Enhancing ASEAN's Connectivity

7. The Current State of ICT Systems across ASEAN

7 The CurrenT STaTe of ICT SySTemS aCroSS aSean Lee Yu Kit Introduction ASEAN is a tremendously diverse region, encompassing within its borders some 4 million square kilometres, 600 million people, 32,000 islands, 900 different languages and a diversity of development that ranges from US$800 per capita to US$49,000 per capita from its least to its most developed member countries.1 This diversity extends to ICT adoption across ASEAN. As discussed in the next section, Internet usage has a relation to a country’s development. The world average Internet penetration rate is 23.8 per cent.2 The internet penetration rates for developed countries are: United States — 77.3 per cent, Japan — 78.2 per cent, South Korea — 81.1 per cent, Australia — 80.1 per cent.3 Compared to this, the rate of Internet penetration of the ASEAN member states is shown in Table 7.1.4 92 Lee Yu Kit Data varies widely depending on the source, how the measure­ ment is derived, and when it was taken. For consistency, the data for Table 7.1 is taken from a common source. a Broader measure Internet penetration is a gross measure as it does not sample other quantitative or qualitative criteria such as quality of Internet access, legal framework, and other infrastructural issues. A more compound measure is a country’s readiness for Internet­based opportunities. The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), collaborating with IBM, publishes an annual E­readiness ranking. E­readiness is defined as an indicator of how amenable a national market is to Internet­based opportunities. The ranking evaluates the technological, economic, political and social assets of sixty­eight coun­ tries and their cumulative impact on respective information economies. The rankings are based upon nearly 100 quantitative and qualitative criteria, organized in six distinct categories: Connectivity and Technology Infrastructure, Business Environment, Consumer and Business Adoption, Legal and Policy Environment, Social and Cultural Environment, and Supporting e­services.5 TaBle 7.1 Internet Penetration in aSean ASEAN Countries Penetration (%) Singapore 67.4 Malaysia 62.8 Brunei 46.2 Vietnam 24 Philippines 21 Thailand 20 Indonesia 10.5 Laos 1.5 Cambodia 0.5 Myanmar N/A Source: Internet World Statistics. The Current State of ICT Systems across ASEAN 93 For 2010, the No. 1 country is Denmark, followed by the United States and Sweden as No. 2 and No. 3 respectively. The ASEAN countries’ rankings are shown in Table 7.2. The measure of adoption of technology follows a curved, rather than linear path. As countries adopt broader measures of ICT, the ecosystem develops in tandem, bringing with it increasing innovation, new service providers and new ideas. In this respect, the maturity of ICT adoption can be argued to be an indirect measure of human capital develop­ ment. It is no coincidence that the ICT centres the best known being Silicon Valley and Bangalore, are also hotbeds of innovation. The accelerated pace of change of technology and its increasing sophistication suggests that member states who are behind the adop­ tion curve will find it hard to keep up. The indirect corollary to this argument is that the “digital divide” is indeed widening — and it is a measure of the development of human capital and innovativeness for that country. ICT as an enabler To understand how greater connectivity can contribute to the ASEAN Economic Community, it is necessary to understand what is meant by ICT and the implications of greater connectivity. TaBle 7.2 e-readiness ranking aSean Countries rank Singapore 13 Malaysia 37 Thailand 47 Philippines 56 Indonesia 62 Vietnam 67 Others Not rated Source: Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) and IBM. 94 Lee Yu Kit “ICT” which stands for “Information and Communications Tech­ nology” encompasses the use of IT and telecommunications, so it is the convergence of these two technologies in the handling and dissemin­ ation of information. A survey in 2003 by the ITU, the UN Agency for ICT, found that in many countries, there was no formal definition of the term “ICT”6 although the concept is well understood. It is no exaggeration to say that the “information age” marks a new era in the development of civilization, just as the Industrial revolution before that ushered in a new age, replacing an era when humans were dependent on agriculture. For the foreseeable future, information is the new currency of human knowledge, and it is one that is exciting and...