Bangkok--27 Sep--UNIS Bangkok Out of the world’sestimated 170,000 community e-centres — places where people in the poorestand remotest parts of the world can have access to computers and theInternet, around 14,000 are in Asia and the Pacific. The number is expectedto jump ten folds in the next five years. To help poor communities to make the most out of these e-centres, and tolearn from each other’s good experience, the United Nations Economic andSocial Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP) is holding a meetingtoday and tomorrow (27 and 28 September) on establishing a regionalknowledge network of e-centres. The meeting takes place at the UnitedNations Conference Centre in Bangkok. Mr. Sivasankaran Thampi, Director of the Information, Communication andSpace Technology Division of UNESCAP, said in his opening address that theregional knowledge network aims to enhance “interconnection” and“collaboration”. Community e-centres, also known by different names such as telecentres, orcommunity information centres, have already helped people living in remoteareas to get much needed information and knowledge to improve their lives:farmers find crop market information to get better prices for theirproduce; students learn how to use computers to tap the vast source ofinformation available in the Internet which places them in a betterposition in the job market; and women are empowered by the use oftechnology. The proposed regional knowledge network of e-centres aims to improve theireffectiveness as a development tool and to maximize limited resources bynetworking with each other to share experience and products, includingcontent such as market information and training materials Around 30 participants representing information and communicationtechnology ministries, telecentres and telecentre associations, NGOs and UNagencies will develop and adopt a strategy for the creation of a regionalknowledge network of telecentres at the meeting. The meeting is part of a project on knowledge networking through ICT accesspoints for disadvantaged communities, which is being implemented by theUnited Nations through its five Regional Commissions: ECA in Africa, ECE inEurope, ESCWA in West Asia, ECLAC in Latin America and the Caribbean, andESCAP 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]