A
discussion paper concerning the issue of digital inclusion and Thailand’s
ICT development
Proposed
to DOT Force, OECD
by
Director, National Electronics and Computer Technology
Center, and
Executive Secretary, National Information Technology
Committee
Thailand.
Some of Thailand’s
experiences in the ICT development:
Some observations concerning ICT
development in Thailand:
1.
International
bandwidth costs commercial
ISPs in Thailand
about 50% to 70% of the total expense of the companies. Developing countries run their Internet business by
investing the full communication circuit to North America or Europe in order to
let the information flow in both directions. And this is irrespective of which side of the line users
initiates the information request. In this respect, the developing
countries are apparently subsidising the users in North America whenever they
access information elsewhere. This
bandwidth cost must be brought down through international cooperation if we
want to declare a global digital inclusion with fairness.
2.
The
development of telecommunication backbone is a must for every country. Financing this large project can be a
challenge and good examples could be brought up and followed whenever
possible. In Thailand, we opted
for two laws: one to manage the common infrastructures such as the radio frequency
spectrum, fiber-optic network and satellite, and the other law deals with the
Universal Access Obligation. Both
laws were required by our Constitution of 1997.
3.
The
so-called “last mile”
problem can be solved by leapfrogging in technology. Instead of using copper cables to link the access points to
the home, which can be very costly for the last few kilometres in the rural area,
the Wireless Local Loop (WLL) technology can be used effectively to lower the cost
and expedite the installation for homes. Not only this technology can bring in the voice phone, but it
also allows connections to any digital network at the speed of up to 128 kbps.
4.
The language
problem is one of the major concern in developing countries, especially in Thailand
where only small percentage of population can read and write English. It would be a pity investing all of the
infrastructure just for the people to “see” what they cannot read or understand and they consequently
go for some other things such as
entertainment sites, pornography or downloading mp3 music. In another words, this problem can be called as “the last meter”
problem (i.e., a gap between the screen and the user.
Challenging tasks are ahead of all developing countries.
The solution is either
to create more contents in one’s
own language, or to
teach the citizen to be more fluent in
other languages, or use ICT to help with this. So far, for our quick fix for this is to provide an automatic
machine translation from English to Thai language on the web (http://www.nectec.or.th/services). The translation website gained instant
popularity since its launched in June 2000.
Another last-meter problem deal with people with disability who may not be able to use the keyboard and display, or
they are at a remote site where voice input/output is necessary. Strategic R&D program dealing with
this at the national level has been quite successful in Thailand
through the initiative of the royal family.
5.
Building a National Information Infrastructure (NII) is so crucial, if not critical, to the development of any country. NII means all sorts of infrastructure which is a
basis for knowledge-based economy; and this includes people’s
literacy, contents, software, communication facilities, laws to protect the society and also to create trust and popularity of
e-Commerce. Government needs to create a level-playing field to
facilitate the win-win-win atmosphere to the people, to the
nation, and to the private companies. It should also provide
all the means to lower the risks and the cost of doing business in a liberated
atmosphere. It is imperative that
the government and the private sector mutually work out to legislate new laws and
deregulate unnecessary rules that prevent the progress of ICT and K-economy.
Started in 1998, Thailand planned for the reform of business and creation of
ICT related laws. There are six of them:
·
The NII Law
(Universal Access Law)
·
Electronic
Transactions Law
·
Electronic
Signature Law
·
Data
Protection (privacy) Law
·
Electrtonic
Funds Transfer Law
·
Computer
Crime Law
At the
moment, the first three laws have been drafted and submitted to the Cabinet for approval, while the eTransactions and
eSignature laws have been approved by the House of Representatives, and are reaching their final stage of approval by the House of Senates.
The certain updates in
the Intellectual Property Law and Consumer Protection Law aimed to assist the safe passage for e-Commerce are also expected.
6.
The last
part of affordable of the NII includes the low-cost PC and Internet applicance, low
cost of GUI operating systems, office suites, and database. There have been a strong collaboration program based on the
Open Source
movement in Thailand in order to bring Linux and Star Office for Thai language
into popular use.
In Thailand, both
software suites one becoming popular among new engineers and developers who
want to create new businesses.
Call for
Actions:
There are several
actions which can be done at the national level. However, this will require commitments within each economy
and a strong program to convert the sceptics into the realistic believers of
ICT. If one can make five big
wishes to the Digital Opportunity Task Force (DOT.
Force), here are our wishes:
1.
Can we
effective build a new kind of cooperation to construct a symmetrically financed
digital connections? The current
bandwidth financing for Internet infrastructure is naturally a digital
exclusion for those who cannot afford the link to the developed countries.
2.
Would each
participant propose the strategies to go for solving the “first-order
problems” with ICT and knowledge as part of the
solution? The “first-order
problems” are meant to be what defined by Tim
Kelly of the ITU: the poverty, hunger, health and basic education. Would this approach bring up real
progress and leapfrogging with some realistic landing point?
3.
How can
community access centers be set up with the initiatives of the local
communities, using the lowest cost model?
Could it be started with just telephones, fax and pagers? PC and the Internet can be a
second-level option which should come with some good information dissemination
program to improve the earning of people in the rural areas?
4.
In addition
to the WWW and free web browser software,
could there be a few versions of WWL (world-wide Linux), WWO (world-wide
Office) and WWX (world-wide translation service)? The development program for all of these software can be
well below USD 50 million each, through the Open Source concept.
5.
Shall we
convince the sceptics and high-level decision makers in each country to see the
best-practice examples? Will
Estonia, Brazil and China be willing to host visitors from developing countries
to see how they are successful in bridging the digital divide in their countries
so well?
6. Last
but not least, the
partnership concepts and true actions should be able to help providing
the desirable digital inclusion that we are all looking for.
Many developing countries which have been cited in world-class reports are
ready to join the (DOT) force. Should the issues be taken seriously as the
world challenges?