..Press Release................................ UNESCAP News Services

Date 17 August 2007
Press Release No: G/33/2007

UN Helps Cambodia in its Bid to Move Toward an Information Economy

UNESCAP held national seminar on internet governance

Bangkok (United Nations Information Services) -- Cambodia recently announced a plan to shift the country from relying on agriculture, garment manufacturing and tourism to a medium and high value-added economy, with information and communication technology (ICT) being a key sector.

The country currently has one of the lowest rates of computer ownership in the region.
Internet penetration is also low due to the high-cost of electricity and connection fees.

To help Cambodia realize its ambition, the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP) conducted a national seminar on Internet governance on 15 and 16 August in Phnom Penh, the capital. The event was organized in collaboration with the National ICT Development Authority (NiDA) of Cambodia, with financial support from the government of the Republic of Korea.

Phu Leewood, Secretary-General of NiDA, told the meeting that regulatory reform in the ICT sector had become a challenging task due to rapid technology development and market movement led by mobile services. Cambodia, a country of 14 million people, has 1.5 million mobile phone service subscribers, and the number is growing at 40 per cent a year. The Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX), a wireless digital communications system, has already covered the capital area.

While providing momentum for ICT development, Mr. Phu Leewood said, this ‘leapfrog’ might pose a longer-term challenge since the development of a national broadband backbone has not taken-off.

Around 50 participants gathered at the two-day meeting to discuss the main issues of ICT policy and Internet governance in Cambodia, including e-transactions, data protection, cyber-security and domain names.

Cambodia needs to further develop a platform for policy and regulatory reform, including drafting an e-signature law and establishing a certification authority in order to enable e-commerce to take off.

Siva Thampi, Director of the Information, Communication and Space Technology Division (ICSTD) at UNESCAP, stated that the exchange of information among policymakers, the private sector and academia on how to proceed with and develop ICT policy reform was as important as shaping a national innovation strategy. He added that ICT should contribute to the alleviation of poverty in rural areas by tackling the digital divide, as recommended by the World Summit on the Information Society.

Daewon Choi, Chief of the ICT Policy Section, ICSTD, UNESCAP, moderated a special roundtable on ICT infrastructure, human resources, and Internet governance. He characterized the ICT development in Cambodia as several factors moving in multiple directions of ‘leapfrog’. These include mobile services overtaking fixed-line services, VoIP (voice over Internet protocol) becoming a mainstay for international communications, and the virtual formation of a partial ICT backbone using infrastructure of neighbouring countries such as Thailand and Vietnam.

The roundtable pointed out that Cambodia was at a critical juncture in ICT development. It could benefit from the next generation network technologies (NGN) leading to a knowledge-based economy if the current flows of aid and investment were used productively in generating skilled labour and providing quality ICT education for the youth and for small and medium enterprises. There is a risk of missing the goal, however, if public goods and affordable ICT infrastructure fail to materialize.

UNESCAP was requested by the Cambodian government to provide a follow-up to the meeting, focusing on policy on the convergence of various technologies, and on e-government development.

For further information, please contact:
Mr. Cihat Basocak
ICT Policy Section
UNESCAP
Tel: +66-2-288-1523
E-mail: basocak.unescap@un.org
http://www.unescap.org/icstd/events/NW_Cambodia_2007/