Study Group for the Asia Broadband Program (first meeting)
Summary of Minutes

1. Date and time      July 22, 2002       14:00 - 16:00 2. Venue      MITA KAIGISHO (Conference Hall) 3. Attendants       (1) Members (alphabetical order; titles omitted from names)          AIZU Izumi, ASABA Toshiya, ASAI Hiroshi, FUJITA Satoshi, GOTO Shigeki, HOSAKA Masatoshi, IMAI Keiichi, ISHII Kenichi, KATO Toshiyuki, KONISHI Kazunori, LIM Kian Soon (Substitute attendant : NISHI), LIU Dong (Substitute attendant : LU), MATSUMOTO Toshifumi, MIKURIYA Toshio, OH Jong-Ghun (Substitute attendant : PARK), OKAWA Yasushi, OKI Toshie, Yong-Jin PARK, SAGA Kenji, SHIBASAKI Yoshio (Substitute attendant : HARADA), SHIOMI Tadashi (Substitute attendant : KUBOTA), TAKAHASHI Toru, TAKAHASHI Toshinori, TANAKA Toshiki and YASUMOTO Yoshio (2)International advisors (alphabetical order; titles omitted from names)      Lawrence WONG, Royol CHITRADON, Sureswaran RAMADASS and YANG Liansi (Substitute attendant : LAI) (3) MPHPT      TSUKIO Yoshio, Vice-Minister for Policy Coordination; UCHIDA Koichi, Director-General of the International Affairs Department; YAMAKAWA Tetsuo, Director of the International Policy Division; and IIDA Yoichi, Deputy Director of the International Cooperation Division 4. Agenda       (1) Opening (2) Opening Address by Vice-Minister TSUKIO Yoshio          Vice-Minister TSUKIO gave an Opening Address voicing anticipation that this study group will yield many useful opinions contributing to policies for transforming Asia into world's hub. (3) Selection of Chair          Member GOTO Shigeki was selected as Chair. (4) Introduction of Members (5) Results of the "International Conference for the Asia Broadband Strategy"    Mr. YAMAKAWA, Director of the International Policy Division, explained the results of the "International Conference for the Asia Broadband Strategy," held in the morning of the same day. He also commented on the keynote address by MPHPT Minister KATAYAMA, on reports from members in Asian countries/economies and on the opinion exchange session. (6) Current status of ICT strategies, etc. in the Asian region    In accordance with the presentation material "Current status of ICT strategies, etc. in the Asian region," Mr. IIDA, Deputy Director of the International Cooperation Division, provided explanations on broadband platform construction initiatives in the Asian region, detailed information on ICT strategies agreed upon at international organizations, etc. (7) Matters to be deliberated at the Study Group    In line with the presentation material "Matters to be deliberated at the Study Group," Mr. YAMAKAWA, Director of the International Policy Division, made a presentation; it was then agreed upon that each member will submit a "Survey Form of the Study Group for the Asia Broadband Program" to the Secretariat by August 28, 2002, in preparation of the development of a concrete and specific "Asia Broadband Program" and action plan. (8) Outline of opinion exchange    What areas do deliberations on the "Asia Broadband Program" cover? The Asia-Pacific region or ASEAN plus East Asia? What are the appropriate ways of thinking about this agenda? Should the abovementioned be self-evident or trifling, they will not matter here.    Hong Kong and Taiwan shall be included upon development of the program. As for the People's Republic of China, he penetration rate of the Internet still remains low as a national average rate; however, penetration rates of the Internet city-by-city may be higher. For example, Beijing and Shanghai, are reportedly at five percent. Thus, when merely looking into a national average penetration rate of each country/economy, we tend to overlook the high potentials of cities and regions.    In China, there are trends to unify keywords, such as "broadband," "mobile," the Internet and "telecommunications." There is considerable effort in R&D in China. Chinese firms are concluding tie-ups mainly with European companies in the mobile communications field and mainly with US and Korean companies in the IP technology field. Steady results are born in the form not of one-to-one relationships, but of one-to-multilateral relationships, in my opinion.    When promoting broadband and ICT society initiatives, a scheme leading to an environment, under which dynamic efforts in the private sector can be utilized to the fullest, shall be introduced. Simultaneously, it is preferable that this study group has some influence on the fields of human resource development suitable for broadband platforms, intergovernmental cooperation, etc.    Ownership by all interested parties, including the public and private sectors and NPOs, shall be encouraged. In parallel, it is vital that new partnerships among the public and private sectors and NPOs be constructed.    It is essential that we find out how to efficiently realize a broadband environment with higher reliability in Asia.    It is important to reinforce the goal of the five poles, i.e., adding Latin America and Africa to the existing three poles of Europe, Asia and North America, to link their infrastructures in the 21st century based upon the principles of equality and equity.    When considering the geographic area of the Asia-Pacific region, the clearest definition would be found in the provision of APNIC, the Asia Pacific Network Information Center (a Regional Internet Registry, APNIC is charged with ensuring the fair distribution and responsible management of IP addresses). According to APNIC, economies covered include from southernmost Afghanistan to northernmost Mongolia, except the states in the former Soviet Union. Globally, with regard to the so-called five poles, Africa is provided only mailing lists, and Latin America and Caribbean economies are bound to be operational. Accordingly, we currently only can talk about three poles plus one, in reality. The Asia-Pacific region can be regarded as being the biggest Internet market.    Taking a look at situations in the past, because alliances of private-sector initiatives and public-sector advice tend to fail to bear synergies, little support from the public-sector is provided; meanwhile, where private-sector initiatives as a driving force are activated by appropriate government support, some success stories have been found. It is anticipated that such cases are found in as many economies as possible.    Given the goal of the Asia Broadband Program in 20 years is that Asia will be transformed into the world's central information hub, concrete and specific solutions shall be sought and implemented.    We also recognize the necessity of concerted efforts to establish collaborative ties between Asia and the U.S. and Europe in order to realize Asia Broadband Program's specific goals.    When considering a broadband platform in the Asian region, one important aspect is security issues. In this case, there are six points to be deliberated. Firstly, security of telecommunications carriers (secure and stable operations). In the U.S., there are many inquiries on whether a telecommunications carriers filed an application for procedures under the Chapter 11 of the Federal Bankruptcy Code. Secondly, disaster preparedness and recovery. What do we think about disaster recovery, a question which surfaced soon after the 9-11 terrorist attack in 2001. In Japan, after the great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake, many data centers were distributed. Thirdly, the quality of service (QoS) in extremely open networks as exemplified by the Internet and closed networks within corporations. Fourthly, security measures against network attacks and virus attack. Fifthly, issues on intellectual property rights. Lastly, desirable protection methods of personal proprietary information.Solutions for ensuring security issues mentioned above would be one of key factors to promote broadband initiatives in the Asian region.    I agree with the idea to include 20-year goals. In particular, important subjects among others are to recruit and foster human resources. Some leading countries/economies in the ICT field are holding lectures for recruiting and fostering ICT human resources. JPNIC and this study group are requested to work together with those leading countries/economies toward the human resource development.    As for security issues, concerted efforts with international carriers are vital. One such efforts will be to utilize a forum with participation of carriers from 11 Asian countries/economies.    In reference materials, the words "IT" and "ICT" are mixed up. Then, I would like to recommend using "ICT" as a unified term.    When increasing information distribution among Asian countries/economies, language problems will become a focus of attention. Although English is prevailing as a common language in the business field, along with the increase of Internet users an increasing number of ordinary people who cannot speak English will become Internet users. In this case, translation software is required in Asian countries/economies. At this study group, such R&D activities are suitable for one of projects to be employed.    ICT applications in the fields of medicine, administration, etc., which are in use in Asian countries/economies except Japan, and are related to quality-of-life and community-based public services, can be advantages of the Asian region.    There are roughly two objectives for this study group. One is how to deploy broadband platforms. The rest is how to cope with social problems accompanying the deployment of broadband platforms. Broadband platforms cannot be deployed without addressing such problems.    With regard to international cooperation relevant to the Internet, because Japan cannot obtain short-term returns, the same members from Japan are repeatedly participating at many events and sessions. When viewed from long-term perspectives, current situations, under which follow-up measures are not taken, are unfavorable. Accordingly, it is highly recommended that issues toward the new broadband age be solved through, for instance, collaborative efforts to foster human resources.    Even if each Asian country/economy expresses the will to construct an Internet eXchange, with respect to ASEAN Regional Internet eXchange (ARIX), it can be achieved only when sufficient circuits are ensured. To this end, I hope that this study group will be the first milestone in the implementation of a grand design.    Fruits from projects can be anticipated to some extent, if this study group focuses on countries, enterprises and government officials who are attracted by concrete and specific individual projects. Situations differ country by country. For instance, China will directly employ IPv6. In China, there are many dwellings without POTS. Thus, such houses that can be equipped with Ethernet would create the IP telephony market. As indicated by such cases, stakeholders are able to initiate businesses toward the newly emerging market where there are clear incentives that Ethernet-based networks will bear profits because its construction costs are lower than that of conventional telephone networks.    Japan has a huge presence in Asia. It is encouraged to play an important role in implementing Asian broadband and backbone networks in the years ahead. (9) Future schedule      In line with the presentation material "Future schedule (draft)," Mr. YAMAKAWA, Director of the International Policy Division, explained a future schedule. Then, it is decided upon that the schedule of the second meeting will be informed by the secretariat. (10) Closing