The Hindu Business Line : Asian IT Ministers call for steps to bridge digital divide

THE Hyderabad Declaration of the second Asia IT Ministers' Summit, which concluded here today, has called for regional efforts to bridge the digital divide by sharing of knowledge in the ICT (information and communication technology) sector and learning from each other's experiences.

"Adequate availability of ICT infrastructure, relevant content and affordable applications and the tools that can be used by people with their present levels of literacy will induce the masses to quickly adopt and absorb this technology," the declaration said.

As many as 32 IT Ministers from across the continent took part in the second edition of the summit.

Briefing newsmen about the summit, Mr Arun Shourie, Union Minister for IT and Communications, said the declaration called for "improving personal relationship among decision makers in the region by learning from each other. Greater emphasis is laid on learning best practices."

India, on its part, has decided to offer the software specially designed for the blind to other countries. "We are developing a package for spastic children, too," he said.

Referring to criticism against IT companies holding back codes, he said "do research in open source software. The research should be conducted in such a way that it should not block others from accessing it."

"Standardisation will address areas relating to data, metadata and information interchange to facilitate the development and deployment of interoperable IT products and services in Asia," the declaration said.

"The standardisation will also help customisation of software solutions for different languages in the region," the Minister said, adding that standardisation in the healthcare sector, too, was highlighted in the meet.

With a view to promoting regional cooperation, the Summit called for developing an `Asia Digital Culture Community'. This community would also help coordinate international collaboration and catalyse knowledge preservation in member countries.

The third and fourth summits will be held in Bahrain and Myanmar in 2005 and 2006 respectively.