Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation

Senior Officials Meeting 3 Agenda Item No: 10
2000/SOM3/002/Rev.1

Transforming the Digital Divide into a Digital
Opportunity
Chinese Taipei
Senior Officials’ Meeting 3

Chinese Taipei

1 Background

I)	One of the most significant issues on the APEC agenda at present is the growth of e-Commerce and the concept of the ‘new economy’ (where all interactions become increasingly high-tech). APEC is increasingly preoccupied with how to respond to the technical, regulatory and commercial requirements presented by e-commerce.

ii)	Through its Blueprint for Action on e-Commerce, APEC economies are committed to a goal of achieving “Paperless Trading,” where possible, by 2005 for developed economies and 2010 for developing economies or as soon as possible thereafter. APEC economies must work together to ensure that everyone benefits, including developing economies and small and medium sized enterprises.

iii)	A high-profile barrier to the successful integration of e-Commerce into the Asia-Pacific region is the presence of a digital divide (or a gap between those economies that have the equipment, technology and expertise, and those who do not). This divide has been the subject of discussions all around the world with the G8, the EU and ASEAN all seeking to develop policy to ameliorate the consequences of the different levels of technological development around the world.

Many APEC economies do not have sufficient skills to facilitate the development of e-Commerce throughout the community. The question that has arisen from this deficit of skills is “how can APEC actively improve the eCommerce capacity base across the board to obtain the digital opportunity within its member economies?” Chinese Taipei believes that capacity building at the application level has an immediate effect on promoting e-commerce. Some economies have been eagerly promoting the development of digital economy over the past few years and have already yielded concrete results in some e-Commerce related areas. It is believed that experience sharing among member economies will facilitate transforming the digital divide in the APEC region into a digital opportunity.

2 Proposal Objectives

Chinese Taipei would like to propose an initiative to address this digital divide in a practical and immediate way. Our goal is to:

i)	focus on APEC’s developing economies by providing them with empirical and hands on training suitable to their needs, beginning next year;

ii)	organize Workshops that emphasize areas highlighted by Leaders and Ministers as being Worthy of special attention e.g.:
-	Paperless Trading
- SME technology use
-	supply chain management
-	e-procurement
-	e-Commerce human resources development
- gender integration
iii)	demonstrate the seriousness with which APEC’s more technologically developed economies view the digital divide and their obligation to help to bridge it.

3 Strategies

I)	Bridge digital divide through experience sharing of best practices of eCommerce among member economies.
ii) Tailor-made training/consulting programs.

4.	How the initiative would work

i) Timeframe — The program will be spread over two years and begin in 2001.

ii)	Structure —Phase 1 (2001) — Generic Training
During the first year, each of the recipients of the program will spend five days in Chinese Taipei being trained in areas related to e-Commerce. Training will be both theoretical and practical and will involve workshops and site visits/practical demonstrations.

Phase 2(2002) - Tailor-made Training/Consulting During the second year, based on the results of survey on individual economies’ needs and the availability of funding, Chinese Taipei and interested economies will provide developing member economies with tailor-made training/consulting services by dispatching experts to these economies.

iii)	Participation -
Phase 1 — Member economies will be invited to select three people (at least one of whom should be a woman) to participate in the program. In the case of developing economies, the training costs will be substantially covered by hosting economy and TILF fund will be applied where necessary. Developed economies are welcome

to participate in the program but will need to meet their own travel and accommodation costs.

Phase 2 -The recipient economies must identify through the survey the specific areas requiring training or consulting services and select their participants.

iv) Funding-	Interested member economies’ sponsorship; private sector’s sponsorship; TILF fund.

v)	Additional Considerations - To tailor the initiative fully to APEC’s priorities, member economies would be encouraged to send people interested in the application of technology and e-Commerce in the Small and Medium Enterprise sector as this has been identified by leaders as an area in which skills need to be built up. And, as stated above, at least one-third of training recipients in each economy should be given to a woman to ‘bridge the technological gender divide’ which has also been highlighted as an issue for some APEC member economies. We would expect that after returning to their home member economy, participants to use their new skills to contribute to high tech skill development there.

vi)	The Role of Other Economies — Chinese Taipei would like to see this initiative grow in scope and intend to invite other APEC interested economies to offer similar training schemes and consulting services so that in time there are a number of economies participating in the program and providing a diverse range of training opportunities to developing economies.

5.	Next Steps

I)	Consulting with interested member economies and APEC Secretariat for their comments and suggestions on the details of this initiative.

ii)	Seeking the approval from Ministers in November after being endorsed by SOM Ill.

iii)	Setting up the proposed program beginning next year.