- accelerate the economic growth, social progress and cultural development in the Asian region through joint endeavors to strengthen the foundation for a prosperous and peaceful community of Southeast Asian nations, and
- promote regional peace and stability through abiding respect for justice and the rule of law in the relationship among countries in the Asian region and adherence to the principles of the United Nations Charter.
ASEAN’s Member Countries include: the State of Brunei Darussalam, the Kingdom of Cambodia, the Republic of Indonesia, the Laos People’s Democratic Republic, Malaysia, the Union of Myanmar, the Republic of the Philippines, the Republic of Singapore, the Kingdom of Thailand, and the Socialist Republic of Viet Nam.
ASEAN Member Countries have established cooperation and assistance agreements in a number of sectors, including the Information and Communications Technology (“ICT”) sector. One example of collective project is the Manila Declaration signed in August 2002, which resolves to exploit ASEAN’s competitive edge in the ICT sector. Following this Declaration, work programs have been developed on information infrastructure, universal access and digital divide in ASEAN, intra-ASEAN trade and investment in the telecommunications and IT sectors, and positive use of the Internet.
Concerning the regulation of e-commerce, a Common Reference Framework for E-Commerce Legal Infrastructure has been published to assist the ASEAN countries without or with inadequate e-commerce legislations. The e-ASEAN Public Key Infrastructure (“PKI”) Forum has also been established. In addition, a study on cross-border harmonization of e-transactions and e-signatures legal frameworks has also been initiated.
E-Commerce incubator activities have been implemented to create business environment that support e-commerce development in the region and to support ASEAN small and medium enterprises and entrepreneur in international trade.
Several other initiatives have been launched regarding the development of the Internet, including the following:
- A number of ICT training programs, workshops and seminars have been conducted in order to share and learn from the experiences of the ASEAN members, such as the SchoolNet seminar and forum to encourage and enable schools and universities to implement distance learning via the Internet and Asia Incubator workshop to assist small and medium enterprises and entrepreneur groups.
- The e-ASEAN Open Source Software (“OSS”) Working Group has been established to collate, exchange information, and share best practices in order to provide a cost-effective alternative computer software development.
- Several public awareness programs have been conducted, including ICT road shows/technical forums, e-ASEAN Business Forum, e-ASEAN Industry Dialogue, as well as promotion of e-Commerce and e-Government.
- E-Government: a series of e-government training courses and seminars have been conducted in various ASEAN Member Countries in order to raise awareness and build capacity in this area. Inter-country government online applications are being explored, such as the usage of a common e-passport smart card system to facilitate the movement of citizens in some Member Countries.
Furthermore, several private sector's pilot projects have been initiated in the ICT sector. Such projects include
- ASEAN Trade Electronic Data Interchange (“TEDI”), which aims to create an ASEAN ecosystem for e-trade utilizing Internet technology and standards such as UNEDIFACT and ebXML;
- Cybermatrix, which aims to establish zoned Internet in ASEAN enabled by intelligence overlaid on regional and national telecommunication networks;
- ASEAN Incubator Network, which aims to help ASEAN SMEs and entrepreneurs to network with venture capitalists and techno-entrepreneurs;
- ASEAN Services Access Platform (“ASAP”), which promotes the creation of a pan-ASEAN infrastructure for member countries to very rapidly launch services that other countries can leverage on to build even more complex services; and
- ASEAN Regional Electronic Payment Gateway Solution, which aims to develop and implement solutions to facilitate cross border e-clearing of retail payments in ASEAN using agreed currencies by clearing through existing efficient national clearing houses and/or payment processing centers in ASEAN.
Quelle/Source: IBLS INTERNET LAW, 05.09.2007
