At
The e-ASEAN Road Show and Tech Forum
Empire Hotel, Brunei Darussalam
03 April 2002
Dr.
Ghazie Ismail,
the
lead-person for e-ASEAN Road Show and Tech Forum.
Distinguished
Delegates,
Ladies
and Gentlemen
Let
me first thank the Organizer of the e-ASEAN Road Show and Tech Forum for
inviting me as the Guest-of-Honour this morning.
I am honoured to be given this opportunity to say a few words in this
important event.
It gives me great pleasure to welcome our Distinguished Visitor, Dr. Ghazie Ismail, all Distinguished Delegates attending the 10th e-ASEAN Working Group, the 11th e-ASEAN Task Force Meeting and especially the e-ASEAN Pilot Projects speakers who will be presenting their Infocommunication projects during the course of this Forum.
Just two years ago, our ASEAN leaders recognized the urgent need for ASEAN to meet the challenges of a knowledge-intensive global economy. They agreed to establish an ASEAN Information Infrastructure and set-up e-ASEAN Task Force - a public-private sector task force to advise on how to achieve an enabled and a connected ASEAN community.
The
e-ASEAN Task Force have done
a lot lately
and their
achievement includes
the ASEAN
Framework Agreement on Information and Communications Technology
Products, Services and Investment.
This Framework
Agreement represents an important landmark in ASEAN in its efforts to create a
coherent strategy for ICT development in the region and
also develop ASEAN’s capability to compete in the global market.
In
this era of digital economy, the Road Show and Tech Forum has
an important role to play and I am
optimistic
it will help
create an awareness and
appreciation of the importance of private sector involvement in driving
the ICT industry
forward for the benefit of the ASEAN
community.
This Forum will not only create interests and appreciation of ICT but
will also hopefully chart the way forward for useful application of ICT.
Ladies
and Gentlemen,
When
we look at other countries beyond the ASEAN region, we will find
they have taken various initiatives to position themselves as the hubs
and centres of Info-Communication Technology.
They have attracted huge foreign investments into their economies.
They have attracted manufacturing, research and development, and create
job opportunities and at the same time helping the process of transfer of
technologies and know-how.
There
are huge opportunities and prospects
in this sector even for a small country like Brunei Darussalam but we
must be prepared to meet the challenges ahead, we must act swiftly and take
meaningful steps to implement and adopt ICT services.
I
would like to share with you some of the ICT developments in our country.
Through the
Brunei Information Technology Council (BIT Council), we are vigorously
pursuing and implementing our national IT Master Plan, concentrating on our
e-Government and e-Commerce projects.
Our objectives in these areas are directed towards the alignment of our
IT plan with the e-ASEAN initiatives.
We
have invested heavily in the construction of
our National Infocommunications Infrastructure to keep pace with the
needs of the Nation and
under the 8th National Development Plan, the Government of His
Majesty the Sultan and Yang Di-Pertuan of Brunei Darussalam has
allocated over
B$900 million for the development of ICT sector.
This includes a substantial amount to be spent on the development of
infrastructure of our e-Government projects and initiatives.
In
the Communications Sector,
we have an excellent Nationwide broadband
network which we called RaGAM 21.
We have an international
connectivity through fibre-optic submarine cable systems and satellites.
We will continue to improve our infrastructure so that we can provide
advance IT services to all sectors of our population – in Government, in
Schools and Community Centres including
Mosques. We
have a
telephone household penetration of over 95% and a mobile phone penetration of
40%. Our
internet penetration is
still low at 9% and it is still growing.
I
have mentioned earlier our e-Government projects, which I am happy to say is
proceeding ahead nicely.
Our TAFIS project is
going ahead and with this development, we will be one of the first
country in the subregion which extensively use IT in Government.
In our efforts
to narrow the digital divide and to make IT services
available to the whole population, we are looking closely at introducing
IT into the mukims and kampongs through our
mukims.net project which we hope will be centred
around the community centres in the mukims.
We are also looking into the possibility of using our Post Offices in the
Rural Areas as “Cyber Cafes”.
This will make internet service available to the mukims,
to people who cannot have access to this technology in their own homes,
school children, retirees, the elderly and the housewives.
Our e-Government projects also include introduction of ICT to health care
via our e-health project and of course on education via our e-education project.
Our e-Commerce
projects will also be moving ahead.
The task
of moving this project ahead rests heavily on the e-Commerce Executive Programme
Committee. This
Executive Programme Committee will help to accelerate the adoption
of e-Business in Brunei particularly
amongst the Small and Medium Enterprises.
There
is an enormous potential for the use of Infocommunications technology and
we hope to take advantage of these opportunities to
provide electronic content and multimedia services into the Asia Pacific,
ASEAN and BIMP-EAGA region.
In the
Ministry of Communications, we are working on a plan,
with the assistance and collaboration
of the Ministry of Industry and Primary Resources, particularly BINA, to
develop our own Eco-Cyber Park project.
The Cyberpark will
serve as an incubator for
dynamic development
of IT and
Telecommunications services and
we hope it can attract investments, particularly in software
developments. To
help us realise
this Cyberpark project, the Government
has allocated sufficient fund in the 8th National Development
Plan.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
These
are some of the activities that we in Brunei are vigorously pursuing.
This is a fast developing new sector and I am sure
this Forum and the e-ASEAN Road Show will come out with a lot more
new ideas.
Let
me conclude my
brief remarks by
thanking the
e-ASEAN Task Force for inviting me to this
important event and indeed for organizing this event in Brunei
Darussalam. We
are privileged to be given this
honour. Once
again, I wish to welcome our
Distinguished speakers, our Distinguished Visitors
and all Delegates to the 10th e-ASEAN Working Group, the 11th
e-ASEAN Task Force Meeting to Brunei and I hope you will find your visit to
Brunei interesting and beneficial.
With
the kalimah BISMILLAHIR RAHMANIR RAHIM
I am pleased to officiate the launching of e-ASEAN Road Show and Tech
Forum 2002.
Wabillahitaufik
Walhidayah Wassalamualaikum Warrahmatullahi Wabarakatuh.