STATEMENT By H. E. MR. Sora-at Klinpratoom
Minister for Information and Communication Technology
Thailand
17
November 2005
Mr. President,
Distinguished Heads of States and Heads of Governments,
Excellencies,
Distinguished Delegates,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Almost two years ago, the first phase of
the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), that
took place in Geneva, gave shape to a shared vision in the
Declaration of Principles and put forward a concrete
Plan of Action to build upon a development-oriented,
equitable and inclusive information society.
Today, we meet again in Tunis, the
beautiful city of Tunisia, for the second phase to reaffirm
our commitments, to hammer out the specifics that will
translate the Action Plan’s objectives into measurable
results and devise strategies to help connect all people, as
well as to accelerate achievement of the development goals
enshrined in the Millennium Declaration.
I would like to reiterate in this meeting
that the Royal Thai Government has maintained strong
emphasis on the results derived since the first phase.
Thailand has incorporated Geneva Declaration and Plan of
Action into the country’s ICT development plans and
decision-making processes to bringing about sustainable
development for all Thai citizens.
Allow me to take this opportunity to
share with you some prime projects employed by the
Government to achieve those principles and action plans in
Thailand.
First, in enabling access to
information and knowledge, we set up a National ICT
Learning Center, to create a physical learning center
accessible to everyone and a prototype for more centers to
be established. The centre also features a traditional
library of the best IT books alongside a more modern,
digital library.
While we are waiting for $100 Lap Top
Project to be completed. This year we provided more than
250,000 desk top computer to our students throughout the
nation.
One Temple One e-Learning Center (OTEC)
is another project to raise a number of computer users and
Internet access in Thailand. PCs with Internet access,
logistic, software, course outline and training the trainer
programme are scheduled to be provided to high potential
temples throughout the country.
Second, Thailand is committed to
provide information and communication infrastructure
for the society. A government service portal located at
www.ecitizen.go.th where government agencies offer services
through the portal was set up. For those who do not have
access to the Internet, the Single Point Service Project
provides integrated services with access to the e-Citizen
portal.
Furthermore, Thailand has significantly
succeeded in lowering both domestic and international
telephone charges.
Since broadband Internet capability is a
prerequisite for many of the goals in the National ICT
Master Plan, Thailand has aimed for affordable nationwide
broadband, firstly, by developing equitable infrastructure
so that every Thai could reap the benefit of advanced
technology, and secondly, by inducing demand via price
competition.
This year, Thailand successfully launched
the iPSTAR Broadband Satellite. This communications
satellite with more than 40 Gigabits per second of bandwidth
will drastically cut the end-user price of satellite links
into remote areas, allowing entire regions to share an
Internet connection.
Third, we engage our roles and
all stakeholders’ roles in the promotion of ICT for
development. The Open Office R2.0 that enables the
software to handle Thai characters in a consistent manner
was released, along with the first client-side distribution
pack comprising more than 20 open source software systems
under the code name "Chantra".
In order to regulate online game
activities, the Government has approved several measures,
for example, to limit minors, those under age 18, to no more
than 3 hours a day of online game-playing; to disallow
betting, gambling, in online games; to educate parents and
minors about the dangers of spending too much time playing
online games; and so on.
Last but not least, Thailand has recently
launched the "Cyber Clean" scheme aimed at dealing with
improper websites and contents on the Internet. This scheme
is a network for cooperation between public and private
sectors to work together as a tool to trace on-line
wrongdoers in order to promote nice and clean Internet
substance.
Mr. President,
Distinguished Heads of States and Heads of Governments,
Excellencies,
Distinguished Delegates,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
I am fully confident that this meeting
will produce fruitful results for us all.
Thank you.
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