targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 60 per cent of 1990 levels by 2050 and to increase the proportion of renewable electricity generated and consumed. "Sustainable businesses seek to lower costs and improve profits by continually increasing efficiency and reducing waste. The strong link between this and its positive effect on the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions is a key focus of this agreement," he said in a statement. The South Australian electronics and ICT sector has an estimated total revenue in excess of $7.5 billion per annum and employs more than 30,000 people in the state.

From http://www.computerworld.com.au/ 02/17/2010

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NEW ZEALAND: Levy to Fund Rural Broadband Scheme

The Government looks set to press ahead with plans to fund the bulk of a $300 million upgrade to rural broadband through a levy on telecommunications companies, despite opposition to the scheme. Nearly 1000 rural schools would get ultrafast broadband through fibre-optic cable within six years and more than 500,000 rural New Zealanders would get speeds of 5 megabits per second. A series of regional tenders would be let to supply the necessary infrastructure. Communications Minister Steven Joyce said the plan had received a "strong and positive" response, with 67 submissions giving the Government a clear mandate to move quickly. The Government's final policy on rural broadband and an industry levy to pay for the scheme would be decided early next year. Federated Farmers said it supported the ambition of a step-change in broadband services, but it was "not good enough" that rural New Zealand would get less funding and a slower service than towns and cities, where the Government proposes to lay fibre to people's homes.

The New Zealand Regional Fibre Group, which comprises lines companies and utilities that hope to partner with the Government in its urban fibre roll-out, applauded the proposal to connect most rural schools with fibre, but saw "significant deficiencies" with the plan. "The fundamental cause of the deficiencies, as we see them, arise from an apparent acceptance of Telecom as the most likely provider for rural areas," it said. "The policy positions set out in the proposal seem to accept a world in which Telecom provides rural broadband on terms that suit Telecom, and remains the vertically-integrated monopoly provider." Telecom, Vodafone and TelstraClear all objected to the rural scheme being funded by a levy on telcos. Analysts have calculated Telecom could be $340m worse off over six years. It would shoulder the full cost of providing phone services to uneconomic customers.

From http://computerworld.co.nz/ 12/02/2009

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Govt Favours Three Strike Internet Copyright System

The Government favours a three-notice procedure to deal with illegal copying of material over computer networks which includes termination of internet access as a punishment, Commerce Minister Simon Power said today. The previous government's attempt to police copyright infringement was withdrawn after many internet user groups complained it was too draconian and would result in people being unfairly cut off by their internet service providers (ISPs). Mr Power today released a Cabinet Paper that outlines the basis of new legislation, which will be introduced to Parliament early next year. This follows a review of section 92A of the Copyright Act 1994.

The main points of the proposal are:
* Right holders will be able to request that ISPs give alleged infringers notice to stop infringing activity.
* The first notice will inform the account holder that infringing has occurred and is illegal. Two further notices may be sent.

Article continues below
* If infringing continues after three notices, the right holder may seek a penalty of up to $15,000 at the Copyright Tribunal. The amount will be based on the damage to the copyright owner.
* Where serious and continued breaches occur, right holders will be able to go to court to seek a range of remedies, including the suspension of accounts for up to six months.
* Account holders will be able to issue counter notices, and can request a hearing if they feel they should not be penalised.

Mr Power said the three-notice procedure was the key to the process. "The procedure will both educate and warn file-sharers that unauthorised sharing of copyright works is illegal, and in turn stop a large proportion of illegal file sharing," Mr Power said. Mr Power said though right holders would be able to seek suspension of accounts through the courts, he expected that would happen only in cases of serious offending. "I want to stress that account holders will have the opportunity during each of these processes to defend claims by right holders." Many internet users are opposed to any punishment that includes termination of internet accounts and are likely to be vocal as the legislation passes through Parliament.

From http://www.nzherald.co.nz/ 12/17/2009

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Computer Literacy Standard Would Give NZ Boost - Report

A computer-savvy New Zealand could increase workforce productivity by $1.7 billion per year, according to a new report. The New Zealand Computer Society Inc (NZCS) report released today shows improved digital literacy could benefit the economy and help marginalised social groups. The report said that adopting a digital literacy standard would heighten productivity in about 70 per cent of employees at work by 20 minutes a day, or 1.7 hours a week, resulting in an annual $1820 productivity gain per employee. The report, completed by research consultants Knowledge Weavers NZ, addressed international research and case studies and applied them to New Zealand to find the expected outcome of adopting similar programmes. "It was interesting to find that there was also a gain in productivity amongst those very familiar with the use of computers," NZCS chief executive Paul Matthews said. "It's a case of people not knowing what they don't know - the gaps in knowledge and skills, large and small, making a clear difference to workplace and community productivity.

"This research is ground breaking. Not just because of the size of the productivity gap digital literacy can fill, but the clear line drawn between actual results achieved in various studies around the world and what is achievable in New Zealand. "This isn't pie in the sky stuff - this is real results and a real outcome to move New Zealand forward." The report also stated being technologically competent was an essential life skill and right of every New Zealander. It would benefit marginalised groups build confidence, overcome isolation, improve employment opportunities, and lead to further learning. The International Computer Driving Licence was recommended as the most appropriate digital literacy standard. Mr Matthews said the program was used in 148 countries around the world and with over nine million participants had helped more people than every other recognised international literacy standard program combined.

"It's really about putting out a benchmark in place for New Zealanders across the board. You are not just talking about the workforce, you are not just talking about communities or schools," he said. "Fundamentally, the purpose of bringing it in is to grow a line in the standards and say 'well this is what as a country ... we believe is the minimum acceptable level for somebody working with computers or IT'." The report said the Government's digital strategy received credit for focusing on the education environment and communities lacking digital skills, but more needed to be done. "If we want to see real benefits as a country, we need to expand the focus to cover right across the board," Mr Matthews said.

The report suggests:
* The Government take a leadership role in implementing digital literacy initiatives, starting with expanding its digital strategy to include all New Zealanders;
* adopt an international digital standard and promote it strongly within the public sector;
* set digital standard targets; and encourage support programs to look at digital competence.

The findings also suggest NZCS, a non-profit charitable organisation, alongside other organisations, should promote and deliver digital literacy programs. NZCS planned to present the findings to the Government later this month and implement programs that would "help make a difference," Mr Matthews said.

From http://www.nzherald.co.nz/ 02/02/2010

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AFRICA: Egypt to Undergo E-Government Review

The Egyptian government has announced that it's e-government initiatives will undergo a peer review, conducted by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). The review, which was announced yesterday by Egypt's Deputy Minister of State for Administrative Development, His Excellency Dr. Ashraf Hassan Abdelwahab, will provide an objective assessment on the country's e-government programs, to help guide further development and improve existing implementations. Italy will finance the review, the first such OECD peer review in the MENA region, with support from the OECD. Three peer reviewers who have their own practical e-government experience will be appointed, to then conduct a systematic review process of qualitative and quantitative factors in e-government implementation, which attempts to assess the state of e-government programs, identify barriers to implementation and suggest future steps to take. The OECD Secretariat supports the review process by providing the analytical framework, producing documentation and analysis, stimulating discussion, upholding quality standards, and maintaining continuity of the historical memory of the process. The review will also benefit other OECD member countries through sharing of its findings. Work is expected to start on the review process early next year.

From http://www.itp.net/ 11/23/2009

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EUROPE: Russia Creates 1,100 Systems That Can Form E-Government

MOSCOW (Bernama) - Russian regions have created 1,100 systems that can become a part of the future e-Government, Itar-Tass news agency cited Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov as saying. "In 2008, the president of Russia approved an information society development strategy," Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov said at a joint meeting of the State Council and the presidential Council for the Development of Information Society recently. He delivered a report titled "Regional Experience and Major Obstacles in the Development of Information Society and E-Government". "During this time, regions have created 1,100 solutions for the first stage of e-Government, and this should be done quickly," he said. He mentioned Tatarstan where a housing capital repair monitoring system is working, the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Area where a regional databank of natural resources has been created, and Khabarovsk where a unified city utilities monitoring system has been put in place. "Moscow has the electronic Muscovite's card which serves both as an ID and a payment means."

From http://www.bernama.com/ 12/24/2009

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UK: All Public Services to Be Online by 2014, Saving £400m Says Govt

Nearly 100% of government transactions will be carried out online by 2014 if new targets announced today are met. The government is accelerating plans to get all services online, and is hoping it will save £400m over three years. The Putting the Frontline First report outlines how the government expects to free-up money for public services by streamlining back-office processes. The government hopes that putting all services online will lead to better services and free-up staff to deal personally with individuals.

Prime minister Gordon Brown said in his speech to launch the report this morning: "I can also state that as a result of the work of Martha Lane Fox, our aim is - within the next five years - to shift the great majority of our large transactional services to become online only." The report says: "We will accelerate plans to drive more rapid transition to online and personalised services. "Departments will be required to write strategies that show how transactions for each service will move online "as rapidly as possible, with a view to targeting near 100% by 2014". Each strategy must address funding, and how internet access will be extended to the digitally excluded population. The strategies will then be used to produce a Digital Britain Roadmap, to be announced by the end of next year. This roadmap will detail how major services like student loans, job seekers allowance, child tax credits will go online. A timetable for an online child benefit service will be in place by the Budget in 2010. All VAT returns and employer tax returns will be exclusively online by 2011, and there are plans to join up Directgov, NHSChoices and Business Link so they "provide a platform for departments to design and deliver personalised digital services". The plans could see a large amount of work in store for local authorities, with the government encouraging them to process at least 80% of applications for school places online by 2011/12.

From http://www.computerweekly.com/12/07/2009

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UK: Brown Hopes Range of IT Efficiency Measures Will Save £3bn

The government has announced a raft of measures to save money and increase efficiency using technology. It wants all public services to go online by 2014, greater access to public data and less money spent on big IT projects. The money saved will go towards improved frontline services, Prime Minister Gordon Brown said this morning. There will be £3bn extra savings on top of the £9bn efficiency savings identified in the Budget this year. Moving services online will save £400m over three years and the government also says it will also reduce spend on IT projects by "making greater use of existing systems rather than creating new ones". It will move highly-paid civil servants from London and the South East to cheaper parts of the UK. Spending on consultancy will drop 50% and on marketing and communications by 25%, saving £650m.Greater access to public data will, the government hopes, increase efficiency through services like the recently announced online crime maps of areas. The Putting the Frontline First report says, "Data can also be used in innovative ways that bring economic benefits to citizens and businesses by releasing untapped enterprise and entrepreneurship. Sir Tim Berners-Lee and Professor Nigel Shadbolt predict a significant increase in economic growth if more publicly held data are released for reuse."

There are also plans for a potential "public-sector shared-service company." The government wants to expand the current most successful shared service centres, saying, "A specialist company of this kind could then offer services across the public sector, providing a platform for public organisations to transform their back offices more easily to reach private-sector benchmarking levels." Gordon Brown said, "Today, inspired by the opportunities new technology offers us and aware of not just the technological but the demographic economic and fiscal challenges ahead, I want to set out how in the next few years we will accept our responsibilities for good government - and not walk away from our responsibilities; and how we will empower patients, parents, pupils and citizens in new ways with better more personal more interactive services that put them, the users, in charge."

From http://www.computerweekly.com/ 12/07/2009

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UK: Top 10 Government Tech Stories of 2009

1. NHS IT scheme to be scaled back
After years of bullishly rolling out the NHS IT scheme, chancellor Alastair Darling made headlines by saying it "isn't essential to the frontline". The jury is still out on whether the UK's biggest IT investment will turn out to be the UK's biggest IT disaster.

2. Overview of today's IT efficiency announcements: data access and online services
This year was the first of many that will see public sector belt-tightening, and the government is obviously hopeful that technology will help it cut spending without cutting services. One plan, as outlined in the recent Putting the Frontline First report, is to put every government transaction online by 2014.

3. Government picks centralised network for £10bn smart meter project
The government has opted for a centralised communications network to control information flows to and from 47 million smart meters that will replace the UK's gas and electricity meters over the next 10 years at a cost of £10bn.
Announcing the roll-out plan, energy minister Lord Hunt also published a paper setting out the case for developing smart grids. "Globally, the business of developing smart grids has been estimated at £27bn over the next five years, and the UK has the know-how to be part of that," he said.

4. Access to public data
UK politicians would love to know how to recreate some of the excitement Barack Obama generated using social media, but they are all too busy claiming pricey flowerpots on expenses to get their heads around it. The UK government has however managed to emulate the US government's open attitude to public data, with its recent announcement that all public datasets would be available to all on the web.

5. Photos: What does Digital Britain mean for you?
Digital Britain was one of the biggest technology stories of the year, setting out plans for universal access to broadband by 2012. The implications are far-reaching, but the report has not come without controversy - rural businesses and residents are sceptical about the plans to extend broadband to all, and some parts of the related Digital Economy Bill have attracted high-level criticism.

6. Government IT strategy aims for billions of savings
The government's latest IT strategy was leaked, showing its plans to save £5.7bn using IT-related strategies by 2020. Included in the document were plans to create a common IT infrastructure and telecoms network, a Government Cloud for organisations to host their systems on, and a government app store. It will be interesting to see how work on these projects goes over the next year.

7. What lessons can UK politics learn from Obama's use of IT?
It is easy to attempt to ignore it, but Obama's presidential campaign showed the potential power of social media if it is harnessed properly. His campaign team used social media to mobilise an army of volunteers to campaign for them, and social networking, e-mail and texts were all utilised to connect and communicate with people. In comparison, only a handful of UK politicians have really understood the way social media works.

8. Illegal dumping of IT waste must be stopped
The dumping of toxic technology in developing countries is continuing, and in September the government said it was unable to stop it. Green IT has been a bit of a buzzword for years, but real change is hard to come by. The government is asking IT departments and companies for their cooperation in helping to stop this particular problem.

9. Why technology must get a mention in Copenhagen text
The importance of the technology sector in reducing emissions was ignored by officials drawing up plans for the Copenhagen summit, the biggest meeting on global warming since the Kyoto agreement. The absence of the ICT sector in the official Copenhagen agenda shows a lack of understanding at the highest levels of the importance of technology in tackling global warming.

10. High public sector salaries soon to be under pressure
Top CIO salaries in the UK public sector are among the best in the world, which makes it all the more likely they will come under pressure next year. Typical CIO salaries in the UK and US are between £100,000 and £200,000, but whether this is sustainable in a culture of public spending cuts remains to be seen.

From http://www.computerweekly.com/ 01/02/2010

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UK: Bad Websites Cost Councils £11m a Month

Badly designed or poorly built websites could be costing councils £11m a month, according to the Society of IT Managers (Socitm). Socitm warns that if users are not able to find the information they need quickly and easily on the web, they will either call or visit council contact centres, which is a much more expensive way for local authorities to provide services. On average, a fifth of visitors to council sites do not find what they are looking for, according to research by Socitim. Of 7.3 million unique visitors to 120 local authority websites in September 2009, 21% did not find what they wanted, and 21% only found part of what they wanted. This means nearly 4.4 million people who visited UK council websites in September did not what they were looking for. If they called the council instead, with each call costing a council £2.50 to serve, the monthly cost of bad site design would be £11m.

The poor web service at councils continues despite evidence of the cost savings good websites can bring. Despite its popularity - 70% of customer interaction comes through the web - it is also the least satisfactory, with 42% of visitors rating the service as poor. But predicted public sector spending cuts mean investment in user-friendly websites is becoming more crucial. Martin Greenwood, programme director at Socitm Insight, said, "With the coming cuts in public spending, councils must invest in their web channel so that they save money through self-service, rather than adding unnecessary cost because customers cannot do what they want to online."

From http://www.computerweekly.com/ 01/08/2010

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NORTH AMERICA: Barack Obama Names Howard Schmidt as U.S. Cybersecurity Chief

US President Barack Obama has named Information Security Forum president Howard Schmidt as national cybersecurity coordinator. The White House has announced that Schmidt, who is a former Bush advisor, will coordinate the US government's protection of computer systems. In a recent interview with GovInfoSecurity.com about the role of Cybersecurity, Schmidt was asked, what are the greatest challenges the federal government faces in developing an IT security culture? He said there are a few things. "One, we have come to take the IT systems that we use almost for granted in the fact that they are always going to be there, that there is always somebody else looking after not only maintaining them, but more importantly for our topic, the security of them. And, as we have seen over the years as personal computers become even more of a computer, it is a shared responsibility between those that are providing the services and those of us who are using the service to make sure that not only are we using it to its fullest capabilities, which is just absolutely wonderful, but also to make sure that they are secure. "As we have gone through the years, we focused more on the richness and robustness and the great technology it brings us and sort of not put as much forward as we needed to the risks that are out there and more importantly how one could really do things themselves to mitigate those risks."

Neil Fisher, vice-president global security solutions at Unisys, said, "At a time when our vulnerability to online crime and computer hacking attacks is at its height, this appointment will have positive reverberations around the world. Schmidt brings with him important lessons learnt during the dot com boom (and subsequent bust), which have been largely forgotten by other cyber ambassadors, to our detriment. "While this appointment will beckon Schmidt back to the US, the UK will benefit from a more joined up, coordinated cybersecurity strategy, in recognition of the borderless nature of the cyber threat leveled at our governments, industries and public."

From http://www.computerweekly.com/ 12/22/2009

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U.S. Cellular Offers New Unlimited National Calling Plans

CHICAGO/PRNewswire via COMTEX/ - U.S. Cellular today announced new unlimited national calling plans that give customers simple and affordable options to staying connected with their friends and loved ones. Beginning January 19th, new and existing customers can sign up for the Unlimited National Individual Plan and pay only $69.99 a month for unlimited voice calls. Families can save big and talk as much as they want each month with the new Unlimited National Family Plan that includes two lines for just $119.99. Customers can get up to three additional lines for $49.99 each. Current customers can switch from any other plan to the new plans without a contract extension. "Our customers can combine the new calling plans with any of our unlimited messaging and data options and create the perfect plan to meet their individual needs," said Alan D. Ferber, executive vice president of operations for U.S. Cellular. "We want to provide more value to make saving simple for our customers and let them know that we have their backs." U.S. Cellular prides itself in offering innovative services to meet customers' needs that that go above and beyond its award-winning network. Last year, the company introduced its industry-first, free Battery Swap program that allows customers with dead or dying batteries to go into any U.S. Cellular location and swap them out for fully-charged ones. U.S. Cellular also launched its free Overage Protection program that sends text alerts to customers before they reach their voice and texting limits and again when they've topped out for the month, eliminating phone bill surprises.

My Contacts Backup automatically protects the valuable contact information stored in customers' mobile phone for free and lets them easily transfer those contacts to a new handset - or remotely erase them from a lost or stolen phone. The company remains the only wireless provider to offer free incoming calls, pix and texts, saving customers nearly half on their bills. Information on the Unlimited National Plans is available at www.uscellular.com, at any retail store or by calling a customer care representative at 888-944-9400, or 611 from your U.S. Cellular phone. The 9,000 associates of U.S. Cellular believe a wireless phone enhances people's lives and a wireless company should be in the business of bringing people together. U.S. Cellular has a wide range of monthly plans, including those with unlimited nationwide calling, unlimited free incoming calls and options to prepay. The company has a growing catalog of phones like the BlackBerry(R) Tour and Pearl Flip, and the touch-screen LG Tritan, which offer e-mail and Web access. Those features are delivered 10 times faster over U.S. Cellular's new 3G Mobile Broadband network. The company recently received its eighth J.D. Power and Associates award for overall call quality in the North Central Region, which includes Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin, Michigan and Ohio. Based in Chicago, U.S. Cellular is the nation's fifth-largest full-service wireless carrier, serving 6.2 million customers across the country. To learn more about the company visit one of its retail stores or uscellular.com.

From http://www.tmcnet.com/ 01/19/2009

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Socitm: Public Sector ICT Needs to Rethink Efficiency Strategy

Declining levels in efficiency savings, increased pressure to help reduce cost without compromising service levels, and falling budgets, highlighted in Socitm's IT trends in local public services report. Socitm, the Society of IT Managers which represents ICT executives in the local government sector, has published its annual report into IT trends amongst public sector services. The 2009/10 report highlights the daunting challenges facing ICT managers as they come under increased pressure to deliver cost efficiencies. The report, Stretched to breaking point, predicts a greater dependency on ICT within the sector in the coming years, (a symptom of reduced "belt-tightening" budgets) and calls for a "radical rethink about how technology can be exploited for the public's benefit. "Whilst ICT within the public sector is increasingly coming under pressure, Socitm's report suggests the amount of resource spent has significantly decreased in the past twelve months. Negativity permeates through many areas of the report: cuts to staffing levels are already impacting on service levels; planned shared service projects are now stalling; efficiency savings are on the decline; and the biggest challenge facing ICT managers on a local government level is the need to "do more with less."

What's more, a table breaking down ICT resources available to authorities across the country shows a stark difference at local government level. For instance, ICT budgets at Scottish unitary authorities stand at £13m, have over 10,500 computers in use, and 121 ICT employees - that's 87 computers for every ICT employee. On the other hand, the ICT budget at Northern Irish districts stand at £6m, have 802 computers, and 38 ICT employees - that's just 21 computers for every ICT employee. Furthermore, the report forecasts the number of ICT staff employed within the public sector will fall by around 3,000. This fall comes during a period of more innovative use of technology by the sector, with the report pointing towards a trend of increased use of mobile technology and home working. Such innovations are at the crux of internal efficiency measures for many organisations, with ICT managers turning to virtualisation, the Cloud, and improved service management, to streamline operations and facilitate the change being demanded of them. According to the Socitm survey, local government authorities are expected purchase less than in 2008, with employees increasingly using aging technology.

The report also challenges the government's G-Cloud initiative. Besides its misgivings about the creation of the 'government cloud', a key concern of the report is the pace of the change; is it happening fast enough? "In reality," the report states, "our respondents are suffering from the perennial pressures of funding cuts alongside increased demand and are under greater pressure than ever." "I think Socitm's report is a timely warning shot about the negative impact continued lack of investment in IT will have on the ability to make further cost reductions in local authority spending," responds Sift Media's market analyst arm, K2 Advisory. "For example, look at the G-cloud initiative: it is critical that local authorities invest now in assessing the types of information they have to manage so that some can safely be delivered at greatly reduced cost from the public cloud. But investment needs to be made in that review process in 2010 to save money going forward."

From http://www.publictechnology.net/ 01/20/2010

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Leveraging E-government at a Time of Financial and Economic Crisis

The 2010 United Nations e-Government Survey: Leveraging e-government at a time of financial and economic crisis was completed in December 2009 and launched in early 2010. The report presented various roles for e-government in addressing the ongoing world financial and economic crisis. The public trust that is gained through transparency can be further enhanced through the free sharing of government data based on open standards. The ability of e-government to handle speed and complexity can also underpin regulatory reform. While technology is no substitute for good policy, it may give citizens the power to question the actions of regulators and bring systemic issues to the fore. Similarly, e-government can add agility to public service delivery to help governments respond to an expanded set of demands even as revenues fall short. Since the last edition of the survey, in 2008, governments have made great strides in development of online services, especially in middle-income countries. The costs associated with telecommunication infrastructure and human capital continue to impede e-government development. However, effective strategies and legal frameworks can compensate significantly, even in least developed countries. Those who are able to harness the potential of expanded broadband access in developed regions and mobile cellular networks in developing countries to advance the UN development agenda have much to gain going forward.

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Preface
Acknowledgements
Acronyms
Introduction
PART I: Leveraging E-government at a time of Financial and Economic Crisis
Chapter 1: Stimulus Packages and Financial Bailouts
Chapter 2: Financial Regulation and Monitoring
Chapter 3: Public Service Delivery
PART II: Global E-government Readiness
Chapter 4: The State of E-government by Region
Chapter 5: The State of E-government by Economic Grouping
Chapter 6: Access and Diversity

From http://www2.unpan.org/egovkb/global_reports/10report.htm

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CHINA: Embraces Government Websites Boom

More than 45,000 government websites have been set up in China amid growing awareness of promoting information transparency, official figures showed. Websites had become an important platform for governments at various levels to disclose information and interact with the public, said Lu Shiche, chairman of China Information Industry Association at a forum here Sunday. China initiated the government website construction campaign in 1999. The Ministry of Defense is the latest ministry to open its official website. In the three months after its opening on Aug. 20, total visits hit 1.25 billion.

From Xinhua News Agency 12/07/20009

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China Sets Up Intellectual Property Right Protection Aid Centers

According to Xinhuanet.com, China's State Intellectual Property Office has approved the establishment of 61 intellectual property rights protection aid centers and launched a special nationwide hotline (12330) dedicated to IPR protection aid in an effort to encourage individuals, lawyers and organizations to actively respond to intellectual property disputes. The IPR protection aid service is available to Chinese citizens and legal persons who can't afford the cost involved in the processing of intellectual property disputes and lawsuits due to financial difficulties or who encounter intellectual property issues beyond their own solving capabilities. The IPR protection aid center mainly provides IPR consulting, IPR analysis, IPR pre-warning and fund support to the eligible parties. These parties shall submit an application for aid in their own domicile or permanent residence area, or the domicile or habitual residence of the violation party.

From http://www.chinatechnews.com/ 12/23/2009

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CNNIC Launches Online Complaint Reporting Service

News from China Internet Network Information Center is that CNNIC has published an online complaint reporting service to encourage Internet users to report issues related to bad domain names in an effort to purify the online environment for teenagers in China. In recent weeks, CNNIC and Chinese government agencies have launched a crackdown against pornographic websites. One way they are attacking the proprietors of the websites is to disallow new .cn domain name purchases to individual users. Another method is to have domain name registrars revoke ownerships of domain names that point to pornographic websites. Users can log on jubao.cnnic.cn to report bad domain names. CNNIC states it will investigate and verify the domain name complaints while protecting the personal information of the users who make the report. In addition, the original reporting means of telephone: 010-58813000; email: supervise@cnnic.com; and fax: 010-58812666 are still open to users. Meanwhile, to encourage Internet users to actively report on bad domain names, from now on CNNIC's complaint treatment center will draw ten users each day from users whose reporting has been verified to give each of them a gift worth about CNY200.

From http://www.chinatechnews.com/ 12/28/2009

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China Pours Money into Cultural Resources Network Building

Chinese central and local governments have poured money into the building of a national cultural information and resources sharing network, deemed as the base for the country's public cultural service system, the Ministry of Culture said Monday. The central government has planned to invest 2.476 billion yuan (362.6 million U.S. dollars) in the project during the country's 11th five-year (2006-2010) plan, among which 2.07 billion yuan (303 million U.S. dollars) has been allocated so far, according to the ministry. The total investment from local governments has reached 2.7 billion yuan (395 million U.S. dollars). One national service center has been established, along with 33 provincial-level centers and nearly 3,000 county-level branch centers, according to the ministry. Initiated in 2002, the project was committed to digitizing domestic cultural resources and sharing them nationwide via Internet, satellite transmission and discs. Vice Minister of Culture Zhou Heping said Monday that the project has made new progress as local governments kept innovating in ways of transmission. The project has extended to a population of 50 million people, according to Zhou. The ministry on Monday also launched a promotion scheme of county-level digital libraries, aiming at transmitting resources from the National Digital Library to nationwide county-level libraries via the cultural information and resources sharing network. The plan would be implemented in 320 counties ahead of the two-week-away Spring Festival, while by the end of this year, a total of 2,940 counties across the country would have libraries with digital library services, the ministry said.

From Xinhua News Agency 02/02/2010

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JAPAN: 19 Prefectures Scale Down Online Services

Financial difficulties have forced 19 prefectural governments to cancel or scale down their often-inefficient online administrative procedures for citizens, according to an Asahi Shimbun survey. With the costs of running online systems high and the number of users low, many prefectural governments have switched to cheaper systems to reduce expenses. Total operating costs for online systems around the country are expected to decrease to less than 1.61 billion yen in fiscal 2010, or two-thirds of 2.44 billion yen in fiscal 2008. The Asahi Shimbun carried out the survey concerning 10,759 administrative procedures that can be conducted online at the 47 prefectural governments. Officials were interviewed on the number of annual online applications and what percentage they accounted for, the costs to operate the online systems, and whether they have reviewed, or plan to review, the electronic procedures and the overall online system. Many prefectural government systems suffered from inefficiency, with a single application from a resident costing more than 10,000 yen to process in 22 prefectures. Okinawa topped the prefectural inefficiency list, with one application costing 91,463 yen, followed by Kagoshima (79,783 yen), Yamagata (61,216 yen), Ehime (43,209 yen), and Gifu (25,680 yen). Aichi Prefecture has the most cost-efficient system, with one application costing 67 yen to process, followed by Shiga (534 yen), Tokyo (540 yen), Niigata (745 yen), and Osaka (935 yen), the survey showed. These five prefectures simplified their online procedures by, for example, not requiring electronic authentication. In that way, they cut costs by increasing the number of users.

The central government has urged prefectural governments to promote online usage for 19 procedures because of their high volumes of applications. But online applications accounted for less than 10 percent in 10 of these procedures, such as one to change addresses for an automobile tax and another concerning food business. Some procedures had rates exceeding 80 percent for online usage, such as one for reserving sports or cultural facilities and two related to bidding for contracts, which only certain companies use repeatedly. Two prefectural governments have scrapped their online systems altogether. The Kochi prefectural government saved 32 million yen when it halted its electronic procedures at the end of fiscal 2005, while Gifu Prefecture saved 48 million yen when it did the same at the end of fiscal 2008. Under the central government's strategy for information technology, central and local governments rapidly introduced electronic filing of administrative procedures starting in 2001. However, the ease of use and cost efficiency took a backseat, prompting the Board of Audit to point out inefficiencies of the systems. An Asahi Shimbun survey on electronic procedures at the central government conducted earlier this month found that less than 1 percent of all applications in nearly 20 percent of administrative systems at ministries and agencies were conducted online. One application cost the government more than 8 million yen to process. (IHT/Asahi)

From http://www.asahi.com/ 12/01/2009

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Japan Tourism Agency Web Site Seeks Foreigner Buzz

The Japan Tourism Agency is kicking off a Web site Tuesday to give foreigners a forum to pitch this country in their native tongues to promote more tourism. On the Live Japan site, foreigners residing in Japan, mainly English speakers, will hopefully lure their families and friends to come over for a visit. "It's an activity that approaches foreigners residing in Japan to invite their family members and friends more," a JTA official said, noting not much effort had been made in this direction in the past. Registered users of the site, who first must answer a survey, will be deemed "correspondents" who share their Japan experiences with others by uploading pictures and writing blog commentaries. Participants will qualify for points if relatives or friends access their blogs. Building up enough points will make them eligible for more than 500 prizes, including airline tickets, hotel vouchers and travel packages. People can also win prizes by just completing the survey. The promotion is part of Visit Japan, the government-sponsored campaign to attract more foreign visitors. The tourism agency hopes to attract 10 million foreign visitors next year. The government launched Visit Japan in 2003, and the number of foreign visitors increased each year, reaching 8.35 million in 2008. This year, however, the number is expected to fall below 7 million because of the swine flu outbreak, the yen's appreciation and the worldwide economic slump. According to the agency, the number of foreign visitors has been declining since August 2008. Japan ranked 28th in the world and sixth in Asia in foreign tourists in 2008. Seiji Maehara, minister of land, infrastructure, transport and tourism, has repeatedly stressed the need to increase foreign visitors. He brought forward the target year for increasing the annual number to 20 million by 2016 instead of 2020. The Internet site's address is www.live-japan.jp

From http://search.japantimes.co.jp/ 12/01/2009

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Foreign Ministry Launches Website Page on 2010 APEC Forum in Japan

The Foreign Ministry on Thursday launched an official page in its website on the 2010 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum which is to meet in Japan. With Japan holding the rotating chairmanship this year, the APEC forum will begin at a high working-level session in Hiroshima on Feb. 22 and 23. The page carries the schedule for APEC meetings and an explanation for children about APEC. The address is www.apec2010.go.jp.

From http://www.japantoday.com/ 02/05/2010

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N. AND S. KOREA: Set to Complete Cross-Border Cable

South and North Korea were set Tuesday to complete the construction of an optical fiber cable line across the heavily armed border, a defense official said, according to Yonhap News. The divided nations will test the line for two days staring Thursday and expect to open it formally next week, the official at the Ministry of National Defense told reporters.

From http://www.koreaherald.co.kr/ 12/22/2009

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SOUTH KOREA: Gov't Invites Foreign Officials to Promote U-Port System

The Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs announced that it will invite government officials of Guatemala, Tanzania, Libya and the Philippines to promote YES! U-Port. The first and second promotion will be held in Seoul Renaissance Hotel from November 30 to December 4 and from December 7 to December 11 respectively. Yes! U-Port is a representative ports and logistics information system that was developed by MLTM. It includes Port-MIS, Single Window, GCTS, AFACT and Intelligent Port Working System that was awarded 2009 eAsia Award. Through the promotion programs, MLTM will provide more detailed information to participants from developing nations who have much interest and help them visit Busan New Port where such system is currently under development and operation. The Ministry invited Vice Minister of Information, Communication and Transport of Guatemala, Administrator of Tanzania Port Authority and Vice Administrator of Cebu Port Authority and other 19 officials from 8 nations. It is expected that the promotion programs provide a great opportunity for Korea to export the excellent system, strengthen cooperation with participating nations and raise the status of Korea as an IT superpower.

From http://www.korea.net/ 11/30/2009

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Seoul to Open Blog for Communication

Seoul City launches its official blog, "Seoul on Talk and Tag," today as part of efforts to enhance communication with its citizens, officials said yesterday. SOTT (sott.seoul.go.kr) is a "meta blog" that interconnects individual blog sites and enables viewers to see developments in each site registered on it at once. It will help citizens conveniently search for information on transportation, culture and traffic and present their suggestions to enhance city administration.

From http://www.koreaherald.co.kr/ 11/30/2009

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Government Takes Lead in Paying for Online News Content

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism said yesterday it would seek ways to pay local media firms for news content they provide to government websites in a bid to enhance public awareness about the copyright of online news content. The ministry's move in favor of paid online news content, revealed as it reported the 2010 plan to President Lee Myung-bak yesterday, is expected to have a sizable impact on the local online distribution of news. Korean newspapers and broadcasters are struggling to come up with viable business models for their news material on the Web, which is currently available free of charge. The government's latest plan to pay fees for online news content might set the stage for a new business model where media companies charge a fee on news items for private companies and individual users. According to the ministry's yearly plan, Korea's 39 government agencies bought news content worth 290 million won ($244,789) this year, a nominal figure considering that the ratio of copyright infringement concerning news by public agencies amounts to 32.4 percent, according to the Korea Press Foundation. The culture ministry said the government's total payment for news content will rise roughly 16-fold to 4.6 billion won once the new plan gets implemented next year. The ministry said that the new payment plan would be applied to 59 offline media firms, excluding online-only media. The ministry's move toward paid online news comes at a time when global news media such as News Corp. are striving to stay afloat by introducing new pay-to-use distribution of news on the internet, as the traditional offline newspaper business confronts a make-or-break crisis due to the prevalence of free online news. The ministry also plans to provide newspaper subscription fees to some 33,000 low-income households, set up 45 state-run gyms nationwide and publish 2,000 audio books for the visually impaired to bridge the cultural gap separating different social classes.

Another major plan the culture ministry sketched out yesterday was a revision to the copyright law in November next year in order to put more legal responsibility on those engaged in illegal downloads of copyrighted material. Under the current regulations, there is no legal restriction for individuals' download of copyrighted material for private use. While heavy uploaders who place copyrighted material on public websites are now subject to severe penalties and lawsuits, individual users who download such files have been exempt from such legal responsibility. The ministry said the purpose of the revision to the copyright law is largely to help change the public perception about illegal downloading on the internet, not pushing some individual users to legal confrontation. If the revision is passed, individual users who download copyrighted material illegally will be subject to civil lawsuits, but the ministry officials noted that no copyright holder will file a massive lawsuit against individual users due to logistical and cost issues. Other major projects in the 2010 yearly plan include hosting large events featuring Korean food and culture, coinciding with its 2010-2012 "Visit Korea" campaign and increasing the annual number of foreign visitors from the current 7.8 million to 8.5 million. The Culture Ministry says it will support Korean companies in films, gaming, broadcast and other cultural content to enter overseas markets with a goal of reaching an export volume of $3.8 billion next year. It has set aside at least 100 billion won ($84 million) next year to help strengthen the cultural content business. The ministry is also preparing various traditional and cultural events during the May 25-28 UNESCO World Conference on Arts Education hosted by Seoul next year. The second such conference, considered the largest global event in the arts education sector, is expected to attract some 2,000 culture experts and government officials.

From http://www.koreaherald.co.kr/ 12/23/2009

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Korea's E-government Given Best Rating by United Nations

Korea secured top spot in a recent e-government evaluation conducted by the United Nations, said the Ministry of Public Administration and Security on Thursday (Jan. 14). The result was based upon a survey of the 192 UN member states and Korea also placed first in the category of people's online participation. The 2010 UN e-Government Survey, completed in December 2009, has presented various roles for e-government in addressing the ongoing world financial and economic crisis. Korea has gathered momentum to lead the world's e-government development by significantly raising its standings in the "E-Government Development Index" and the "E-Participation Index" to the top, said the ministry. The country was placed 6th and 2nd in each category, respectively, in the previous survey conducted in 2008. The ministry said it would boost promotion of the country's advanced e-government status, enlarge investment into digitalization and further induce online involvement of citizens. The ministry also plans to enhance Korea's contribution to the international community in the areas of online administration by sharing the country's knowhow on the development of e-government and by exporting the country's e-government model to developing countries.

From http://www.korea.net/ 01/15/2010

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Over 20 'Smart Offices' to Be Built in Metropolitan Area by 2013

The government is to usher in an era of full telecommuting by introducing a remote work system for government officials. The Ministry of Public Administration and Security and the Presidential Committee for National Development of Information Society announced a plan on Wednesday (Jan. 13) to build 22 "smart offices" in the metropolitan cities, including northern Goyang and Ilsan and southern Seongnam and Bundang, by 2013. According to the plan, government employees will be able to work at the smart offices near their residence, instead of reporting to the headquarters office located in busy downtown. The plan is aimed at promoting a work environment which emits less carbon gases and is more efficient. According to a 2009 survey of 37,000 government offices - central and local - just 1,300 offices, 3.6 percent, said they were taking advantage of telecommuting, and the government plans to boost the rate to 20 percent by 2015, the public administration ministry said. With an injection of 1.4 billion won, the government will establish two model offices in the Seoul metropolitan area and keep conducting research on where such offices are mostly needed. Smart offices are expected to resolve traffic congestion problems and also help working parents to balance work and childrearing in a much more efficient manner, eventually helping raise the nation's low birth rate, the ministry said.

From http://www.korea.net/ 01/15/2010

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Korea Must Utilize Its E-government Title to Excel Further

Alongside the roar of the white tiger in celebration of 2010, South Korea has yet another reason to applaud the New Year: it has placed first in an e-government survey conducted by the United Nations. Every other year, the UN carries out such a survey of its 192 member nations. According to this year's assessment, Korea has surpassed all leading nations, including the United States, the United Kingdom, Denmark and Japan, proudly taking first place. For a thorough appraisal, the UN levels its eyes and perspectives to those of citizens, and Korea was regarded highly for its ease of website use, efficient methods for handling civil complaints and online participation in policy making. Korea received, for the first time ever, a perfect score. This award is noteworthy for a multitude of reasons, but foremost because it is the outcome of our e-government's services that revolved around the desire to maximize citizens' benefits and because it symbolizes Korea's status as a leading IT nation. In the last two years, the Lee Myung-bak administration has worked on turning the direction of national digitalization from "promotion" to "utilization" and "integration," hence improving people's access to government e-data. It has also invested an incredible amount of effort to increase online accessibility for the disabled and to counter the adverse effects of Internet use, all of which made this award a possibility. However, the real hero of this award, hidden behind the anonymity of the Internet, are the citizens of the Republic of Korea. The citizens are the ones who have held high standards and been persistent, seeking a more convenient, speedy and efficient service.

This is what ultimately became the driving force that helped the e-government to advance all the way to first place. The award has come just in time for this year's G20 Seoul Summit, to be held this November; it has proven to the world that Korea is a host-worthy nation and will serve to make G20 related events shine even more. Through the Summit, the other 19 advanced and developing countries will experience our e-government's excellence and take a new look at our nation from a new perspective. Furthermore, those of the countries that are on par with our own in economic terms will be fueled to strive to raise their e-government standards. We must maximize this opportunity that is already playing in favor of us. Several countries around the world will adopt our IT products to discuss Korean e-government and our exported goods will rise in popularity. This all will add up to raise the country's brand value exponentially. But, this doesn't mean we have the right or the breathing space to become the least bit vain. We are just becoming one of the many leaders and we must strive to advance overseas, as well as reinforce the contribution we make to international society.

From http://www.korea.net/ 02/05/2010

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IT Technology to Be Used for Rivers Restoration

The Office for the Four Major Rivers Restoration announced that it will carry out a project to use IT technology in river restoration, especially in securing water resources, controlling floods, improving water quality and ecosystem and developing multi-use areas around the rivers. Firstly, it will set up an infrastructure for water resource information to respond to extreme weather events that will be caused by water scarcity and climate change in the future. To this end, the river flow management system will be improved for better identification of real-time water quantity and usage and the existing 2-dimensional river topographical information management system will be transformed into a 3-dimentional one. The water resource management information system that is currently provided to the public will have more information on the four rivers. Secondly, it will establish an infrastructure to preemptively respond to frequent floods To this end, the existing flood warning system will be used for 16 weirs and 96 agricultural reservoirs that are currently under construction. It will create a river facility safety system and an alarming system that provide information on natural disasters and reduce preventable accidents.

Thirdly, the Ministry of Environment, the Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs and the Ministry of Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries will jointly cooperate to preserve water quality and ecosystem. They will create a water quality monitoring system that measures the water quality of 16 weirs as well as a system that prevents algae bloom in the four rivers. Furthermore, underwater fish robots will be developed for aquanautics and monitoring. Lastly, the Office will develop water fronts and a digital tour system to provide information to river visitors and revitalize local economies. It will also install Solar LED trees for better night view and an optical communications network to meet the future demand of communications around rivers. The Office will spend about 115 billion won in this project and start it from this year to finish it by 2012. It is expected that the project will help operate rivers more efficiently, prevent floods and other natural disasters and thereby significantly improve people's living standard.

From http://www.korea.net/ 02/12/2010

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MALAYSIA: Govt Teams Up with EBay to Aid SMEs

Online auction site eBay and its payment provider PayPal have signed a deal with government-controlled SME Corp Malaysia that will benefit small- and medium-scale enterprises (SMEs) in the country. "We want to help the SMEs break into e-commerce to give them a competitive advantage in the global arena," said Datuk Dr Mohamed Al Amin Abdul Majid, chairman of SME Corp. "By taking their business online, they will be able to compete with the larger firms - local and international." Under the agreement, eBay will organise education services and e-commerce workshops in several major cities across the country. These eBay education specialists will be onsite to help interested SMEs get started.

"The SMEs will also receive dedicated account support and discounts on selected fees," said Jeff Liao, eBay's chief executive for Greater China, South-East Asia and Japan. The discounts include a waiver of insertion fees and selected features for the first 100 eBay listings, as well as a 25% discount on fees for the first 100 payments received via PayPal. PayPal recently added the ringgit as an official trading currency, making it more convenient for Malaysian users and businesses to operate on eBay. "There are a lot of misconceptions with regards to transactions on the Internet in Malaysia," said Abdul Majid. "We hope this partnership with the world's largest e-commerce platform will go a long way in making Malaysians more comfortable with trading online."

From http://star-techcentral.com/ 02/01/2010

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PHILIPPINES: Lawmakers Bat for Stronger NTC to Cope With IT Developments

Lawmakers have urged for the reorganization of the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) to enable it to meet rapid developments in information and communications technologies. Camarines Sur Rep. Luis Villafuerte and Leyte Rep. Ferdinand Martin Romualdez filed House Bill 6968 that would reorganize the NTC and strengthen its existing powers. "As a number of new players have emerged in the past years, it has become imperative for the government to provide a regulatory environment to develop a viable, adequate, efficient and universal information and communications sector using the best available and affordable technologies," said Villafuerte. "Universal access to reliable and affordable services must be ensured and the interest and welfare of both the industry players and the consuming public must be protected," he said.

On the other hand, Romualdez has called for the immediate approval of the bill, saying "governments throughout the world have devoted efforts towards the development and management of information systems to streamline and improve efficiency in the delivery of basic services to the people." Under the bill, which also grants the NTC fiscal autonomy, its appropriation may not be reduced below the amount appropriated for the previous year. The fund shall be automatically and regularly released after approval. The NTC shall also have jurisdiction over all persons and entities engaged in the operation and/or provision of information and communications technology, broadcast, cable TV and other multi-media infrastructure and services. It shall also have the power to establish standards, specifications, measures, guidelines, rules and regulations that will govern the operations of service providers in the areas of information and communications technology, broadcast, cable TV and other multi-media service providers. HB 6968 also requires the NTC to establish a rigorous training program, to include the setting up of training center, for its personnel to enhance the technical and regulatory competence of the Commission in its monitoring and enforcement of laws, rules and regulation, and compliance thereof. (PNA)

From http://balita.ph/ 01/03/2010

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THAILAND: ICT Minister Tells TOT to Improve 3G Service Quality in Bangkok in 90 Days

Information and Communications Technology Minister Ranongruk Suwanchawee said Sunday that she had instructed the TOT Plc to improve the network and quality of 3G wireless broadband service in 90 days.Ranongruk said the TOT must ensure that the signals of its 3G 1900 MHz will work well in Bangkok in three months. She said the TOT would also have to rush to expand its customer base to meet the target of 500,000 numbers. She said the TOT is now drafting a business plan to launch its service in major provinces, which are tourist destinations, in the second phase expansion.The business plan will be submitted to the National Economic and Social Development Board for approval by the middle of this year.

From http://www.nationmultimedia.com/ 01/03/2010

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VIETNAM: IT Use in Government Boosts Efficiency

The use of information technology in public administration has played an integral part in the country's socio-economic development, the Ministry of Information and Communications said at a conference in Ha Noi last week. About 85 per cent of officials in ministries and ministerial agencies and 55 per cent at city and provincial levels used computers, the ministry said. More than 80 per cent of state agencies at ministerial, municipal and provincial levels had internal networks, the ministry reported. About 80 per cent of ministerial agencies and 39 per cent of municipal and provincial agencies used email and many had websites, the ministry said. Many ministerial meetings and others were held online, saving costs and time, it said. Also, a number of Government officials held online discussions with the public on socio-economic issues.

A new version of the Government's e-portal had been opened in October, helping support people's access to information, the ministry said. Last year the Government provided the media with information through online press conferences. Meanwhile, a seminar held by the Ministry of Information and Communications heard a call from businesses for Government policies to help develop the IT labour force. They said the lack of practicability in current policies and development strategy was restraining IT development. Viet Nam had a lower competitive advantage in technological infrastructure, market share and price, but the country could develop its intellectual, design and technological capabilities, they said. Minister of Information and Communication Le Doan Hop said the country must develop hardware and digital services. Hop said the ministry would develop a network plan to provide information on domestic and overseas labour sources.

From http://english.vietnamnet.vn/ 12/28/2009

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Ministry Firm on Mobile Deadline

VietNamNet Bridge - The deadline for mobilephone users to declare personal information will remain, according to the Ministry of Information and Communications. Pham Hong Hai, head of the ministry's telecommunications agency, told Nguoi Lao Dong newspaper (The Labourer) that circular letter No 22 stipulates that today (December 31) is the final date for all subscribers to declare their personal information. If they don't, their information will be deleted from the database of mobile networks. Under the new government regulations, a subscriber can own a maximum of three phone numbers on one mobilephone network. The three largest mobile networks, Viettel, Vinaphone and Mobiphone, said it would be difficult to ensure that all pre-paid subscribers complete their registration by the deadline. They have proposed an extension for this work.

More than 60 million SIM cards need to be registered, according to the seven mobile networks in Viet Nam such as to Vinaphone, Mobiphone, Viettel, S-Fone, EVN, Telecom, Vietnamobile and Gtel. In order to speed up the declaration, three of the mobilephone operators launched promotions for prepaid subscribers, such as free minutes worth VND30,000. Service providers set up a network of agents and bureaus aiming to create favourable conditions for subscribers.

However, a large number of prepaid subscribers have not registered. MobiFone network said by December 29, 85 per cent of its subscribers had registered their personal information. Meanwhile, nearly 125,000 out of 45 million subscribers had not registered their information. A large number of activated SIM cards are in circulation, but they are not being used. Lan, an owner of a SIM card shop on Nguyen Khuyen Street in Ha Noi, said yesterday that many customers were buying SIM cards and ignoring the ministry's regulation. Many buyers said they were using the card for one or two days only.

From http://english.vietnamnet.vn/ 12/31/2009

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BANGLADESH: Telecommunications Report Q1 2010 - New Report Published

Bangladesh Telecommunications Company Limited (BTCL)'s share of the fixed-line market is in decline, as it faces growing competition from rivals, which total 11 operators. The market leader, which has witnessed a decline in fixed-line market shares to reach 54.8% in Q309, which was down from 60.6% in June 2009, compared to 62.9% in Q308, has plans to create a further 10mn new landline connections by 2015. There are also plans to install 1mn new fixed connections across the country at a cost of BDT12bn by the operator, which is to be aided by a Chinese government soft loan valued at US$189mn. The fixed-line market of Bangladesh continues rise, in contrast to many of its regional peers, which have witnessed a decline in their markets. At the end of September 2009, the Bangladesh Telecommunications Regulatory Commission (BTRC) stated there had been more than 158,000 net additions in the quarter, which was up from 50,400 net additions in Q209, to take the total to 1.592mn subscribers. The stronger than anticipated growth led BMI to revise upwards its expectations for the year ended December 2009, which we now believe will reach 1.611mn, to account for a penetration rate of 1.11%. By the end of our five-year forecast in 2014, we expect around 3.298mn lines, to account for a penetration rate of 2.11%. While the fixed-line market is expected to continue to grow over our five-year forecast, there are greater concerns within the telecoms industry over the development of the broadband market. As we cited last quarter, a study by JETRO found Bangladesh to have among the highest charges for broadband services, potentially leading to a loss of foreign investment to neighbouring countries. To resolve this, the government sought to reduce broadband tariffs, while broadband market leader BTCL also dropped its broadband service tariffs. However, this may appear to have been insufficient. The operator announced in November 2009, the introduction of three new tariffs. The operator reported that earlier tariff reductions had gone unnoticed by customers due to a lack of publicity. With these new tariffs, it aims to attract new customers. Commercial WiMAX services were also launched in the quarter by Augere Wireless Broadband. In October 2009, the operator had launched WiMAX services in some designated areas of Dhaka under the brand name of Qubee. Two packages have been offered in the initial phase: 521Kbps at BDT3,400 per month, while the 1MB package has been fixed at BDT6,200. The modem price for both packages is BDT7,000. Although the operator admits its tariffs are by no means cheap and could be lower, it is focusing on quality first. BanglaLion launched WiMAX services in Dhaka in November 2009 and was reported to have placed an order for 10,000 WiMAX customer premises equipment (CPE) units with telecoms equipment vendor Accton.

From http://www.officialwire.com/ 01/13/2010

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Bangladesh to Follow Singapore in ICT

Bangladesh on to follow experiences and practices of Singapore in Information and Communication Technology (ICT) to achieve its vision for a digital country by 2021. Singapore has been consistently ranked as one of the top countries in e-Governance and for ease of doing business. Today in Singapore, over 2,000 government services are available online. Drawing on the Singapore example, the Bangladesh government's vision of Digital Bangladesh can be a catalyst to improve service delivery to citizens and business in Bangladesh.

From http://www.egovonline.net/ 02/04/2010

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INDIA: Orissa Government Goes Online

The RTI portal developed by the Information and Public Relation (I & PR) Department and the State Information Commission in association with Luminous Infoways, allows the access to different departments and wings of the Government, to file RTI applications and receive the response by logging on to www.rtiorissa.gov.in. As per the Section 4 (1) A of the RTI Act every Government department or organisation would have to make available all information through computer network, display board and maintain registers for public. Every department and their subordinate offices would be linked up in the network through a software christened Lok Soochana and provided with individual IDs and passwords for uploading information. About 600 departments and Government organisations have been linked up with individual IDs. Besides, providing comprehensive information on their organisation and activities, the network would enable each parent department to monitor if their subordinate offices were implementing RTI properly. The I&PR Department being the nodal agency would also be able to monitor the RTI implementation by the other wings of the Government and report to the CIC.

From http://www.egovonline.net/ 12/11/2010

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MP Gets 4 E-Governance Awards of South Asia

Madhya Pradesh would get the prestigious e-Governance Manthan Award 2009. Four departments of the state government have been appreciated at the international level. MP has been selected for this award considering the working and quality of e-Governance. Madhya Pradesh has already received NASCOM CNBC IT Award and CSI Nihilent Award for Best e-Governance State. Manthan e-Governance award is given for all round development in e-Governance. The award jury is very much impressed by the use of Information Technology in development works. The jury was so impressed that it has announced Best Jury Award to the Automatic Meter Reading system introduced by the state electricity department. School education department is awarded for its MP State Education Portal, higher education department for its e-Samvad, and for mobile governance in management of forests by the forest department.

From http://www.egovonline.net/ 12/14/2009

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Computerisation of Civic Body Records by Urban Development Ministry

The Ministry of Urban Development has developed a project for computerisation of all civic body records to facilitate an efficient e-Governance in municipalities. The main objective of this project is to empower citizens and increasing the efficiency of urban administration. This step would address various problems that the people are facing due to rapid urbanisation. The project seeks to offer a public interface for enhanced service delivery of all records related to municipalities, decentralisation, better information management and transparency. By improving the interaction between local governments, people and other stakeholders, such as Non Government Organisations (NGOs) and Resident Welfare Associations (RWAs), it will try to ensure the involvement of citizens. In the beginning, the scheme would be a part of the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) for 35 cities with a population of over 10 lakh. Based on the analysis of its implementation under JNNURM, a new Centrally-sponsored scheme for other cities and towns would be initiated.

From http://www.egovonline.net/ 01/11/2010

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E-Government Inaugurated in Sukkur by Sindh Minister

Sindh Minister for Information Technology (IT) inaugurated the e-Government project in Sukkur on January 25, 2010. e-Government was meant for providing basic facilities to the people. The project would ensure transparency and merit in the recruitment of employees in various departments. The project would be launched in 22 districts of Sindh and all the departments will be linked for the convenience of the people. The purpose behind the e-Government was to secure documentation of the data of the district government departments. Such projects would also be initiated at Taluka level. Activities of all the departments would be monitored through the project and data regarding finance, domicile and accounts would be secured as well.

From http://www.egovonline.net/ 01/27/2010

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Delhi Gears Up for Digitised Governance

With the 3-Dimensional Geographic Information System (GIS) Mapping of the city now complete, the city is ready for a digital governance ride. Governance in Delhi will be a hi-tech affair from April 2010 as the state government has completed the 3-Dimensional Geographic Information System Mapping of the city. When the system becomes operational, the Government of Delhi will virtually be run by Satellite. Entire Delhi will be displayed on the computer screens of its officers and with a click of button of the mouse; officials can see the status of different works going around the city. The satellite system will be able to take pictures 10 metres under the ground in the city. Top level officers will be able to give instructions to their juniors after watching the display of various works going on around the city on their computer screen.

From http://www.egovonline.net/ 02/03/2010

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India to Use the 'Cloud' Services for E-Governance

India is to become the first country in the world to deliver e-Governance services to citizens using cloud-based IT services. The government is in talks with software industry body, Nasscom, on the roll-out of e-Governance services using the emerging technology. The advantage of using this technology is that the IT infrastructure need not be set up by the government. In addition, because of the ability of the technology to handle large number of transactions, citizens can look forward to less congestion bottlenecks.

From http://www.egovonline.net/ 02/11/2010

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Nasscom to Focus on E-Governance

The IT industry's apex body, Nasscom, announced that it will further enhance its focus on 'e-Governance' during the year. Its initiatives cover the areas of e-Governance and other mission mode government IT projects at both Central and State Governments. Kicking off the 18th edition of the Nasscom India Leadership Forum, the flagship event of Nasscom, here, it said the domestic sector in the past year has witnessed rapid growth, largely led by government spending on IT. Nasscom has been a keen proponent of e-Governance which has become a top priority for the government.

From http://www.egovonline.net/ 02/12/2010

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Ministry Of Communication and IT Signed a One Million USD Agreement with USAID

In the past 8 years Ministry of Communications and IT has achieved huge success; the ministry has served the country with advanced and developed telecom services based on adoption of best policies. Besides these achievements ministry has also built its internal capacity by putting together capable team in the areas of finance, procurement, inspection and reporting. During the past year USAID has conducted an evaluation of Ministry in the above areas and declared that MCIT has enough capacity to receive grant from USAID and perform direct procurement. USAID has given grant of USD 1 million on pilot bases, if MCIT invest this fund in transparent and efficient way in the area of ICT development, USAID will consider expanding the grant value in second phase of Host Country Contracting. Ministry has contracted Grail Consulting for USD 860,000.00 out of USD 1 million for the development of 80 government websites and email system (which will be hosted in the recently established National Data Center y the Ministry of Communications and IT), Electronic Document System (on pilot bases in MCIT) and CIO (Chief Information Officer) training for the IT heads of 30 government organizations.

From http://www.mcit.gov.af/ 01/24/2010

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ARMENIA: Introduce E-governance in 2012

The electronic governance will be introduced in Armenia in January 2012. According to the press office of the Secretary of National Security Council, an inter-agency working group will elaborate a concept of introduction of e-governance within a three-year Armenia-EU program by September 2010. As secretary of the National Security Council Arthur Baghdasaryan told today's meeting of the working group, new governance system must include not only public authorities and municipalities, but also create an opportunity for businesses to communicate with state bodies via e-mail. According to him, a new governance system will reduce corruption risks and eliminate the red tape. Elaboration and implementation of the concept will be carried out accordingly with legislative changes.

From Today.Az 02/04/2010

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AZERBAIJAN: Aiming for Mobile Number Portability Later This Year

Azerbaijan's Ministry of Communications and Information Technology has confirmed that it is working on plans for Mobile Number Portability to be offered later this year. Minister Ali Abbasov told a meeting at the Ministry that the plans have been submitted to the Cabinet for approval. "However, there is one issue outstanding: mobile operators and stationary communication operators have to reach agreement. We will try to implement this service this year," Abbasov told the local News Agency. He also confirmed that Azercell Telecom may be granted a 3G license this year. "Azercell is the first candidate to apply for a 3G licence," he added, although local media reported last year that Azerfon had already been granted a 3G license. The licence fee is AZN 11,000 (US$13,700). The Mobile World database notes that there are three GSM operators, along with one CDMA operator in the country. At the end of Q3 '09, there were just over 8.1 million subscribers in the country - representing a population penetration level of 78%.

From News.az 01/25/2010

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KYRGYZSTAN: Software Used to Aid Economic Reform

The government of the Kyrgyz Republic is implementing an integrated Treasury Management Information System (TMIS) and Human Resource Management Information System (HRMIS) as part of the former Soviet country's push for economic reform. The TMIS is designed to improve the efficiency of government, decision-making, cash management and budget execution. The system will help ensure that all government budgets are executed according to government priorities. The HRMIS was implemented to aid civil service reform and increase human capacity within government. Effective human resource management systems will assist in the improved professionalisation of the civil service through setting standards, training programs for personnel development and assessing progress. "The Government of the Kyrgyz Republic is committed to public expenditure reform that will establish a more strategic and transparent budget formulation and budget execution process," said Saidbek Zulpuev, Director of the Central Treasury and Deputy Minister of Finance of the Government of the Kyrgyz Republic.

"The introduction of integrated planning solutions as part of the reform process positions our Government to affect change and provide new levels of accountability and value to our citizens." The new technology, branded the FreeBalance Accountability Suite, will be implemented in over 100 sites, including all central government ministries, agencies, departments, and regional treasury offices. Software will also be implemented in 3000 state agencies and budget organisations. The payroll system will handle a civil service workforce of 76,000 employees. The reform of the Kyrgyz Republic's public sector has been supported by a Governance Structural Adjustment Credit from the World Bank's International Development Association.

From http://www.futuregov.net/ 01/04/2010

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UZBEKISTAN: Officials Learn Ensuring Information Security

Deputies and assistants of governors of Tashkent city, Tashkent region, Jizzakh region and Syrdarya region participated at the educational seminar in Tashkent on 3 February 2010. The seminar is aimed at improving skills and knowledge of local officials in political, social and economic spheres, their responsibility to implement priority tasks on reforming and liberalization of economy. During the seminar, the officials also discussed issues of information tools in management and ensuring national security in informatization process. The seminar underlined that Uzbekistan pays great attention to ensuring information security in state level. Participants reviewed issues of threat classification at construction of information security organization, selection of anti-virus solutions, combating cyber crimes and others. The similar educational seminars are organized in other regions of Uzbekistan.

From http://www.uzdaily.com/ 02/04/2010

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AUSTRALIA: Digital Projects to Improve Services in Regional Communities

The Prime Minister today announced a $26.5 million investment in the first seven Digital Regions projects that will deliver more connected health, education and emergency services in regional, rural and remote communities across Australia. The Prime Minister made the announcement at the Realizing our Broadband Future Forum held at the University of New South Wales in Sydney. The Digital Regions Initiative is about making sure that regional, rural and remote communities benefit from broadband and digital technologies and are not left behind.

* Ambulance Mobile Connect in South Australia will provide vehicles with mobile computing terminals connected via a high speed mobile network ($2.3 million).
* Health e-Towns in the Northern Territory will deliver ICT enabled health, education and training services for 17 remote towns ($7 million).
* Bushfire Spotting and Response technologies in North East Victoria will use remote cameras, telemetry and video conferencing to enhance fire detection, management and response capability ($500,000).
* Chronic Disease Management systems in the Hunter New England region in NSW will increase coverage of facility based telehealth services ($5 million).
* Bushfire prediction technology project In Western Australia will provide communities with bushfire alerts and access to simulation maps ($2.8 million).
* Connected - Any Student, Any School project in Tasmania will deliver practical, hands on global e-learning programs to schools ($4.9 million).
* The CDM-Net health project in Bar won, Victoria and Queensland, will assist in developing and managing a chronic disease care plan for patients ($4 million).

The $60 million Digital Regions Initiative co-funds projects in partnership with state, territory and local governments. It was announced in the 2009-10 Budget as part of the Government's response to the Regional Telecommunications Review (RTR), which was chaired by Dr Bill Glasson AO. The two-day, Realizing our Broadband Future Forum has been held to plan for Australia's digital future and identify ways to maximize the potential benefits from a high speed National Broadband Network. The Forum brings together hundreds of broadband and digital experts, and business and community leaders. Forum participants and the general public can contribute to the discussion via twitter and collaboratively edit the map of our next steps. Plenary sessions of the forum will be web cast live, with audio streaming of other sessions.

From http://www.minister.dbcde.gov.au/ 12/10/2009

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Australian Govt Centralises ICT Procurement

All information communications and technology products and services will be centrally procured by the end of this financial year, the Australian government has announced. According to Lindsay Tanner, Minister for Finance and Deregulation, each agency currently makes its own ICT purchases. However, "recent scoping studies have shown that greater coordination in the purchasing of these goods and services has the potential to achieve significant savings and efficiencies," said Tanner. The government estimated a five to 15 per cent cost reduction per year could be retained by each agency, Tim Naughtin from the Office of Lindsay Tanner told FutureGov. In the first half of 2010, the government will start off with the centralised purchase of desktop computing equipment, telecommunications invoice reconciliation services and internet-based network connections.

"We identified opportunities for savings through aggregating and standardising agencies' desktop computing requirements. Their requirements will be aggregated centrally on a regular basis. And a panel of hardware suppliers will be established," Naughtin added. In the next financial year 2010/2011, the government has plans for a government-wide contract for telecommunication management services and devices, such as mobile phone handsets. In the meantime, any agency with immediate requirements to purchase desktop computing equipment can piggyback the Department of Defence's request for tender which was recently announced.

From http://www.futuregov.net/ 12/18/2009

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Govt Says E-Health Will Deliver a Safer System

THE federal government says its proposed e-health system will improve patient safety and free up GPs. The system, currently under design, will see patient records stored in one national database that can be accessed by different health professionals. The government hopes to see the opt-out system up and running in ten years, and says more than $1 million has been put on the table to get it started. Federal Health Minister Nicola Roxon says it will cut the time GPs spend pulling up patients health records during visits. She insists the system will be secure and won't affect strict patient privacy laws. "This doesn't change the existing laws of when it's appropriate for an individual have their records...accessed," she told reporters in Canberra.

States, territories and health professionals will also have to invest in technologies to allow them to link in to the system. Former Australian Medical Association boss Mukesh Haikerwal says it will enhance current medical practices. "This is the way healthcare should be delivered in the future, safer, more effective and more efficient," Dr Haikerwal told reporters in Canberra. The government will introduce legislation to get the system started into parliament during the first half of the year.

From http://www.theaustralian.com.au/ 01/18/2010

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Australian Government Integrates E-Health Systems

Tasmania's Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) has released a request for tender for the implementation and support of a system to pull together data from various legacy systems into one electronic health record. The contract will be for five years, and will commence from July 2010 and last until the end of June 2015. Tasmania's hospitals and health professionals have been running multiple systems for different requirements, such as iSoft's iPatient Manager and Homer for patient administration, as well as iSoft's EDIS system for the emergency departments. The idea was to have a single view of Tasmanian patients. Integration, ease of navigation and user interface were key for the tender. The finished product will serve as a foundation for the three areas of health services, statewide and mental health services, Tasmanian Ambulance Service and other business units within DHHS.

From http://www.egovonline.net/ 02/08/2010

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E-Health Bill Introduced to Parliament

The Federal Government has introduced a bill to Parliament will allow every Australian to be issued with electronic identification. If passed, the bill will see unique 16 digit numbers created for individuals and health care providers by the middle of this year. The Individual Healthcare Identifier (IHI) is a step towards an e-health system that will eventually give citizens comprehensive electronic health records that can be used by multiple healthcare providers. Last year, the National Health and Hospital Reforms Commission (NHHRC) also recommended that the e-health system allow individuals to determine which practitioners their information can be shared with, and how their records will be stored, backed-up and retrieved. "The government is currently undertaking the most important overhaul of our health system since the introduction of Medicare 25 years ago," said Nicola Roxon, Minister for Health and Ageing.

"This bill establishes the healthcare identifiers, without which there cannot be an integrated, consistent, e-health system in Australia." Roxon said that safeguards would be put in place so that minimal demographic information would be collected and no clinical information would be held by the service operator. Only authorised healthcare providers would be able to access the records of their existing patients, and independent regulators would manage a "robust complaints handling framework", she said. According to the bill, minor amendments would be made to the Privacy Act to ensure that the Federal Privacy Commissioner can act against any individual or company that misuses an individual's healthcare identifier.

From http://www.itnews.com.au/ 02/12/2010

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NEW ZEALAND: Government 'Asking for a Disaster' on Broadband

Australasian telecommunications specialist Paul Budde laid into New Zealand's $1.5 billion plan for ultra-fast broadband yesterday, saying he didn't see how anybody could respond to a tender to take part in the project. Budde says he has grave doubts about the outcome of the initiative due to a lack of information about the shape of the network, applications and the regulatory environment. Budde, speaking at a Wellington roundtable, says anybody looking to invest needs to know what the end result will be. If it that is just to provide internet services to the home, there is no business model for investors. They also need to understand Telecom's role, if any. "Steven Joyce talks about the national interest, but he needs to fill in the gaps," says Budde. He says potential investors need to know who will be participating and to understand the regulatory environment in which new local fibre companies will operate. At the time tenders were called for, none of this information was available.

"The tenders can't be accurate if half the ingredients are missing," he says. Budde is also critical of the local fibre company structure. He says telecommunications is about scale, and the proposed 33 local fibre companies will not be large enough to deliver affordable services. "It's totally ridiculous. It's not going to work. You are asking for a disaster," he says. He says in Australia, Telstra is now becoming enlightened about the government's broadband objectives. Telecom could respond positively as well, but there's not enough detail on the table for the company to embrace the plan. The business case for investors, he says, will be built around trans-sector applications in health, education and electricity, such as electricity smart grids, not entertainment services, which are becoming commoditised, and not home internet services on their own. Budde was also concerned at what he sees as a disjointed approach to the UFB proposal, delivering a "suburban" network to 75 percent pf the population and coming back later for the other 25 percent. In contrast, Australia's plan is for fibre broadband or equivalent to the entire population.

He says New Zealand's rural areas are some of the richest in the world and he wouldn't be surprised if farmers take to the streets to protest. Budde says a national plan is required, with a national design and standards. "Now is the time for a national plan," Budde says. "If you separate rural and urban areas it becomes a hell of a job to finish." The government has boosted its commitment to rural broadband since its original announcement with a levy on providers of $300 million to be used for rural network investment.

From http://computerworld.co.nz/ 12/02/2009

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NZ Local Govt Boosts Communications

The city of Porirua, immediately adjacent to the New Zealand capital Wellington, is home to more than 50,000 residents and 3136 businesses. The city is managed by Porirua City Council (PCC), which is responsible for all the local affairs in relation to the well-being and development of the community. As the Council's Manager of Information Systems, Peter van der Burg highlights to FutureGov that limited budget with strict budget constraints is a big challenge they have to overcome to deliver good customer service. In addition, Porirua is ethnically very diverse, with residents belonging to European, Pacific, Maori, Asian, Middle Eastern, Latin American and African groups. "We face different expectations from citizens, which are often related to ethnicity," van der Burg, who manages the information systems at the Council as well as leading specialists which develop and maintain these systems, says. "However they all demand very high standards for services and expect them to be available 24 by seven." To meet these challenges, organisational changes have been planned and executed. A roadmap was created and rolled out for investments aimed at creating new platform base, which is used to extend and enhance core applications helping improve citizen service delivery.

For example, communications portals will be integrated into the web site, and further investment in mobile technology is now made possible with enhanced core infrastructure which can support good performance in mobility. PCC's web site has been enhanced and redesigned, which now offers GIS, online events calendar, request for service, career opportunities, emergency management notifications, sport field status as well as water disruption notifications. Online library catalogue is also available through the portal, which offers reservations, renewals, remind emails and text messages. In addition, an 'A-Z services' page allows residents to quickly search and locate what they want from the hundreds of services that the council provides. A call centre is now available 24x7, while kiosks are available for citizen to check land and property rating information as well as property records, which are now all digitally stalled. The specific information available through kiosks, which come from the council's Electronic Document Management System, offers greater detail than the internet accessible database.

Van der Burg says the result of the changes have been obvious over the last year. "They have resulted in a 2 per cent rise in customer satisfaction last year after many years of static satisfaction," he says. Ranging from asset maintenance crews to dog rangers, to staff who telecommute, the council has more than 30 per cent of its employees who are constant mobile workers. A variety of technologies, including radio and mobile phone, keep them connected with each other as well as with the council. Smart phones have been successfully introduced for dog rangers, who can now access greater detail on their job allocation through email or calendar appointments. And after-office-hour job details are sent directly to them so that they don't have to go through the office to attend to the job.

The council has a System Support specialist stationed in the South Island, 150 kilometres away from Porirua which is located in the North Island. She is now able to support her colleagues through the unified communications platform. "The technology we've given her helps her to be productive when and where she likes, such as in airport lounges," van der Burg says, adding that a modification of the UC system is being rolled out to very small offices dotted around the city such as suburban libraries. The modified system would allow staff members working in these offices have full access to the council network resources and communications channels. In order to better enhance the communication capabilities between the staff, the Council recently overhauled its existing Nortel voice network to provide coverage to additional sites including the newly established Arena and Events Centre - Te Rauparaha Arena.

Inside the council's network, voice traffic is prioritised through VLANs; and a single mode Gigabit fibre optic connection has extended to all council office locations within the CBD. New servers are deployed and virtualised to gain electrical efficiency. "We maximise the value of our infrastructure through effective maintenance of the assets, and extending out its productive life," says van der Burg. "We use our servers for as long as possible rather than replace on a strict three year cycle." When a server needs to be retired, it is sent to recyclers for stripping down to bare metal and recycled. The council also keeps the PCs - it has around 350 now - as long as they can 'still operate well within the acceptable price/performance envelope'. Older PCs are pushed to perform less demanding tasks such as kiosks. And when they have to retire from the organisation, they are donated to community groups to be deployed as home PCs, as part of the household PC recycling programme happening in the Wellington region.

Another area, which van der Burg believes the council has been very innovative, is the recycling of packaging - cardboards and plastic/polystyrene. Not only are they separated based on different materials, the council uses a polystyrene recycler to create under-floor insulation from the material, which would otherwise be dumped.

From http://www.futuregov.net/ 12/14/2009

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AFRICA: Kenya E-Commerce a Welcome Boost for the Economy

For decades - long before mobile phones became the byword of Kenya's ICT success and fibre optic technology was unheard of in the country - Kenyans have waited anxiously for a day when e-commerce would become a reality. For what has felt like eons, potential e-entrepreneurs have lamented over the lack of appropriate legal framework and innovations to usher in e-commerce into the virtual economy. Worse still, business people have continuously missed out on billions of shillings worth of business deals in the global market because of the inability to accept online payments as Kenya grappled with obstacles to the growth of e-commerce.

But this wait seems to be edging to a halt at least following Tuesday's landmark development that saw I&M Bank and the global financial services provider Visa Card ink a deal that allows consumers to buy goods from the internet in local currency using credit and debit cards. This shift, the first in the East African region has pushed Kenya right into the centre of the world of electronic e-commerce, a buzz word in the global economy especially in the developed World. This big leap will potentially offer potential Kenyan e-commerce merchants, like airline, tour and travel companies hotels, utility service providers the opportunity to expand their sales online globally with significant reduction in transaction is significant.

It effectively relieves recipients of online payment of the trouble of engaging offshore electronic gateways to receive money, whose use has remained a costly affair for both businesses and individuals. The development by the two institutions should be a wake up call to other players who should also consider venturing into such initiatives in order to push costs to customer further down and also ensure better services as they fight for a slice of the market share. For years, local financial institutions have been reluctant to establish electronic payment gateways, curbing the growth of e-commerce in the country and thus giving Kenya the distinction of having one of the lowest levels of electronic transactions in the World. But even as the ink dries on the agreement between I&M Bank and Visa Card, Kenyan business, regulators and other players can ill afford to rest on its laurels. This is an opportunity to also examine other factors that are critical to the industry's success. E-commerce is driven by two key pillars - reliable payment systems and extensive delivery channels.

This means as the country watches the uptake of the new service among its increasingly tech savvy population, key industry players need to start implementing an effective mapping system that will enable the door to door deliveries that are so key to e-commerce's success. The financial and retail industries also need to consider how they can adopt and enable electronic signatures in order to enhance e-commerce activities. As a whole, the industry also needs to create more awareness about the value of e-commerce to stakeholders. Enticing more of the population to embrace electronic commerce for their benefit and the economy should also form the next item on the agenda for e-trade proponents. And given the country's rapid adoption on new mobile technologies, m-commerce needs to become a reality through the development of mobile enabled trade websites.

The foundations of Kenya's e-commerce are already founded in the Kenya Communications (Amendment) Act passed in Parliament over a year ago. Among other things, the Act allows businesses to participate in e-commerce, execute electronic signatures, and recognises the use of electronic communication as an official means of conveyance between companies and their shareholders. Simply put, the Act paved the way for an e-commerce revolution, providing a regulatory framework for the ICT sector removing a great impediment that had dogged investment in the ICT sector thereby putting Kenya at a disadvantage in an increasingly competitive world. The time to act, it would appear, is now.

From http://allafrica.com/ 01/21/2010

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ASIA: More SMEs Plan to Set Up Online Transaction Sites

A survey by money transfer e-commerce company PayPal showed on Thursday that two-thirds of e-commerce sites by small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) were launched in the last two years. In the next 12 months, a further 36 per cent of firms were expected to follow suit. The survey polled about 1,500 SMEs from India, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand. PayPal said this shows a growing trend of companies using the online space to expand their customer base and benefit from low overheads and costs. Online watch retailer Gnomon Watches was set up about seven years ago. It is just one of many start-ups that thought that the online space represented good growth potential. Indeed, for Gnomon Watches, its business has grown 20 per cent annually since its inception. The watch retailer also receives some 80 per cent of its business from online sales. The firm said in the past few years, the attitude towards selling quality items online has shifted.

Anders Tan, director of Gnomon Watches, said: "A lot of watch brands, watch companies are all going online. If you look at it five years back, they were not into this online thing, it's like a taboo. If you start selling their watches online, they are not too supportive of the idea. "But now, a lot of watch companies are going online, doing a lot of online marketing and online sales because customers are very Internet savvy. I think the online model is the first step to getting new customers and old customers to buy again." PayPal said for smaller companies, going online is becoming a common business strategy to boost global customer base. In fact, some 88 per cent of companies surveyed used e-commerce sites for online orders. Mario Shilashki, managing director & general manager, SE Asia & India, PayPal, said: "90 per cent or so look to e-commerce to grow, but only a third of their turnover is actually coming from e-commerce. So I think there is a significant opportunity for SMEs in Singapore to take their websites and make them transactional... e-commerce for Singapore is potentially a huge avenue for growth, compared to the rest of the region." However, for many SMEs in Asia, a lack of capability and appropriate sources of information to launch a cyber arm remain as a key challenge. (by Rachel Kelly)

From http://www.channelnewsasia.com/ 11/26/2009

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Asia IT Spend to Increase in 2010

Asia will see growth in IT spend next year as the market continues to rebound, according to Springboard Research, which adds that the region is emerging from the economic downturn much quicker than its Western economies. In a report released Monday, the research firm said IT expenditure in Asia will increase 8.8 percent in 2010, compared to 6.4 percent this year. Asian markets were not affected by the recession as badly as other economies, due to the continued growth of China, India and other markets, said Springboard. IT products and services providers can expect 2010 sales to improve over 2009, the analyst added. However, despite the general optimistic outlook, market players will face challenges as buyers remain cautious and "increasingly skeptical" of vendors. The Springboard report noted that organizations are expected to continue focusing on extracting greater value from existing IT investments, rather than on spending significant, new capital expenditure. They will also continue to look at reducing operational expenditure from both business and IT perspectives. Springboard included data center transformations, IT manageability advancements and virtualization investments, as some of the ways organizations will be looking to reduce "traditionally high and stubborn costs".

The report also outlined 10 predictions that the research firm said will shape enterprise IT in the Asia-Pacific region next year:
1. Analytics, or more broadly the evolution toward "intelligent solutions", emerges as a key driver of new business value.
2. Convergence of computing platforms accelerates.
3. Cloud computing momentum increases dramatically.
4. Virtualization will play an increasingly critical role on the desktop.
5. Mobile devices and applications are crucial for overcoming the digital divide in emerging markets.
6. Collaboration continues to shine as organizations leverage initiatives put in place during the economic crisis.
7. A wave of innovative new payment technologies emerge.
8. Online developer platforms and communities will become the new ecosystem battleground and epicenter of application innovation.
9. Social networking will be as accessible and commercialized as the Internet itself.
10. IT abstraction forces CIOs to change or fall by the wayside. (by Liau Yun Qing)

From http://www.zdnetasia.com/ 12/21/2009

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IT Services Market in AP to Hit US$48.7B

The Asia-Pacific IT services market will rebound to its growth trajectory to reach US$48.7 billion in 2010, notes IDC in a report Wednesday. The research house said recovery will see a rise of 9.3 percent, over 6.5 percent in 2009. This growth will be driven by continued demand for outsourcing as hosted and managed services gain prominence in the Asia-Pacific region, excluding Japan. According to the research firm, cost management will still be the top concern for most organizations. However, as cautious optimism returns to the market, selective investments will be made to take advantage of the potential recovery in 2010.

Philip Carter, Asia-Pacific associate research director for IT services at IDC, noted in the report that the financial turmoil in 2009 forced CIOs in the region to evaluate new service and delivery pricing models. The key focus was to "de-capitalize" IT in the face of significant budget constraints. "As a result, the financial model of the cloud and 'everything-as-a-service' became more attractive. This has set the scene perfectly for the locus of power to shift from traditional enterprise hardware and software vendors to the services players, particularly in cloud services, in 2010," explained Carter. He added that organizations that can successfully integrate these new models into existing technology architectures, and vendors that can develop mindshare with CIOs, will be best placed to "ride the recovery wave" in 2010.

Top 10 IDC predictions for the region's IT services sector in 2010:
1. Locus of power will move from the enterprise customer to the provider of services. Private clouds will become increasingly important to enterprises in 2010, and there will be fundamental changes within information, communications and technology (ICT) in the next three years as users consistently adopt externally sourced services.
2. "Chargeback" will "charge back" onto the CIO agenda. According to IDC, the IT world has been considering a capital expenditure (CAPEX) to operating expense (OPEX) migration even before the economic crisis. In 2010, there will be more emphasis on the need to justify the "business value" of IT infrastructure demands.
3. Services "productization" to move up the value chain. Service providers will look to adopt a template-based model for consulting services related to business transformation, compliance, governance and risk management.
4. System integration 3.0: New models = New services. IDC predicts that the adoption of cloud solutions, hosted delivery models and data center transformation will drive the need for a new system integration engagement model.
5. Emergence of Intelligent X: The services opportunity. Driven by a mix of government stimulus packages focused on e-governance initiatives and environment sustainability, where carbon footprint and intelligent infrastructure implementations will be the next big wave for public-private investment in 2010 and beyond.
6. Business process outsourcing (BPO) versus knowledge process outsourcing (KPO). Drivers for divestiture of captive BPOs are the lack of growth opportunities, need for a cash flow influx, focus of management on strategic and core activities. KPO will still be retained by the parent as organizations continue to be wary of outsourcing intellectual property.
7. Business analytics and pricing innovation will collide in the KPO market. IDC predicts that analytics will be incorporated into broader KPO engagements to lower costs, which will include a significantly higher proportion of business outcomes-based type of model.
8. The "Mobius strip" of business continuity will enter the boardroom. Business continuity and disaster recovery will become an integral part of the business strategy planning because of security concerns and business risk mitigation.
9. Connectivity and convergence: Growth in next-generation network services. Flexibility, customization of services, enhanced quality of service and reliability will drive the transformation toward next-generation "all-IP"-based networks.
10. Infrastructure vendors will make the most of the setting Sun.Infrastructure vendors will capitalize on Sun's decline in the market by building competitive strategies such as channel recruitment and target multi-vendor environments.

From http://www.zdnetasia.com/ 01/20/2010

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EUROPE: Denmark Helps Businesses With National E-Invoicing System

A national electronic invoicing infrastructure has eased government-to-business and business-to-business transactions in Denmark. Catherine Lippert, Acting Deputy Head, Division for IT Infrastructure & Implementation, National IT & Telecom Agency (NITA) spoke to FutureGov about the drivers for the project and the agency's plans to migrate the system into the cloud. It is mandatory by law for businesses to submit an electronic invoice when supplying goods or services to the Danish government. This regulation creates a barrier to the 300,000 small and medium size enterprises which are mostly relying on paper-based invoicing. "Most of the existing solutions for e-invoicing have been too complex and costly to be viable alternatives for smaller businesses," explained Lippert. As for the remaining 200,000 businesses which could afford digitising the invoicing process, there was still inefficiency. Most corporations use stand-alone invoicing applications or Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems which could not interact directly with the systems of other companies. In order to facilitate business with the government and among the industry, the NITA deployed a national e-invoicing service, called 'NemHandel'. It allows businesses to send standardised e-invoices through the internet. Based on open and common standards, NemHandel also allows businesses to send e-invoices which were generated in their internal ERP or invoicing systems.

By December last year (2009), approximately 66,000 Danish companies had used NemHandel, which accounts for more than 20 per cent of all companies. On average, the system registers 4000 new users per month. According to Lippert, NITA has seen growth in the number of users integrating NemHandel into their internal systems, using it for business-to-business transactions as well. "We are very pleased to see this trend. NemHandel is allowing true interoperability among businesses in the country," she added. NITA estimates that the project will save businesses about EUR 591 million (US$849 million) per year from reduced invoicing costs. The public sector expects to save EUR 10 million (US$15 million) annually. Savings come from ceasing payment for the use of proprietary networks and subsidies which government uses to give to smaller businesses to scan paper invoices. For the next step, NITA is working to migrate all NemHandel infrastructure components to the cloud. The migration progress is expected to be completed in the beginning of March this year. (by Kelly Ng)

From http://www.futuregov.net/ 01/13/2010

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Russian IT Market Is Expected to Start to Recover In 2010

The Russian IT market is expected to start to recover in 2010 from a steep contraction in 2009. The Russian market was buffeted by strong economic headwinds, with conditions continuing to worsen in the first half of 2009. A contraction in PC sales in H109 continued the negative trend of Q408, with leading economic indicator data showing little sign of improvement through Q309. Looking forward, Russia is still on course to emerge as one of the largest IT markets in Europe, even if this is at a slower rate than previously expected. In 2010, the Russian IT market is forecast to recover to US$15.9bn, up 12% on 2009, but still short of the 2008 pre-crisis level. While purchasing power remains relatively low in the consumer sector, the low level of computer penetration should mean organic growth opportunities for vendors. Growing computer penetration, government ICT projects and immense potential for IT spending by Russia's traditional industries could drive an increase in IT spending per capita from around US$113 to US$185 over the 2010-2014 period.

Industry Developments
The Russian government has suggested that it will consider new measures if necessary to drive Russian government bodies to achieve key e-government targets. In a strongly worded speech in August 2009, President Dmitry Medvedev said that progress on e-government projects had been 'a disgrace' and threatened to introduce financial penalties for government bodies that failed to meet targets. The Russian president pointed to a number of projects where 'no real progress' had been made. These included: The development of the inter-agency electronic document management system; Setting up a fully fledged online public procurement system; Establishing a unified system of state registration of the results of scientific research and experiment and design work. The president's address echoed similar remarks made in May 2009 by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, who also called for urgent drafting of a new e-government programme for the period up to 2015. Meanwhile, in a meeting with the Russian Free and Open Source Software (RFOSS) industry sector in February 2009, Ministry of Communications chief Igor Schegolev called for Russia to strengthen its capabilities in this area. The Minister was cautious, however, about the prospects for an exclusively 'Russian' operating system.

Competitive Landscape
Acer brand Packard Bell said that it plans to achieve a 10% share of the Russian notebook segment by 2012, from just 1.5% currently. The notebook market share target for 2010 is 5%. Packard Bell is expected to invest heavily in brand promotion in Russia in order to achieve its goal. Acer's total notebook market share is estimated at around 30%. In November 2009, Microsoft said that it was considering launching its own retail presence in Russian in 2010. The outlets would be opened in Russia's largest cities and would be used more for brand development rather than as a new sales channel. Microsoft hoped that sales of its Windows 7 operating system, launched in October 2009, would boost local sales. Fellow US IT giant HP admitted that it had been hit hard by the Russian market contraction in 2009. The firm said that it expected 2009 annual output decline to be about 40% in Russia. However, HP said that it had outperformed the Russian IT market in the second quarter and that it expected to restore revenues to pre-crisis levels by 2011.

Hardware
We forecast a return to growth for the Russian computer hardware market in 2010, following a sharp contraction in PC sales in 2009. The PC market was forecast to contract 20% in dollar terms in 2009. According to our projections, the computer hardware market is forecast to recover to US$8.7bn in 2010, up from US$7.5bn the previous year but still short of 2008 levels. Despite the adverse economic situation, future hardware spending will have support from a number of fundamental drivers including low PC penetration, rising incomes, government IT initiatives and industrial reform in many sectors. PC market compound annual growth rate (CAGR) for the next five years is projected to be in the region of 11%, with spending reaching about US$10.8bn by 2014.

Software
The domestic software market is projected at around US$3.2bn in 2010. Spending on software is therefore forecast to return to positive growth territory, after demand was hit in 2009 by the much sharper decline in PC sales. Going forward, the market is projected to grow at a CAGR of 14% to US$5.4bn by 2014, making Russia potentially one of the most significant global software market opportunities. The domestic software market is forecast at around US$3.1bn in 2009. Although Russia has the fifth highest software piracy rate in the world (87%), we expect that government efforts to strengthen IP protection will see this fall closer to average Eastern European levels, boosting the market. There are, unsurprisingly, regional disparities, with Moscow some way ahead of its closest rival St Petersburg in terms of enterprise resource planning (ERP) deployments.

Services
We project an IT services market value of US$4.1bn in 2010, which will see some recovery from 2009 when the market experienced a sharp contraction. The IT services opportunity is forecast to grow to around US$7.0bn by 2014, as the IT market gradually recovers from recent external shocks. The broader use of ICT in government and other sectors will ensure an upward market trajectory in the medium term. Systems integration is the largest IT services component, with as much as one-third of segment revenues and, together with implementation of hardware and software, probably account for about half of all IT services. However, more value-added services such as consulting and applications development are growing fast. Outsourcing is also on the rise, although below the levels in some other Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries.

E-Readiness
The government's ambitious policy is that every locality in Russia should be provided with fixed-line telephony infrastructure, mobile phone coverage and internet by 2015. According to the Ministry of IT and Communications (MITC)'s target, every populated area in the country should be provided irrespective of its economic 'weight' and 'population'. IT and Communications Minister Reiman has described the 'digital divide' as a very challenging issue for all CIS countries and one that the Russian government was seeking to overcome. Internet usage is forecast to see robust growth over the remainder of our forecast period. However, the current tight credit markets are limiting the ease with which broadband operators are able to source muchneeded funds to invest in broadband network proliferation. Coupled with the economic uncertainty, this is creating a troublesome environment for operators to plan their investment decisions. That said, growth will still be strong, it will just not meet its full potential. Competition between the incumbent's holdings and alternative operators such as Comstar-UTS, Golden Telecom and Net By Net will continue to drive the sector forward. Continued expansion of networks, both fixed and wireless, should see penetration increasing in the regions, while uptake remains strong in the more urbanised areas. Alternative technologies such as WiMAX and fibre will also play their part in expanding the market, by introducing competition as well as offering services over a wider area.

From http://www.officialwire.com/ 02/18/2010

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Mobile Voice Revenue to Decline from 2011

Mobile voice service revenues are on a trajectory to reach their peak in 2010, after which they are likely to start declining, according to the latest forecasts from ABI Research. Vice-president for forecasting Jake Saunders comments: "Mobile voice has had a meteoric rise since digital cellular networks such as GSM were deployed in 1992. "ABI Research forecasts annual mobile voice revenues to reach $580 billion in 2010. From 2011 on, rising subscriber saturation will increasingly erode mobile voice revenues, not just in developed markets but also in a number of emerging markets. By 2014, mobile voice revenues will have contracted by 9.6 percent."

While mobile operators have received a substantial boost from value-added services such as messaging and Mobile Internet, competition is squeezing margins for a variety of services and carriers.

Total mobile data services should generate $169 million in 2009 and will grow at a CAGR of 9 percent until 2014. By the end of 2009 the declines in annual average revenue per user (ARPU) will have been felt most severely in Asia-Pacific (-8.7 percent to $105) and Africa (-7.8 percent to $134).

ARPU in 2009 in North America will have contracted, but only by -0.6 percent to $526). Mobile Internet revenue ($52) from use of smartphones, netbooks, etc. will help to prop up overall service revenue for the region. Wireless capital expenditure, on the other hand, shrank 5 percent in 2009 to $132.5 billion.

The global recession was widely felt in all parts of the world. Saunders notes: "As handset sales plummeted in 4Q-2009, end-users did not return their handsets nor did they put their handsets aside and refuse to use them. They did, however, try to cap tariff plan usage. Carriers therefore held up a number of CAPEX-related projects to free up some cashflow." As the economy has stabilized in the second half of 2009, carriers have started to resume capital expenditure. Key areas of spending are core network and radio access network upgrades to support higher data throughput. (by Lexton Snol)

From http://www.networkworld.com/ 11/23/2009

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IT Leaders Demonstrate Business Leadership Through Tech Innovation

IT departments are beginning to show business leaders howtechnology can power business innovation, according to aCapgemini studyof 490 CIOs from companies based in 14 countries. More than half of the companies in the study said IT is key to business innovation. IT departments need to develop better links with the business to share innovation. This means holding forums with business users to present the latest technologies and their potential use. "Developments such as Web 2.0, social networks, RFID, internet mobile and search engines are strong sources of innovation for most companies. Thus CIOs are at the heart of the company innovations as innovation will often be technology-driven. Business managers need to be aware of the potential that new technologies carry in terms of innovation and value creation. On the other hand, CIOs can and must contribute to the identification of added-value use of this potential," Capgemini said. The research found that almost half of IT teams had organised visits to other companies to demonstrate the value of new technologies to business users.

From http://www.computerweekly.com/ 12/04/2009

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Hardware Spend to Hit $2.5bn by 2013

A report by research firm IDC has projected hardware spending to grow by 39.23% to about $2.5bn (Dhs9.2bn) in 2013 from $1.8bn in 2009, Gulf News has reported. Of the estimated total PC sales of 1.76 million in 2009, notebook sales are expected to be 1.22 million followed by desktops at 269,825 and netbooks at 265,640 units, the report said.

From http://www.ameinfo.com/ 12/13/2009

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Global Mobile Market Out of Recession

Communications Minister Eamon Ryan has appointed Alex Chisholm as the new chairperson of ComReg. From 1 February Chisholm will replace John Doherty, who has held the position for the past two years. Doherty recently took up the position of chairperson of the Body of European Regulators for Electronic Communications (BEREC). Chisholm's appointment is in keeping with the practice of rotating the Chair of ComReg.

Some 324 million mobile phones were shipped globally during the fourth quarter of 2009, a rise of 10 percent on last year's tally, according to research firm Strategy Analytics. This was the handset market's first quarter of positive growth since the third quarter of 2008, and signals an end to the industry's year-long recession. Market leader Nokia had a solid quarter, shipping an impressive 126.9 million handsets worldwide, up 12 percent from 113.1 million units in the year-earlier quarter. As mentioned in its financial results on Thursday, Nokia's good quarter came as a result of growth in its smartphone segment. Samsung continued its good form, shipping 69 million handsets, 31 percent growth on the same quarter in 2008. In third place, LG shipped an all-time high of 33.9 million handsets during the quarter, up 32 percent. Sony Ericsson and Motorola both had poor quarters, shipping just 14.6 million and 12 million handsets, respectively.

Business software firm CA has posted a profit for the quarter to end of December of USD257 million, or USD0.49 a share, up from USD208 million, or USD0.40 a share, a year earlier. Revenue increased by 8.3 percent to USD1.13 billion. Thomson Reuters analysts expected per-share earnings of USD0.42 on revenue of USD1.1 billion. CA also announced the appointment of a new CEO. Chairman William McCracken will take up the role, succeeding John Swainson, who retired in September. E-tailer Amazon had quite the fourth quarter, with net profit jumping a massive 71 percent to USD384 million, or USD0.85 per share, from USD225 million, or USD0.52 per share, a year earlier. The figure soared past Thomson Reuters analysts' estimates of USD0.72 per share. Revenue increased by 42 percent to USD9.52 billion, higher than the USD9.04 billion expected by Wall Street and also significantly higher than the USD9.13 billion that was at the high end of Amazon's own forecast.

In more news of results German chipmaker Infineon recorded fiscal first-quarter net profit of EUR66 million, or EUR0.06 per share, compared to a loss of EUR404 million, or EUR0.46 per share, in the same quarter a year ago. Revenue was EUR941 million, a rise of 27 percent compared to the same period a year ago. Infineon said it expects sales for its second fiscal quarter to be around the same level as in the first or down slightly because of seasonality. Increased demand for its products from auto and industrial customers was cited as the main reason for the solid results. (Deirdre McArdle)

From http://www.electricnews.net/ 01/29/2010

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M-Commerce Site Performance Lagging Behind E-Commerce, Study Shows

The time it took to download the home page of 10 mobile commerce sites this holiday season ranged from 8.3 seconds to 34.4 seconds; it took 4.5 seconds to 37.9 seconds to view search results pages and 5.7 seconds to 26.8 seconds for product information pages, according to a new study by Keynote Systems Inc., a web and mobile web testing and measurement company. The overall range of availability was between 97.6% and 74.7%. Consumers who connect to the Internet via a computer expect 99.5% or better availability, Keynote says, so even the very best mobile web sites are not fully meeting expectations. In fact, the Keynote study showed only two m-commerce sites achieving availability better than 90%, while three sites were below 80%.

Shopping on mobile web sites still has a lot of catching up to do in both download performance and uptime when compared to the performance of [computer-] connected web sites, says Ben Rushlo, senior manager of Internet technologies at Keynote. consumers on the wired web are used to much, much faster times, and often expect pages to load in two seconds or less. Even the best mobile web sites take two to three times as long as that despite being optimized heavily for the mobile phone experience, and the worst sites are taking over a half a minute on average to load each page.? Using Keynote Mobile Application Perspective technology, the company measured the performance of 10 m-commerce sites between Nov. 18 and Jan. 4. The 10 sites included in the study were from Amazon.com Inc., Barnes & Noble, Best Buy Co. Inc., Costco Corp., Dell Inc., Foot Locker, Musician Friend Inc., Sears Holdings Corp., Target Corp. and Wal-Mart Stores Inc. Measurements were taken in New York and San Francisco using AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon wireless data connections.

From http://www.internetretailer.com/ 02/02/2010

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Mobile Phones Become Pocket Banks in Poor Countries

AFP - The rise of banking transactions through mobile phones is giving a whole new meaning to pocket money in parts of the developing world that lack banks or cash machines. Mobile money applications are emerging as potent financial tools in rural and remote areas of the globe, allowing people with no bank accounts to get paid, send remittances or settle their bills. "One billion consumers in the world have a mobile phone but no access to a bank account," said Gavin Krugel, the director of mobile banking strategy at GSM Association, an industry group of 800 wireless operators. "We see it as very big opportunity," he said this week at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, the industry's annual four-day event that ended on Thursday.

Mobile banking began to emerge six years ago in the Philippines and South Africa, where 8.5 million and 4.5 million people, respectively, use such services. Today, 40 million people worldwide use mobile money, and the industry is growing, according to the GSMA. "Africa and Asia are the most active regions right now," Krugel said. "We expect Latin America pick up this year." There are 18,000 new mobile banking users per day in Uganda, 15,000 in Tanzania and 11,000 in Kenya, he said.

Mobile phones can offer a wide range of banking solutions, from sending transfers to a relative to buying goods in a store or putting money aside for a rainy day - all by dialing a few numbers on one's handset. Mobile banking can also make life easier for people in parts of Africa where paying a simple bill can be time-consuming, said Reg Swart, regional executive of Fundamo, a company that makes banking applications. "It takes one day to pay one bill. You have to physically go to the bank, then you must queue, a long queue," he said. In Afghanistan, the national police has been testing a service from mobile operator Roshan to pay its officers - a system that helps to limit corruption, the company said. "We are currently moving from a trial to a full launch in paying the Afghan national police," said Roshan's head of mobile commerce, Zahir Jhoja. Every month, police officers receive a text message in the language they prefer informing them they have received their salaries, Jhoja said. A voice message is also left on the phone "because a lot of them are illiterate and cannot read," he said.

The officer can then go get his money from an authorised Roshan agent. "The benefit is that police and police officers don't have to carry cash anymore: from their post they are able to send their money home, buy items, and take whatever cash they want from an agent, or to store for future," he said. The system has helped officers who were not receiving their full salaries due to "corruption and skimming. "The police officers who received the money electronically were very surprised to learn that they earn so much money. When they were getting cash they were receiving 25 to 30 percent less," Johja said.

From http://ph.news.yahoo.com/ 02/22/2010

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CHINA: Fujian's First Travel E-Commerce Center Goes Live

Fujian's First Travel E-Commerce Center, the name of Fujian CTS Group's e-commerce center, has been formally opened to netizens. The center has three main functions including a travel e-commerce platform at fjctsgroup.com, an offline call center hotline at 968877, and a management system for corporate travel. It is an information system for online travel searches and complaints handling for the large travel agency. This online marketing and service system enables customers to search and book tourist products and pay for it all online, which is planned on helping netizens avoid having to visit other Chinese travel websites that merely aggregate deals like Ctrip.com or eLong.com.

From http://www.chinatechnews.com/ 12/03/2009

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Slower Drop in IT Product Exports

Exports of information technology equipment, which accounted for more than one-third of China's total exports, fell by a slower pace in the first 10 months of this year, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said yesterday. The exports of laptops, cell phones and hard disks dropped in the period but shipments of liquid crystal display TVs surged on robust global demand. From January to October, the IT exports from the Chinese mainland were worth US$359.37 billion, a drop of 18.35 percent year-on-year. But the rate narrowed from a 19.8-percent fall in the first nine months, according to the ministry, which added that the industry "has started to recover." Laptop exports dropped 3.61 percent annually to US$51.9 billion while those for mobile phones fell 6.27 percent to US$30.1 billion in the period. The exports of LCD TVs jumped 36.67 percent to US$5.64 billion, the ministry said. Global TV shipments started to recover in the third quarter as the global recession began to ease. Sales of LCD TVs globally surged 38 percent to a record 37.5 million units, according to DisplaySearch, a United States-based IT consulting firm. But the research firm warned that prices could not keep dropping in the global LCD TV market. "The strong demand from consumers is predicated on attractive retail prices in the current economic environment, but manufacturers and retailers can't maintain price declines forever as production costs fall more slowly and new advanced features require modest to high price premiums," said Paul Gagnon, director of North America TV Research at DisplaySearch.

From Shanghai Daily 12/04/2010

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Chinese Internet Shopping Security Alliance to Be Established

Chinese anti-virus solution provider Kingsoft says it will join hands with e-commerce service provider Taobao.com, online payment provider Alipay, and browser platform Maxthon to launch an online shopping security platform to meet the ever-increasing risks faced by online shoppers. The alliance will take measures on anti-phishing websites, viruses and online shopping safety by making use of each party's security technologies. It is learned that the total value of China's online shopping business will reach CNY500 billion in 2009, but computer viruses and other unsafe factors are expected to cause a total loss of CNY7.6 billion to the e-commerce users in the meantime. The latest statistics of China Internet Network Information Center show that by November 22, 2009, about 8342 phising websites had been identified, and the website of Tencent, Taobao and ICBC ranked among the top three targets for online phishing. Wang Xin, COO of Kingsoft, said that Kingsoft wants to build up the alliance with the parties to jointly attack online phishing and effectively protect users' virtual assets and ensure e-commerce transaction safety.

From http://www.chinatechnews.com/ 12/10/2009

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E-commerce in China Hits $36.6 Bln: Survey

Internet shopping in China hit a staggering 250 billion yuan ($36.6 billion) in 2009 accounting for 1.97 percent of all domestic retail, the Beijing News reported Wednesday. About 100 million Chinese shop online, most of which through consumer websites, or C2C, like Taobao.com, but it is business-to-consumer platform, or B2C, growing faster, according a report released by the investigation agencies Anylysys and iResearch. "The online shopping industrial chain is developing more segments. More storage, service, express and techniques companies emerged to share the E-commerce market with C2C and B2C," said an online food store manager, surnamed Wang.

From http://www.chinaview.cn/ 12/30/2009

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IT Usage in Macao's Business Sector Reaches 47% in 2008

The rate of usage of Information Technology (IT) in Macao's business sector stood at 47 percent last year, an increase of four percentage points over 2007, according to the figures released on Thursday by Macao's Statistics and Census Service (DSEC). Analyzed by industry, the rate of IT usage of wholesale and retail trade (43 percent) surged significantly by seven percentage points year-on-year in last year, and that of the gaming sector and travel agencies reached 100 percent and 97 percent, the figures indicated. In 2008, among the establishments or enterprises using IT, 80 percent have connected to the Internet and the major purposes of accessing the Internet included information search (39 percent) and purchasing (17 percent), the DSEC said. Meanwhile, 76 percent of local households possessed IT equipment or devices such as computer, Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), etc., with 55 percent of the male aged three or over were computer-users and 51 percent had access to the Internet. Regarding the age group, 90 percent of those aged 15 to 24 were computer-users and 89 percent had access to the Internet. Analyzed by educational attainment, the rate of computer usage and Internet usage for those with tertiary education was 88 percent and 86 percent respectively. With respect to the location of accessing the Internet, the majority were at home (91 percent) or at work (26 percent); the major purposes of accessing the Internet included information search (87 percent), communication (84 percent) and government services (46 percent), according to the DSEC.

From http://www.chinaview.cn/ 12/31/2009

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China's Ministry of Culture Publishes Online Game Market White Paper

China's Ministry of Culture has published "2009 China Online Game Market White Paper", which reviews the general development and management of China's online game industry in 2009 and reveals authoritative data for the industry. Statistics in the white paper show that in 2009, the market scale of China's massively multiplayer online role-playing games increased by 35.2% year-on-year to CNY20.38 billion, accounting for 79% of the country's online game market; and advance casual games, with high development speed, increased by 49.7% year-on-year to CNY3.55 billion. For online game exports, China gained incomes of USD106 million from this sector in 2009, an increase of 47.2% compared with the previous year. According to the white paper, Tencent was the top Chinese online game operator, followed by Shanda and NetEase; and these three companies occupied 52.9% of China's total online game market. Meanwhile, the white paper points out the four major problems in China's online game industry: first, vulgar contents exist in online games affecting the health of Chinese minors; second, minors are easily addicted to online games; third, some online game enterprises ignore the protection of rights and interests of users; and finally, the homogenization of online games is severe and the product structure of online games seems irrational. In addition, the white paper predicts that China's online game industry will continue to grow rapidly in the next five years and the supervision over online games will be "perfected and stricter". Exported Chinese-made online games will gain greater development opportunities and the online game industry will further integrate with other culture and entertainment industries.

From http://www.chinatechnews.com/ 01/21/2010

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3G Brings A Boom to Mobile Phone Industry

When the Chinese government issued the long awaited third generation (3G) license to three domestic telecom operators a year ago, few imagined the number of the country's 3G users would reach nearly 15 million within one year. Industry analysts predict, if the momentum continues this year, there would be an "explosive" growth in the world's largest mobile phone population, with 3G users expected to hit 170 million. "To be frank I didn't expect the number of China's 3G users would grow as much in its debut year as it did because it often takes eight to 10 months for the telecom operator to finish its network deployment," said Yang Hua, secretary-general of TD-SCDMA Alliance. He said Chinese telecom carriers had been very quick to finish establishing 3G networks in major Chinese cities in the first three quarters of last year and the 3G user numbers started to take off in the fourth quarter. As part of its efforts to stimulate the economy, the Chinese government issued licenses for 3G mobile networks to three telephone operators, paving the way for an investment of around 280 billion yuan in upgrading and expanding the network over the next two years. According to government figures, Chinese telecom operators showed unprecedented aggression in deploying 3G networks in 2009. The total investment in network upgrading and expansion was 160.9 billion yuan last year. It was the biggest and fastest network construction in the global telecommunications industry. "Compared with our foreign competitors, which are more market-oriented firms, Chinese telecom operators are State-owned enterprises that are more generous in making investments," said Pang Jun, an analyst with research firm GFK. He predicted 3G users would number 170 million this year in China.

Compared with 2G and 2.5G services, 3G allows simultaneous use of speech and data services and higher data rates. This gives telecom operators a great chance to cash in on the use of data traffic to counter their declining revenue from traditional voice services. In China, however, the 3G market is unique in that different telecom operators have adopted different 3G standards to deploy their networks. The country's largest cell phone operator China Mobile, for example, was mandated to adopt the country's home-grown 3G standard Time Division Synchronous Code Division Multiple Access (TD-SCMDA) technology. Smaller carriers China Unicom and China Telecom have adopted the WCDMA and CDMA2000 technologies respectively. The government hopes that by adopting the more mature technologies, China Unicom and China Telecom could challenge the domination position of China Mobile, thereby increasing competition in the country's telecom market. According to company figures, China Mobile's market share in the new user market has fallen from 78.2 percent in January to 47.63 percent, although the company still far outpaces its two rivals in total user numbers. GFK figures show that China Mobile picked up less than half of the country's 3G market last year. "Judging by the current figures, the Chinese government's plan to increase competition is working well," said Wang Yuquan, a senior consultant with research firm Frost & Sullivan. During the past few quarters, Chinese telecom carriers have launched huge marketing campaigns to promote their 3G services. The fees charged by every carrier have also significantly reduced because of intensified competition. In order to attract users, the carriers have also promised a huge subsidy plan for 3G handsets makers. This sparked a wave of new 3G handsets being launched in the market.

However, Pang, from GFK, said that although sales of 3G handsets would rise substantially this year - and are expected to account for 30 to 40 percent of the total cell phone market in the country - many Chinese may still use the 2G network even though they bought a 3G handset. "Some people may just buy the fancy 3G handset but not necessarily use 3G services," he said. That worry was echoed by David Tang, vice-chairman of Nokia's China business. "According to our estimation, there are many Chinese 3G handset users who don't actually use 3G services, partly because of the telecom operator's limited network coverage," he said. "If China's 3G is to be a success, there should be more users actually using the service, rather than buying a fancy handset and closing the 3G function." Nokia last year launched a beta version of its online application market "Ovi Store" in China, in an effort to boost 3G services in the country. It is providing a free navigation service for its cell phone users in China. Tang said Nokia launched 18 different types of 3G handsets in China last year, compared with more than 30 2G devices.

He said it planned to sell more 3G handset and less 2G phones in China this year. telecom operators, experts said the real challenge for operators in the long run may be from Internet firms or even traditional media groups such as TV stations. Earlier this month, China's Premier Wen Jiabao said convergence of telecom, broadcasting and Internet networks should be stepped up. Wen said the country was ready for such a convergence given its existing technology, network infrastructure and market potential. According to the government plan, cross-industry operations will be encouraged between the telecommunications, broadcast and Internet fields through limited trials over the next two years, with the aim of promoting full network convergence by 2015. "If the telecom network can connect with the broadcasting network, it would mean many State-owned media groups, such as CCTV, could become a telecom service provider," said Pang from GFK. Because the broadcasting firms have a huge advantage on user penetration and making content, "that will change everything currently in the market". Tang from Nokia said industry convergence was a natural trend. "We believe that it is good for cell phone users whether the telecom operators provide television programs or Internet news," he said. Tang said his company would provide more services in coming years. Frank Meng, president of Qualcomm China, said he was optimistic about the Chinese telecoms industry. "No matter what the future holds, China's 3G boom will unquestionably accelerate the technology's development across the world," he said.

From China Daily 01/25/2010

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China's Online Travel Market Booming

China's online tourism market is booming as an increasingly wealthy middle class travels for pleasure and the use of credit cards and the Internet soars, analysts say. As millions of people pack their bags for Lunar New Year holidays, the busiest travel period of the year, many will have booked their trips home online, according to Chinese Internet research and consulting firm iResearch. Revenue from online flight, hotel and package tour bookings will hit 4.75 billion yuan (695.8 million dollars) in 2010, up 27 percent from last year, iResearch says, with that figure due to balloon to 9.01 billion yuan by 2013. "People's lifestyle attitudes have changed and their spending ability has improved and people now view holidays as part of a healthy lifestyle," the firm said in its latest report on the fast-growing sector. China's travel industry generated 1.3 trillion yuan in revenue in 2009, up nine percent from 2008, state media reported earlier this month, citing figures from the National Tourism Administration. While a separate figure on overall bookings revenue was not available, China Market Research Group senior analyst Ben Cavender estimated online bookings accounted for 8-10 percent of the market. "More and more consumers are turning to the Internet to book trips," Cavender told AFP, adding he expects online bookings to make up 15-16 percent of the total within two years.

"Consumers are becoming more and more comfortable with the concept of online purchases... and the use of credit cards has exploded over the last few years," Cavender said. China has at least 384 million Internet users, according to official figures, more than any other country in the world and the number of credit cards issued has ballooned. As the nation's 1.3 billion people become wealthier - urban and rural per capita income each rose more than eight percent in 2009 - more and more Chinese are taking holidays. In 2009, the number of domestic tourist trips rose 11 percent to 1.9 billion from a year earlier, state media reported, citing tourism bureau figures, indicating some people went on more than one holiday during the year. The number of overseas tourist trips increased 3.6 percent to 47.5 million compared with 2008, according to the report. This year is expected to be even better for the domestic tourism market with the World Expo in Shanghai expected to draw at least 70 million visitors, most of them Chinese, said Royal Bank of Scotland analyst Wendy Huang. "Travel consumption per capita should increase over the next three years, said the Hong Kong-based Huang. "I think 2010 will be an especially good year for the travel industry because you have the Shanghai Expo and it should benefit travel demand in China." Cavender said young professionals between the ages of 24 and 35 living in Beijing and Shanghai were driving demand for flights, hotel rooms and package tours. "They are by far the most optimistic consumer segment... they are also the ones most comfortable with alternative forms of payment like credit cards," he said.

From http://news.yahoo.com/ 01/31/2010

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New Users and 3G Lift Telecom Revenue

China's telecommunication industry revenue grew 4 percent annually in 2009, thanks to a rise in the number of new mobile phone subscribers and also on the debut of 3G technology, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said Wednesday. The national telecom revenue totaled 842.43 billion yuan (US$123.8 billion) and mobile phone users contributed 70 percent of the total revenue, according to MIIT. In Shanghai, the telecom industry generated a revenue of 50.5 billion yuan in 2009, a growth of 4.4 percent from the previous year, according to the Shanghai Economic and Information Technology Development Commission. "During the dismal economic environment, the telecommunications industry grew at a stable rate," said Shao Zhiqing, vice director of the Shanghai Economic and Information Technology Development Commission. In Shanghai, the number of mobile phone users touched 21.06 million by the end of last year, 12 percent annual growth, which means every resident has one or more handsets, according to the city's IT regulator. By the end of 2009, China had a total of more than 13 million 3G, or third generation, users and about 5 million of them use 3G phones based on the home-developed TD-SCDMA (time division-synchronous code division multiple access) technology, according to MIIT. The 3G users base in China will hit 60 million by the end of 2010, a fourfold rise from a year ago, analysts said.

From Shanghai Daily 02/04/2010

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China Telecom Joins GSM Association

The GSM Association (GSMA), an organization representing the interests of the worldwide mobile communications industry, announced Monday that China Telecom, KDDI and Verizon Wireless have joined the organization after committing to deploy services based on Long-Term Evolution (LTE). LTE is seen as the next generation of wireless technology for mobile broadband and will out perform today's fixed-line broadband networks with peak rate speeds of up to 100Mbs downlink and 50Mbs uplink. The organization unites almost 800 mobile operators and over 200 companies in the broader mobile ecosystem in 219 countries and regions. Under its umbrella one can find such diverse interests as handset makers, software companies as well as media and entertainment organizations. "As the largest state-owned operator in China, China Telecom is very excited to join the GSMA, which will enable us to extend our reach and network across the global mobile ecosystem," said Cao Lei, Director of Technology, China Telecom in the GSMA official press release. Meanwhile Alex Sinclair, the Chief Technology and Strategy Officer at the GSMA, commented on the decision taken by China Telecom and the other new members. "With its compelling, high-speed and cost-effective network architecture, LTE is bringing the GSM and CDMA communities together," he said. "We are delighted that China Telecom, KDDI, and Verizon Wireless have joined the GSMA along with Qualcomm, and will be among the first operators to launch commercial LTE services," added Sinclair. "LTE is widely regarded as 'the' Mobile Broadband technology that will be adopted by the vast majority of mobile operators globally," he concluded.

From English.news.cn 02/15/2010

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China's Bank Card Spending Up 31% in 2009

Chinese consumers spent 166 trillion yuan (24.3 trillion U.S. dollars) with their bank cards last year in China, up 30.5 percent from 2008, the People's Bank of China (PBOC), the central bank, said Monday in a statement on its official website. The total number of bank card transactions in China topped 19.7 billion in 2009, a growth of 18.1 percent year on year, said the PBOC. China issued 270 million new bank cards last year, down 10.1 percent from 2008, according to the statement.

From Xinhua News Agency 02/08/2010

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JAPAN: Companies Target China's Online Shopping

China's online shopping sales in 2009 are expected to reach 238.8 billion yuan, while in 2012 the figure is expected to hit 791 billion yuan, according to a report form Japan's Kyodo News. As of the end of 2008, the number of Chinese netizens has surpassed the U.S. totaling 298 million people, ranking the first in the world. And the scale of e-commerce has reached 2.4 trillion yuan. So Japanese businesses have begun to turn their eyes to China, and the rapid development of online shopping in China is considered as the key to opening the Chinese market. Chinese market is too attractive because its population is 10 times bigger than Japan's. But China is too large, it is impossible to open stores in all regions, so online sales will become the key to opening the Chinese market, said a manger from a Japanese children's wear manufacturer. Many Japanese companies have opened online stores targeted at Chinese consumers. Japan's largest online shopping company Rakuten mall has launched a Chinese-language homepage on its online store, "Rakuten Ichiba". Buy-j, the first Japanese online store which offers payment via CUP cards, has many Chinese characteristics, and the homepage is very colorful, different form ordinary Japanese Web sites, elegant and simple style. These Japanese businesses are very attentive when catering to Chinese consumers' psychology, such as their emphasis on the same price of goods with that in Japan, or even lower, the quality of products, no fake goods and more.

From http://www.ecommerce-journal.com/ 12/23/2009

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Megabanks Embrace Internet Banking

The nation's three megabank groups, which own a vast network of banking outlets, are embracing Internet banking. In their efforts to compete with banks that specialize in Internet-based banking, the megabanks reward customers who use such banking services with lower commission charges and allow them to manage several accounts at once. One of the most common transactions conducted with Internet-based banking is fund transfer. The three megabanks charge an over-the-counter commission fee of 630 yen for bank transfers to other banks for amounts less than 30,000 yen. The same transaction costs 210 yen when it is done online. Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ's customers who have housing loans with the bank and customers who have outstanding loans with the bank receive even more favorable treatment, including being able to make fund transfers to other banks up to three times a month free. Banks are reducing commission charges related to mortgages one after another. When customers change the type of interest rate on their loans, which incurs a charge, the charge for doing so online is far lower than that for over-the-counter transactions.

This includes partial early repayment of loans and switching from a fixed interest rate to variable interest rate. For example, an early partial repayment conducted over the counter at Sumi-tomo Mitsui Banking Corp. incurs a handling charge of 15,750 yen. However, this transaction - regardless of the type of loan interest - costs nothing when done online, including repayment and changing from a fixed to a variable interest rate. The other two banks also give preferential treatment to customers who bank online. For customers who have outstanding loans with the banks, some banks cut the commission for using ATMs. Meanwhile, banks are trying make Internet banking easier. Mizuho Bank's membership-based Mizuho Mileage Club allows customers to view a variety of items online, not just transactions with the bank, but stock and credit card details and the balance of their air miles, among others. Lottery tickets can be bought online and winnings collected online. SMBC is introducing foreign currency deposit transactions via Internet banking that can be done while viewing constantly changing exchange rates.

From http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/ 02/19/2010

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SOUTH KOREA: 58 Bln Won Injected to Development of Chip Manufacturing Equipment

The South Korean government and private sector will jointly inject 58.4 billion won (US$50.5 million) over the next three years into building up the local semiconductor manufacturing equipment sector, government officials said. The Industry and Ministry of Knowledge Economy said the investment is aimed at helping local companies develop technologies needed to make next-generation semiconductors and replace imported manufacturing machinery. Of the total to be used up till November 2012, the government will pay 35.9 billion won, with companies including Samsung Electronics and Hynix Semiconductor to foot the remainder."The Injection of state money will be made under the condition that Samsung and Hynix will buy finished products and technologies if they meet international standards," said Park Tae-sung, head of the ministry semiconductor and display division said. The plan calls for the local production of seven manufacturing equipment currently imported from abroad and the development of five key future technologies needed to meet future industry demand, Park said. According to him, the project includes the local production of machinery capable of manufacturing sub-30 nanometer semiconductors and technologies to make so-called phase change random access memory and resistive random access memory. If the injection of funds bears fruit, local output of related products is expected to reach 1.2 trillion won for five years after 2013. This could further strengthen the country's leading status in the semiconductor sector.

From http://www.telecomskorea.com/ 12/08/2009

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Korea's Telecom Market Expected to Grow Slightly

Korea's telecommunications market is forecast to grow marginally next year, with the country's mobile phone penetration rate expected to top 100 percent, a report showed Tuesday and Yonhap News reported. The telecommunications market will grow 3.9 percent to 61.7 trillion won ($53.1 billion) in 2010, helped by increasing wireless Internet services and a recovery in the advertising market, according to the report by Digieco, an economic and management research institute under KT Corp., a local mobile carrier. "Telecommunications service providers will see tangible outcomes next year as they laid the foundation to boost the local telecom market this year," said Yoo Tae-yul, head of Digieco. Digieco said that the number of mobile phone subscribers will increase 2.8 percent in 2010 from a year earlier, reaching a penetration rate of 101.1 percent. Mobile phone penetration rate refers to the number of active mobile numbers as a percentage within a specific population.

From http://www.koreaherald.co.kr/ 12/15/2009

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Growth of Korea's IT Industry Slows from 2005

The once explosive growth of Korea's information and technology (IT) industry has begun to slow down in recent years due to an imbalance in the expansion of related sectors, a private report said Wednesday. Yonhap News reported that the country's IT industry grew by an annual average of 16.8 percent since 1989, but since 2005 the pace of growth has fallen to within the 5-7 percent range, according to the report by the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry. The growth of Korea's IT industry exceeded global standards throughout the 1990s, though in the past four years it has remained on par with other nations, the report said. The slowdown was attributed to a widening gap in the growth of three IT sectors - hardware and software, finished goods and parts, and large and small-and mid-sized companies - the report said. Between 2000 and 2008, the hardware industry recorded an annual average growth rate of 9.5 percent, while the software industry grew by an annual average of 7.5 percent.

From http://www.koreaherald.co.kr/ 12/23/2009

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Samsung Presumed World's Largest Electronics Firm in 2009

Samsung Electronics, a global giant in memory chips and LCD TVs, appears to have become the world's largest electronics firm in 2009 in terms of revenue, according to the company's preliminary earnings results. The company's annual sales last year are estimated to have reached 135 trillion won, which is equivalent to $116.8 billion with the foreign exchange rate of 1,164.5 won to the dollar as of the last trading day Dec. 30, 2009. Samsung's preliminary 2009 revenue is larger than those of HP and Siemens, the only two electronics firms listed on Fortune's list of the top 500 companies in 2008, which were larger than Samsung in terms of revenue. The 2009 revenue of HP was $114.6 billion and that of Siemens, $109.8 billion. However, if the 2009 annual average foreign exchange rate of 1,276 won is applied, Samsung's revenue is smaller than that of Siemens. "The figures are just preliminary results. We will announce detailed earnings in late January," said a Samsung Electronics spokesperson. Industry watchers attributed Samsung's performance in 2009 to its aggressive global market expansion despite the global economic downturn.

Samsung is the world's largest memory chipmaker with more than 40 percent market share and the world's second-largest handset and LCD TV maker. Samsung sold 2 million mobile phones last year, with an operating profit margin exceeding 20 percent and a market share exceeding 20 percent. Samsung sold 2.6 million units of LCD TVs backlit by light-emitting diodes in the global market, with an 86.9 percent market share in the United States in 2009, according to the company. Samsung Electronics recently said it aimed to boost flat-screen TV sales to 39 million units this year, up 30 percent from last year. Samsung Electronics CEO Choi Gee-sung told reporters in Las Vegas on Wednesday that the business environment for Samsung in 2010 will be "incomparably better" than that of 2009, expressing confidence in the growth of core businesses.

From http://www.koreaherald.co.kr/ 01/09/2010

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Trade Balance in IT Sector Posts US$59 Bil. Surplus

The Ministry of Knowledge Economy has released its IT trade figures for 2009. The national trade balance in the information technology sector posted a $58.97 billion surplus, the second-highest IT trade surplus in Korea's history. Exports of IT products fell 7.8 percent over 2008 levels, recording $120.97 billion. Outbound shipments of display panels rose 3.2 percent to $26.52 billion and drove the recovery of IT exports. With total exports standing at $31.04 billion, semiconductors reclaimed their place as the top export item, having been overtaken by mobile phones in 2008. Meanwhile, exports of mobile phones and televisions slid 14.2 percent and 10.5 percent to $28.68 billion and $5.23 billion, respectively. Exports to primary trading partners the United States, the European Union and Japan contracted 5.8 percent, 21.9 percent and 17.0 percent, respectively, but exports to China increased 2.7 percent. IT imports dropped 15.7 percent to $62 billion. After a 14-month year-on-year decline, imports picked up in November. Import volume for all of 2009 was down across the board, with the notable exception of display panels (up 0.7 percent). December was a good month for IT exports, which surged 73.4 percent to $11.29 billion while imports climbed 34.6 percent to $5.68 billion. The movement of key export items - mobile phones (up 12.8 percent), semiconductors (up 125.6 percent) and display panels (up 113.7 percent) - substantially increased. Most other items posted double- or triple-digit growth rates.

From http://www.korea.net/ 01/12/2010

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Korea's IT Exports Reach $121 Bln in 2009

Korea's information technology (IT) exports fell 7.8 percent annually in 2009 mainly due to weak demand for electronics goods caused by the global economic slump, a government report showed Wednesday, Yonhap News reported. Overseas shipments of IT products reached $121.0 billion last year while imports decreased 15.7 percent on-year to $62.0 billion, resulting in a trade surplus of $59.0 billion, according to the report by the Ministry of Knowledge Economy. The 2009 trade surplus is the second largest tallied since the $60.3 billion reported in 2007, it said. "Despite the drop in export volume, Korea's IT sector expanded its global market presence in such key areas as displays, semiconductors, and mobile phones," said Seo Seok-jin, head of the ministry's IT policy coordination division. He said that while outbound shipments of semiconductors and mobile phones fell 5.3 percent and 14.2 percent on-year in 2009 to $31.0 billion and $28.6 billion respectively, both have solidified global market control. South Korea's DRAMs accounted for 56.9 percent of the world's total, while roughly a third of all mobile phones sold were Korean made products. Display panels grew 3.2 percent on-year to $26.5 billion buoyed by dominance of local companies like Samsung and LG in this field. By country, exports to China, including Hong Kong, edged up 2.7 percent on-year to $50.1 billion with those to the United States, Japan and the European Union all falling off compared to the previous year.

From http://www.koreaherald.co.kr/ 01/06/2010

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Korea's Internet Banking Use up 24.8%

Use of Internet banking in Korea rose 24.8 percent in 2009 from a year earlier as more people went on-line for financial transactions, the central bank said Wednesday, according to Yonhap News. On-line banking transactions reached an average of 28 million per day last year, compared with 22.4 million the previous year, according to the Bank of Korea. The number is based on on-line users checking financial records, transferring funds or taking out loans. The total value of Internet banking transactions came to 29.5 trillion won ($25.4 billion) per day, up 28.9 percent from a year earlier. The number of Internet banking subscribers registered with 17 local banks, the state-run Korea Post and HSBC Holdings grew to 59.2 million as of the end of last year. The figure has grown by double digits since 2005, the BOK said.

From http://www.koreaherald.co.kr/ 01/27/2010

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MALAYSIA: Better Year Predicted for IT Vendors

Industry researcher IDC expects IT spending by businesses and other users in Malaysia to perk up this year. It predicted an increase to RM6bil by year end - up from the RM5.64bil recorded last year. It said the rise will be mainly due to pent-up demand caused when companies here postponed purchases in the wake of the global economic slowdown last year. Roger Ling, IDC Asean research manager for software, said the companies are expected to spend on new hardware, broadband and cloud-computing capabilities.

"Companies want to cut (operating) costs (to increase competitiveness) and are opening up to cloud computing," he said. Cloud computing enables businesses to use applications off the Web without having to pay licensing fees for each computer the programs run on.
IDC believes local small- and medium-scale enterprises will be particularly drawn to this type of operational savings. IT spending will also get a boost from the Government's efforts to increase broadband penetration and its scheme offering 100,000 Internet-capable portable computers to university students at a special price.

Telcos to gain
IDC also predicts that the nation's telecommunications industry will grow by 4.4% this year, compared to 1.7% last year. The growth will come from an increased demand for wireless voice and data services, due to the higher penetration of smartphones which are getting cheaper. "You can get a smartphone for less than RM1,000 these days," said Lincoln Lee, telecommunications research manager at IDC Asean. "We see that smartphone shipments will hit 1.8 million units this year, growing by 19.8%. This is close to the double digit growth of 20% the year before," he said. This continuing move toward mobile computing will also result in the growth of HSPA (High Speed Packet Access) broadband services, said IDC. "The demand will come from tertiary students, sales staff and residents of new townships," Lee said.

From http://star-techcentral.com/ 02/01/2010

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E-Commerce Initiative Aimed at SMEs

KUALA LUMPUR: e-Business specialist Skali Sdn Bhd hopes to consolidate 8,000 small- and medium-scale enterprises (SMEs) and entrepreneurs nationwide by year-end through its newly launched e-commerce service, EmbunWeb. EmbunWeb offers web-hosting services, Internet marketing strategies and courses on developing websites, creating blogs and setting up e-stores. Skali already has 4,000 SME clients and plans to get another 4,000 more SMEs onto this initiative through discussions with SME Corp, an agency set up to spur the development of SMEs in the country.

Kevin Zahri, co-founder of EmbunWeb.com, said a lot of people out there have good products to push to local and overseas markets but don't know how to go about it.

"For less than RM500, we can sit down with them for five to six hours and build a website together," he said. He said SMEs and entrepreneurs that sign up for EmbunWeb will also be shown how to get a high ranking in Google searches, how to integrate their business with Twitter and other social networking tools, and more. "There will be monthly seminars on search engine optimisation, some of which will be free of charge," he said.

It is very easy to set up a website, he said, but businesses need to know what they hope to achieve with the site and how to make their site stand out in an ocean of webpages. "That is where EmbunWeb comes in," he added. Saiful Zainuddin, executive chairman of Skali Managed e-Business (SMeB), said EmbunWeb will help SMEs compete with the bigger and more established players. For more information, go to www.embunweb.com.

From http://star-techcentral.com/ 02/08/2010

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Digital TV Broadcasts for Mobiles to Be Beam in Soon

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysians will be able to watch digital TV broadcasts on their mobile phones by the end of the year, said wireless communications company Asiaspace Digital Network Sdn Bhd. "Our product is called amaxAV and allows us to broadcast digital content such as sports, news, radio and cartoons directly onto your mobile device if it has the required receiver," said Asiaspace Digital Network chairman Datuk Abdul Ghani Abdullah. "This is already being done in South Korea with great success and we hope to replicate that here."

To that end, Airspace has signed a mutual co-operation agreement with South Korean broadcast support company Korean Radio Promotion Association to provide assistance in the implementation of amaxAV. The company said it has already installed digital transmitters on existing telecommunication towers, which allow it to broadcast to mobile devices with the amaxAV receiver within a certain range. Additionally Asiaspace said it has signed deals with CNBC and local radio conglomerate AMP to provide content. The company hopes to have 300 transmitters installed by the time amaxAV is due to be rolled out. "We are also in talks with ESPN to broadcast sports highlights in high definition (HD)," said the company's vice-president of content development and broadcasting Ahmad Shah.

He said that the Asiaspace could broadcast full-length football matches live on mobile devices. However this would be contingent on demand and whether those who own the copyright agree to such a move. Asiaspace insists it is not trying to compete with or replace local satellite TV provider Astro. "The service we are offering is for mobile devices only and therefore it complements rather than competes with satellite TV, which is generally watched at home or on a public TV," said Abdul Ghani. AmaxAV is due to be launched by the end of the year at a base rate of RM30 per month depending on the package. The company declined to give dates or elaborate on the packages.

From http://star-techcentral.com/ 02/19/2010

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SINGAPORE: Companies Make Their Move on the Fast Growing Mobile Applications Market

Last year, a group of 8 Singapore companies returned from the Mobile World Congress with $9 million worth of projected sales as a result of their meetings with potential clients and partners; of which $2 million have since been realised. This year, 9 Singapore companies are now in Barcelona participating in the show, hoping no doubt for a repeat performance. Led by Singapore Manufacturer's Federation (SMa), and supported by the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA) and International Enterprise (IE) Singapore, the delegation will be showcasing the latest applications developed for mobile phones under the Singapore pavilion. As a result of its participation in last year's Mobile World Congress, Mobiquest, a company that helps service providers develop, test and port mobile applications across different handset platforms, has signed a partnership agreement with PACA Mobile Centre in Southern France and Wavefront in Canada, to provide an integrated suite of mobile testing and porting services to customers globally through the Mobile Test Centre in Singapore.

Clearhub, another company that participated in Mobile World Congress in 2009, also met up with several potential partners, eventually closing a deal in Brazil for the provision of push-mail services to consumers in partnership with TIM, a leading mobile operator in Brazil.
Magma Studios, a new media company in Singapore who combines online games, rich media and social networks to create exciting and engaging virtual worlds, also secured a consultancy project with the Netherlands Public Broadcasting company, to develop educational virtual worlds for children in Netherlands. Said Terence Swee, Founder and CEO of Muvee Technologies, "Muvee is a pioneer and leader in automatic video editing software and through past participation at Mobile World Congress, we have cemented strong relationships with handset makers like the Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Samsung and LG. Muvee's patented technologies are now included in many popular LG phones like the Viewty, Cookie, Arena and Prada2."

According to the ITU (International Telecommunication Union), which is the leading UN agency for ICT issues, global mobile phone subscriptions were set to rise to 4.6 billion by the end of 2009, a jump of 15 per cent from about 4 billion at the end of 2008.1 In Europe specifically, mobile internet usage is expected to triple from 13% in 2008 to 39 percent by 2014, according to a Forrestor Research study. In addition, the same study projects that by 2014, a third of Western European consumers will own Internet-enabled phones compared with 18 percent in 2009. "At 131%, Singapore's mobile penetration is an indicator of great potential in the provision of value-added mobile services beyond the traditional offerings. Singapore-based companies have developed innovative mobile services to meet these demands. Innovative services, such as WaveSecure - a mobile security suite that provides for remote control, muvee Reveal - a video editing software that creates video from photos, video and music, and TransferToTM - a global airtime remittance network, are successfully deployed and used in Singapore and exported through major international players. We believe Singapore's representation at Mobile World Congress will help companies with solutions such as these to expand their overseas reach, especially into sophisticated markets such as Europe," said Mr Andrew Khaw, Senior Director of Industry Development at IDA.

Said Mr Thian Tai Chew, Group Director, Infocomm Technology at IE Singapore, which promotes the overseas growth of Singapore-based enterprises and trade, "For companies involved in developing mobile applications, volume and the resulting economies of scale are critical to remain profitable. The domestic market is too small to sustain this industry, and it is hence necessary for us to support our players to participate in international flagship shows and other platforms where they get to meet and sell their solutions to a large audience. Europe is an important market for Singapore mobile technology players because of its high mobile penetration rates, advanced 3G mobile networks and proliferation of highend smart-phones - factors that create conducive eco-system for mobile applications and services to flourish."

From http://www.ida.gov.sg/ 02/16/2010

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THAILAND: Spending on IT Infrastructure Remains Low

A new survey showed that despite increasing digital information, spending for information infrastructure is still low, reflecting levels of information leverage in the organisations and shortcomings that need to be addressed in data security, consistency of storage, back-up and recovery. The most recent study from IDC entitled "Is Your Company at Risk? Preparing a Strategy for Information Management", forecasts that digital information will reach 2502 Exabytes in 2012 or a five-fold growth compared to 486 Exabytes in 2008 while IT budgets worldwide will only grow by 1.2 percent according to Peter Goh, Acting Country Manager, Thailand at EMC, who sponsored the study. The study, which collected data from IT managers in 405 companies in India, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand, found that Thailand's IT budget for information infrastructure is less than 20 percent of the overall IT budget, similar to Malaysia's budget. The Philippines spends the highest at 25 percent while the figure is less than 15 percent in Singapore.

Thai respondents spend most of their information infrastructure budget on storing and protecting data while spending less on optimising efficiency of storage hardware and leverage using tools for information management to create business advantage which is still lower than 10 percent of the budget. Divided by five sectors in this survey, financial services spend the highest percentage, allocating almost 23 percent of IT budgets on information infrastructure solutions. Meanwhile governments allocated about 20 percent, manufacturers in the region averaged 17 percent, while energy and telecommunications firms averaged 14 percent. "IT spending opportunities in the financial sector will largely be driven by regulatory compliance due to the implementation of regulations such as Basel II, HIPPA, IAS39 and the Sarbanes-Oxley Act," Goh explained. He continued that in the telecom industry, there is a greater need to integrate 3G mobile, WiMAX and broadband applications into new technologies so the race is about which telecom service provider can offer the most value-added and creative content on these applications. As such, those require highly available, high performance and secure information infrastructures that are both manageable and efficient.

The study also found that data security is a missing piece in information infrastructure, with 22 percent of the survey respondents confiding that they either had no data security policies or had ad hoc data security policies. And 23 percent of those surveyed had policies in place just covering business critical information. Governments spend less on data security with 30 percent of respondents admitting that they has no data security policies compared to only 10 percent in the financial sector. The study also highlighted inconsistent policies with regard to storage, back-up and recovery in the region. Some 47 percent of respondents had no solutions in place to store or back-up company information located on employee laptops and desktop PCs. Thailand ranked lowest among the five countries, with less than 40 percent of respondents having solutions for back-up while Singapore had highest level with over 60 percent having back-up.

Moreover, the study pointed out that companies are still not prepared to cover disasters. One-third of executives said their company could experience total IT system failure. Only about 22 percent felt they had a back-up IT system. Meanwhile, lower spending on information infrastructure also opens windows of opportunity for storage vendors like EMC. The company plans to increase its staff by 25 percent dedicated in key vertical account manager to help targeted customers. While it emphasised more on data back-up solutions from Legato, which EMC acquired in 2003. The company is in discussions with enterprise customers to use storage on demand that allow them to pay storage price according to capacity use per month per user. It will also provide solutions for enterprise customer to implement virtual computing environment in next generation data centre and enable them to build their own private cloud through "Acadia" joint venture company.

From http://www.bangkokpost.com/ 12/16/2009

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IDC Issues Positive Figures: Data Services Drive Telecom Market

Attaphon Satidkanitkul, Asean Senior Analyst for IT and Business Services, said in 2010 the IT market, which covers hardware, software and services, will grow at a rate of 6.8 percent, compared to 1 percent growth in 2009. This year should show a rebound of the market pushed by the country's economic recovery and fuelled by vertical sectors such as financial markets and communications, which are all highly competitive, while the government will be the key IT spender. Moreover, the consumer sector will contribute up to 35 percent of Thailand's overall spending. "The economic crisis in 2009 brought several challenges to the business world, resulting in both enterprises and consumers having concerns about IT spending. This resulted in Thailand's IT spending growing by only a single digit for the first time and will continue until 2011, when it is expected to grow by 9.5 percent and the local political situation still plays a significant role in Thailand's economic recovery," Attaphon said.

He said that this year will see continuing cost-cutting and cost-controls by many organisations that has made IDC see both operators and enterprises transform their spending orientation from being capital expenditure (Capex)-intensive to operational expenditure (Opex)-intensive. This will lead enterprises to use more outsourcing services, especially in managed niche or specialised services, especially in financial banking, insurance and manufacturing. This will also drive the IT service segment to grow by two digits, compared with hardware and software which will see single-digit growth. In addition, telecom service providers (TSPs) will actively expand services offered in the IT services arena and compete with IT service providers (ITSPs) directly. TSPs are becoming better equipped at providing managed services, various hosting services and outsourcing for networks and desktops as well as business processes. In 2010, IDC expects TSPs to see major wins related to provisioning of managed IT services.

Moreover, the need to lower Capex but continuously improve business services will push enterprises to seriously consider adopting cloud computing. The lower risk of in-house infrastructure investment and flexible pricing models will attract the enterprise segment. Most of the projects will be initiated for private clouds, such as email and collaborations and sales.

The readiness of telecommunication service providers' infrastructure and intent to find new sources of revenue will push service providers to offer this service to enterprises. Attaphon added that security was one of the areas least affected by the financial turmoil in 2009, as enterprises continued to give high priority to protecting data and possible weak links across the organisation. IDC believes that 2010 will see a bigger traction of security as a service among enterprises and SMBs, given that the country is still on the up-trend when it comes to compliance directives to increase competitiveness.

There will be significant inroads in security and vulnerability management (SVM) and fundamental investments in secure content and threat-management. In addition, with the ever increasing adoption and popularity of social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter in 2009, security concerns will continue to rise in order to protect the privacy of users. Moreover, IDC also sees that social-media marketing has become a key medium to target a wider audience through existing social networking sites and online communities. In Thailand, the impact of this concept is positive, drawing attention from banking, retail and the hospitality industries, allowing straight communication with consumers for service enhancements. In 2010 it will attract more businesses to social-media technology as a marketing tool to interact with respective audiences. Social networks like Twitter and Facebook as well as sites like YouTube, Flickr and Wayn will become prominent channels for this.

Negative growth for telecom spending
Worajate Chareoennish, analyst at IDC, said that in the telecom sector, Thailand is the only country in Southeast Asia that still hasn't issued 3G commercial licenses. The market will grow at conservative levels without 3G. In 2010, Thailand's telecom revenue will be worth $5.6 billion, which is still negative growth at 0.7 percent but better than the previous year's growth, which was minus 2 percent. The industry experienced minus growth over the past three years due to the decline of voice revenue for operators from high competition and voice revenue still remains a large source of revenue for carriers. However, data services are helping to drive the growth of the industry. IDC sees the growth of data service revenue at 12.7 percent compared to 2009.

There is a similar trend throughout the Southeast Asian region, where mobile data will lead to a projected 13 percent revenue expansion, fuelled by aggressive competition, wider services selection and strong demand for services such as mobile Internet and a host of applications. Growth will be highest for Vietnam and Indonesia at 15 percent and 13 percent year-on-year, respectively. Moreover, IDC also sees that mobile broadband adoption growth in Southeast Asia will reach its highest point at close to 80 percent in 2010 due to declining service rates from service providers revamping contract plans and making pre-paid options available in some markets. The falling price of devices that support mobility such as notebooks, mini-notebooks and smart phones and the continued roll-out of HSDPA/HSPA and WiMAX-based stations in Southeast Asian countries will drive new subscriptions. Universal serial bus (USB) dongle-based broadband services operating on 3G/HSDPA technology will be the prevailing mobile broadband flavour in the region.

From http://www.bangkokpost.com/ 02/17/2010

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VIETNAM: Information Technology to Make a Breakthrough in 2010

The government has approved a series of projects to develop the Information Technology (IT) sector on large-scale in 2010. Vietnam now ranks 18th in the world and 6th in Asia in terms of the number of Internet users with an annual growth rate of 20 percent currently, according to the Ministry of Information and Communications (MIC), a quarter of its population have access to the Internet, 27 times as many as did, just 5 years ago. In 2009, Vietnam ranked among the top ten IT developing countries, it was also one of Asia's top ten most attractive software processing countries and was recognized by the World Bank as a leading country in ICT application.

Chances to thrive
At the World Information Technology Forum 2009 (WITFOR 2009), which took place in August 2009, the PM emphasized that Vietnam views IT as a key industry to achieve the nation's millennium targets, build an information-based society and speed up the industrialization and modernization. Under the government's policies, the MIC established a multi-billion VND project to make Vietnam become one of the top 70 IT developing countries in 2015 and then rank among top 60 in 2020. The project also was aimed at helping ICT businesses to penetrate the global market, build strong brand names, set up ICT corporations and ICT stimulus funds and complete the legal framework to create better conditions for ICT companies.

Truong Gia Binh, president of the Finance and Promotion of Technology Corporation (FPT) said these projects and policies provide chances for Vietnam in general and for ICT companies and corporations in particular to expand. He said that although FPT and other businesses have implemented many campaigns to promote Vietnam's ICT image, they have scored limited achievements. He said he hoped government assistance would help to enhance the prestige of businesses. MIC Deputy Minister Tran Duc Lai said that apart from efforts by businesses, it is essential for the government to build up a long-term policy to provide a backbone for the sector. It should also have supporting policies to help businesses promote their strengths.

Human resources - top priority
At a conference on the assessment of IT, Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Thien Nhan emphasised the importance of human resources in developing the IT sector. He said that Vietnam should be prepared to meet the demand for skilled workers. Developing a well-qualified workforce is a key target for the project. Vietnam now needs about 100,000 people for the hardware industry and 30,000 for the software industry. FPT President Truong Gia Binh said it is now a good time to take advantage of Vietnam's human resources. In order to become one of the top five countries in terms of IT development, Vietnam needs well-qualified software engineers. He expressed that the country can meet the target in the next 5-10 years if it cranks up constant efforts. Concurring with Binh's thinking, Deputy Minister Lai said Vietnam should focus on making products with high intellectual value. He added that the country should create a breakthrough in human resources for not only the IT sector but other socio-economic sectors as well.

Assisting training schools
In October, the PM approved a VND900 billion overall plan to develop a workforce for the IT sector to 2015 with a vision towards 2020. The plan aims to ensure that 30 percent of newly graduated students will be qualified enough to work for international organisations. Vietnam, like other countries, should base itself on a workforce coming from universities and colleges, said experienced experts from India and other IT developed countries. According to statistics from Ministry of Education and Training (MOET), Vietnam now has 230 IT universities and colleges with 25,000 IT officials and 150,000 people working for IT companies. However, the country does not have enough workers in the field, especially high-tech employees. Also, foreign language competency is a barrier for the development of the IT workforce. Only 10 percent of IT employees can currently use English at work. Mr. Binh said in order to improve the quality and quantity of the IT workforce, MOET needs the close cooperation of related agencies and localities. The government should also encourage foreign investment in training human resources in IT by issuing a legal frame for businesses to follow. Along with the concerted efforts of all businesses, the government's support policies will provide fresh impetus for the IT sector to make a breakthrough in 2010.

From http://english.vietnamnet.vn/ 01/05/2010

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Telecom Market 'Unstable' Despite Boom

VietNamNet Bridge - Though the telecommunications market has continued to grow rapidly, it is unstable because industry operators depend too much on promotions, Deputy Minister of Information and Communications Le Nam Thang said. Viet Nam had 107.5 million phone subscribers at the start of this year for a ratio of 126 phones per 100 people and the industry achieved a turnover of VND150 trillion (US$8 billion) last year, a 62 per cent increase year on year. Many experts had predicted that 2009 would be the year of value-added services and the number of subscribers would stop growing. But mobile networks undercut each other to sign on more subscribers, and offered amazing promotions last year.

The three largest mobile service providers, Viettel, Vinaphone, and MobiFone, each have dozens of millions of subscribers, and new companies like Vinamobile and Beeline have more than a million. But the actual number of subscribers who still use the companies' services could be much lower and remains a closely guarded secret. Of the 92 million mobile subscribers, only half are estimated to be actual users. The rest, known as "virtual" subscribers, bought SIM cards to take advantage of the promotions.
The phenomenon of virtual subscriptions has now spread to landlines too.

Investment drain
A representative of the Sai Gon Post and Telecommunications Service Corporation (SPT), said virtual subscribers are a drain on investment and infrastructure and affect the city's beauty. He pointed to SPT's landline package of VND1 million valid for one year as an example of the profligacy. SPT spent $500 per subscriber but collected only VND80,000 - 90,000 a month on average. If another service provider offered a more attractive promotion, the subscribers would switch to it, he said. Telecom businesses have complained that monopoly power supplier Electricity of Viet Nam (EVN) has hiked the charges they pay to put up their cables on electric poles.

The Viet Nam Post and Telecommunications Group had to ask authorities to stop EVN from cutting their cables. EVN has hiked the electricity-pole rental charges by around eight times, a VNPT official said. The Ministry of Industry and Trade has ordered EVN and VNPT to negotiate the rate. An FPT Corporation official said: "In 2009 FPT offered its landline service in 17 cities and provinces, and met difficulties when EVN hiked its rent." To resolve the problem, Viettel plans to erect around 300,000 of its own poles and already has 250,000 in place at a cost of VND1 trillion ($54 million), Nguyen Manh Hung, its deputy general director, said.

It now saves a huge amount, Hung said, adding that if his company rents out the poles to other companies, it would save even more. Another FPT official said, however, that it took two months to set up poles for a 5-km road section, adding that the problem is not about money, but time and effort. "The Ministry of Information and Communications should act to prevent EVN's monopoly," Hung said. Minister of Information and Communications Le Doan Hop has ordered the establishment of a Telecommunications Association and upgrade of the Telecommunications Department into a Telecommunications Bureau in an effort to resolve the industry's difficulties. He also instructed his deputies to work with the ministries of Finance, and Industry and Trade to fix reasonable rentals for electric poles.

From http://English.vietnamnet.vn/ 01/09/2010

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VNPT Proposes 20 Percent Cut in Mobile Charges

VietNamNet Bridge - The Vietnam Post and Telecommunications Group (VNPT) last week asked the Ministry of Information and Communications' permission to cut charges for clients of VinaPhone and MobiFone. The highest reduction suggested is 20 percent, starting in early February if the MoIC agrees. VNPT submitted this plan to the MoIC just two days after Viettel announced it's decision to cut charges by 20% for its subscribers from February 1. An official from VinaPhone, which holds 30 percent of the mobile market in Vietnam, said that they are awaiting the MoIC's instruction. If the plan is approved, the firm would reduce the charges as soon as possible.
 
According to this official, VNPT's plan is to reduce around 200 dong per minute for post-paid services for both VinaPhone and MobiFone. The average reduction is around 15 percent and 20 percent at the highest level. If this plan is approved, then the charges for VinaPhone and MobiFone would be around 10 dong/minute lower than Viettel. The MoIC will provide an answer to VNPT within ten days.

From http://english.vietnamnet.vn/ 02/02/2010

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Telcos Upgrade Networks to Reduce Jamming

VietNamNet Bridge - Mobile carriers have completed their network upgrades to reduce jamming incidents caused by overload during the upcoming Lunar New Year holiday when phone usage demand traditionally soars. Tran Minh Huy, deputy director of Viettel Telecom in HCMC, on Monday told the Daily that network jamming in the Lunar New Year, or Tet, would lessen because Viettel recently completed its network upgrade. According to Huy, last year Viettel added another 8,000 base transceiver stations (BTS), taking the total to 21,000. In the lead up to Tet, the military-run telecom provider will install about 7,000-8,000 BTSs for the third generation network (3G). "With the new 3G stations, it will contribute to increasing its network capacity and reducing network overload," he added.

Besides network upgrade, Viettel plans to use 30 mobile BTSs in highly populated areas to meet strong demand at Tet. Although Viettel is well prepared to cope with network jamming, Huy noted, network overload may happen when millions of users made calls to or text each other at the same time. Viettel now has around 48 million subscribers. Like Viettel, MobiFone and Vinaphone are working hard to put network overload under control during Tet. The two carriers said the situation will be less severe when they upgraded their networks to 3G.

According to Vinaphone, the carrier now has 17,000 base transceiver stations using 2G technology and 5,000 other stations using 3G technology. It has just completed the maintenance of its call center and increased its network capacity to accommodate 50 million users although it has 27 million subscribers at the moment. Vinaphone expects to lure another one million subscribers during the Tet holiday. MobiFone said it had enhanced its network capacity and connections with other networks up to 5Gbps. It will have 30 mobile BTSs in busy areas. However, carriers have advised clients should not make calls or send text messages during peak hours, especially at the moment the old year is out.

From http://english.vietnamnet.vn/ 02/04/2010

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E-commerce Set to Boom in 2010: Trade Ministry

VietNamNet Bridge - The vigorous development of e-commerce in Vietnam last year has created an optimistic outlook for even stronger growth in 2010, the Ministry of Industry and Trade has said. A survey by the ministry of more than 2,000 businesses in Vietnam last year showed that most enterprises have invested in IT infrastructure; 98 percent of businesses use the Internet; and 36 percent sell goods and services using online trade systems. Other encouraging signs were that 37 percent of businesses have set up websites, of which those with e-transaction capabilities account for 38 percent; and those with e-payment systems make up 3.5 percent, said Duong Hoang Minh, deputy head of the ministry's E-Commerce and Information Technology Department. Of the total number of businesses nationwide, 12 percent have made deals on e-trade floors and 69 percent have signed contracts through such floors.

Consumers in Vietnam have been keen on online-trading since 2008 when several e-payment companies were set up including Payoo, VinaPay, Mobivi, PayNet and VnPay. In 2009, when consumer spending slowed due to the global financial crisis, customers became more interested in buying goods and services online to save time and money. To boost e-commerce, it is necessary to promote the benefits of non-cash payment; step up the interconnectivity of e-payment systems in the country; increase ATM card use; and issue regulations on e-payments and e-invoices, said Mr. Minh. Last December, he said, the E-commerce department launched an export information site at www.vnex.com.vn, an official channel connected with the industry and trade departments of 63 provinces and cities, and 60 commercial offices of Vietnamese consulates around the world. More than 10,000 Vietnamese importers and exporters are listed on the website.

HCMC to step up e-trade
In mid-December 2009, the city's Industry and Trade Department organized a program titled "Selection of prominent e-commerce businesses," aimed at boosting e-commerce activities; assessing e-commerce efficiency; and allowing the city's business community to gain experience in the field of e-commerce. Deputy chairwoman of the HCMC People's Committee, Nguyen Thi Hong, has called on relevant agencies to open training courses in e-commerce for local managers and entrepreneurs. Such programs would include intellectual property education and training in measures to protect consumers in the e-commerce environment. At the same time, official agencies should work out plans to popularize e-payment practices amongst the public and business communities, Ms. Hong said.

The city will also mobilize all available media outlets to help promote e-commerce to the public including e-information related to city authorities, departments and agencies. A center for e-certification will be built in HCMC this year; the use of e-signatures for trade transactions using digital technology will be applied; and banks and credit institutions will receive assistance in applying more technology to their services, especially e-payment systems. HCMC aims to introduce e-commerce to 100 percent of city-based businesses and have 20 percent of households using online trading systems this year. The city now has around 1.3 million computers in use; with 96 percent of HCMC households owning a computer and more than 600,000 households subscribing to broadband Internet services, according to the city Department of Information and Telecommunications. To create sustainable development of e-commerce by 2015, city authorities will also strive to improve relevant legal systems; and adopt policies to acquire advanced technologies and encourage businesses and the public to apply e-commerce.

From http://english.vietnamnet.vn/ 02/16/2010

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BANGLADESH: E-Franchising: A Prospective Market for Bangladesh

The fate of a successful organization lies in making its parts working together. It can be through achieving synergy resulting in additional value creation within the organization or through strategic alliances where two or more organizations share pool of resources & activities to pursue strategies & business goals. One of the frequent reasons for alliances is to obtain resources that an entity needs but does not itself possess. Among the different types of strategic alliances, Franchising is gaining prominence over time around the world. It involves the franchisee to undertake specific activities such as manufacturing, distribution, selling or service providing whilst the franchisor is responsible for the brand name, marketing & training. It engages the pooling of resources, investments and risks for mutual gains. In such regard, a franchisor that can be named in disseminating the radiance of Information Technology throughout Bangladesh is 'BracNet' through its project 'E-hut'. The term 'E-Hut' seems to be quite self explanatory. E-huts are franchisees of bracNet and are owned and run by local entrepreneurs. BracNet e-hut is a one-stop cyber shop catering to different type of digital services. Through e-hut, bracNet hopes to bring internet and data connectivity to the grassroots of Bangladesh & is a catalyst towards achieving 'Digital Bangladesh'. A vast majority of e-hut shops will be located all over the Bangladesh. BracNet would work with prospective franchisees and financial institutions to facilitate small scale financing if the prospective franchisees require starting e-hut in their communities. Some critics might refer to this approach as a unique selling proposition (USP) of bracNet, but if we look at the broader picture, the e-hut is a scheme towards mass improvement and convenience.

We are residing in the Information Age & when the world is talking about wireless internet or WiFi hotspots which are spreading extremely fast, we are still struggling to make internet facility available to our colossal population let alone other digital services. But it is now or never scenario; the truth is Bangladesh will not be able to sustain the harsh competition in the world market unless we work towards a tech-friendly culture. Bangladesh has a population of 160 million, making it the 7th most populous country in the world. Although internet connectivity is expected to become highly marketable due to demand, internet penetration remains low at 2%. Hence, swift improvements of such services are highly anticipated by the populace. BracNet through its e-hut program is taking a stride towards providing internet broadband connectivity & digital services all over Bangladesh. Their effort is to provide people with the necessary internet facility & to set up digital services for the people even in the remotest areas of the country. This will not only be a convenience for the local people but also the spark to a lot of entrepreneurs who wants to start their businesses being a franchisee of the bracNet. It might be through franchising, but our economy demands the spread & impact of more & more entrepreneurship in whatever scale the case might be which is surely beneficial for our plummeting economy. Thus, in a sense bracNet is contributing towards the value creation of our economy. Recently bracNet has established a strategic partnership between KDDI, a Japanese corporation which is a global communications company and experienced player in the industry worldwide. The alliance will enable bracNet to expand their internet broadband coverage over Bangladesh. The synergies generated between bracNet & KDDI will enable the creation of truly effective and sustainable internet broadband environment and social infrastructure across the country.

By deploying local communications infrastructure and promoting high quality and low cost internet broadband, bracNet's effort will bear beneficial results for the country. Bangladesh has not been urbanized as it should be outside Dhaka city & some major cities compared to other developing countries. So the hustle of the overall population is on the capital which is taking the city on the verge of a collapse in different respects. The problem lies in the lack of industrialization & the trifling span of technology outside Dhaka & its suburbs. Almost all the trade & activities has been Dhaka based which makes it the centre of mass congregation. A potential option for this setback is to extend the beam of information technology & digital services all over the country specially countryside with ample training facilities which will relieve the intense load on Dhaka city inevitably and be the foundation for self sufficiency & entrepreneurship. E-hut has come up with such a concern to educate people through training, facilitate through internet services and be an aid for digital exposure to eradicate deficiencies and work our way towards a progressive nation. E-hut is elaborated in simple terms as 'Digital Business Centre' which makes a lot of sense from the standpoint of the entrepreneur who will be incorporated with the franchisor bracNet. The reason being as it will draw income for the entrepreneur as well as be the source of various digital services for the local people. BracNet which is a concern of BRAC is expanding their activities of e-hut as a major project which aims to propagate internet & data connectivity among the people all over the country. The e-hut project office of bracNet will provide indispensable guidelines to the entrepreneurs or franchisees for their business improvements. Services provided by e-hut includes internet browsing, broadband connectivity, IT training, web cam & digital camera, computer compose & printing, computer servicing, graphics designing, photocopying amenities etc. to the locality. Moreover, e-hut is optimistic about introducing services like IP phoning, e-commerce, video conferencing, money transfer and courier services in the future. Thus providing all these services for the betterment of the local people under one roof is simply a positive concern & long-awaited by our mass population who are deprived from the blessings of the information age & digital world. We have a dream, & that is to have a 'Digital Bangladesh' and to transform our huge unskilled population which is a burden at the moment into skilled manpower which will be a resource for our nation in near time to come. For such a vision to come true, the need for more project instances like e-hut is inevitable from organizations, just one is never enough.

From http://nation.ittefaq.com/ 12/01/2009

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INDIA: Fastest Growing Mobile Market in South Asia

DUBAI: India is one of the fastest growing mobile markets in South Asia with a huge potential for growth amongst the rural population, an industry analyst has said. According to Lavanya Palani Batcha, Industry Analyst for ICT Practice at Frost & Sullivan, South Asia and Middle East, the mobile value-added services (VAS) market is set to grow at a strong CAGR of 16.6 per cent from 2008 to 2015. With tumbling voice tariffs contributing to declining Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) rates, mobile operators are actively pushing for growth of the non-voice value-added services market, the analyst noted. "Despite the economic uncertainties, the mobile services market in South Asian and Middle East countries continues to sustain a growth path, especially in countries such as India," Batcha said. The trend in regional areas across countries is equally inte resting, he added. "Mobile markets across regions are intensely competitive and some of them have reached saturation in terms of penetration of addressable markets," he said. Presently, mobile voice revenues constitute the largest chunk of operator's revenues, relegating mobile data revenues to a miniscule percentage. In the case of messaging, the popularity of Peer to Application (P2A) SMS, where mobile subscribers respond to an application such as voting through SMS for a TV program, is on the rise.

From http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/ 12/01/2009

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Indian Companies Are Top Importers of IT Workers

Seven out of the top ten importers of IT workers to the UK in 2008 are Indian companies according to data obtained by the Association of Professional Staffing Companies (Apsco) under the Freedom of Information Act. Indian giants Tata Consultancy Services, Infosys Technologies and Wipro Technologies were the top seven. US companies Accenture and IBM were came eight and tenth for importing the most IT staff to the UK, while French company Capgenmini was ninth. The seven Indian companies accounted for 43% of the IT workers entering the UK on intra company transfers (ICTs). The total number of IT workers coming in on the Intra-Company Transfer scheme ICTs was 29,240 with 12,573 working for the Indian firms. ICTs allows staff to apply for a permit to transfer to the UK from an overseas branch of their employer. Employers need to have a sponsor's licence to use the permit system, and could be at risk of losing their permit if they abuse the system. Bringing overseas workers to the UK using the onshore/offfshore model to complete UK jobs is controversial, particularly when UK IT workers are being made redundant. "Since [the offshoring boom] these companies have established subsidiaries in the UK to tap into the UK outsourcing IT market, but they are importing vast numbers of staff from India for jobs which could be filled by EU workers," said Apsco. "These figures show just how easy it is for foreign companies to bypass the UK labour market. The majority of companies relocating non-EU IT workers to the UK aren't British companies looking to plug skills shortages, but foreign companies with their headquarters abroad moving staff to UK subsidiaries," said Ann Swain, CEO at Apsco.

From http://www.computerweekly.com/ 12/03/2010

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BSNL Launches WiMAX Services in India

Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) has become the first company in the country to announce the nationwide launch of wireless broadband services using worldwide interoperability for microwave access (WiMAX) technology starting with Ajmer in Rajasthan, with a tariff starting with Rs 140 per month for rural areas. WiMAX technology is the latest 4th generation wireless broadband service working in 2.5 Ghz band. The total cost of the project is Rs 225 crore. For WiMAX in rural areas, BSNL has planned to spend approximately Rs 1,200 crore. It will offer broadband speed of 7 Mbps at a distance of 15 km with mobility in wireless broadband. This will provide high speed wireless broadband connectivity to 11,500 common service centres in respective blocks. Through this technology, BSNL has planned to cover the remaining block headquarters for connecting 50,000 common service centres in the next phase.

From http://www.egovonline.net/ 12/13/2010

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Commercial Taxes Department in Kerala to Adopt M-Governance

The Commercial Taxes Department of Kerala would launch an m-Governance initiative for grievances redressal. This would basically be an interactive voice response system (IVRS) in which an aggrieved trader or assessee can dial a toll-free number and register a complaint on his cell phone from anywhere/anytime in the State. The complaint can be made in English, Malayalam, Tamil or Hindi. On giving the caller's address and other coordinates, the system would recite back the recorded complaint in the caller's own voice. Once this is through, a docket number would be messaged to the complainant, which would need to be messaged back to the toll-free number.

From http://www.egovonline.net/ 12/24/2009

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E-Stamp for Easier Tax Collection

e-Stamping is a major e-Governance initiative in the country. Delhi and Gujarat were the first states to start a paperless e-stamping system. Inspired by this successful implementation, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Assam, too, have deployed the system. India is the third country to adopt e-stamping after Singapore and Hong Kong. Having stamp duty paid via the e-stamping system, the record created is 100% tamper-proof, accurate and secure and is accessible 24x7 for verification by all parties involved in the transaction based on a unique identification number. This web-based secured system offers complete protection. A stamp certificate is generated by the system on the payment of stamp duty. The certificate comes with a unique identification number and its authenticity can be verified with the help it.

From http://www.egovonline.net/ 02/15/2010

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PAKISTAN: Largest Data Centre Launched

Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL) has launched the largest data centre in Pakistan, the first of which will be located in Karachi. The PTCL Data Centre is protected from intrusion and failure with multi-layered security, fail-safe redundancy, diversity measures, and rapid response recovery measures. It is designed and built to accommodate the comprehensive data in a secured managed and climatically controlled environment. This data centre is engineered using the same rigid specifications, consistent with international standards and data centre certification bodies and is enabled with technologies that proactively manages and enterprises mission-critical applications for predictable and continuous performance.

From http://www.egovonline.net/ 02/15/2010

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AFGHANISTAN: MCIT Signs the Second Phase of Optical Fibers Project

On Wednesday, December 9, 2009 Ministry of Communications and IT signed an agreement with Shaid-Qandi (Iranian Company) to implement the Optical Fiber Project in the south part of Afghanistan. The Ceremony organized by this purpose at MCIT Ministry of Communications & IT, H. E. Eng. Amirzai Sangin Minister of Communications & IT, Eng Baryalai Hassam Deputy Minister Technical and other senior officials of the MCIT and Mr. Hamid Reza Tosi the second secretary of the Iran Embassy in Afghanistan were present. At the beginning, His Excellency Eng. Amirzai Sangin Minister of Communications briefed all reporters and participants of the conference from the importance and essence of this Project.

His Excellency added that, this project will be launched with the transmitting capacity of (STM-16) which is extendable to (STM-64) and will be connected with the main OFC circle which has 3100 Km length. This project will cover 470 Kilometer distance among the south parts of Afghanistan from Kabul-Char Asiab - Mohammad Agha - Pol-e-Alam - Kardiz - Khost - Zarmat - Matakhan - Sharan - Andar - Ghazni and then back to Kabul by the extension of 3300 kilometers of OFC. This Project has been given to Shaid Qandi campy after all procurement process the cost of this project is USD 12.087.579 which is going to be financed through core budget of MCIT by the coming 18th months. Finally the agreement was signed between H. E. Eng. Barialai Hassam Deputy Minister Technical of MCIT and CEO of Shaid Qandi Company.

From http://www.moc.gov.af/ 12/10/2009

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The 2nd Contract of Telecom Development Fund Signed

Ministry of Communication and Information Technology (MCIT) is responsible for provision of telecom services throughout the country. Based on the Afghanistan telecom market economic requirements, MCIT had forecasted that development of telecom services started from big cities and will be developed to the rural areas of the country step by step. It should be mentioned that telecom companies include the remote areas in the end of their extension list for telecom networks due to logistics difficulties, expensive cost of investment and receipt of less income related to provision of telecom services. MCIT there fore established Telecom Development Fund (TDF) to cover the rural and remote areas of the country with telecom services on time. Based on terms and conditions of the issued licenses to the telecom companies, each company pays 2, 5% of its net revenue to the mentioned fund quarterly, and about 2 billion Afghani ( 40 forty million US$) has been collected for this fund so far.

Afghanistan Telecom Regulatory Authority (ATRA) of MCIT prepared and finalized universal access policies for telecom services and procedures for usage of the (TDF) amount for rural areas in 2008. Based on that, the first project of universal access for provision of telecom services in the rural and remote areas of the country was launched in 29 July, 2009 and the project is being implemented. Based on the development plan of universal access services in the rural and remote areas of the country, ATRA submitted the second project of universal access for tender notice in 24 October, 2009, and its offer opening took place in 24 November, 2009. Consequently, Afghan Wireless Communication Company bidding was announced the winner for bidding of second project of universal access. Currently, all legal processes for bidding of the second project of universal access have been completed and agreement of the second project of universal access is entered in to agreement with Afghan Wireless Communication Company (AWCC) based on that. Based on this project, twenty (20) districts which have not benefited from provision of telecom services yet will be covered with telecom services by TDF in Kunar, Paktia, Paktika, Badakhshan, Farah and Urzgan provinces.

From http://www.mcit.gov.af/ 01/31/2010

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AZERBAIJAN: 3G License Awarded

Azerbaijan's Azerfon has been awarded the country's first 3G license, reports local media. According to Azerfon General Director Guido Helbich the company is planning to launch 3G services on the 2.1 Ghz frequency within the next few days. Azerfon is expected to make 3G services available not only in Baku and the Absheron peninsula but across the country. Each operator that is granted a license will be charged 11,000 manat (US$13,681). The Mobile World database notes that there are three GSM operators, along with one CDMA o