Telecommunication will boost country’s development strategies

by Dhaneshi YATAWARA

The more Information Technology is available for the people, especially for the rural masses, the more options there are to assist them in their efforts in economic development, said Director International Telecommunication Union (ITU) regional office for Asia Pacific Dr. Eun-Ju Kim.

In an interview with the Sunday Observer, Kim stressed on areas where telecommunication can be used, in mitigating disaster risks, economic empowerment of the rural community and in creating new job opportunities for the country.

Excerpts of the interview:

What is the strategy of the ITU in using telecommunication to mitigate disaster risks? According to Dr. Kim, a special program started in 2006 with the earthquake and tsunami attack on many countries of the South Asia and Pacific regions. “Since then we have been actively involved in emergency communication projects,” said Kim, explaining the ITU philosophy behind assisting the region.

“The project has several components. One is the set of equipment and facilities that are ready to be sent immediately following the initial hit of an earthquake or tsunami. These will be immediately deployed in the countries affected to set up an emergency communication system. This is a package of equipment and air time which we have negotiated with the equipment manufacturers and service providers.

“When a disaster hits, the telecommunication of a country is threatened; it may not work as power may malfunction due to the disaster,” Dr. Kim explained.

Emergency satellite phones

Thus, the ITU provides emergency satellite phones that can activate on their own by communicating with the satellites covering the particular countries according to Dr. Kim.

“When bringing satellite phones in to these countries, the challenge is that in many countries these equipment are not allowed to be imported without paying tax. In such a situation, we need national level understanding to have exemption on taxes for the period of the emergency. That kind of legal and administrative support framework is needed from these countries,” Dr. Kim said.

Are regional countries aware of this? According to Dr. Kim, the ITU has conducted awareness programs and workshops on a regular basis. “We have different layers of exercise in keeping the countries updated through workshops, training and seminars and constant communication with member countries,” she explained. “However, if the disaster is of a larger magnitude, we take additional steps to allocate funds and resources from partners,” she said.

Telecommunication is not just a day-to-day tool. It has a bigger perspective in supporting the development strategies of a country. “Telecommunication can change the lifestyle of the citizens of a country,” she explained.

In the Asia Pacific region, there are 40 member states and among them there are vast differences – such as technologically advanced Korea and less developed areas such as Batong in the Philippines. The gap is widening everyday because leading countries always come with more innovations,” she added. Such high-end countries are today talking about smart communities and intelligent societies and Information and Communication Technology is the backbone for their daily life.

“Still, in other countries, telecommunication can change the lives of people who are struggling to develop themselves. “There are special cases in countries such as Bangladesh where women of rural areas use the mobile phone as a communication tool for her entire village; it is her source of income. Thus, this can be another kind of micro-economic initiative. I also learnt that there is an excellent initiative in Malaysia which shows how women and youth in society can economically succeed,” Dr. Kim said.

More demand

According to her, the young daughter of a family from a backward fishing area in Malaysia had started releasing information on the goods her mother makes at home on the Internet. The mother had eight children, a meagre income and was struggling to survive. Today, it has become a huge success story in the area and the initiative of the young girl brought in more demand for the goods they manufacture and eventually a better market and a good income. “There are many such stories from many parts of the Asia Pacific. These efforts show that if basic facilities such as ICT reach the rural masses, there are innovative people who would use them to develop their economic stability,” she added. “Countries such as Kenya, where certain rural areas do not even have banks, use the mobile phone as an m-banking tool,” she explained.

“These people preserve their culture and traditions and the only change is that they are using ICT as a tool for some kind of marketing or advertising strategy, and increasing their income from 20 dollars to 700 dollars,” Dr. Kim said. Thus, ICT can be an enabler, even for farmers or fishermen communities,” she explained.

As she said, when a country expands its infrastructure and if facilities for ICT go along with these developments, it would create more job opportunities for the people. “In countries such as Korea, along with many road development projects, ICT facilities also reached the rural areas; the people would set up small shops with internet facilities along these roads or highways”, she explained. “Several countries which have minimal natural resources have developed their human resources through this method. They produce skilled human resources who can create a product or application that can make a difference in the country,” Dr. Kim explained.

“We chose Sri Lanka to host the 12th Global Symposium for Regulators because we find very committed officials and an enthusiastic community who have high potentials to come out from difficult times after the conflict to a better era,” she added.

“ICT is an excellent tool for Sri Lanka to economically develop in the long run. Priority should be given to elevate the human resource capacity,” she said.

From analogue to digital

“Re-assigning technology from the analogue to the digital spectrum is very challenging for many countries,” Dr. Kim said. For example, to change to digital television from terrestrial television a country must have some strategies. We work very closely with the Sri Lanka Telecommunication Regulatory Commission in preparing a road map on migrating from analogue to digital. The next step Sri Lanka needs to take is coordination and cooperation between the ministries and the Government departments. This is necessary so that players of the field can smoothly migrate from analogue to digital. This is very important because of two factors – i.e. availability of multiple channels to broadcast and by becoming digital the possibility of using an advanced broader spectrum band are important. “More space for channels would create the need for more content and that eventually would lead to more media agencies and more skilled jobs. This would elevate the quality of the service,” Dr. Kim said.