Plenary forum on ‘Sustainable Economic Growth’

Location: Jakarta, Indonesia
Created By: vignesh on 8-May-2008 10:26 AM

Background

It has long been recognised that IT can play a powerful role in driving economic growth. The IT industry itself is a powerful vehicle of wealth creation, producing an increasing number of high skill jobs in developed and developing markets across the region. Further, numerous studies demonstrate how IT helps government and industry to increase their overall productivity and efficiency. However, the full impact of IT as a growth driver has to be felt. Even in highly developed markets, IT is in many cases still underutilised. And the challenges are even more acutely felt in countries at comparatively lower points on the productivity and economic growth curves. One particularly vexing problem, for example, is how to expand rural access to IT in a manner that will foster inclusive economic growth – a significant concern in Asia Pacific, a region with both fast-growing economies and vast segments of the population living in remote and areas with limited connectivity and IT infrastructure. In this session, we scope the challenges and discuss today’s best practices and tomorrow’s opportunities – both exploring creative applications of technology in urban and rural settings and focusing on related policy legal and regulatory issues.

Proceedings

Michael Rawding, Vice President, Unlimited Potential Group, Microsoft Corporation introduced the theme and invited the keynote speaker and panel discussion speakers to share their views.

Dr Mari Pangestu, Minister of trade, Republic of Indonesia delivered the keynote address. In her address, she highlighted the use of IT as an enabling tool for good governance. She said e-Governance applications are easy to read in theory, but, are difficult to implement. Small and medium enterprises can play a key role in ensuring the sustainability.

Richard Fuchs, Regional Director, Southeast and East Asia, International Development Research Centre; Dr Tadatoshi Akiba, Major, City of Hiroshima, Japan; and Scot. A. Marciel, Ambassador for ASEAN Affairs, Department of State, U.S.A. shared their views and perspectives on the theme.

Key issues discussed

·Where to go next? The 21st century goes to Asia.
·Increasing literacy
·Digital divergence
·Shared access computing
·Train younger generation for doing global business on the Internet
·IT can be leveraged for rural development – to provide information on education, weather information, market information, etc.
·Success stories – ICTA’s Nenasala telecentres, Philippine Community eCentre Programme

Web Site: http://www.glf-asia.com

Contact Name: Vignesh

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