Bangkok--27 Sep--UNIS Bangkok
Out of the world’sestimated 170,000 community e-centres — places where people in the poorest
and remotest parts of the world can have access to computers and the
Internet, around 14,000 are in Asia and the Pacific. The number is expected
to jump ten folds in the next five years.
To help poor communities to make the most out of these e-centres, and to
learn from each other’s good experience, the United Nations Economic and
Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP) is holding a meeting
today and tomorrow (27 and 28 September) on establishing a regional
knowledge network of e-centres. The meeting takes place at the United
Nations Conference Centre in Bangkok.
Mr. Sivasankaran Thampi, Director of the Information, Communication and
Space Technology Division of UNESCAP, said in his opening address that the
regional knowledge network aims to enhance “interconnection” and
“collaboration”.
Community e-centres, also known by different names such as telecentres, or
community information centres, have already helped people living in remote
areas to get much needed information and knowledge to improve their lives:
farmers find crop market information to get better prices for their
produce; students learn how to use computers to tap the vast source of
information available in the Internet which places them in a better
position in the job market; and women are empowered by the use of
technology.
The proposed regional knowledge network of e-centres aims to improve their
effectiveness as a development tool and to maximize limited resources by
networking with each other to share experience and products, including
content such as market information and training materials
Around 30 participants representing information and communication
technology ministries, telecentres and telecentre associations, NGOs and UN
agencies will develop and adopt a strategy for the creation of a regional
knowledge network of telecentres at the meeting.
The meeting is part of a project on knowledge networking through ICT access
points for disadvantaged communities, which is being implemented by the
United Nations through its five Regional Commissions: ECA in Africa, ECE in
Europe, ESCWA in West Asia, ECLAC in Latin America and the Caribbean, and
ESCAP in Asia and the Pacific.
More information on the meeting is available at:
http://www.telecentresap.org/
For more information, please contact:
Thawadi Pachariyangkun
Public Information Officer
United Nations Information Services
ESCAP
Tel: 66+02288 1861
Email: [email protected]