Preface

Information and communication technology (ICT) has become an indispensable tool in the fight against world poverty. ICT provides developing nations with an unprecedented opportunity to meet vital development goals such as poverty reduction, basic healthcare and education far more effectively than before. Those nations that succeed in harnessing the potential of ICT can look forward to greatly expanded economic growth, dramatically improved human welfare and stronger forms of democratic government.

THE UNIQUE CHARACTERISTICS OF ICT

ICT can be a powerful enabler of development goals because its unique characteristics dramatically improve communication and the exchange of information to strengthen and create new economic and social networks:

• ICT is pervasive and crosscutting. ICT can be applied to the full range of human activity from personal use to business and government. It is multifunctional and flexible, allowing for tailored solutions—based on personalization and localization—to meet diverse needs.
• ICT is a key enabler in the creation of networks and thus allows those with access to benefit from exponentially increasing returns as usage increases (i.e. network externalities).
• ICT fosters the dissemination of information and knowledge by separating content from its physical location. This flow of information is largely impervious to geographic boundaries—allowing remote communities to become integrated into global networks and making information, knowledge and culture accessible, in theory, to anyone.
• The “digital” and “virtual” nature of many ICT products and services allows for zero or declining marginal costs. Replication of content is virtually free regardless of its volume, and marginal costs for distribution and communication are near zero. As a result, ICT can radically reduce transaction costs.
• ICT’s power to store, retrieve, sort, filter, distribute and share information seamlessly can lead to substantial efficiency gains in production, distribution and markets. ICT streamlines supply and production chains and makes many business processes and transactions leaner and more effective.
• The increase in efficiency and subsequent reduction of costs brought about by ICT is leading to the creation of new products, services and distribution channels within traditional industries, as well as innovative business models and whole new industries. Intangible assets like intellectual capital are increasingly becoming the key source of value. With the required initial investment being just a fraction of what was required in the more physical-asset intensive industrial economy, barriers to entry are significantly lowered, and competition increased.
• ICT facilitates disintermediation, as it makes it possible for users to acquire products and services directly from the original provider, reducing the need for intermediaries. This cannot only be a considerable source of efficiency, but has in fact been one of the factors leading to the creation of so-called “markets of one,” leveraging ICT’s potential to cater to the needs or preferences of users and consumers on an individual basis.
• ICT is global. Through the creation and expansion of networks, ICT can transcend cultural and linguistic barriers by providing individuals and groups the ability to live and work anywhere, allowing local communities to become part of the global network economy without regard to nationality, and challenging current policy, legal and regulatory structures within and between nations.

These characteristics suggest that ICT has the potential, if conceived as a means and not an end in itself, to be a powerful enabler of development. However, the fact that ICT can, in theory, assist development efforts does not mean that it will necessarily do so. In order for ICT to positively foster development goals, it must be employed effectively.

* from: Creating a Development Dynamic: Final Report of the Digital Opportunity Initiative, Accenture, Markle Foundation, UNDP, July 2001

OBJECTIVE  

The manuals shall provide guidelines for countries to improve or optimize its e-readiness. Self-assessment of e-readiness is provided on separate document as a framework to determine the level of each country. Various factors were taken into account in this self-assessment. Some of these factors were later becoming key factors, which need to be considered in improving e-readiness. Some were prerequisite and played crucial role as they had to be available even for the initial level.

STRUCTURE OF DOCUMENT

The prequisite for each level were discussed first. Later, upgrade path, stages of development and what to focus during improvement will be presented. Lastly, each key factor contributing toward development of ICT shall be identified and analyzed.

Prerequisite, Development stages and Key Factors

PREREQUISITE

These prerequisites are basic requirement to at even initial level of e-readiness. They have to be available before improvement can be made. However, it does not mean that these prerequisites are widely available in the countries. Imbalance of distribution is fact even in developed countries. Therefore these prerequisites need to be available at least on the institution which will become focal point for electronic linkage toward NAM-CSSTC. Each of them shall be discussed below.

Electricity  

Basic electricity are necessary to provide power for the IT infrastructure. There are various ways to generate a stable power source of electricity. Depending on the policy of the countries, power plant can be utilize hydroelectric (which is popular and cheapest), geo thermal, fossil fuel (diesel, coal), wind energy, solar energy, or nuclear.

Distribution and reliability are another factors to be considered. Typically to improve these factors, IT infrastructures were equipped with UPS (un-interruptible power supply). The device provides protection against power line noises (surge and spikes) which could be harmful to sensitive electric and mechanic part of the system. UPS also smoothed ripples of voltages coming in from AC power lines. The actual advantage of UPS is graceful shutdown in case of power failure. It works by actually powering the IT system from batteries. The power line is used to charge the batteries and output of batteries is fed to an inverter to convert it to AC voltage again.

Computers  

Of course the basic of all IT infrastructure are computers. Nowadays, PC or personal computer are ubiquitous and can provide almost all-computing power necessary for any requirement. Other more specialized computers are workstation, servers, mini computer and super computer. PC and these other type of computers are discussed further in separate document describing ICT system.

Internet connection

Next step of computers is interconnection. Local interconnection can be achieved using LAN (local area network). Global interconnection requires Internet connection. Typically, this requires an ISP (Internet service provider) or connection to global backbone Internet. The latter are more costly and usually available to ISP or with subsidy to university or research institution.

Various types of Internet connection are available. The most common and slowest is dial up connection using telephone lines. It requires a simple dial up modem for computers to connect to Internet POP (point of presence). The charge for dial up is based on time of connection and volume of data.

Other type of connection is ‘always on’ type which mean the computer is continuously connected to Internet. The charges are usually flat rate on monthly basis. Some also counts volume of data as on top of basic charge. This type of connection includes leased line, cable modem, DSL, wireless broadband and satellite. Detail description of each access media is provided in separate document.

Software

The computer forms the part, which is called hardware. It cannot function without the other part or software. The most important software is operating system (OS) which provides basic function of computer such as initial setup when it first powered on. Another function of OS is connecting peripheral such as monitor, keyboard, mouse, printer, etc. Popular OS now is Windows by Microsoft. Another open system OS that is popular lately is Linux, which has similarity with Unix.

Other software on top of OS and required for connection to Internet is browser. Typically, it combines function of surfing World Wide Web, email and newsreader. Newest browser also integrated with streaming video function. Netscape and Internet explorer are popular browser.

Web server is software that runs to provide basis for homepage of World Wide Web. Popular one is IIS (Internet information system) by Microsoft or Apache the open system alternative. These software are discussed in details in separate document titled ICT system.

Human resources

Obviously all of the infrastructure would mean nothing if the human resource side was not ready to utilize it. First and foremost is skill in using this ICT basic infrastructure such as computers. Effort has been made to ease human interface of computers of what so called ‘user friendly interface’ but so far operating a computers require training and adaptation as most of the command has to be issued with keyboard. Second is the cultural adaptation of society toward ICT infrastructure. Telephone as basic means of communication has been widely adopted. Computer literacy and adoption of it as means of communications are still in infancy even in developed countries. In USA there is a domain dedicated to bridge the gap of digital divide among its citizen particularly ethnic groups and minors.

FOCUS

There are four areas that should fall within government attention particularly to develop e-readiness and country’s competitive position in global electronic linkage.

Firstly, welfare is everything. Without a proper per capita income, it is difficult for the public to adopt the Internet. True that Internet may help alleviate poverty and provide support toward development but basic public’s need for food, housing, health facilities and security are still priority. As illustrated above, even in developed country like USA, there is still gap in the society in adopting Internet, let alone in developing countries.

Second, connectivity is the goal. Penetration is still considered as critical factors in Internet revolution. Disparity of telecommunication services between rural and urban areas are fact, thus he provision of telecommunication infrastructure become a major factor here. Creative alternatives to provide access in cost-effective ways are available by utilizing advanced in technology.

Third, competition is the engine. Various examples have proven that competition promotes greater investment, lower prices, stimulate growth in subscribers as well as technology innovation. Therefore regulation which are becoming barrier to competition must be wisely and gradually eliminated.

Last factor is education, which becomes enabler. As always-human resource skill are important to maximize use of Internet. Unlike telephone, Internet present higher social barrier as it requires literacy and IT knowledge as a minimum. Therefore to prevent exclusion even if the infrastructure is in place, education to the people is important either formal or informal.

STAGES OF DEVELOPMENT

The following is typical stage of development for e-readiness and actually also shown adoption level of Internet in the society. Note that, however, there are no clear and distinct boundaries among each level. Rather, an overlap and gradual migration is actually what is happening. Therefore a country might well in the all stages of development at various location in the country itself.

Searching and publishing information

Internet was initially meant to provide alternatives to collaboration among scientist and researcher. They were ranges from simple text messaging to more elaborate peer review and joint authoring, which involved complex and inter-linked document. In the adoption by the society, this heritage is still valid and mostly the first use of Internet is searching and publishing information. At this level, there should be a coherent vision by the government to support and later guided the development toward another level.

Communication at this level are indirect and mostly one ways. Small feedback or e-mail contact is typical but these are not interactive communication. There might be some creative person pushing the boundaries by providing some kind of chat facilities using text messaging.

Intranet

At this level, collaboration within an organization is done using the intranet. Organization is not limited to government institution but includes also business entities. Intranet allows data to be gathered, processed and shared in new form therefore ensuring efficiency. Although part of the process is sometimes handled offline, the implementation of Intranet is improving the quality and efficiencies of the overall process. Apart from the speed factor, Intranet also guarantees transparency as everything runs on online basis so concerned-parties can monitor the progress directly.

Extranet

This is the most advanced state whereby services and process are conducted online. Almost all of the information and data are exchanged over the cyberspace. Only physical goods, which can not be transported over Internet, are delivered offline. It also the most interesting as it open up a limitless opportunity to explore the usage of Internet and electronic linkage. In fact, at this level electronic community can span a global reach beyond time and geographical limitation.

KEY FACTORS

We have identified the following key factors which is essential in effort to improve e-readiness and ICT development in the countries. They are grouped in four categories below:

a)     Infrastructure and connectivity

This part will discuss improvement of prerequisite infrastructure of ICT namely telecommunication and information technology. Later, connectivity as a goal mean that increase the penetration of infrastructure is important. This would translate into improving availability of telecomm and IT through various creative and unique ways.

b)     Financial assistance and business or private entity participation

Obviously funding availability shall play major role in any development effort. Therefore this part will discuss the subject. Next, participation of business and private entities is another alternative to funding the project. However, there should be clear incentive to stimulate participation from these parties. Some illustrations of the project, conducted in various countries with participation from business sector, are provided in this section.

c)     Regulation, law and applicable IPR (intellectual property rights)

Government influences and directs the effort of a nation through law and regulation, which is under their control. Similarly in ICT, law and regulation, which is conducive toward advancement, need to be identified and enacted. In the mean time regulation and law which inhibit ICT must be gradually and wisely eliminated. Another subject, which has been proven to be important, is intellectual property right (IPR) which would later spur research and development (R&D) activities.

d)     Human resources, education and public opinion building

Last but not least is the human resource aspect. Education is closely related in improving human resource skill and knowledge. Other important aspect is how to disseminate information and bring participation from whole society. Therefore effort for public opinion building is also discussed.

Infrastructure and connectivity

INFRASTRUCTURE

Current advanced and modern ICT has enabled innumerable global-flows in information, products, people, business opportunity, capital and ideas, which offer great potential for radical improvements both in human development and environments. Since ICT can be a powerful tool for development nowadays, the readiness of ICT infrastructure plays a very critical role in delivering the development program into national goals. Its extensive characteristics allow ICT to be the most useful tools among others development imperatives for enhancing and speeding up a society development among huge disparities in the quality of human livings among countries. Several countries have already put the ICT-infrastructure-program bigger role to contribute a great deal to their development goals. Moreover, ICT infrastructure can be useful at both the micro and national level, such as allowing the effectiveness and reach of development interventions, enhancing good governance, and providing business opportunity for the private sectors.

ICT is already being used highly effectively to directly address development goals. In Gambia, for example, it is being used to achieve better health outcomes. In Chile, it is starting to reap significant results in primary school education. In Bangladesh, it has led to the creation of direct employment for thousands of local women and men, while in parts of India new Internet-enabled centers mean better access to different government services for remote communities. In Indonesia, too, ICT is enabling local citizens’ groups to monitor compliance with environmental standards. (Creating a Development Dynamic – Final Report of DOI  – July 2001)

Government of developing countries should learn from other country’s experience that ICT could provide a dramatic impact on achieving specific social and economic development goals, moreover, play a key role in broader national development strategies. They also have to take appropriate and effective strategies to improve ICT infrastructure into their national development goal. The strategies chosen should be realistic, flexible and sensitive to local conditions, and should be backed by strong public and private institutional support. Above all, there should be a strong commitment to local participation and the fulfillment of local needs, and last but not least, government express political will as clear as possible.

A framework proposed by the DOI, suggest that the government should consider several keypoints in formulating their strategies for maximizing their effort and budget to obtain their goals. The framework consists of five related areas; one of them is infrastructure. In infrastructure area, the strategies should be taken into account are as follow:

• Deploying a core ICT network infrastructure. ICT is very pervasive in the global world today, the features are very excessive and the price soon will be very competitive. An ICT-based network or solution will have advantages in term of interoperability and cost compared to other development imperatives.
• Achieving relative ubiquity of access. Access for ICT service should be available everywhere in urban or rural area, and every people should deserve it. Unlike policies focused on export expansion or on international positioning, this mass-oriented policy will consume much cost and, therefore, should be complemented by government interventions through universal access funds and support of community networks and public access points.
• Investing in strategically-focused capacity to support high development priorities. The strategy should focus on developing appropriate and strategic network infrastructure capacity for key sectors to take advantage of leading edge technologies. To take advantage of global positioning possibilities, such focused capacity should also include a reasonable level of global connectivity.
• Addressing ICT infrastructure as an enabler to enhance the achievement of development goals and national long-term targets. ICT can be a powerful tool for development, both because of ICT’s inherent characteristics and the mounting empirical evidence in many countries show that it can contribute a great deal to development goals.

In many developing countries, the role of government in providing telecommunication service is very deterministic. Government or state-owned company(s) has dominated all telecommunication service from provisioning and maintaining core network infrastructure, as well as providing universal access. However, some privatization and liberalization policies aimed at increasing competition in the sector, has already provided a greater involvement of the private sector in infrastructure provision.

Ubiquity and the move toward universal access are becoming more and more feasible due to rapidly declining costs for networking and telecommunication technologies. These declining costs allow developing countries to leapfrog ahead through the use of cutting-edge technologies. In most developing countries, the information network is composed of an all-digital microwave and fiber-optic system with digital exchanges at the main centers. The involvement of the private sector has hastened the adoption of these technologies, particularly in the case of wireless and mobile.

The strategy(s) should also focus on the complementarities and synergies between stakeholders and coordination among stakeholders. Infrastructure is rolled out as part of an overall program that includes simultaneous actions in other areas. These stakeholders could involve regulator with adaptive and supportive framework, NGOs, private enterprise and non-profit community as partners, and SMEs and public as service users/customers. The stakeholders should have the same initiatives to expand ICT access and services, and to strengthen demand as a beneficial side effect of addressing development imperatives through a public infrastructure strategy.

Achieving Greater Penetration of ICT Infrastructure

Infrastructure is basic requirement for promoting ICT as enabler of development program. When the infrastructure exists, the pace of development will be faster. However, the infrastructure irreadiness is a very general problem in most developing countries, and it is responsible for poverty problem and huge disparities between the rich country and the poor.

1. Electricity

ICT infrastructure requires telecommunication network, and telecommunications requires electricity. Electricity is basic infrastructure just as roads for transportation. The development of an area is depending on weather electricity is available or not. While the electricity is available, other infrastructures and facilities will follow, such as TVs, telephone, and entertainment. All populated area should have equipped with electricity, no matter how small and poor the population is. Electricity network should have been available to every districts, sub-districts, villages and rural area in NAM member countries.

2. Community Centre

Every village or district must have a community center. It commonly is the most developed place in a village or rural. It could be a local government office, district cooperative, marketplace, religious places (mosque, church or temple), gas stations, or sea or river ports. Establishing community center equipped with telecommunication infrastructure such as telephone, postal service and PCs, is an entry point to open up this village or rural to the world. The villagers could also take benefit of this facility by adopting the knowledge, know-how and information available to their daily living. 

3. Improving Telephone Penetration

Every country should have a sustainable program to enhance telephone penetration density to reach a certain ratio. Most of developing countries have telephone density lower than 5, meaning that 5 telephones are shared by 1000 populations or 1 phone for 200 people. The quickest way to overcome such divide is by providing ordinary public telephone, telephone kiosk or mobile public phone to the people in rural areas. Other alternative is extending local access network by employing several wireless technologies, which can cover areas up to 50 km in radius. Employing wireless access system with lower frequency operation will provide further distance to the subscribers and, the most important thing, more cost-effective business solution.

4. Digitalization of Telecommunication Equipment

Switching equipment, transmission equipment (microwave radio system, optical cable network) and local cable network should be “digital ready’, since the Internet and other networking system is in form of digital world. Migrating process from analog system to digital system should be addressed carefully since it will bear huge cost for developing countries.

5. Providing Digital Transmission / Backbone Network

Digital transmission system is built across the country, connecting all cities, provinces, and municipalities throughout the nation. Digital terrestrial radio network is deployed as country’s telecommunication backbones, as well as digital satellite system to cover bigger area in short time. VSAT system is considered to provide rural telecommunication system for spread, low-dense rural area.

6. Establishing an Inter-University Network

This network will connect several universities, campuses, libraries, via a private, low-cost network, instead a commercial public-switched network. Since traffic flow among universities is predicted high and continuous, it will be more efficient to build a permanent connection among them rather than using a commercial service.

The wireless solution called Broadband Wireless Access or Wireless LAN operating at low frequency band could be ideal. ITU-R has recommended several frequency bands is dedicated as non-commercial band, called ISM (Institution, Science, Medical), such as 1.5 GHz, 2.4 GHz, 5.8 GHz frequency bands. These frequency bands can go travel a long distance, thanks to its lower band, and the implementation cost is getting cheaper since more and more non-commercial institutions around the world using this make the economy of scaling of this technology.

7. Establishing Distance Learning Facility

Government should provide telecommunications facilities available for distance learning to overcome not only the problem of illiteracy, but also education at higher level. The distance learning infrastructure such as video-conferencing, question and answer session, could be facilitated by TV broadcast, satellite system / VSAT, or other wireless solution, having cooperation with open universities or other local educational agencies. Teaching and course contents can also be recorded as multimedia CD-ROMs. This technology can be widely used in the entire spectrum of education : primary, secondary, colleges and higher learning institutes. Moreover, educational institutions from different countries can come together and have programs for getting the best out of their teaching and learning experiences.

8. Establishing Tele-Medicine Facility

This telecommunication system will interconnect rural hospitals and clinics to public hospitals and physician in cities, in order to penetrate to further area in short time as well as cutting down the cost of medical infrastructure and doctors. The network will link to several online sites in hospitals and clinics in national and even regional level, to cutting edge medical information and assistance.

9. Relocating Telecommunication System from Developed Country(s)

While developed countries have come to 3^rd generation of telecommunication service, the developing countries are still deploying 1^st or 2^nd generation of telecommunication service. The 1G or 2G equipment can be relocated or donated to the developing countries.

 

Establishing NAM-CSSTC Program Office in Member Countries

The NAM-CSSTC was already established in Jakarta, Indonesia in 1997, as a center or main hub for promoting ICT role in the developing countries. In order to disseminate the study, plan and recommendation already made, as well as bringing a better involvement of the NAM members in promoting ICT for their development, a program or liaison office should be established in every country. The Program Office is to address all networking and connectivity issues, monitoring nation capacity and capability, web preparation and content development, as well as promoting ICT and the Internet awareness among high-level officers and other national stakeholders. Several national pilot projects on selected pilot locations could be undergone under monitoring of this program office. 

Every country should also establish a national gateway or focal point, which will bring several technical tasks as follow:

• Connecting the national gateway to other resources within country: Government Institutions (such as Research, Development Planning Bureau, Statistical Bureau, Ministry of Trade and Industry), National Chambers, Universities, Research Institutions, and other interested Private/Business Institution
• Conducting human resource development, training in ICT program and networking, and disseminating the progress to other pilot locations. The involvement of local/native human resource should be promoted and prioritized.
• Preparing contents associated at every resource center. Every important resource centers within nation should be promoted, and the resources such as research institutions, labs, skilled persons, and other natural resources should be available to other member countries. The presentation can be websites, links, downloading files or other popular media in Internet world.
• Managing several important/substantial websites or portals that contains strategic information and sensitive resources. Although the resource should be available for every member countries, as mentioned above, some strategic and sensitive information could be an exception. The sensitive resources such as national security policy, national research bureau, banking, native political issue, native religions, etc should be managed carefully.
• Conducting language translation if needed. (translation from national language to international language, and vice versa). Several international languages should be chosen, in order to reach as much reader as possible. English, French and Spain language could be chosen as the most popular international language nowadays.
• Preparing coordination with other regional countries via Regional Gateway. Regional gateway should also be established by the member countries within region (Southeast Asia, Mid-east Asia, North Africa, etc.). Several national gateways can elect one of them to be Regional gateway, and conducting coordinating and supervising role to promote better improvements among regional countries. 

Both program office and national gateway tasks could be carried out by the same institution in order to get better coordination and efficiency in term of operational cost.

Connectivity

Connectivity will provide more people to interact each other over the distance. Telecommunication and connectivity has played very dominant roles in the worldwide nowadays. Promoting connectivity means providing more computers connect to others via networking technology or system, especially via the Internet. The strategies consist of providing more affordable computers to the people and providing more Internet access available to the computer users, including bandwidth, IP address and domain name. Last but not least, is developing websites, contents and other web applications, make the national information or resource being available to other people in the world.

 

Promoting PC Penetration

Computer has experienced a paradigm shift from the stand-alone mainframe computers to PCs in the 1990s and, now, with the explosive growth of the Internet, multimedia, and the emergent network-centered computer, the role of PCs becomes more and more dominant.

Information and Communications Technology (ICT) as a whole has been making dramatic breakthroughs in the last thirty years. Computer have seen, every 24 months a doubling of the number-crunching capacity and a simultaneous reduction in prices by 50 %, according to the Moore’s Law, one of the founders of Intel, the dominant processor manufacturer of silicon chip in the world.

However, the digital divide can easily be seen by comparing penetration of PCs and host computers between developed and developing countries. UNDP reports that 96 percent of Internet host computers reside in the highest-income nations with only 16 percent of the world’s population. There are more Internet hosts in Finland than the whole of Latin America and the Caribbean, more in New York City than on the entire continent of Africa. (UNDP Agenda, October 2000). There is a linear correlation between GNP and amount of income versus Internet and PC penetration as depicted in Figure 1. The more income of a population, the more penetration of Internet users and PC usage happens. 

Promoting ICT development means promoting PC penetration among people living in developing countries. PC density over population is clearly low, therefore shared-access usage such as in Internet kiosks or telecommunication center could reduce digital divide in a short time. However, the strategies to add up number of PCs from other resources rather than commercial should be addressed. These strategies requires multi approaching from several stakeholders:

• Establishing strategic partnership between Government and leading PC manufacturers, in form of donation, endowment fund or relocating the obsolete technology
• Holding a dissemination program to provide tele-centre facilities in rural areas, funds is coming from soft-loan from international financial institutions (World Bank, ADB, IDB) 
• Establishing research and development facility and manufacturing facility at certain regional focal points. These facilities are funded by governments/countries among the region. This cooperation is expected to spread the hardware cost and to achieve the economic of scale of PC production by increasing the volume.

Promoting Internet Penetration

Internet is one large network connecting many smaller networks, based on packet switching. The protocol used is TCP/IP, requiring hardware such as router and server. The Internet is made up of components or applications that allow communication takes place rather than as protocol. Those components are : world wide web, e-mail, file transfer, telnet, etc.

One important aspect in the Internet is IP address and its associated called domain name. Every country should have plan to regulate how IP address and domain name is structured and how its development in the future. One domain name can be associated with one host, so that the progress of the Internet penetration in one country can be monitored by number of domain names already registered. The government should target domain name penetration regularly as well as encourage companies or institutions to connect to the Internet by registering their domain names. Last but not least, government should establish a National Network Information Center (NIC) for top-level domain name registration in each country.

One important issue in bringing the Internet down-to-earth is the software, both for web developer and web browser. Java language and HTML should be available and treated as shareware in order to help companies or other institutions create their websites. In the website, they can provide or share resources or information they have to others. The web browser should also available with reasonable price, allowing as many people as possible surf and collect information from the Internet. Other free software or shareware, such as Linux for operating system, should be considered to eliminate software-dependency to certain product.

Other important application is electronic mail or email, which allows users to send or receive information in plain text or file attachments, resulting in decreasing the amount of time and bandwidth required for acquiring certain information rather than browsing. This application is suitable for rural location where bandwidth capacity is limited and telephone charge is expensive due to long distance tariff.

Financial and Business sector participation

FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE

The most crucial tasks burdening all governments on promoting ICT development are fund provisioning and budget allocating to finance all necessary components, especially funding for infrastructure and education program. Although some countries are rich, due to their very abundant natural resources, most of the developing countries are suffering lack of funds, while on the other hand, they have plenty of development tasks and targets to accomplish and perform. Financial assistance in any form therefore is an absolute prerequisite for many countries to be overcome before they design and formulate the development stage. ICT will compete with other development’s imperatives, and, therefore, a clear and consistent direction from the government as well as prudent budget allocation are required in order to putting ICT on the national development path.

Developing countries require catalyst in developing their infrastructure as a pad for future development. Funds, subsidize is required, and international funds and other multilateral organizations should provide their willingness to put these countries on the path of modern development. Developed countries should also give more attention to reduce gap between them and to promote a more equalized and prosperous world of living.

Developing countries should start their infrastructure by selecting the most strategic project that gives platform for other economic and social activities. Source of funding should come from international resource, due to lack of investment within country. Pilot project is the most applicable development in a new area or field, some source of fund is interested in funding such project. The next development should be taken over by the government and other less-commercial funds should be considered.

Government should formulate a complete and sustainable program in order to involving all stakeholders take part in disseminating the ICT development. Government should also establish an environment, allowing development programs, such as financial assistantship program, are carried out by not only government and state-owned enterprise, but also private and international business institutions.

Government should establish and promote a specific banking system, to stimulate business activities on the top of ICT infrastructure. Government should also formulate an appropriate regulation that gives banking more roles in giving opportunities for under-served communities and small-to-medium enterprises. A form of regional or district bank, special credit scheme for the villagers, and small business incubator are small examples how a banking system can provides more supports for people living in distance area.

For promoting ICT awareness among NAM member countries, several strategic, pilot projects should be implemented in several regions, providing more equal opportunities among members. The source of funds should be secured and sustainable. A long-term cooperation with developed country(s) such as US, Japan, or multinational organizations such as G8, European Community, should be established, based on mutual benefit scheme for both parties.

Other government’s task is formulating strategies to promote venture capital facilities and attracting venture capital. Venture capital is very popular in industrialized country, and their contribution to national economics is very big. Therefore, they should be invited, with several appropriate strategies, in order to getting interested in doing business in developing countries, such as relocating their business line, putting their capital in the pioneering business and providing business opportunity to the communities.

In order to provide more incentives to attract business opportunity in ICT field, government should explore the potential of using the dramatic cuts in transactions costs offered by ICT. In some countries, government already brings the tariff level down on all IT-related products. This policy is expected to find new ways of expanding micro-finance initiatives for the poor, ranging from credit for small and medium enterprise to incentive for the pioneering company.

Finance Institutions and Funding Availability

Funding for infrastructure is a critical point for ICT dissemination in less developed countries. Private participation is very few, so that all pioneering projects should be funded by government efforts. The government should also search for overseas funding source in order to get preferable loan or even endowment funds.

Source of funds widely utilized in developing countries is subsidies in form of soft funds and low-interest loans provided by international multilateral donors. Long-term loans with low interest rate are suitable for infrastructure sector, such as transportation, electricity and rural telecommunication. However, this source of funds is getting limited nowadays and only available for the low-rank-developing countries.

Banking sector has an important task in delivering the funds and bringing the money available for the local private and people. An experience from developed countries shows that the banking sector is a successful agent of change in channeling resources across geographic zones and economic sectors. It is also ICT-intensive and provides niche opportunities for local enterprises. As financial institutions proliferate deeper into the different areas of the country, banking can also help to expand opportunities for under-served communities and businesses. At the same time, by adopting appropriate solution including ICT, banking can provide financial services more cost-effective and affordable for poor communities and small enterprises.

Role of the Government for Funding ICT Development

The roles of the government are, on one hand, obtaining sufficient funds for financing the development program, and on the other hand, creating climate and environment in order to giving opportunity to the private sectors to take part in development activities. In order to obtain adequate and sustainable source of funds for developing ICT strategies, government should take active role in multilateral cooperation with developed and developing countries in the region, as well as allocate some portion of its national budget for infrastructure and education program of ICT, especially in rural area. While in creating supportive business environment, government provides regulation, policy, incentive or even facility. However, At this level, government should concentrate themselves more on obtaining sufficient funds for financing the development, since private and business sectors are generally still lack of finance and opportunities. Several sources of funds are listed below but not limited to, and some countries may have different scenarios.

1. Government to provide budget allocation from national budget plan. Government should allocate certain ratio of its annual budget for education, health and development of rural areas. Certain amount of those activities will be ICT-related and responsible for ICT dissemination program. 
2. Soft loan or long-term credit from major-international financial institutions, such as World Bank, IMF, Asian Development Bank, or multinational creditors, such as CGI. Such multi-national organizations will provide funds suitable for any infrastructure development and reconstruction, with generous grace period and longer payback time. Poor, developing countries with certain criteria are eligible to get the aid, however, the amount of funds are getting less and less over the years. 
3. Developed country(s) to have a long-term cooperation with NAM member countries, acting as donors to fund infrastructure. Developed countries could donate some equipment or system of telecommunication, IT or electricity network for example, in a form of pilot projects or G-to-G (government to government) grant. The recipients could take benefit of donated system and in turn, should expand the system when the market is growing and demanding more capacity / features.
4. A strategic partnership of major international institutions, such as UNDP supports World Bank to build a Global Development Gateway and promote on distance learning. Distance education has been a particularly successful model in developing countries where affordability and geography have been real barriers to access. The partnership will invite other countries’ involvement in order to disseminating the program and making the partnership successful. The six largest distance-learning universities in the world are located in developing countries: Turkey, Indonesia, China, India, Thailand and Korea—all of which offer expanding virtual campuses.
5. Encouraging private sector involvement to support international program, such as cooperation between UNDP and Cisco. Several multi-national companies (MNC) have regular program of disseminating and campaign the use of technology they are competence with. They are willingly helping people or countries with their knowledge and provide solution for several problems. The program usually involves many countries, such as Cisco/ UNDP Networking Academy Program involves more than 100 countries. This course trains more than 155,000 students or workers in developing countries in designing, building, and maintaining computer networks, enabling students to obtain jobs in the local IT industry.
6. Inviting developed country(s) to transfer obsolete equipment or system (486-type PCs, analog microwave radio transmission for example) to developing countries. Digital divide is happened when the penetration of ICT over geographical area is very lame. PC penetration in US or Japan is very big compared to condition in Asia or African countries. The transferring or relocating program is aimed at providing greater penetration of ICT in the developing countries, especially for under-developed community, without jeopardizing normal ICT business transaction in those countries.

BUSINESS PRIVATE PARTICIPATION

For less-developing countries, telecommunication is a very vital infrastructure. Most of business activity requires telecommunication and IT services. More complex the business, more advanced the ICT technology is required. . Today competition in the world market is time-based and the velocity of business is vital to success. A state-of-the-art information and telecommunication system therefore is a necessity.

However, private sector plays a very recessive role in supporting ICT development in less-developed countries. Source of fund is very limited and amount of venture capitalist is very few. Most of local, native investor is not interested in promoting telecommunication and IT infrastructure for the rural area. Government can utilize a social-economic enterprise called cooperative, to take care the development of rural and poor communities. Cooperative depends on the members, and the funds come from members’ share. By collecting a certain members, a big amount of money can be collected and be utilized as a capital to run some business. District cooperative should take more responsibility as community center, while at the same time provide infrastructure and facility for other business activities in the region.

Small number of private companies can be expected to take any participations in promoting ICT whenever they identify business advantages in this activity. New business opportunity or cutting cost aide can motivate private sector to make benefit of ICT network throughout country. They can also get benefit by improving access to financial capital and facilitating access to global and local markets.

ICT for the Developments and Private Sectors  

ICT can contribute to income generation and poverty reduction. It enables people and enterprises to capture economic opportunities by increasing process efficiency, promoting participation in expanded economic networks, and creating opportunities for employment.

Investments in ICT infrastructure can lead to improved access by reducing costs and extending coverage to additional areas. This can have a catalytic impact on enterprises and provide additional incentives for increased adoption of ICT. For example, it can help SMEs improve their competitiveness and expand market access. This in turn can create a feedback effect, as demand for additional and faster access will entice additional investments in ICT infrastructure. The increase in both infrastructure and SMEs can lead, through spillover effects, to an increased demand for skilled labor and knowledge workers. This increased demand for labor can then trigger additional investments in human capital. Such a combination of effects illustrates the connection between the different components that characterize the dynamic. To the extent that these interconnections are foreseen and addressed through complementary interventions, multiplier and feedback effects are realized and the emergence of bottlenecks is avoided.

ICT connects individuals and local communities with information and resources beyond their geographic boundaries, encouraging information dissemination, information exchange and communication, which enable participation in wider public opinion forming. This is especially relevant for marginalized communities and groups such as women, youth and ethnic minorities: they can share and exchange information of mutual interest, strengthen their collective power and shape their own development solutions. This could be extended markets for business people, both at national and international level.

Organizations in developing countries also find it increasingly feasible to participate in information sharing that strengthens governance and collective power, allowing them to influence political and institutional decision-making processes. Trade unions, for example, have used the Internet as a campaigning tool to organize labor globally in the fight against exploitation.

Participation of Cooperatives and SMEs in Promoting ICT Development 

The role of Cooperative and SMEs are very important in rural area. They can describe the social welfare and quality of living of people living around them. They determine the pace of development of a community, and interface the community with outer world.

A study represents that SMEs play a significant role in enhancing sustainable economic growth and generating employment in all economies. In general, it is estimated that over 80-90% of manufacturing production, trade and service in Asia and other part of the world are generated by SMEs. However, there are a number of obstacles and constraints hindering the growth and development of SMEs. Both public authorities and the private sector in all countries should address their major concerns and take a number of actions to enhance SME competitiveness and development.

Government may expect them to have a significant contribution in stimulating business activities in rural areas. As a community center and agent-of change, they can make benefit of ICT development and can actively take part in the business activities employing local resource or person. ICT can be an enabler of the business activities as well as a product to be delivered. Some of the business opportunities for the SMEs and cooperatives are:

• Community Facility Center, such as tele-center (telecommunication center) or public payphone service for village people
• District focal point, serving as gateway of resources within the district to outer world, or bringing information required by the village people
• Postal service, News service (Bulletin Board Service), Telephone kiosk, Internet kiosk, renting PCs

Cooperatives and SMEs can also take benefit of ICT to improve the efficiency, broaden the market and reach of local businesses to make the entire local economy more productive, globally competitive, and better connected to local and global markets. This requires that businesses can use both newer trading platforms (such as business-to-business exchanges) and, where appropriate, more traditional business software supporting efficient logistics, good accounting practices and high levels of customer service. Local businesses need to acquire a strong awareness and understanding of the business opportunities these technologies make available. Artificial obstacles to the purchase and use of such software should be removed and steps taken to attract appropriate inward investment from providers of world-class software. It is important that providers take care to price appropriately for local marketplaces.

To enable SMEs have greater access to finance, government should provide specific financing scheme as well as incubation facility to allow them obtain favorable loans from financing institutions, including venture capital firms. The facility could provide assistance in preliminary and financial support for feasibility studies and familiarization trips, as well as providing special financial arrangements.  The incubation facility is also expected to provide training programs on entrepreneurship and managerial, technological skills, and good corporate governance in order for SMEs to gain easier access to financing.

Regulation and Law

ROLE OF GOVERNMENT REGULATION

The global network readiness will enable basic countries seeking strategic guidance in policy, regulatory and network readiness development to access resources, as they become more active in the global information economy and society participation. The challenge of bridging the digital divide is a daunting one, but they must recognize that priority be given to this issues by those basic countries themselves.

The innovative government-private partnership represents a powerful resource enables those countries to access the added value they seek on the front end of the information revolution. The potential significance of the in term of economic and social development is enormous.

The promise of ICT, in particularly Internet is to broaden and enhance access to information through a service that can be reached anywhere in the world that has connectivity. The Internet is a way of lessening the traditional disadvantages of the basic country condition. It can offer better business opportunities, the possibility to leapfrog directly to customers. It also offers the hope of delivering basic services such as health and education more efficiently by allowing people to follow lectures wherever they are.

Government of every basic country must be taking a main role to disseminate ICT access. The role of government in this sector is very important.

Basically, the main role of government:

• Develop the ICT infrastructure, particularly in government and public service institutions.
• Improve the public awareness to use ICT media and take the advantage of it for improving their quality of life.
• Set up the strong dissemination program for bridging the digital divide with increase the ICT access.

The availability of ICT access using tele-center will reduce total cost of information access. The perception that Internet is cheap by using tele-center really relates to the usage costs rather than the fixed cost. For many users, the initial cost for installation and maintenance would be subsidized by the government or other public institutions.

Of course, the government has to develop the public awareness campaign to make their people aware about the added value of Internet usage. The related know-how and education system must be set up, in order their people can use it and take the advantage from that technology.

The role of government:

• Demonstrate support for Internet application at highest levels of government to socialize the importance of Internet.
• Develop ICT infrastructure. For the first step, all government institutions, national universities and tele-centers should be linked by the ICT infrastructure. Strong infrastructure is needed for spreading the ICT usage in public.
• Promote the use of tele-centers and other means to extend access to under served communities. Tele-centers will cut the expensive initial cost, particularly for people in rural area.
• Promote ICT know-how and education system. For the first step, this ICT education program should be implemented in high education level.
• Promote an active public awareness campaign to the whole countries, particularly to the SMEs and other private sectors, such as home industries.
• Promote private sector participation, particularly the SMEs, to spread the usage of ICT media, particularly in rural area.
• Develop ICT dissemination program in government institutions, universities and other public service institution.
• Develop an ICT operator to fulfill the public need. For the first step, the government should develop a national ICT operator.
• Set up a tariff policy to avoid inefficiency tariff, therefore all the communities can take the benefit of this technology.
• Tariff subsidizes program for local call. ICT media is using high technology, which is quite expensive. To avoid the high tariff for the end consumers, particularly for basic services, government should subsidize those services, in order ICT media will become an effective media for all people.
• The e-leadership of government will be an important role for the ICT development. Government should act as a catalyst to speed it up. They should show their initiative to be an e-leader. 

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS AND COPYRIGHT  

The foundations and goals of copyright are, on one hand, to encourage creation by granting exclusive rights to the creator for a limited period of time and, on the other, to support and regulate the spread of cultural goods, knowledge, and ideas. Copyright therefore relies on balancing the interests of protecting original works and their creators and guaranteeing public interest and fundamental freedoms (such as access to culture and freedom of speech).

Present development in intellectual property, especially in the field of copyright and neighboring rights, could threaten this balance. It is also true however that new technologies represent a threat for the normal exploitation of copyright-protected works. The preservation of this balance between the legitimate interests of the right holders and the equally legitimate interests of users to have access to information and culture are of crucial importance in the framework of the Information Society.

Items to be stressed:  

• Intellectual property rights are in essence based on the protection of creative works and technological innovations and are not intended to protect investments. Copyright should be limited to the protection of creative works.
• The importance of copyright exemptions (such as Fair use and equivalent exemptions) must be reasserted in the digital environment. Exemptions are an essential part of the necessary compromise between private and public interest.
• Reviews of existing national and international intellectual property rights legislation should include an assessment of the social and economic implications of any new extension of intellectual property rights and should re-affirm the Fair use doctrine. In particular, the extension of copyright periods may have a more adverse effect, especially in developing countries, than the actual suspension of certain limitations.
• Protection of technical means must be sought in common law, not in intellectual property law. The neutralizing of technological means should not be sanctioned by intellectual property law, or especially by copyright.
• Although the improvement of the copyright system will not solve all the problems of the developing countries moving towards the Information Society, it should be encouraged as it will stimulate local creativity and entrepreneurship and increase the capacity for competition in developing countries, thus reducing the influence of the industrialized countries.
• The copyright exemptions system could be detrimental to investments in the developing countries. If there is not sufficient copyright protection, the return on investments (and thus the investments themselves) related to the spread of cultural goods and information in the developing countries could be threatened.

Role of the Government

• Campaign the awareness of intellectual property right and copyright. Promote the benefits and advantages of implementation of intellectual property right and copyright for creative workers, local and foreign manufacturers, and consumers.
• Set up the IPR, copyright, and consumer protection law by starting discussion with related national institutions, universities, non-governmental organizations, and international partners.

Tanzania: The ICT Development Despite having very low per capita income, Tanzania is preparing to reposition itself and taking important steps to leverage the benefits of ICT for its national priorities of growth and poverty reduction. As it prepares for the shocks associated with the transition from an agriculture-based economy to a knowledge-based economy, Tanzania hopes to expedite the dissemination and to leapfrogging many initial stages of ICT development.  In 1995, Tanzania established an independent regulatory commission by separating the operations of the Tanzania Telecommunication Company from its regulatory functions.  This led to the deregulation of the telecommunications market, and the government sale of 30 percent of its stake to international and local consortia companies. The government plans to sell more of its shares in the Tanzania Telecommunication Company, which is already a tax-paying, profit-seeking enterprise with over 70 percent market share.  In 1999, Tanzania started an e-think tank to bring together different Tanzanian stakeholders, including the government, for the purpose of discussing ICT benefits and formulating National ICT strategies. Recently, an e-secretariat was designated to coordinate the activities of the e-think tank. Its mission will be to offer ICT leadership by utilizing policy changes and supporting related developments aimed at enabling Tanzanians to participate effectively in the modern Internet-based global economy. The initial priority area is the development of a policy roadmap. The government is also formulating an ICT strategy which will become a de facto ICT framework to help Tanzania’s public, private and community organizations embrace the benefits of ICT use, while positioning businesses in the local and global economy.  A 20-year prohibition on importing computers has adversely impacted workers’ development in ICT skills. Training centers that focus on the development of ICT knowledge workers are only now beginning to emerge. For example, Soft Tech Training Centre, established in 1993, is committed to the development of local expertise through ICT skills enhancement.  Tanzania has placed a short-term emphasis on the urgent need to develop ICT skills, rather than enhance the primary education system. To this end, Tanzania has created different programs, with the help of international donors, to focus on the different segments of human development. The World Bank has donated up to US$1.2 million to deliver distance-learning programs through satellite technology, helping to promote knowledge workers and technology users generally within Tanzania.  Tanzania’s pioneering eSecretariat brings together a diverse set of stakeholders to contribute to ICT policy development. Compact members are also expected to play a critical role in the follow-up and implementation of the national e-strategy currently under design. At the global level, the international community fully endorses Tanzania’s economic and institutional reform effort, as evidenced by an expanded level of support from donors, NGOs, and private investors. Private sector organizations, including international consultancies and leading technology firms, have joined the public-private partnership to advance national development goals.Source: http://opt-init.org/framework/onepage/onepage.html

Human Resources, Education and Public Opinion Building

Facilitating education about, and access to, telematics networks and services, such as the Internet service connection, must become a high priority on the development agendas of governments, especially in developing countries and countries in transition, as they are essential prerequisites for ensuring equitable access to information.

HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT AND EDUCATION ON ICT

Education for information and communication technology could begin at early age and continues up to the higher educational level, also including non-formal education, a field in which associations and non-governmental organizations play a major role. The depth of the treatment given to these depends on the educational level concerned and the concepts are imparted following differing teaching approaches.

Formal education is the sector in which the key resources are being promoted in the world of information and communication technology. However, it is absolutely essential to link such action to all schemes being carried out in the informal education sector in order to integrate all aspects of the development of ICT skill.

In addition to formal education in which local associations, non-governmental organizations and governments cooperate closely, the authority should introduce other strategy which often result in the implementation of projects aimed at the introduction of information and communication technology, the training of teachers and teacher-trainers at all levels and the production of training materials and teaching aids tailored to the local content. These strategies will vary from one country to another.

The training of teachers and educational personnel at all levels is a key factor in promoting education for information and communication technology. Accordingly, the authority attach paramount importance to such training, which is provided through seminars and workshops in collaboration with national institutions, non-governmental organizations, and international partners working in this field. It may take the form of initial training, and is provided by higher-level teacher training institutes as well as by universities. Its duration may vary from one country to another.

The authority should ensure that all ICT education and training within their national jurisdictions includes training on ethical awareness and standards and not just on technical competence. The focus should be on the pre-requisite of developing and nurturing “human infrastructure”, including integrated education, ICT training, and skill-based programs.

Legislative and social provisions should make on behalf of vulnerable sectors of the population (physically and mentally disabled groups, refugees, immigrants, ethnic minorities, etc.). Ministries of Education, National Commissions, non-governmental organizations, and local associations carry out programmes to promote the right to ICT education for the most disadvantaged population categories in order to provide them with the means of becoming integrated in the information society and taking part in all activities. It should however be noted that, in most countries, such provisions are not always reflected in effective implementation measures, and conditions of access to education for such population groups remain difficult.

Networking among the various national and regional institutions for purpose of pooling information and experience is another effective means of promoting education for a culture of information society.

The authority should promote, at every stage of education, an active civic training which will enable every person to gain knowledge of the method of operation and the work of information and communication technology.

More and more local associations and non-governmental organizations should work hand in hand with the authority in order to increase public awareness on ICT and to provide for the training for trainers.

The development of national, regional, and international networking arrangements serves to strengthen information pooling and the exchange of documentation and research findings on different subjects and aspects of education for a culture of information and communication technology society.

Role of the Government

• To prepare such education system so the people are able to utilize the ICT system. Although nowadays user interface of ICT system has already been developed very friendly, introduction is still needed for people who never look at and touch the system at all. They have to be educated how to utilize and get benefit from ICT system, and the government should initiate the education from the basic.
• Campaign the familiarization the usage of information and communication technology.
• Increase to public awareness of the importance of information and communication technology.
• Cooperation with local association, non-governmental organizations, and international institutions to provide training for the teachers and training materials.

PUBLIC OPINION BUILDING

In order to gain participation from the society toward improving e-readiness and adoption of Internet, there should be a conscious and comprehensive effort to educate the public. Various channels can be utilized for public education. Traditional media such as newspaper, radio and television as well as mass gathering are typical. Other more subtle channel is through education institution formally or informally through public seminar or conference. Lastly, Internet itself can become a medium for public education in a form that is more interactive than traditional channel.

The objective of public education and opinion building at this level is more toward introduction to the Internet and minimizing resistance to adopt it. It also can serve as means to spread the knowledge of information technology (IT). Younger generation typically more receptive to new ideas as well as more skillful in adopting new technology. Therefore, the effort should be mostly directed toward the young population particularly school, university and young professional. Additional audiences that need to be educated are decision-maker in government and public institution. They have to be receptive, as later they could become role model for the youngster to improve e-readiness.

Barrier of this level is mostly introducing new concept to the masses. The message has to be packaged in form that would generate least resistance and encourage people to join in the bandwagon. Therefore, analogy toward common term is helpful. However, as majority of the Internet sites are still in English, care should be taken not to translate the term into local language but rather make the terms closer and familiar to the people. This is very difficult and delicate effort but success in it is indeed rewarding. Example of it is the Japanese ways to absorb western culture and its language. They pick similar sound (sound-alike word) in their language for English words to absorb it. This does not mean that every county has to follow this example but rather encourage each country to find unique way more suited to them.

Conclusion

Understanding the importance as well as the benefit of ICT, the NAM countries must embark in conscious effort and made ICT improvement a priority in their development plan. Infact, ICT present an unprecedented opportunity for the developing countries to equal their more advance counterpart in the developed countries. As reminder, we again briefly list the following characteristic of ICT, which ultimately could enable NAM members, particularly the developing nation to enhance their competitive position on the global scale.

• ICT is pervasive and crosscutting therefore in can meet diverse need.
• ICT is a key enabler in the creation of networks.
• ICT fosters the dissemination of information and knowledge.
• The nature of many ICT products and services allows for zero or declining marginal costs. As a result, ICT can radically reduce transaction costs.
• ICT enable seamless integration, which translate into substantial efficiency gains in production, distribution and markets.
• The combination of the previous benefit enables people to use ICT for innovative business models and whole new industries.
• ICT facilitates disintermediation and reducing the need for intermediaries.
• ICT is global. Through the creation and expansion of networks, ICT can transcend cultural and linguistic barriers by providing individuals and groups the ability to live and work anywhere, allowing local communities to become part of the global network economy without regard to nationality, and challenging current policy, legal and regulatory structures within and between nations.

The focus and key factors discussed in the document should assist the policy maker and government institution as well as various concerned parties in ICT development. Key factors that need to be considered are:

1. Infrastructure and connectivity
2. Financial assistance and business sector participation
3. Law, regulation and intellectual property rights (IPR)
4. Human resource, education and public opinion building

Authors Information

Name	:	Virano Gazi Nasution
Nationality	:	Indonesia
Education	:	Master of Science from Stanford University
Current position	:	President Director of PT. Ratelindo
Professional Experience	:	– Finance Director of PT. Ratelindo- Business Development Manager of PT. Bakrie Electronic Company
E-mail	:	nvn@ratelindo.co.id
Name	:	Aprita Primayuda
Nationality	:	Indonesia
Education	:	Electronic Engineer from Institut Teknologi Bandung
Current position	:	Deputy General Manager of Business Development Department of PT Ratelindo
Professional Experience	:	Deputy General Manager of Operation Department of PT Ratelindo
E-mail	:	prima@ratelindo.co.id
Name	:	Aristo Lystiono
Nationality	:	Indonesia
Education	:	Informatics Engineer from Institut Teknologi Bandung
Current position	:	Executive IT specialist of PT Ratelindo
Professional Experience	:	Manager IT operation of PT Ratelindo
E-mail	:	aristo@ratelindo.co.id
Name	:	Indarti Primora B Harahap
Nationality	:	Indonesia
Education	:	Master of Management from University of Indonesia Telecommunication Engineer from University of Indonesia
Current position	:	Senior Assistance of Corporate Secretary of PT Ratelindo
Professional Experience	:	Strategic Planning Supervisor of PT Ratelindo
E-mail	:	mora@ratelindo.co.id
Name	:	Medwi Swasono
Nationality	:	Indonesia
Education	:	Telecommunication Engineer of Institut Teknologi Bandung
Current position	:	Marketing & Business Manager
Professional Experience	:	Market & Finance analyst of PT. RatelindoSenior Engineer of PT. Ratelindo
E-mail	:	medwi@ratelindo.co.id