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 EUROPE: Slow Growth
Expected on ICT Market
ITALY: Public Sector ICT
Spending Returns to Growth in 2015
NETHERLANDS:
Communication Prices Down by 26% in 20 Years
Dutch Govt to Give EUR 40
mln to Research Projects
U.K.: What Comes Next:
How the Outcome of the EU Referendum Will Shape Britain's Future
Experts Weigh in on
Brexit’s IT Impact
LATIN AMERICA: Argentina
to Host ITU's WTDC in 2017
BRAZIL: TIM Sees More 4G Than 3G Customers in Rio by Year-end
NICARAGUA: World Bank
Supports Improved Broadband and New ICT Industries
NORTH AMERICA: US -
Internet Speeds Improve, Still Lag Behind Other Countries
Global LTE Subs Grow by 645m in One Year
IoT Connections to Hit
27bn in 2025, Revenues to Grow Fourfold
Global Public Cloud
Spending to Hit $195bn in 2020
UN Survey Shows Mixed
Results for ‘World-Leading’ D5
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CHINA: Great Leap for
Chinese-made Supercomputers, but Challenges Remain
World's Largest Radio
Telescope Completes Installation
Visitors Try on VR Equipments
at Experience Center in SE China
China Starts Developing
New-era Exascale Supercomputer
Chinese Researchers to
Develop 3D Skin Printing Technology
China Leads World in
Mobile Tech: Media
China Launches First
Mobile Telecom Satellite
JAPAN: Ministry to
Tackle 5G Research
S. Korea, Ethiopia to
Expand ICT Cooperation
Korea, France to Expand
Cooperation on Tech, Media
Korea Ranks 14th in
Mobile Internet Connectivity: Report
Mobile Shopping Hits
Record 2.7 Tln Won in May
Korea's ICT Exports Dip
5.1% in June
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INDONESIA: Technology
Startups for Farm Sector
THAILAND: Bangkok Third ‘Most Searched’ City in Asia
Technology Driving Rise
of Medical Tourism
4G Partners to Provide 20m Users, Says TOT
VIETNAM: PM Urges HÀ Nam
to Use Hi-Tech Agriculture
Ministry to Transform VN
Logistics
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BANGLADESH: Planning to
Earn $1 Billion from ICT Exports by 2018
INDIA: IT-Enabled Power
Supply in 4,041 Urban Towns in Next 3 Yrs
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AZERBAIJAN: Engaged in
Further Development of ICT
Azerbaijan in Top Ten
for Internet Penetration Level
UZBEKISTAN: Scientific
and Technical Center to Be Established under “Uzbekenergo”
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AUSTRALIA: Broadband
Speeds Set to Lag World by 2020
State Governments
Crucial to Our Future as an ‘Innovation Nation': Internet Australia
Australia Slips to 18th
on Global Digital Rankings: WEF
FIJI: Digital
Transformation
NEW ZEALAND: Ranked
Sixth for Mobile Connectivity
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GLOBAL:
United Nations E-Government Survey 2016: E-Government in Support of
Sustainable Development
The UN E-Government Survey 2016 on “E-Government in Support of
Sustainable Development” offers a snapshot of trends in the development of
e-government in countries across the globe. According to the Survey more
governments are embracing information and communication technologies (ICTs)
to deliver services and to engage people in decision-making processes in all
regions of the world. The 2016 UN E-Government Survey provides new evidence
that e-government has the potential to help support the implementation of the
2030 Agenda and its 17 sustainable development goals (SDGs). The Survey
indicates a positive global trend towards higher levels of e-government
development as countries in all regions are increasingly embracing innovation
and utilizing new ICTs to deliver services and engage people in
decision-making processes. It underscores that one of the most important new
trends is the advancement of people-driven services - services that reflect
people’s needs and are driven by them. At the same time, disparities remain
within and among countries. Lack of access to technology, poverty and
inequality prevent people from fully taking advantage of the potential of
ICTs and e-government for sustainable development.
From
https://publicadministration.un.org/
07/31/2016
TOP↑
State of ICT in Asia and the
Pacific 2016: Uncovering the Widening Broadband Divide
New UN ESCAP
report highlights alarming disparity in broadband access among Asia-Pacific
countries and broadband concentration in East-Asia. Despite the widely
reported phenomenal growth in Information and Communications Technology (ICT)
in the Asia-Pacific region, a new study by the United Nations Economic and
Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), has found that broadband
capabilities and access are highly concentrated in East and North-East
Asia. The report titled State of ICT in Asia and the Pacific
2016: Uncovering the Widening Broadband Divide also confirms that the gap
between advanced and developing countries in fixed broadband access is indeed
widening, and unless targeted policy interventions are put in place, the
trend will continue to the detriment of future development opportunities. The
Report shows that 74.89 per cent of total fixed broadband subscriptions in
Asia and the Pacific are concentrated in East and North-East Asia, followed
by South and South-West Asia (9.77 per cent), North and Central Asia (7.68
per cent), South-East Asia (5.74 per cent)
and the Pacific (1.93 per cent), according to the 2015 data.
Findings
indicate that over 52.3 per cent of global fixed broadband subscribers now
come from ESCAP member States, a dramatic increase from 2005 when the region
constituted only 38.1 per cent. The Report also found that in 2015, less than
2 per cent of the population had adopted fixed broadband in as many as 20
countries in Asia and the Pacific, widening
the digital divide between high-income and low-income countries at an
alarming speed. United Nations Under-Secretary-General and Executive
Secretary of ESCAP Dr. Shamshad Akhtar underlined that broadband connectivity
is a critical foundation for the digital economy and the achievement of the
Sustainable Development Goals in Asia-Pacific, and that ESCAP is working with
member States to improve broadband access for countries in the region. “As a
result of this digital divide, millions of people are shut out from
transformative digital opportunities in education, health, business and
financial services,” said Dr. Akhtar. “In response to the widening gap, ESCAP
is promoting the Asia-Pacific Information Superhighway (AP-IS) initiative, to
increase the availability and affordability of broadband Internet across Asia and the Pacific, by strengthening the underlying
Internet infrastructure in the region,” she added.
In
particular, the Report shows that e-commerce strongly correlates with access
to fixed broadband connectivity, suggesting that enhancing ICT infrastructure
connectivity would increase business-to-business e-commerce in the region.
The Report also examined emerging trends in developing online content,
differential patterns of mobile broadband expansion and usage, as well as the
impact of regulatory quality and investment in broadband adoption. The study
findings will serve as the basis for the inaugural ESCAP Committee on ICT,
Science, Technology and Innovation to be held from 5 to 7 October 2016 in Bangkok, Thailand.
From http://reliefweb.int
08/19/2016
TOP↑
CHINA: Planning Community
Education Network by 2020
China plans to
establish a national community education network by 2020 through 200
demonstration areas with exemplary practices and 600 others to test relevant
practices, the Ministry of Education (MOE) announced. Community education
should be richer in content and more diversified in its forms, and resident
participation and their approval of such schools should increase remarkably
in the next five years, according to a guideline to promote community
education issued by the MOE with other departments. The guideline also called
for better service capacity, pooling and sharing of educational resources. It
encouraged schools to offer community schooling by capitalizing on their
existing facilities, courses and teachers. Schools are required to open more
resources to the public, such as libraries, museums, gymnasiums and
exhibition halls. The guideline asked localities to establish a cost-sharing
mechanism to raise money for community education through government input,
private endowment, and tuition.
From http://www.news.cn/ 07/30/2016
TOP↑
SOUTH KOREA: Ranking 14th in Mobile
Internet Connectivity - Report
Korea ranked 14th
among 134 countries in terms of mobile internet connectivity, a global
association of mobile operators said on Tuesday. According to the Global
System for Mobile Communications, Korea scored 80.7 out of 100 in four key areas of mobile
internet connectivity --infrastructure, affordability, consumer readiness and
content. Australia topped
the list, followed by the Netherlands,
Denmark, Sweden, Norway,
New Zealand, Finland, the United
States, Iceland
and the U.K.,
the association said. Noticeably, Korea scored the best in the
country's mobile infrastructure as 99 percent of its population are provided
with 3G coverage, it said.
More than 3 billion people around the world are connected to the internet,
but that still leaves more than 4 billion people offline, excluded from the
powerful opportunities for social and economic development that the internet
enables, it added. The GSMA is a global association of nearly 800 mobile
operators in more than 220 countries. The report said the index measures the
performance of 134 countries, accounting for more than 95 percent of the
world's population.
From
http://www.koreaherald.com
06/28/2016
TOP↑
SINGAPORE: Internet Access Block for Public Servants
Under Consideration for "A Very Long Time"
SINGAPORE: From May next year, public servants will be able to
surf the internet only on designated computers - a decision that
Communications and Information Minister Yaacob Ibrahim said had been under
consideration for "a very long time" and was necessary, given the
increasing sophistication of hackers. "At the end of the day, as the
custodian of data concerning our citizens and because of national interests,
we have to protect that,” he said. “We are constantly under attack. That's a
fact of life. We cannot ignore that.” Speaking at the sidelines of a
community event on Saturday (Jun 11), Dr Yaacob acknowledged that while the
move won't be easy, agencies like the Foreign Affairs Ministry and the Trade
and Industry Ministry have already adopted this practice. "This is about
the security of our system. We do not want it to be infiltrated,” he said.
”But having said that, I'm not going to give you a guarantee that we will be
100 per cent secure. Nobody can do that. But at least we know what are the
challenges, what are the risks. If we can mitigate the risks, we should do
that." Addressing the issue on Thursday, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong
revealed that Singapore has seen very sophisticated attacks on the
Government's Internet system, which is why Singapore is making the move after
having put it off for as long as possible. Weighing in on the move as well,
Foreign Minister Dr Vivian Balakrishnan, who is also the country's
Minister-in-Charge of the Smart Nation Initiative, warned of the "clear
and present threat of espionage and criminal activity on the Internet"
and said that cybersecurity is essential if Singapore is to become a smart
nation.
From
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/
06/11/2016
TOP↑
INDIA: e-Governance Crucial for
Citizen Services
In a bid to ease out administration work and make it
corruption-free, Pravir Kumar, Chairman of Noida, Greater Noida and Yamuna
Expressway Industrial Development Authority (YEIDA) asserted the use of
technology to facilitate citizen-centric services, while addressing a meeting
attended by officials of the three concerned authorities. After reviewing the
online services being offered by the departments, Kumar asked the officials
to adopt the best practices of each authority to provide an effective
public-government interface. Kumar feels there is gap between the required
civic services to be provided to the citizens which needs
to be filled with efficient working of the authorities with the help of
technology. Hence, the public service delivery system should be
consolidated keeping in mind the needs and interests of the citizens. The
meeting observed that the model of Noida’s Citizen Charter services be adopted in the Greater Noida Authority and YEIDA to
yield the benefits of its effective working. The charter includes 152
services spread across 12 departments which have been largely effective in
dealing with public grievances. YEIDA is already making efforts to bring
about paperless governance in place by implementing online tools such as
file-tracking system, dak (postal) tracking system and government order
tracking system.
From http://egov.eletsonline.com
08/06/2016
TOP↑
AZERBAIJAN: In Top Ten
for Internet Penetration Level
ESCAP, Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific
ranked Azerbaijan
the 9th among the regional countries for the level of broadband internet
penetration. The figure stands at 19.8 percent in Azerbaijan,
according to the State of ICT in Asia and the Pacific 2016: Uncovering the Widening
Broadband Divide report of the ESCAP. The country ranks the first among the
countries of Post-Soviet region, thus Azerbaijan
left behind Russia (where
the level of penetration is 18.8 percent), Georgia
(14.6 percent), Kazakhstan
(13 percent), Armenia (9.6
percent), Kyrgyzstan (3.7
percent), Uzbekistan (3.6
percent), Tajikistan (0.1
percent) and Turkmenistan
(0.1 percent). Monthly subscription for fixed broadband in the region ranges
from $5.83 (in Kyrgyzstan)
to $171.4 (in Turkmenistan).
The figure
is $9.50 in Azerbaijan.
The cost of fixed broadband connection in Azerbaijan is 1.5 percent from
the nominal GDP rate per capita.
The analogous index stands at 2.1 percent in Kazakhstan, 2.8 percent in Armenia, 2.9 percent in Georgia, 5.6 percent in Kyrgyzstan, 21.5 percent in Uzbekistan and 25.6 and 64.9 percent in Turkmenistan and Tajikistan respectively.
Azerbaijan became the 58th country in the world over number of
its Internet users according to Statistical project Internet Live Stats,
while the number of Internet users has exceeded the rate of 6 million in the
country. The figure increased by 1.2 percent or approximately 72,000 people
compared to the 2015 figures. Deputy Minister of Communications and High
Technologies Elmir Valizade, earlier commenting on the level of internet
access in the country, said that
one of the main issues in this sphere is the quality of provided services. He
mentioned that the country is engaged in the construction of the optic-fiber
network in all regions of the country which will provide for qualitative
internet and communication services. Main objective of the project is
offering the Internet with the speed of 100 Mb/s, the services of IP TV
(Internet television) and telephone communication. The country has recently
started the use of 4G
Internet service which is considered to be a brand-new technology in the
system of mobile telephone network and creates an opportunity for the access
to the high-speed Internet all over the country. The signal of the digital
broadcasting covers approximately 99 percent of Azerbaijan. Over 75 percent of
the country’s population have an access to the
Internet.
The sustainable development of the ICT sector is an integral
part of the economic and political reforms which are currently implemented in
Azerbaijan.
The creation of the Data-centre in the country is considered to be one of the
most important steps in this direction. The centre, construction of which has
already been completed, is the first licensed centre in Azerbaijan and the Caucasus
region. The DATA
Center was tested for resilience
by American Uptime Institute in order to obtain a certificate of Tier3 level.
The certificate is an official confirmation of reliability and security. Tier
3 is considered to be one of the highest levels in this sphere which offers
99.98 percent availability.
From http://www.azernews.az/
08/19/2016
TOP↑
AUSTRALIA: Fourth
Most Vulnerable Nation to Hacking - Study
Australia ranks
fourth among the countries most vulnerable to hacking attacks, according to a
study by penetration testing and information security form Rapid7. Belgium tops the list, followed by Tajikistan and Samoa.
The company compiled what it calls a "heat map" of the Internet,
looking for servers that had exposed ports that could be compromised. Rapid7
used its Project Sonar tool to carry out a scan of every public-facing IP
address and examine the services being offered to the wider Internet. Many
ports on a server offer services that they should be offering; the most
common example is port 80 on which http services, or normal web pages, are
offered. It is better if the encrypted version, https, is offered. But there
are a number of services which are unencrypted and open to compromise. For
example, on port 110 one can find POP3 servers being offered. And port 21 is
used for FTP, an insecure method of transferring files over the Internet.
"Today's
Internet touches virtually everyone’s lives and is a critical component of
economic security," the study noted. "Counter-intuitively, the
adoption of fully encrypted protocols for core Internet services has not
scaled with our personal, national, and global dependence on the
Internet." While the countries with greater GDP, like China and the US, had a much greater number of
Internet users and hence many more net-connected devices, they were not the
most exposed. In the case of Belgium,
though it had many less Internet servers, a greater percentage were offering
services that were insecure. While Australia was the fourth most
vulnerable overall, it also had the same rank among countries that had ports
for database protocols exposed. "We counted 7.8 million MySQL databases
and 3.4 million Microsoft SQL Server systems. Six countries, the United States, China,
Hong Kong, Belgium,
Australia and Poland expose
75% of discovered Microsoft SQL nodes. Those same countries expose 67% of
MySQL nodes," the study noted.
Among the
findings of the study were:
# Millions
of systems offer services that should not be exposed to the public network.
The survey found 15 million nodes appearing to offer telnet, 11.2 million
appearing to offer direct access to relational databases, and 4.5 million
apparent printer services. (The scans counted 7.8 million MySQL databases and
3.4 million Microsoft SQL Server systems. The study did not include ports for
other popular database systems, notably, PostgreSQL and OracleDB.)
# A total of
4.7 million systems expose one of the most commonly attacked ports used by
Microsoft systems, 445/TCP.
# SSH
(secure shell) adoption over telnet (clear-text shell) is gaining ground,
with over 50% of regions offering more ssh servers than telnet servers.
#
Non-web-based access to email (via clear text POP or IMAP protocols) is still
the norm versus the exception in virtually every country.
# There is a
correlation between the GDP of a nation, overall Internet “presence” in terms
of services offered, and the exposure of insecure, clear-text services.
# The most
exposed nations include countries with the largest GDPs, such as the United States, China,
France, and Russia.
From http://www.itwire.com 06/09/2016
TOP↑
CANADA: Innovation Strategy Must Play to Its
Strengths and Embrace Diversity
The federal government has done its diagnostic on the state of Canada’s
economy and now it’s beginning the investments it believes will spark
innovation going forward. That’s the message Minister of Finance Bill Morneau
emphasized at this week’s Economist Summit held in downtown Toronto. The event was built around the
theme of disruption and included both panels and on-stage interviews. In a
question and answer session with Economist U.S. business editor and New York bureau chief
Matthew Bishop, he said forthcoming investments in infrastructures are a key
part of improving the lives of Canadians in an environment of slow growth and
demographic challenges. Now is the time to make those investments as interest
rates are low and the country’s debt-to-GDP ratio favourable.
Morneau said Canada
needs to do a better job of negotiating with institutional and private sector
investors who have found better opportunities offshore than they have at home
to fund infrastructure projects, as well as develop networks and clusters
that exploit the country’s strengths. “The Toronto-Waterloo corridor is a
good example of where we have been successful,” he said, alluding to
investments made in research universities. “Universities are already putting
forward proposals.” In addition to research investment, which Morneau said
includes recognizing the value of basic science research,
student grants are a part of the government’s strategy. “A starting point is
human capital investment.”
The Toronto-Waterloo technology corridor is something Toronto mayor John Tory
talked up during his opening remarks to kick off the Economist Summit, which
he also sees as playing to his city’s strengths, as well as the country’s. He said Canada needs to put the necessary
tools in place, which includes infrastructure. “We can’t have a world-class
technology corridor if we can’t catch a train between Toronto
and Waterloo.”
Tory said his world travels, including a visit to Silicon Valley, have made
it clear that Canada
needs not only be more competitive on the world stage but be prepared to
boast about its successes. “We have to get out there and sell.”
Morneau believes it’s important to bring in outsiders with deep
expertise to help identify Canada’s
key enablers and opportunities. Now that the government is past the
diagnostic phase, he said the next budget will further its strategy, which
includes looking at current vehicles such as Export Development Corp. and the
Business Development Bank of Canada
to help startups grow to become larger concerns. “We want to focus on how to
get companies from the startup phase to the significant phase.” One of the
sectors that is ripe for innovation is power
generation as populations grow, which came up in a panel discussing whether
falling oil prices would curb energy innovation, Jessica McDonald, president
and CEO at BC Hydro, said the utility produces 98 per cent of its electricity
through renewable resources including solar and wind. “We have really great
outcomes from our system.” However, BC Hydro’s infrastructure is aging and
she expects it will need $25 billion in investment in the next decade as the
number of people living in the province is expected to grow by 1 million in
the same period.
McDonald sees innovation helping customers shape their energy
use and encouraging conservation. “Demand-side management is a huge focus.”
The utility is also looking to drive electrification to take advantage of its
grid while effectively distributing loads as electric vehicle use picks up.
“The future is going to look very different than the past.” Since taking
office, it could be said that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s view for the
country has also been about making sure that the future is different than the
past. In an on-stage interview with Economist Americas editor Brooke Under,
he said that includes spending on investment rather than cutting, a “big bet”
that is getting support from the Internal Monetary Fund and the Organization
for Economic Co-operation and Development, which are seeing it as an example
of a way to tackle low global growth.
Trudeau acknowledged there is skepticism around the federal
government investing in infrastructure projects as they can become
politicized with some ridings getting preferential treatment. “These
questions creep into infrastructure spending,” he said. “We are going to
trust local experts to determine what projects are needed.” The conditions
the federal government will set around will be that infrastructure projects
have to contribute to long-term growth and productivity, said Trudeau, such
as public transit. He also echoed Morneau’s statement that the government
must leverage private and institutional investors.
The PM also sees diversity as a key enabler to innovation,
including equal pay and opportunity for women in the workforce because of how
the conversation changes when you have gender balance. “That’s disruptive,”
he said. Thinking around a problem from many different directions is core
part of innovating forward, Trudeau added. “New ideas and perspectives from
around the world are a source of strength.” Not surprisingly, the subject of
low oil prices came up in the conversation, but also the falling prices for
renewable energy such as solar. Trudeau said the short term,
Canada
is going to have to rely on fossil fuels in a global economy, while at the
same time leap into renewables as a long-term strategy to eliminate
dependence on oil. “That’s the path we have to be on.”
From
http://www.itbusiness.ca/
06/10/2016
TOP↑
U.S.: Next Generation of Public Employees Must
Understand Data and Policy
Cities need to attract and cultivate a workforce of tech-minded
employees who can fully leverage new technologies and data initiatives to
promote change and create public value. I no longer laugh at the joke in a
meeting with public officials when someone says they need to go get their
teenager to help them with technology. The fact that we have dramatic new
tools often licensed by a city yet only a few individuals truly taking
advantage of them is a public-sector crisis. For newer and more powerful
software, vendors wistfully aspire for the tools they have designed and sold
to cities to be more fully utilized. From predictive analytics to performance
measurement, new data and tech initiatives have the power to reinvent every
part of city hall. These tools and initiatives are allowing cities to better
understand how their work is improving residents’ lives, discover previously
hidden problems and streamline their internal processes.
But technology is still only a tool and cities will not be able
to evolve unless their employees do too. One of the most important skills the
next generation of public employees can have is an understanding of both
policy and data, enabling them to understand the social context, deploy the
necessary analysis and craft targeted solutions for the most pressing civic
problems. Cities need to attract and cultivate a workforce of tech-minded
employees who can fully leverage new technologies and data initiatives to
promote change and create public value. This requires both discovering how to
hire new tech talent and better cultivating and training existing workers.
Correcting the gap between capacity and use requires cities to rethink their
recruitment and development processes to better attract suitable talent. This
gap can be in part closed by cities changing their hiring methods: What
standards they impose, how quickly they can offer jobs, where they recruit,
and even the description of the job itself.
A stellar example is New
York City’s revamped NYC Tech Jobs website, part of
its current effort to attract more tech-minded applicants. Internship and
fellowship programs also provide another solution and a clear path into city
government for motivated students or recent graduates. Increasing and
publicizing these programs can help cities boost the number of tech-minded
recruits. New dual-degree options, such as the University of Chicago’s
master’s in computational analysis and public policy (awarded jointly from
the Department of Computer Science and the Harris School of Public Policy),
provide a solid background in both areas and could be a great source of
talent for cities searching for the next generation of employees. Cities can
also turn inward and focus on developing the tech skills of their current
employees. For example, San Francisco’s Data Academy
offers a broad range of short technical classes to current government employees,
with the goal of helping them understand and incorporate data and tech skills
into their everyday work. These programs leverage the invaluable years of
experience employees have in their fields and help unlock hidden potential
with the addition of technology or data analysis.
But just attracting or developing new talent is not enough:
Technical skills are only useful if they intersect the work and catalyze the
imagination of a person who has substantial responsibilities. In order to
fully leverage these new skills, cities should distribute skilled workers
throughout government and empower them to work across departments, instead of
keeping them siloed in a solitary department. This can help ensure that
tech-minded employees are thought of as partners in building better
government. Building the new generation of public servants is essential to
allow governments to continue to evolve. New data and tech initiatives hold
great potential for local governments, but they can only succeed if cities
have well trained and motivated employees capable of running them.
From
http://www.govtech.com/
07/01/2016
TOP↑
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AFRICA: Ghana - NCA
Seeks Views on Draft e-Communication Regulations
Ghana's National
Communications Authority (NCA) is seeking public comments on the amended
draft Electronic Communications (Interconnect Clearinghouse Services)
Regulations, 2016. The move follows the review of all comments received by
the regulator and subsequent review by Parliament. An Interconnect
Clearinghouse will provide clearance of subscriber identity verification
before the communication services is provided by the connecting entity. It
will also provide equipment identity registry services for user equipment
approved by the NCA to be used for public electronic communications service.
According to the draft, an Interconnect Clearinghouse will operate and
maintain an anti-fraud management system for the purpose of detecting,
preventing, disconnecting or disabling unauthorized or unlicensed or illegal
traffic of public electronic communications. The draft also states that the
Clearinghouse will also connect to a number portability communications
service, bank swi5cgh or interconnect exchange as may be directed by the NCA.
From
http://www.telecompaper.com/
06/18/2016
TOP↑
EUROPE:
Setting to Approve Privacy Shield with US - Report
The European Union is set to approve the proposed 'Privacy
Shield', agreed with the US
to prtect personal data being transferred across the Atlantic.
Sources familiar with the matter told Ars Technica that the so-called Article
31 group, made up of representatives from all EU member governments, is
expected to clear the deal at a meeting 08 July. The group has been critical
of the deal up to now, but the report said that having finally seen the
text—after two false starts where the expected document wasn't presented—it
will concede that enough assurances have been given by the US for protecting
EU citizens' personal information and right to redress. The agreement is
expected to be discussed by the European Commission 11 July and will then be
formally approved on 12 July, followed by the agreement being signed by
justice commissioner Vera Jourova and US secretary of commerce Penny
Pritzker the same day, Commission sources confirmed to Ars. There have been
substantial improvements to the text originally criticised by MEPs, according
to Bruno Gencarelli, who is head of the commission’s data protection unit.
Changes include stronger rules on data retention, onward transfers and
safeguards on access to data by public authorities, as well as a US ombudsman "fully independent from
intelligence agencies", he told a privacy laws conference in the UK on 06
July.
From
http://www.telecompaper.com/
07/08/2016
TOP↑
DENMARK: Authorities Must Accept EU e-Bills from
Autumn 2018
The Danish Digitisation Authority said that from autumn 2018,
state companies will have to accept electronic invoices from suppliers of
framework contracts that have been put out to tender within the European
Union. From autumn 2019, the same requirement will apply to local and
regional administrations. An obligation for public bodies to accept
e-invoices from Danish suppliers came into force in 2005.
From
http://www.telecompaper.com/
06/19/2016
TOP↑
HUNGARY: Authority Announces 4 Legislative Changes
Hungary's
telecommunications authority NMHH announced that four key legislative changes
on infocommunications became effective as of 1 July. The country bid farewell
to 'blue' numbers, new regulations were implemented for electronic signatures
after 15 years, the infocommunications market rapid reports can resume with
legislative guarantee, and broadband networks may be installed using public
utilities infrastructure. As of 1 July, existing blue numbers may be used as
toll-free green numbers until the end of the year. Applications for new blue
numbers have not been accepted since mid-January and the licences issued for
existing ones will be permanently revoked after the tariff change by the
authority effective of 31 December 2017. After a decade and a half, the
market of e-signatures and the related e-services will now be regulated on a
new basis. As of 1 July both the EU regulation and the new Hungarian
legislation will go into effect. In all member states, this field will be
primarily regulated by Regulation (EU) No 910/2014, whose application will be
mandatory and direct.
Instead of the voluntary and ad hoc data supply incorporated in
Act C of 2003 on Electronic Communications, the new legislation effective of
1 July will enable the authority to request communications market data from
service providers for the purpose of performing its other, non-regulatory
tasks stipulated by the law. As a result, NMHH once again can publish its
communications market rapid reports on the mobile voice and mobile internet
markets, on the landline voice and internet markets and the broadcasting
market. The act was also amended to harmonise with an EU directive (Directive
2014/61 EU), which facilitates the installation of broadband services on
public utilities infrastructure. Consequently, as of 1 July, all public
utility companies are required to provide access to their broadband-ready
passive infrastructure to facilitate the installation of broadband networks.
Although effective not as of 1 July but 30 April, another change pertaining
to the summer period is more favourable roaming rates.
From
http://www.telecompaper.com/
07/21/2016
TOP↑
ITALY: Getting EU Go-ahead on National Broadband
Plan
European Commission rules Italian plan will not distort
competition nor inhibit private investment. The Italian government on
Thursday got the green light from the European Commission to push ahead with
plans to invest in ultra broadband rollout in uneconomic areas. The Italian
ultra broadband scheme, which carries a budget of around �4 billion, is in
line with the EU's state aid rules, the Commission said, noting that it will
spread the availability of fast Internet connections, without distorting
competition. "The broadband scheme will bring faster Internet to Italian
consumers and businesses. It will help Italy to build the necessary
infrastructure and contribute to creating a connected Digital Single Market
in the EU," European competition commissioner Margrethe Vestager
commented. "Thanks to good cooperation with Italy, we have been able to
finalise the assessment of the scheme very swiftly," she said.
According to the statement issued by the EU, Italy's ultra
broadband scheme will contribute to the country's goal of providing 85% of
households and all public buildings with 100 Mbps broadband and will run
until the end of 2022. The Italian state will finance the new infrastructure
in full, but will select a licensee to operate the network, it said. The
details do not exactly match the ultrafast broadband plan detailed by Italian
prime minister Matteo Renzi in August last year, when he explained that the
state would provide �7 billion of funding - �4.9 billion from the government
and �2.1 billion from regional institutional funds – as part of a �12 billion
project to make ultrafast broadband available to all Italian citizens by
2020.
However, the scheme presented to the EU clearly forms part of
the same over-arching goal: to enable the state to contribute to making
high-speed Internet services much more widely available. The Commission said
it assessed the Italian plan under its state aid rules with the aim of
ensuring that public funding does not replace private investment and that
multiple service providers are able to use the infrastructure on a
non-discriminatory basis, thereby protecting competition. The Italian plan
makes provision for public money to be spent on underserved areas where end
users have no access to speeds in excess of 30 Mbps. It will also foster
competition between operators, the Commission said.
From
http://www.totaltele.com/
07/01/2016
TOP↑
ROMANIA: Adopting Digital Strategy for 2016-2020
Romania's telecommunications authority Ancom adopted its
strategy for digital communications up to 2020, a document that contains a
diagnosis of the current status of the communications sector in Romania, as
well as the future trends, based on which Ancom set out the strategic
priorities and main action lines for the next 5 years of management and
regulation of the telecom market. According to the published strategy, the
Romanian authority will streamline its efforts towards maximising the telecom
users’ benefits, mainly by promoting competition of communications networks
and tariffs. Among the action lines identified in the strategy, there are
several measures with a direct impact on the telecom users in Romania. The
authority aims to create interactive coverage maps of the communications
networks in Romania,
where telecom users will be able to find accurate and up-to-date information.
Moreover, Ancom envisages the introduction of a trial period in continuing
mobile services contracts that exclude the provision of equipment in order to
allow end-users to switch providers and to stimulate service demand. Furthermore,
the Authority will analyse whether including broadband services within the
scope of universal service may help achieving the objectives of the Digital
Agenda for Romania.
From
http://www.telecompaper.com/
08/05/2016
TOP↑
TURKEY: Announcing e-Government Strategy and Action
Plan for 2016-2019
Turkey’s High
Development Agency has approved the national e-Government Strategy and Action
Plan for the 2016-2019 period (“Strategy and Action Plan”). It aims to
enhance the efficiency of e-Government and impove society’s quality of life.
The Strategy and Action Plan intends to establish highly integrated,
efficient and reliable government and public services. The Strategy and
Action Plan outlines four strategic aims, 13 goals to fulfill these strategic
aims and 43 actions to achieve these aims,. These
all comply with the e-Government ecosystem overview, which is identified as a
strategic focus. Strategic aims and sub-categories include:
Ensuring the Efficiency and Sustainability of the e-Government
Ecosystem
Increasing coordination efficiency within e-Government
operations
Improving the corporate e-Transformation capacity
Follow-up of innovative approaches and adopting these to the
e-Government ecosystem
Adopting Common Systems For Infrastructure and Administrative
Services
Developing common IT infrastructures
Developing disseminating common solutions for e-Government
services
Ensuring unity and sustainability within administrative services
information systems.
Ensuring e-Transformation in Public Services
Ensuring early and efficient electronic submission of corporate
information.
Enhancing industrial integration in information systems.
Increasing the maturity level of e-Government services.
Improving the service procurement channels and enhancing
diversity.
Increasing Use, Participation and Transperancy
Increasing the use of e-Government services
Increasing use areas for open data
Enhancing e-Participation mechanisms
The Strategy and Action Plan was published in Official Gazette
number 29775 (second duplicate) on 19 July 2016. Please see this link for
full text (only available in Turkish). Information first published in the MA
| Gazette, a fortnightly legal update newsletter produced by Moroğlu Arseven.
From
http://www.lexology.com/
08/18/2016
TOP↑
NORTH
AMERICA: Canada’s
Innovation Strategy Must Play to Its Strengths and Embrace Diversity
The federal government has done its diagnostic on the state of Canada’s
economy and now it’s beginning the investments it believes will spark
innovation going forward. That’s the message Minister of Finance Bill Morneau
emphasized at this week’s Economist Summit held in downtown Toronto. The event was built around the
theme of disruption and included both panels and on-stage interviews. In a
question and answer session with Economist U.S. business editor and New York bureau chief
Matthew Bishop, he said forthcoming investments in infrastructures are a key
part of improving the lives of Canadians in an environment of slow growth and
demographic challenges. Now is the time to make those investments as interest
rates are low and the country’s debt-to-GDP ratio favourable.
Morneau said Canada
needs to do a better job of negotiating with institutional and private sector
investors who have found better opportunities offshore than they have at home
to fund infrastructure projects, as well as develop networks and clusters
that exploit the country’s strengths. “The Toronto-Waterloo corridor is a
good example of where we have been successful,” he said, alluding to
investments made in research universities. “Universities are already putting
forward proposals.” In addition to research investment, which Morneau said
includes recognizing the value of basic science research,
student grants are a part of the government’s strategy. “A starting point is
human capital investment.”
The Toronto-Waterloo technology corridor is something Toronto mayor John Tory
talked up during his opening remarks to kick off the Economist Summit, which
he also sees as playing to his city’s strengths, as well as the country’s. He said Canada needs to put the necessary
tools in place, which includes infrastructure. “We can’t have a world-class
technology corridor if we can’t catch a train between Toronto
and Waterloo.”
Tory said his world travels, including a visit to Silicon Valley, have made
it clear that Canada
needs not only be more competitive on the world stage but be prepared to
boast about its successes. “We have to get out there and sell.”
Morneau believes it’s important to bring in outsiders with deep
expertise to help identify Canada’s
key enablers and opportunities. Now that the government is past the
diagnostic phase, he said the next budget will further its strategy, which
includes looking at current vehicles such as Export Development Corp. and the
Business Development Bank of Canada
to help startups grow to become larger concerns. “We want to focus on how to
get companies from the startup phase to the significant phase.” One of the
sectors that is ripe for innovation is power
generation as populations grow, which came up in a panel discussing whether
falling oil prices would curb energy innovation, Jessica McDonald, president
and CEO at BC Hydro, said the utility produces 98 per cent of its electricity
through renewable resources including solar and wind. “We have really great
outcomes from our system.” However, BC Hydro’s infrastructure is aging and
she expects it will need $25 billion in investment in the next decade as the
number of people living in the province is expected to grow by 1 million in
the same period.
McDonald sees innovation helping customers shape their energy
use and encouraging conservation. “Demand-side management is a huge focus.”
The utility is also looking to drive electrification to take advantage of its
grid while effectively distributing loads as electric vehicle use picks up.
“The future is going to look very different than the past.” Since taking
office, it could be said that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s view for the
country has also been about making sure that the future is different than the
past. In an on-stage interview with Economist Americas editor Brooke Under,
he said that includes spending on investment rather than cutting, a “big bet”
that is getting support from the Internal Monetary Fund and the Organization
for Economic Co-operation and Development, which are seeing it as an example
of a way to tackle low global growth.
Trudeau acknowledged there is skepticism around the federal
government investing in infrastructure projects as they can become
politicized with some ridings getting preferential treatment. “These
questions creep into infrastructure spending,” he said. “We are going to
trust local experts to determine what projects are needed.” The conditions
the federal government will set around will be that infrastructure projects
have to contribute to long-term growth and productivity, said Trudeau, such
as public transit. He also echoed Morneau’s statement that the government
must leverage private and institutional investors.
The PM also sees diversity as a key enabler to innovation, including
equal pay and opportunity for women in the workforce because of how the
conversation changes when you have gender balance. “That’s disruptive,” he
said. Thinking around a problem from many different directions is core part
of innovating forward, Trudeau added. “New ideas and perspectives from around
the world are a source of strength.” Not surprisingly, the subject of low oil
prices came up in the conversation, but also the falling prices for renewable
energy such as solar. Trudeau said the short term, Canada is
going to have to rely on fossil fuels in a global economy, while at the same
time leap into renewables as a long-term strategy to eliminate dependence on
oil. “That’s the path we have to be on.”
From
http://www.itbusiness.ca/
06/10/2016
TOP↑
Cloud
Technology, Enterprise Thinking Drive Canadian Government’s New IT Plan
The Canadian government is borrowing a page from the private
sector with the new Information Technology Strategic Plan it revealed on June
29. In what Government of Canada CIO John Messina acknowledges is a
long-overdue upgrade, the living document provides a blueprint for the public
sector’s various tech departments to follow between now and 2020, as they
upgrade the country’s IT infrastructure to reflect the security, reliability,
and innovation that Messina says Canadians have come to expect from the
private sector. “In responding to government priorities and current
challenges, the plan charts the path forward for IT from a
whole-of-government, or ‘enterprise,’ perspective, positioning the government
to… deliver better programs and services and ultimately value to Canadians,”
Messina writes in his introduction to the plan, noting that not every action
discussed is expected to be completed by 2020, nor is it assumed that all
departments and agencies will implement them within the same time frame.
Caveats aside, the plan is to replace the government’s legacy IT
infrastructure, which its 100-plus organizations have constructed piecemeal
while operating separately from each other, with cloud-based enterprise
solutions that can deliver services across every division to Canadians both
at home and abroad. “This plan will deliver to Canadians the kind of
government they expect – one that is open and transparent yet safeguards
their personal information; one that delivers effective and responsive
programs and services while being fiscally prudent; and one that makes
decisions based on sound evidence while seeking meaningful engagement and
collaboration with Canadians and other stakeholders,” the plan’s authors
write, noting that they also will be tracking, evaluating and reporting their
progress, with the plan reviewed annually to make sure it remains up to date.
The Canadian government currently employs some 17,000 IT professionals at
more than 1500 government locations both across Canada and around the world,
while spending $5 billion on IT every year. In developing a road map for its
digital future, the plan’s authors have outlined 47 strategic actions, 25 of
which are already underway, and divided them into four strategic goals.
From
http://www.itworldcanada.com/
07/05/2016
TOP↑
U.S.: Email Privacy Legislation Stalls in Senate
The Senate Judiciary Committee is holding off on further action
on the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, as members are divided on
warrant standards for email intercepts. The bill would update a 1986 legal
framework that treats email stored on a computer differently than email
stored on a remote server when it comes to law enforcement search. "I
fully support the warrant-for-content standard that this bill requires,"
Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn (R-Texas.), a cosponsor of the bill, told
the committee during a May 26 markup. "But in order for this bill to
actually become law, it has got to reflect the interest of all stakeholders,
which is the reason why I circulated a couple of amendments to the
bill." Those amendments include one that would allow the FBI to obtain
information and records on individuals only if the agency can prove that
there is a current investigation on that person related to international
terrorism or clandestine intelligence activities. This does not include any
contents of the electronic communication, which has been a heated debate
between industry and law enforcement in recent months. "You don't
usually have me coming in here advocating for the Administration's
position," Cornyn said, "but I happen to agree they're right on
this one, and as I say, reflects the important negotiations among the
important stakeholders in the federal government."
Other amendments deal with consent, to permit law enforcement
agencies to access records of an individual unable to give permission for a
search, and allow for law enforcement access in other exigent circumstances.
Sen. Lindsay Graham (R-S.C.) offered an anti-botnet bill as an add-on to the
measure. The House counterpart to the bill, the Email Privacy Act, passed
without opposition under suspension of the rules on April 27. Senate
Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) said, "Most folks
agree that given the way Americans use email today, it hardly makes sense
that the privacy protections for an email should turn on whether it's more
than 180 days old, or whether it's been opened. The privacy of Americans must be
protected, and that privacy simply shouldn't depend on an email's age at
all." Six other lawmakers offered amendments as well. Sen. Patrick Leahy
(D-Vt.), the ranking member of the committee, said, "I understand we
will hold the bill over and attempt to work through those issues over the
next two weeks." The Senate is scheduled to reconvene in early June.
From
https://fcw.com/
05/27/2016
TOP↑
Can the
Freedom of Information Act Be Fixed?
In 1993, Monte Finkelstein filed what would become one of the
longest-running requests for government records in history. Eager to complete
his book on the relationship between the Allies and the Sicilian mafia during
World War II, the community-college professor submitted a Freedom of
Information Act request with the National Archives. Five years later and
still waiting for a response, Finkelstein published his book without the
documents. “To be honest, I gave up,” he said. “I just surrendered. From my
point of view, it was a bureaucratic nightmare.” On Thursday—a few days
before July 4, the Freedom of Information Act’s 50th birthday—President Barack
Obama signed one of the most hard-fought FOIA-reform bills in decades. In
doing so, he’ll make permanent the presumption that all government records
are public unless proven otherwise, a central tenet of his administration’s
efforts, and one currently vulnerable to revocation by, say, President Trump.
This alone is cause for high-fives among open-government groups,
who convinced many states to enshrine that common-sense provision in their
laws. Until now, the United States Congress never has. At first glance, the
bill doesn’t necessarily do much for people like Finkelstein. There’s nothing
to speed up the turnaround for a request, which can stretch into weeks for
routine records. It doesn’t force the government to pay the legal fees of a
requestor if a judge takes the requestor’s side in court. And crucially, it
does little to challenge security and intelligence agencies, which try to
avoid disclosing documents almost by default, sometimes before they’ve even
looked for the requested files. This bill took almost a decade to get to the
president’s desk, dying a dozen deaths along the way. A cynic could be
forgiven for flipping through the text and wondering, is this it?
But while it’s not revolutionary, the bill lays a foundation for
how open government should operate in America, experts say. And it is
the necessary predecessor, its authors argue, to something far greater. “One
could say, looking at the glass, that it is half empty,” said Rep. Darrell
Issa, who sponsored the House version of the bill. “But government has to
move in a direction and be judged based on that direction. Congress passing
FOIA [reform] moved us in the correct direction.” Before Congress passed the
Freedom of Information Act in 1966, federal agencies were veiled in secrecy.
Information was nearly impossible to get. Although frustration mounted in
Congress, the Eisenhower and Kennedy administrations successfully scuttled
any attempt at reform for fear of what exposure would mean.
Lyndon B. Johnson, although similarly opposed to this kind of
legislation, was less fortunate than his predecessors. On July 4, 1966, he
signed the bill into law after both chambers of Congress passed it
overwhelmingly. However, he diluted his endorsement, laying out a number of
exceptions to the rule in his signing statement. Notably, there was no
ceremony to speak of in 1966—only a tersely worded statement. FOIA has gone
through periodic updates since. Congress passed reform legislation in the
wake of the Watergate scandal, imposing sanctions for wrongly withholding
documents, specifying timetables for responses, and approving fee waivers for
journalists. Since, requests have skyrocketed, but so have wait times. On his
first day in office, Obama sought to reverse this trend with a series of
orders, but delays and backlogs continued.
That included Finkelstein’s request, which was still in limbo in
2012, putting the professor in the unenviable position of possessing one of
the longest outstanding filings in the history of the act. But he would not
relent, even though he had published his book nearly two decades earlier.
“There was no way I was going to cancel the request,” Finkelstein said. “I
just wanted to see those documents. I was like a dog with a bone with this
thing. There was always this little hope in my mind that I would get these
documents and it would all fall into place.” Then, this year’s reform bill,
the FOIA Improvement Act of 2016, got passed. Beyond its centerpiece
provision, which opens documents to the public by default, the bill also
requires the government to turn over documents shielded by several broad
exemptions after 25 years, weakening a clause that keeps internal
deliberations from public view. And if an agency receives multiple requests
for the same record, it must post the record online.
“That’s all a win,” said Alexander Howard, a senior analyst at
the Sunlight Foundation, an open-government group. “It’s not the
revolutionary reform that I think some people would like to see. But it’s
codifying a lot of the evolutionary improvements the administration has
suggested so those existing wins are baked in and won’t be flipped back on
January 21, 2017”
when the next president takes office. Others are less optimistic. The bill’s
lofty language must be matched with a willingness to punish agencies if they
don’t comply, said Jeff Richelson, an author who has filed thousands of FOIA
requests over the past 30 years. “They need to get representatives from the
agencies there and grill them, and say, ‘How much would you like your budget
cut? You’ll be sitting on orange crates instead of chairs,’” he said. “You’re
not going to get a response through vaguely worded regulations.”
Why is reforming FOIA reform such a slog? For one, few Americans
ever use it. While open-records requests often lead to substantive,
investigative reports, few people have filled out one themselves and may have
little familiarity with their importance. And the Justice Department, which
is charged with enforcing FOIA law, has actively campaigned against changing
it. Documents—obtained via FOIA, ironically—show that DOJ lawyers distributed
talking points against a version of Issa’s reform bill in 2014, arguing it
needlessly added cost and complexity. Other documents given to the reporter
Jason Leopold of Vice News showed evidence of similar efforts by the
Securities and Exchange Commission and the Federal Trade Commission. From
DOJ’s memo in 2014:
The Administration views [the bill] as an attempt to impose on
the Executive Branch multiple administrative requirements
concerning its internal management of FOIA administration, which are
not appropriate for legislative intervention and would substantially increase
costs and cause delays in FOIA processing. In this respect in particular,
this bill is vastly different from past amendments to the FOIA, which
addressed substantive issues connected with access to government records. As
a result, the Administration believes that the changes proposed in [the bill]
are not necessary and, in many respects, will undermine the successes
achieved to date by diverting scarce processing resources. “There’s nothing
to back it up,” Leopold said. “It just meant these agencies would have to be
more transparent. And they don’t want to be more transparent.” DOJ, for its
part, says it now fully supports the legislation.
“We remain dedicated to improving transparency and open
government,” said spokeswoman Beverly Lumpkin. As for the memo, “it is not
uncommon for subject matter experts to provide feedback on technical aspects
of proposed legislation and its potential unintended consequences,” she said.
With all this in mind, Leopold believes it’ll be years—maybe decades—before
Congress passes another FOIA bill after this year’s act. Issa is a bit more
optimistic, with plans to begin working immediately on the next iteration.
But given the slow pace of change, America might have to make do
with this version of reform for quite a while. Under the new law, journalists
and advocates will have a stronger ally in the FOIA ombudsman’s office, a
watchdog not housed in the Justice Department. The government will
automatically have to post frequently requested documents, meaning new data
feeds will be available online and investigative materials could be
accessible to a much wider audience than just journalists. A new central
website, designed to handle records requests, could make it easier for
regular people to join in.
At the same time, the Defense Department and other security
agencies will continue to enjoy strong protections, meaning news
organizations will continue relying on leaks to break news and uncover
scandal. And the expense of pursuing a FOIA claim in court, with no hope of
reimbursement, may continue to force many requestors to drop cases they could
have won. Finkelstein’s story has a happy ending. In September 2012, he
received a large package in the mail from the National Archives. Hundreds of
pages of declassified documents were enclosed, although they didn’t reveal
much new. “When you are dealing with these subjects, you need to get the
truth, and the only way to get the whole truth is to get all the
documentation if it exists,” Finkelstein said. “As a historian, as a scholar,
you can’t be dissuaded by this. Roadblocks will be put in front of you, and
you can’t let that stop you.”
Despite the wait, Finkelstein plans to file another FOIA request
for his next book in this new, much friendlier system. He can submit his
request through a central website; he can complain to an ombudsman if he
doesn't get what he wants. But reform requires more than a change in
government procedure—it will also require agencies to have a change in heart.
This bill doesn’t free up money, and it doesn’t authorize new hires. It can
only set an example for how transparency should look in America. It’s
up to the rest of the government to follow along.
From
http://www.nextgov.com/
07/01/2016
TOP↑
Next
Generation of Public Employees Must Understand Data and Policy
Cities need to attract and cultivate a workforce of tech-minded
employees who can fully leverage new technologies and data initiatives to
promote change and create public value. I no longer laugh at the joke in a
meeting with public officials when someone says they need to go get their
teenager to help them with technology. The fact that we have dramatic new
tools often licensed by a city yet only a few individuals truly taking
advantage of them is a public-sector crisis. For newer and more powerful
software, vendors wistfully aspire for the tools they have designed and sold
to cities to be more fully utilized. From predictive analytics to performance
measurement, new data and tech initiatives have the power to reinvent every
part of city hall. These tools and initiatives are allowing cities to better
understand how their work is improving residents’ lives, discover previously
hidden problems and streamline their internal processes.
But technology is still only a tool and cities will not be able
to evolve unless their employees do too. One of the most important skills the
next generation of public employees can have is an understanding of both
policy and data, enabling them to understand the social context, deploy the
necessary analysis and craft targeted solutions for the most pressing civic
problems. Cities need to attract and cultivate a workforce of tech-minded
employees who can fully leverage new technologies and data initiatives to
promote change and create public value. This requires both discovering how to
hire new tech talent and better cultivating and training existing workers.
Correcting the gap between capacity and use requires cities to rethink their
recruitment and development processes to better attract suitable talent. This
gap can be in part closed by cities changing their hiring methods: What
standards they impose, how quickly they can offer jobs, where they recruit,
and even the description of the job itself.
A stellar example is New
York City’s revamped NYC Tech Jobs website, part of
its current effort to attract more tech-minded applicants. Internship and
fellowship programs also provide another solution and a clear path into city
government for motivated students or recent graduates. Increasing and
publicizing these programs can help cities boost the number of tech-minded
recruits. New dual-degree options, such as the University of Chicago’s
master’s in computational analysis and public policy (awarded jointly from
the Department of Computer Science and the Harris School of Public Policy),
provide a solid background in both areas and could be a great source of
talent for cities searching for the next generation of employees. Cities can
also turn inward and focus on developing the tech skills of their current
employees. For example, San Francisco’s Data Academy
offers a broad range of short technical classes to current government
employees, with the goal of helping them understand and incorporate data and
tech skills into their everyday work. These programs leverage the invaluable
years of experience employees have in their fields and help unlock hidden
potential with the addition of technology or data analysis.
But just attracting or developing new talent is not enough:
Technical skills are only useful if they intersect the work and catalyze the
imagination of a person who has substantial responsibilities. In order to
fully leverage these new skills, cities should distribute skilled workers
throughout government and empower them to work across departments, instead of
keeping them siloed in a solitary department. This can help ensure that
tech-minded employees are thought of as partners in building better
government. Building the new generation of public servants is essential to
allow governments to continue to evolve. New data and tech initiatives hold
great potential for local governments, but they can only succeed if cities
have well trained and motivated employees capable of running them.
From
http://www.govtech.com/
07/01/2016
TOP↑
US Govt to
Establish 5G Research
Cities
NSF pledges $400 million for advanced wireless research,
including project to set up four city-sized testbeds; mobile operators,
vendors and industry associations also involved. The U.S. government last
week unveiled a multi-million-dollar project to further the development of 5G technologies, including the
establishment of four city-sized testbeds for R&D. National Science
Foundation (NSF) has pledged to invest US$400 million over seven years to
support the government's Advanced Wireless Research Initiative (AWRI)
programme, including a spend of $50 million on 5G research platforms. Four of these Platforms for
Advanced Wireless Research (PAWR) will be set up under the project, each of
which will be the size of a small U.S. city, the NSF said. They
will be home to 5G
research in a number of areas, including dynamic mobile spectrum use,
millimetre wave (mmWave) spectrum, network architectures, and network
security and privacy.
In addition to the NSF's contribution, which will begin in
fiscal 2017, a further 20 companies and private-sector associations,
including equipment vendors, device makers and mobile operators, have
together committed to providing $35 million worth of cash and in-kind
donations for the construction of the research platforms. Each PAWR will
house a city-wide network of software-defined radio antenna designed to mimic
the existing cellular infrastructure in U.S. cities, the White House
announced on Friday. This will enable researchers, entrepreneurs and mobile
companies to test and refine their technologies and software in a real-world
setting, it said. The PAWRs will be backed by four U.S cities, which will be
selected via an open competition.
The government shared a series of announcements from private
sector companies regarding their involvement in the PAWRs. AT&T will
provide on-site mobile connectivity, while Verizon, Sprint and T-Mobile US
all said they will contribute technical expertise. Platform and equipment
solutions will also come from Carlson Wireless Technologies, CommScope, HTC,
Intel, InterDigital, Juniper Networks, Keysight Technologies, National
Instruments, Nokia and Bell Labs, Oracle, Qualcomm, Samsung, Shared Spectrum
and Viavi Solutions. The Alliance
for Telecommunications Industry Solutions (ATIS), CTIA and the
Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA) will also be involved. Under
the broader AWRI programme, the NSF said it will spend a further $350 million
on "fundamental research and at-scale testing and experimentation on
critical components of wireless technologies and policies." The
announcement comes in the wake of the Federal Communications Commission's
(FCC's) vote to free up 11 GHz of high-frequency spectrum for 5G services. "The Administration
expects the United States
to continue to spearhead future wireless innovations because of the FCC's
actions yesterday," the White House said.
From
http://www.totaltele.com/
07/18/2016
TOP↑
Rise of
Internet Economies Prompts Policy Rethink
The stream of innovative, internet-based services that are
revolutionizing business models and people’s lives are giving impetus to a
modernization of economic policy in the Asia-Pacific. It is urgently needed
to address governance gaps and support their development as drivers of new
growth that creates opportunities for all. Telecommunications and information
officials from the 21 APEC member economies laid the groundwork for action
during policy discussions with private sector representatives, which took
place in the Peruvian commercial hub of Tacna.
The focus is on seeding regulation and infrastructure compatible with
breakthroughs ranging from the rapid expansion of ride and room-sharing
services like Uber and Airbnb, to the impending arrival of driverless cars
into consumer markets. “Services innovations coming to market via the
internet and surging in popularity are exposing gaps in preparedness for
them,” said Andrey Mukhanov, Chair of the APEC Telecommunications and
Information Working Group, which administers regional initiatives to
facilitate industry development. “Existing policy regimes should be developed
in cooperation with the business sector to address the needs of society for
further growth of the internet, electronic and digital economy.”
“APEC and online services providers are working out the
regulatory and structural needs of the industry,” explained Mukhanov. “Our
objective is to establish enabling conditions for platforms that power
entrepreneurship and growth while addressing public health, safety and
privacy considerations associated with this progress.” Particular attention
is being directed towards sectors that are at the forefront of innovation in
the online space such as education, financial services, healthcare and transportation.
It contributes to implementation of the APEC Services Cooperation Framework
and Boracay Action Agenda to Globalize Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises
endorsed by APEC Leaders in 2015. “Disruptive innovation is opening up a host
of new policy challenges,” noted Wang Yue of China’s Ministry of Industry and
Information Technology, overseer of project work in APEC to address them.
“When it comes to sharing portals, for example, ownership, licensing and
liability are potential grey areas that may require a reexamination of
industry regulation.”
“APEC is leading regional efforts to build the technical
bandwidth of governments and business to keep up with changing industry
requirements,” Wang continued. “Understanding what the complexities are and
exchanging lessons on how to tackle them is an important first step towards
reducing digital divides between and within the region’s economies.”
Additional attention is on the impact of internet-based services on
conventional business practices and mitigating unintended economic and social
consequences through measures such as improvements in regulation and
supervision, resource allocation and safety nets. “The rise of internet
economies will continue to challenge traditional business models, labor requirements
and revenue streams,” concluded Volker Heistermann, Managing
Director of Yushan Ventures. “Collaboration in APEC is helping to guide
policy adaptation to optimize economic opportunities in the digital era while
insulating against growing pains.” Trade and industry officials will flesh
out complementary policy solutions during a cluster of technical APEC fora
meetings in Lima, Peru from 15-28 August.
From
http://www.apec.org/ 08/04/2016
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CHINA: Calls for Fairer Int'l Tax System
The G20 should lead a drive to improve international tax
governance, Chinese Finance Minister Lou Jiwei at a meeting of G20 finance
ministers and central bank governors in southwest China's
Chengdu City on Saturday. "The G20
should... support the development of a new international tax system which is
fair, equal, inclusive and organized," Lou said. The comments came in
the wake of the "Panama Papers" revelations about the scale of
offshore entities and tax avoidance by the wealthy worldwide. "The G20
countries may explore a more equal and rational international tax regime,
which will promote international coordination and cooperation in taxation,
and make greater contribution to achieve strong, sustainable and balanced
global economic growth," Lou said. With the impacts of the international
financial crisis still unfolding and the pace of economic recovery uneven
from country to country, "promoting strong, sustainable and balanced
growth remains the core agenda of the G20," according to China's
finance minister. Lou said tax policy needed to assume a more important role
in coordinating global economic rules when "the effectiveness of fiscal
and monetary policies is diminishing."
From http://www.news.cn/
07/20/2016
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China Plans Community Education
Network by 2020
China plans to
establish a national community education network by 2020 through 200
demonstration areas with exemplary practices and 600 others to test relevant
practices, the Ministry of Education (MOE) announced. Community education
should be richer in content and more diversified in its forms, and resident
participation and their approval of such schools should increase remarkably
in the next five years, according to a guideline to promote community
education issued by the MOE with other departments. The guideline also called
for better service capacity, pooling and sharing of educational resources. It
encouraged schools to offer community schooling by capitalizing on their existing
facilities, courses and teachers. Schools are required to open more resources
to the public, such as libraries, museums, gymnasiums and exhibition halls.
The guideline asked localities to establish a cost-sharing mechanism to raise
money for community education through government input, private endowment,
and tuition.
From http://www.news.cn/ 07/30/2016
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Foreign Tourists Violating Visa-free Policy
Since the implementation of the 144-hour visa free transit
policy on January 30, more than 15,000 foreign tourists have applied the
method to enter Shanghai
for a short stay until the end of July, according to the Shanghai General
Station of Immigration Inspection. More than 14,000 of the tourists took the
transit in Shanghai
Pudong International
Airport before flying
to another destination afterwards. However, some of the foreign tourists were
found violating the visa-free transit policy by returning to their origin
instead of following the regulation to take it as a transit for another
destination. Within the half year, more than 60 tourists have been punished
for fines or warnings as they didn't follow the policy to travel to another
destination. Some of them bought the return tickets directly and some
purchased both round trip and one-way ticket to a random destination but
tried to board the plane with the return ticket, as Shanghai General Station
of Immigration Inspection found out. A police officer from the Shanghai
General Station of Immigration Inspection suggested the foreign travelers
should follow the entry and exit regulation and apply the 144-hour visa-free
transit policy properly, otherwise they would face punishments and wouldn't
be benefit from the convenience further. In July 2015, a dozen of measures
were issued by the Ministry of Public Security to allow more expats to apply
for permanent residences, loosen the requirements for domestic talents to
process their entry and exit documents in Shanghai and come out a 144-hour visa-free
transit policy that provides foreign tourists and businessmen from 51
countries who arrive in Shanghai, Jiangsu province (Nanjing Lukou airport)
and Zhejiang province (Hangzhou Xiaoshan airport) with more flexibility and
convenience. Only those tourists who get on hold with valid dated traveling
tickets to a third country or region are applicable for the 144-hour
visa-free stay in the city.
From http://www.chinagate.cn/
08/11/2016
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JAPAN:
Strategies to Achieve ‘Dynamic Society’ Set
The government on Thursday adopted a set of key policy
guidelines and strategies designed to help boost Japan’s annual nominal gross
domestic product to ¥600 trillion and make the country a society that enables
dynamic engagement by all people. Formalized at the day’s Cabinet meeting
were new economic and fiscal policy guidelines, a program to realize a
dynamic society that includes support measures for child-rearing families,
and a new growth strategy. All these are de facto campaign promises by the
ruling bloc led by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s Liberal Democratic Party for
the triennial election for the House of Councillors on July 10. The economic
and fiscal policy guidelines stipulate that the consumption tax rate hike to
10 percent from 8 percent will be pushed back again, by two and a half years
to October 2019 from April 2017, after Abe announced the second deferment at
a press conference on Wednesday.
The Abe government in November 2014 decided to delay the
2-percentage-point increase by 18 months to April 2017 from the originally
planned October 2015, after economic uncertainties grew following the 3-point
consumption tax increase to 8 percent in April 2014 in the first of the two-stage
hike to double the rate. The guidelines say that the government firmly
adheres to its target of turning around the combined primary budget balance
at the central and local governments to a surplus in fiscal 2020. But the
guidelines failed to mention how the government will secure alternative
financial resources to implement policies following the revenue shortfalls
set to arise from the additional postponement of the tax hike. The Abe
administration could thus likely face criticism from the opposition camp. A
primary budget surplus means that central and local government revenue other
than that from bond issues exceeds outlays excluding debt-servicing costs.
The guidelines call for attaining a virtuous cycle of growth and
distribution, and sustainable growth of the Japanese economy, by realizing
the ¥600 trillion GDP, a desired fertility rate of 1.8 by fiscal 2025 and a
reduction in the number of people who leave their jobs to take care of their
aged parents or other relatives to zero also by fiscal 2025, which are the
new “three arrows” of the prime minister’s economic policy mix, dubbed
Abenomics.
The government aims to bolster tax revenue on the back of
economic expansion to be realized through the implementation of measures
included in the new growth strategy, hoping to use the money for steps to
create the envisioned dynamic society. To shore up the economy, the
government plans to compile a stimulus package in autumn this year. The
government is considering using its “zaito” fiscal investment and loan
program for a project to extend the planned magnetic levitation, or maglev,
high-speed train service between Tokyo and Nagoya, central Japan,
to the western city of Osaka.
At a joint meeting of the Council on Economic and Fiscal Policy, and the
Industrial Competitiveness Council earlier on Thursday, Abe said, “We need to
operate Abenomics at full throttle.” The program to bring about a dynamic
society calls for, among other things, raising nursery capacities in the
country by 500,000 by the March 2018 end of fiscal 2017 in an effort to reduce the number
of children on nursery waiting lists to zero.
It also cites the need to increase wages of nursery teachers
effectively by 2 percent and monthly pay of care workers for elderly people
by ¥10,000 in order to
increase these workers, while urging the government to draw up by fiscal 2018
guidelines on achieving equal pay for equal work. Meanwhile, a centerpiece in
the new growth strategy is the promotion of a so-called fourth industrial
revolution aimed at boosting productivity with the use of new technologies
such as the Internet of Things and artificial intelligence. The government
plans to set up as early as this summer a public-private council as the
control tower for the new industrial revolution. The government will push
ahead with structural reforms utilizing special designated zones and also
consider easing the criteria for obtaining permanent residency status in Japan for
foreigners with advanced skills. At Thursday’s Cabinet meeting, the
government also adopted a roadmap on implementing regulatory reform measures,
such as the promotion of the “minpaku” services that make vacant rooms at
private homes available as accommodations for travelers, including
foreigners.
From
http://the-japan-news.com
06/03/2016
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Online
Paperwork for Foreign Residents Planned
The Justice Ministry plans to revise its ministerial ordinance
to make it possible for procedures regarding the residence status (see below)
of some foreigners to be completed online, according to sources. The
envisaged measure is aimed at easing the burden on foreign residents and the
Immigration Bureau, and the ministry intends to implement the new system from
fiscal 2018. The Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Law stipulates
that foreigners who want to renew their period of stay or change their status
of residence are, in principle, required to complete an application, in
person, at an Immigration Bureau office. Exceptions are stipulated in the
existing ordinance, and ministry officials are making arrangements to include
new rules to allow internet applications, the sources said. If internet
applications are approved, some foreigners will no longer need to visit
Immigration Bureau offices. The ministry plans to develop a system that can
reject incomplete applications. This will ease the burden on staff at the
Immigration Bureau by reducing clerical tasks, such as confirming the
accuracy of applications.
Excluding students, temporary visitors and some others, foreign
residents who work at listed companies or public organizations do not need to
submit many documents when they apply for an extension to their period of
stay as it is relatively easier to confirm the identity of these applicants.
The ministry hopes to target the new system at this group of foreign
residents, but has yet to confirm details regarding eligibility. With regard
to identity confirmation, the ministry intends to provide applicants with an
online ID or password and considers it an urgent task to adopt appropriate
security measures to prevent fraudulent applications. The government
certifies foreigners’ period of stay, status and activities in Japan based
on the Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Law. There are 27 types of
status such as “highly skilled professional,” “student” and “permanent
resident.” Procedures exist for changing status, period-of-stay renewals and
others. The number of foreigners living in Japan for three months or more
with residence status stood at 2,232,189 at the end of 2015.
From
http://the-japan-news.com
08/21/2016
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SOUTH KOREA: Gov't in Campaign for Digital Theme Park
The South Korean government said Thursday it will open a virtual
reality experience center this week in Pangyo, the nation's mecca for the
high-tech industry. The move is part of efforts to create a boom for indoor
digital theme parks, according to the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future
Planning. The ministry is tasked with implementing President Park Geun-hye's
"creative economy" drive to foster start-ups and promote a new
growth model based on innovation and entrepreneurship. It plans to open the
VR studio in Alpha Dome City,
a landmark shopping mall in Pangyo, Gyeonggi Province,
on Friday. Located just south of Seoul, Pangyo
is South Korea's answer to
Silicon Valley. Newly-developed VR content
will be put on display on available headsets, enabling gamers to take part in
various VR programs from air gliders to golf lessons and makeup experiences.
"The experience center will be operated for about one month," the
ministry said. "It's designed to enhance public understanding about VR
content and create a boom for indoor VR theme parks."
From
http://www.koreaherald.com
06/02/2016
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Gov't
Launches K-ICT 2020 Project
South
Korea made public a
five-year master plan on Thursday aimed at developing the country as a global
power in the information security industry. Under the "K-ICT 2020"
project, the government will focus on "globalizing" its
cybersecurity and other information protection technology. In the face of North Korea's cyber threats, South Korea
has continued efforts to fortify its cyber environment. But it has much to be
desired to enhance the global competitiveness of the infosecurity sector,
which is regarded as a new growth engine. "A robust 'information
protection industry' is a must to become the world's top cybersecurity
power," Choi Yang-hee, minister of science, ICT and future planning,
said. "A turning point to innovate the paradigm of South Korea's
information security has been made with the establishment of the strategy
this time."
He added the government will expand investment in the field in order to turn
it into a fresh "blue ocean" in South Korea's "creative
economy" drive. The government plans to promote startups and
international cooperation. It aims to increase the export volume of information
security-related programs and equipment from the current 1.6 trillion won
($1.3 billion) to 4.5 trillion won by 2020. "We will push for the
K-Security brand worldwide, breaking the market structure centered on
domestic demand," the ministry said. "More than 19,000 (relevant)
jobs are expected to be created by 2020." Four primary markets are Tanzania in Africa, Oman
in the Middle East, Indonesia
in Southeast Asia and Costa Rica
in Latin America, it added. South Korea
is taking the initiative to create the Cybersecurity Alliance for Mutual
Progress, a global partnership for cybersecurity. It is scheduled to be
launched next month involving two dozen nations.
From
http://www.koreaherald.com/
06/09/2016
TOP↑
ICT Minister
to Publicize 'Creative Economy' in OECD Session
South
Korea's minister on ICT
policy will brief the international community this week on the nation's
digital vision and its efforts to foster a "creative economy," his
ministry said Monday. Choi Yang-hee, minister of science, ICT and future
planning, is scheduled to attend an OECD Ministerial Meeting on the Digital
Economy, and deliver a speech. Under the theme of "Innovation, Growth
and Social Prosperity," it will open in Cancun, Mexico,
on Wednesday for a two-day run. The upcoming session will be the third of its
kind. The previous one was held in Seoul
in 2008. This year South Korea
is among vice-chair countries, along with Canada,
France, the United States
and the European Union. Choi will serve as a moderator in a discussion on the
Internet of Things. He also plans to introduce the government's campaign to
promote digital startups in partnership with the civil sector as a driving
force for innovation, the ministry said. The minister is due to hold several
bilateral meetings with his counterparts from other OECD member states, as
well as Houlin Zhao, secretary general of the International Telecommunication
Union, and Andrus Ansip, the European Commission's vice president for the
Digital Single Market.
From
http://www.koreaherald.com
06/20/2016
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President
Calls for More Data, More Jobs
President Park Geun-hye vowed that, “My government will do all
we can to open up data assets that the public really needs, to create more
new jobs and to encourage more startups. We will do our best so that our
creative industries can bear abundant fruit.” Her remarks came during the
opening ceremony of the Government 3.0 Expo underway at the COEX convention
center in Seoul
on June 20. The president said that, “The ultimate goal of all efforts that
we have made, to bring about any form of innovation, is to make Korea
a country where the people are happy.” “When my Government 3.0
initiative begins to get deep into the people’s lives and situates itself as
a sound pillar for their existence, I believe that a real renovation, one
that can be practical and helpful, will come to us,” she said, referring to
her government's initiative to individualize public services and to share
government-collected data.
“We will create a system in which we can provide necessary services to
individuals and get them tailored to each person’s different growth stages,
so that the services can be used more easily as one-stop services,” the
president said. She said that she vows to make the way in which the
government works “smarter than ever before” by taking advantage of brand-new
technologies, such as the Internet of Things (IoT), cloud computing, big data
and mobile technology. “The openness of public information and data that the
government currently owns can be combined with the creative ideas that people
come up with, which, in turn, can create new services and new businesses,” said
President Park. “We’ve so far released 15 types
of government-owned data and, as a result, it's expected to bring about more
than KRW 1.3 trillion worth of socioeconomic effects.” The president said
that she had seen some changes being made over recent years in the way in
which government employees work, saying that these
were “changes through which people lean toward tearing down partitions and
get closer to each other for a better understanding and for better
communication.”
She pointed out the good results that “closer-than-ever” government employees
could achieve by more closely and cooperatively working together, such as the
“Safe Inheritance One Stop Service” and the “Happy Childbirth One Stop
Service,” two recent government services. The president also said that, “In
the past, people had to visit as many as seven different organizations to
finalize inheritance procedures. Since having been adopted, however, the
‘Safe Inheritance One Stop Service’ has served as a one-stop platform for all
the necessary procedures. Also, with our ‘Happy Childbirth One Stop Service’
having come into effect, parents can now enjoy all
types of childbirth support services with a single application form.”
Finally, the president concluded by saying that, “Hopefully, representatives
from both central and provincial government bodies, and other public
organizations, will further cooperate and collect their thoughts so as to
make all these 'Government 3.0' changes become of great service to the
people.”
From
http://www.korea.net
06/20/2016
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Park Hosts
Panel Session on Science and Technology Strategy
President Park Geun-hye on Wednesday presided over a national
science and technology strategy session to discuss future growth dynamos and
ways to breathe fresh life into the country's economy. During the session
that followed the inaugural one in May, the panel selected nine strategic
projects aimed at securing the nation's new growth engines and enhancing the quality
of life for the general populace. The panel designated autonomous vehicles,
light materials, the smart city model, artificial intelligence and virtual
reality as the sectors for future growth, while choosing fine dust, carbon
resources, precision medicine and new drugs as the sectors for the improved
quality of life. Park stressed that South Korea would foster these
sectors through close public-private cooperation. The conference was
held as the Seoul
government is striving to cope with the fast-paced industrial transformation,
dubbed the "fourth industrial revolution" characterized by a fusion
of cutting-edge technologies, such as big data and the Internet of Things.
"Ahead of the sea of change in the global market, which is being
triggered by the fourth industrial revolution, what is at stake is national
competitiveness and jobs for young people," the chief executive said
during the session, which was attended by some 40 senior government
officials, leading experts and scholars. "With this in mind, I cannot
just sit back and relax." In the era of the new normals represented by
"low growth, low prices, low interest rates," South Korea
should take prompt, timely steps to enhance its national competitiveness, the
chief executive emphazied. Park has promoted her "creative economy"
drive as the only way the country can tackle myriad challenges arising from
the emergence of the fourth industrial revolution. The creative economy
refers to Park's core policy initiative that aims to capitalize on innovative
ideas and technologies, such as ICT, to generate new business opportunities,
create jobs and spur growth.
From
http://www.koreaherald.com
08/10/2016
TOP↑
Strict
Regulations Hinder Big Data Growth
The growth of South
Korea’s big data industry is being
hampered by strict regulations on personal data and lack of understanding of
the technology, industry analysts say. The global big data market, which is
expected to stand at around $27.3 billion this year, will more than triple by
2026, according to market research firm Statista. However, tech-savvy Korea is
still far behind in this industry. The local big data market was worth around
262 billion won ($239 million) last year and companies’ adoption rate of the
technology was less than 5 percent, according to the state-run National
Information Society Agency.Strong regulations on the use of personal data is
cited as a key reason for the slow growth, experts said. “Since big data
became a buzzword in around 2010, there have been a series of information
leaks at banks and financial institutions. The data spills have made
regulations stricter and the public shun offering information,” Park
Jae-hyung, an analyst from KT research and economic institute, told The Korea
Herald. Growing concerns about personal data leaks have made it difficult for
companies to even use unidentified information for analysis, he added.
Last year, only 9.6 percent of Korean companies -- with more than 100 billion
won in sales -- adopted big data systems, according to a survey by the ICT
Ministry. More than 65 percent of the companies said they did not even
discuss adoption of the technology. “Korea’s regulations
on using data is stricter than advanced countries. To grow the big
data industry, the government should shift its policy from regulating data
usage to strengthening data security or holding companies more accountable
when data is leaked,” said Lee Sung-ho, an analyst from Science and
Technology Policy Institute’s future research center. Companies should also
change their perception of big data technologies, experts said. “Company
chiefs and management have a misperception about big data technologies. Many
of them view big data as a decision-making tool so they do not adopt the
system in the first place and rely more on their feelings,” said Lee
Sang-won, a professor of Wonkwang
University’s
information and e-commerce college.
“However, big data is not a decision-making tool, it
is a good reference tool to help their decision-making more accurate, he
added. Alongside the private sector, the government should also push to take
advantage of big data technologies in the public sector. Although the
government has been seeking open administration inspired by the big data boom,
few projects appear to have made achievements yet. The night bus operating
system made in collaboration with KT and Seoul government is one of the only few
examples. The reason behind this is that government officials are not
well-trained in the technologies and have no proper guidelines so that they
just use random data and figures, said Cho Wan-sup, an information security
management professor at Chungbuk
National University.
“In order to improve the utilization of big data in the public sector, there should
be proper guidelines about data filtering and security issues, and the
training of government officials,” he added.
From
http://www.koreaherald.com
08/11/2016
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THAILAND: Govt ‘Pivotal’ to Innovative Society
IF SINGAPORE’S
experience counts, Thailand
needs three things to achieve its goal of boosting the Kingdom’s research and
development activities. At a Bangkok Bank-hosted event on Monday evening,
Professor Arnoud De Meyer, president of Singapore Management
University, said the
island state's government showed total commitment towards innovation.
Moreover, the environment - particularly strong intellectual-property
protection and financial facilities - encourages private companies to act
quickly when it comes to innovation, while the third element is the country's
goal to be an advanced economy, he said. "Singapore has chosen to be a
high-cost country, so its citizens have a high quality of life. In this
regard, there are risks of losing out, so it must be more innovative," De
Meyer said. "Southeast Asia as a whole needs to move up in the value
chain, with rising competition from China,
India and even Africa. It needs to avoid the middle-income trap."
At the event, Science and Technology Minister Pichet Durongkaveroj reiterated
Thailand's
political will to improve innovation.
Addressing an audience that included Singaporean executives in Thailand, he
said tax incentives were in place to lure R&D activities, while the
"Talent Mobility" scheme - which frees researchers from academic
work in order to assist private companies - was currently improving the
environment for R&D and innovation. With the overall goal of pushing
national R&D spending to 0.8 per cent of gross domestic product this year
from 0.48 per cent in 2015, the minister urged the private sector to take the
lead. According to Professor Low Teck Seng, chief executive officer of the Singapore's
National Research Foundation, the city-state has invested hugely and
relentlessly in its bid to lead the global innovation stage. Chaired by the
prime minister and having health, education and trade and investment
ministers as board members, the NRF was set up in 1990 to be the main vehicle
in pursuing this target. Between 1991, when the "National Technology
Plan" was implemented, and 2015, the agency spent 42 billion Singapore
dollars (about Bt1.09 trillion at the current exchange rate) on funding
strategic initiatives and building up R&D capabilities by nurturing
research talent, he said.
Human capital was highlighted during this period, and a network
of the top 10 universities in the world with Singapore's universities and
academic organisations was created. These talents are hooked up with the
private business world, through consortia in selected industries such as
aerospace, spintronics and medical technology, Low said. There are schemes
where one company can work with a particular university, one university with
many companies, and many companies with many universities. Without
collaboration, the universities would be left out of the NRF's funding, the
foundation's CEO explained. "We encourage all to work together,
something that is called value capture in Singapore," he said. In
January, Singapore's
prime minister, Lee Hsien Loong, unveiled a
S$19-billion government plan to support the country's R&D efforts between
this year and 2020, equivalent to 1 per cent of GDP. This investment is aimed
at capitalising on technology the country already has, in order to seek
solutions to today's challenges like water, energy, ageing and mobility -
technology that can be offered to cities worldwide.
"Whatever we put in, it should benefit the citizens of Singapore and address where Singapore's
next investment will come from," Low said, adding, "Clearly, we
have a long way to go." Singapore
was ranked seventh in business school Insead's latest Global Innovation
Index, released in 2015, and first for "innovation input". However,
Low is convinced the country has a lot more to do, given that it was ranked
20th for "innovation output" and 100th for "innovation
efficiency". "We realise R&D is a key pillar for driving
economic growth. We clearly see science and technology is driving the next
phase of growth," he said, noting that the nation's GDP growth and
R&D spending had grown almost in parallel in the past. "We're
concerned that we won't invest as much [as required] for the next
stage," he told Monday's audience. Impressed with Singapore's success, Pichet said Thailand was
currently in a "soul-searching" process to find its focus. At the
event, Bangkok Bank president Chartsiri Sophonpanich unveiled the bank's
partnership with Singapore Management University
to drive innovation in Thailand.
In his speech, he said innovation mattered more to the world amid challenges
from urbanisation, globalisation and digitisation.
From
http://www.nationmultimedia.com/
07/13/2016
TOP↑
National
Research Council Unveils Strategy to Boost R&D
THE NATIONAL Research Council of Thailand (NRCT) recently
unveiled the ninth edition of its strategy and policy for Thailand’s
development, which will be implemented from 2017 to 2021 along with the
20-year National Development Strategy (2017-36). The new plan will aim to
promote more research and development by focusing on infrastructure
development, developing human resources in research, and encouraging
private-sector participation in research. Sukunya Theerakullert,
secretary-general of the NRCT, said every country had to use research for national
development. Research and innovation could be utilised for national and
commercial benefit. Innovation has influence on the country's development as
new technology could be developed and create smart citizens. "Under the
government's … 20-year National Development Policy, Thailand is
aimed towards being a country based on stability, prosperity and
sustainability. To achieve that goal, Thailand needs to step away from
the middle-income trap, and research and innovation could be an answer to
help the country's development," she said. The strategy aims to increase
research spending to at least 1-1.5 per cent of gross domestic product, while
doubling the number of researchers to 25 per 10,000 citizens. Currently,
spending on R&D in Thailand
is only 0.48 per cent of GDP. The country is behind Malaysia, which has 19 researchers per 10,000
citizens, while Thailand
has only 12.9. The strategy will take action in many forms such as the
"Training for the Trainer" project, granting scholarships for
students in both undergraduate and vocational programmes to become
researchers, inspiring innovation contests, and setting up learning centres
for researchers not only in Bangkok
but also other large cities.
Expos
Another plan is to setup a research
expos as showcases for new research work and innovation so that they can be
developed for commercialisation and the benefit of the country. To enhance
research, every sector needs to participate. Research should also be able to utilised in real life. This strategy will encourage more
private enterprises to support research work. Sukunya said the private sector
needed to invest more on R&D. Overseas, private enterprise invests
anywhere from 30 to 70 per cent more than the government sector on research
work, but in Thailand, the government invests about 60 per cent of the total.
The NRCT wants to get the public-private investment ratio to 50:50 in the near future. In developed
countries, most private enterprises invest in their own research so that they
can utilise the results for commercialisation. Thailand will also encourage more
private enterprises to do more research and innovation for the benefit of the
economy, she said. The "Thailand Research Expo" will take place
from August 17 to 21 at Centara Grand and Bangkok
Convention Center, CentralWorld, Bangkok.
From
http://www.nationmultimedia.com/
08/09/2016
TOP↑
VIETNAM: New Industrial Revolution Will Be
Digitally-Centered
Việt Nam
should strengthen market-based reforms and invest in education and training
in order to take advantage of opportunities arising from the next
digitalisation-driven production revolution, experts have said. At the
workshop, “The Next Production Revolution and its policy implications”
jointly held by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Organisation for
Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), yesterday in Hà Nội, experts
said that the world was on the brink of the next production revolution with
profound technological breakthroughs, while Việt Nam was embarking on the new
stage of development and integration with accelerated industrialisation from
2016 to 2020. Besides opportunities, the next production revolution posed
challenges to Việt Nam
particularly the challenge of further lagging behind, according to the
experts. It is time for policy-makers in Việt Nam to acquire a better
understanding of the digital revolution to make the best of the revolution’s
opportunities in its early stages and to speed up industrialisation and
modernisation, experts at the OECD said. They were optimistic that Việt Nam
would turn into a high-income country in the next four decades.
Deputy minister of Foreign Affairs Bùi Thanh Sơn said that
innovative thinking was critical for Việt Nam to move forward while the
country was losing its competitiveness in low-cost labour. Trần Đình Thiên, director of Việt Nam Institute of
Economics, said Việt Nam
signed free trade agreements with the world’s giant economies such as the
European Union, Korea and
the US.
“Amidst rapid integration coupled with the approaching next production
revolution, if Việt Nam
went on the right path, the country could take a giant leap,” Thiên said.
Kensuke Tanaka, head of the OECD Development Centre’s Asia Desk, said at the
conference that strengthening market-based reforms, SOE reforms and reforms
to education and training to meet demand for skilled labour were essential.
OECD, on its website, says that the spread of global value chains, the increasing
importance and mainstreaming of knowledge-based capital, and the rise of the
digital economy, are ushering in the “next production revolution”. However, a
number of policy challenges must be tackled to enable the next production
revolution, the website says. The world went through three industrial
revolutions, according to the World Economic Forum. The first was in 1784
using water and steam power to mechanise production. The second was in 1870
using electric power to create mass production, and the third took place in
1969 using electronics and information technology to automate production. Now
a digital revolution was in the making.
Education reform
Investing in education and training was now the clear choice for
Việt Nam
to be able to grasp opportunities from the next production revolution, the
OECD experts said at the conference. Alistair Nolan, senior policy analyst at
the OECD’s Directorate for Science, Technology and Innovation said that as
the digital revolution and globalisation were bringing radical changes to the
world of work, education and training systems need constant attention. It was
also important to improve the link between supply and demand in the labour
market, which was a key factor for success, the experts stressed.
From
http://vietnamnews.vn/
06/17/2016
TOP↑
City’s Plan
for ’Smart’ Health System Advancing
A project to create an intelligent health system for HCM City
will be submitted to the People’s Committee next month, Lê Thái Hỷ, head of
the city Department of Information and Communication has said. Speaking at
the 2016 Việt Nam ICT Outlook conference held by the HCM City Computer
Association yesterday, he said details of the project would be published in
the media to gather opinions from IT companies, health facilities and the
public. He sought policy assistance from the Government to carry out the
project, the first of its kind in the country. Dr Tăng Chí Thượng, deputy head of the city Department of
Health, said his department is working with DoIC to establish a common data
centre for the health sector by next year. A year later comprehensive IT
infrastructure would be set up for the healthcare sector meeting the needs of
all health facilities in the city, he said. In recent years the department
has been urging health facilities as well as managers of the healthcare
sector to use IT to provide better services to patients, he said. “But the IT
application remains limited. IT infrastructure at health facilities only meets
basic needs. Information safety still does not get sufficient attention.”
Software and databases used at health facilities are not
identical, leading to difficulties in exchanging information with each other,
according to the official. A recently completed study of IT use at 92
hospitals, 24 preventive health centres and 319 other health centres in the
city found a shortage of servers and computers at district-level facilities,
he said. Ten hospitals were yet to use hospital management software, and 92
per cent of health centres did not use software for management of diagnosis
and treatment, he said. Insufficient funds and human resources were major
barriers to using IT, he said. Of 92 hospitals surveyed, only 73 have
specialist IT staff, he added. Phí Anh Tuấn, vice chairman of the HCM City
Computer Association, suggested that the Department of Health should
encourage health facilities to take advantage of cloud computing to overcome
the resource shortage. The facilities should change their mindset and lease
infrastructure, software and services rather than buy them, he said. The
Government should have clearer regulations to enable this, he added. Lê Mạnh
Hà, general secretary of the National Committee on IT Application, said every
hospital should take the initiative to use IT to improve their efficiency.
The 2016 Việt Nam ICT Outlook Conference also featured solutions developed by
companies like Lạc Việt Computing Corp, Microsoft, Panasonic and others.
From
http://vietnamnews.vn/ 06/25/2016
TOP↑
4G to Be Licensed in the Third Quarter of 2016
Minister of Information and Communications Trương Minh Tuấn
urged enterprises to send recent reports on 4G testing results as the Government had policies to
accelerate the licensing for 4G
this year. The Ministry of Information and Communications (MIC) held a review
meeting for the first half of this year early this week. Previously, many
enterprises and localities have proposed to the ministry to grant 4G licence soon as the technology is a
foundation for cities and provinces to implement e-Government, Internet of
Things (IoT) and modern information systems. Three Vietnamese
telecommunication giants including Viettel, VNPT and MobiFone have piloted
the technology. The pilot is expected to end on October 23. However, due to
actual needs, the Việt Nam Telecommunication Authority (VNTA) under MIC has
asked companies to send testing reports earlier. Therefore, the department
will co-operate with enterprises to evaluate quality and then give
instruction for enterprises to complete documents for licenses. Also at the
meeting, the ministry reported that the revenue of the Vietnamese
telecommunications sector was VNĐ93.5
trillion in the first six months of this year. There were 84 million 2G subscriptions in total nationwide by
the end of June, and 38 million 3G
subscriptions. According to statistics from the Ministry of Information and
Communications, the number of 2G
subscriptions has decreased while the number of 3G subscriptions saw continuous growth. The ministry
also reported that the total number of “.vn” domain names is 366,000.
Meanwhile, there are 40,000 newly-registered Vietnamese domain names,
bringing the total number of Vietnamese domain names to 900,000. In the first
five months of this year, the export revenue of telephones and components
reached $14.3 billion, increasing by 19 per cent. Export revenue of
electronics, computers and components hit $6.38 billion in the first five
months, up 6 per cent year-on-year.
From
http://vietnamnews.vn/
07/16/2016
TOP↑
CÁT Hải to
Become "Smart
Island"
The Hải Phòng Port
City management authority and Hải
Phòng Economic Zone Authority (HEZA) has announced a detailed master plan
making Cát Hải Island
a smart island. According to the plan released on Friday, the total area will
be 5,007ha, comprising
2,650ha of Cát Hải
Island, with the
remaining 2,357ha
being earmarked for the Hải Phòng international gateway port and a non-tariff
area. A representative of Nikken Sekkei Civil Engineering Company, the
consultancy contractor, said a part of the Đình Vũ-Cát Hải Economic Zone would become an industrial
city, with large logistics systems playing an important role in boosting
northern logistics development, and maximising the advantages of the Lạch Huyện
international gateway port. “The planning of Cát Hải Island is based on the triple bottom
line principle, ensuring a balance between society, economy and the
environment, leading towards sustainable development,” he said. The land for
industrial production will cover 28 per cent of Cát Hải Island’s total area. The remaining
area will be used for logistics development, spread along Tân Vũ-Lạch Huyện
highway and port area, as well as social building, such as hospitals,
schools, parks and resort. Activities on the island will aim to save energy,
conserve the ecosystem and maintain systemic circulation. The island will
also be a comfortable living space, suitable for relaxation. The traditional
fishing village will continue to be maintained and developed.
Nikken Sekkei aims to provide a comfortable life to the
residents, while ensuring an eco-friendly work environment. The
infrastructure system, particularly of transport, will be built
simultaneously to ensure the best connections between Tân Vũ-Lạch Huyện Highway and Lạch Huyện
Port, along with rebuilding of the
road and bridge connecting Quang Ninh-Lạch Huyện, and a rail system linking Lạch Huyện
Port to Đình Vũ station, connected with the national
railway network. The plan will be implemented in four phases, from 2017 to
2030 and after 2030. “Cát
Hải Island
has great potential to attract investors. In addition, the island is part of
the economic coastal zone, making it very appealing to investors,” Đỗ Trung Thoại, head of HEZA, said. Thoại said
the city has attracted more than US$2 billion in foreign direct investment so
far this year. There will be two major investment projects in the Đình Vũ-Cát Hải economic zone, with a total
investment of more than $1 billion. He expected the announcement of the
detailed Cát Hải Island
master plan to be a highlight, helping the city, particularly Cát Hải, to
further attract investors. One of the most successful investors is the Rent A
Port Group, the developer of Đình Vũ
Industrial Zone (DVIZ). At the end of 2015, the group decided to expand and
invest in three more IZs, covering a combined area of 2,000ha. The work includes expansion of the Đình Vũ IZ, and building of the 650ha Deep C IZ, 500ha Deep C III IZ in Cát Hải Island and Tien Phong IZ in Quang Ninh
Province. Total
investment in the projects will be about $800 million. The Deep C III IZ is
in the stage of finalising a legal setup for detailed planning and site
clearance. The large project is for the city and country too, focusing on the
most important region of the Đình Vũ - Cát
Hải Economic Zone. This project is expected to be a breakthrough for the
development of the Đình Vũ - Cát
Hải Economic Zone in the future.
From
http://vietnamnews.vn/
08/08/2016
TOP↑
VN Needs to
Accelerate Deployment of 4G
LTE Tech
The time is ripe to deploy a 4G LTE network in Việt Nam and this can not be
delayed, said former deputy minister of Information and Communications Lê Nam
Thắng. Thắng made the comment at the 4G
LTE International Conference and Expo 2016, themed “Leveraging 4G Long-term Evolution (LTE) potentials
and enhancing business efficiency and customer experience in the age of IoT”
held yesterday in Hà Nội. The seminar aimed to discuss opportunities and
obstacles in establishing 4G
networks in Việt Nam Speaking at the seminar, Thắng said the deployment of 4G LTE technology would boost the
development of broadband infrastructure. He noted that a World Bank study on
the relationship between broadband and economic growth concluded that a 10
percentage point increase in fixed broadband penetration would increase GDP
growth by 1.21 per cent in developed economies and 1.38 per cent in
developing ones. Mobile broadband only covers about 30 per cent of the
population. "We need to accelerate the development of broadband
infrastructure, especially 4G
technology,” Thắng said, noting that according to
International Telecommunication Union (ITU) standards, the speed of the 4G network will be similar to fixed
copper cable networks.
Concerning the speed of 4G
networks, Thắng told participants that there had long been debates about the technology’s
speed. Thắng said standards for 4G
LTE networks were set by ITU in 2012 and Việt Nam has yet to have its network
recognised by the ITU. Thắng said by August 2015 that 10 per cent of internet
users worldwide used and in 2016, this ratio reached over 12 per cent. Việt Nam has had 3G for seven years and 3G speed is limited, failing to meet
the demands of users in big cities. To use e-government and e-office systems
users need to get new technology with higher speeds. Phan Tâm, deputy
minister of Information and Communications (MIC) said according to a report
of the Global Mobile Suppliers Association (GSA), LTE continued to grow
faster than any other mobile communications system technology. GSA also
confirmed that global LTE subscriptions doubled in the past year to reach
1.29 billion in Q1 2016. Currently, the 3G
network has nationwide coverage, and the ministry has granted permission for
testing the 4G LTE
network. Three big network providers including Viettel, Mobifone and VNPT
have been testing and finishing procedures applying for 4G utilisation.
Tâm said the Vietnamese Government wanted to help
entrepreneurships and start-up businesses to develop new technologies by
using 4G and the Internet of
Things to enhance the country’s competitiveness. Tâm said the 4G network would open up new
opportunities for small- and medium-sized businesses. Trần Tuấn Anh. head of Policy and Planning Department, Telecommunications
Authority said after deploying 4G
services, network providers must boost user numbers and provide content
services in combination with partners. Anh said that investment in 4G technology needed to meet the demand
of the whole society and investors should ensure service quality. Mantosh
Malhotra, regional head, Southeast Asia, Qualcomm Technologies Inc said that
Việt Nam was late in deploying 4G
in comparison with other countries, but more importantly, Việt Nam must
deploy it effectively. He said Việt Nam now accounted for 15 per cent
of global smartphone exports and had advantages in producing phones.
According to Nguyễn Đức Trung,
director of Telecommunications Authority, 4G trial licences granted to network providers,
would expire on October 23 this year. The authority required them to report
results. As planned, by the end of the third quarter or early fourth quarter
of 2016, the MIC will officially grant licence to deploy 4G networks.
From
http://vietnamnews.vn/
08/19/2016
TOP↑
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BANGLADESH: New Law in the Offing to Curb Cyber Crime
Law Minister Anisul Haque has informed that the government is
going to enact a new law and amend the ‘ICT Act 2006’ to curb cyber crime.“Cyber crime has increased at present than any other time
in past. So, there is no alternative to enact a new law to contain the crime.
Controlling digital crime can’t be possible using old law,” said the minister
at a roundtable organized by Article 19 at a city hotel.
From
http://newsfrombangladesh.ne 06/27/2016
TOP↑
INDIA: Government to Roll-Out Digital Locker for Aadhar Card Holders
BENGALURU: The Central Government is all set to roll out digital
locker system for everyone soon. The flagship scheme under Prime Minister’s ambitious
Digital India initiative, Digital Locker offers citizens a shareable private
space on a cloud and making all documents/certificates available online for
its users. With a focus on paperless governance, DigiLocker System provides
issuance and verification of documents and certificates in a digital way to
eliminate the use of papers. Users will get a dedicated cloud storage space
linked with their Aadhaar Card number after signing up to the online portal.
Government officials can directly upload electronic copies of documents and
certificates such as driving license, voter ID and school certificate to the
user’s locker. Users can access their digital documents anytime,
anywhere and share it online. It reduces the administrative overhead of Government
departments and also minimizes the use of paper. Digital Locker makes it
easier to validate the authenticity of documents as they are issued directly
by the government registered issuers.
The Aadhaar-linked DigiLocker will allow people to safe-keep
their documents related to address, identity, education and property in a
paperless format in the repository's free storage space. The cloud-based
system will enable people and agencies to push these documents into the
locker and share them electronically. The move has already been integrated in
some districts of Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana and is about to
complete in a number of districts like Himachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and
Haryana. Some trusted sources have told The Indian Express that the
process will be initiated by next month which will allow the users to keep
their documents on his/her name listed with UIDAI (Aadhaar Card).
From
http://www.siliconindia.com 05/24/2016
TOP↑
Govt to Launch DBT Portal on Aug 1;
States Told to Set Up DBT Cells
The government is all
set to launch a dedicated Direct Benefit Transfers (DBT) portal on August 1.
The move comes as part of the Central Government’s efforts to strengthen the
DBT mission. The portal will serve as a platform that will help the
authorities concerned to access data on various welfare schemes and provide
real-time feedback and updates. DBT cells have also been started in states
like UP, Punjab, Jharkhand, Bihar, Gujarat, Maharashtra,
Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan. Besides, all the
seven union territories as well as some 70 central government departments
have also opened DBT cells. Encouraged by Rs 28,000 crore savings through DBT
programme in the last two financial years, the Narendra Modi Government has
asked the remaining states to set up their own DBT Cells to make the process
of delivering benefits more efficient. “The Centre has appealed to all states
to do so, since it is they which implement the schemes and are the ‘real
interface for the beneficiaries’,” the Cabinet Secretariat has said in a
letter to all the Chief Secretaries. In 2015-16, over 30,000 crore
beneficiaries received over Rs 61,000 crore through DBT under 66 schemes.
“Now, an ambitious target of ensuring that all central sector and
centrally-sponsored welfare and subsidy schemes are brought within the
purview of DBT by March 2017, has been set. This requires bringing in a new
mechanism, reengineering of government processes. A coordinated effort
between Centre and States will enable faster decision-making, eliminate
duplication of efforts and smoothen out differences, if any, to foster an
easier transition of schemes on DBT,” the letter reads. The central
ministries will also be setting up internal DBT cells, which will deal with
various DBT cells across the states. The matter is scheduled to be discussed
at a national DBT conference slated for July 22 in the national capital.
From
http://egov.eletsonline.com 07/24/2016
TOP↑
Jharkhand Ready
with IT & ITES Draft
Policy
for 2016-21
The Jharkhand government is ready with the draft of its new IT and
IT-enabled services (ITES) policy for 2016-21, which if approved, will pave
way for more investments, provide job opportunities and bolster e-governance
in the state. The draft policy will also incorporate suggestions given by the
state’s IT industries after which the final draft
will be sent to the state cabinet for approval by mid-August. The new draft
policy has proposed enabling the provision of fiscal benefits of up to 20 per
cent of the capital cost, while also providing the IT and ITeS industries
continuous process industry status. The industries which will set up e-waste
management facilities may also get a 5 per cent additional incentives under
the proposed policy. The other aspects of the policy include setting up IT
companies in tier-II and tier-III cities along with promoting computer
literacy for rural women in government schools and programmes.
From http://egov.eletsonline.com
08/07/2016
TOP↑
GST
Bill Passed by Rajya Sabha; iIdentical Tax Rates across India on Cards
The long pending Goods and Services Tax Bill (GST Bill) was
passed in the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday. The Constitutional Amendment Bill
will help ensure uniform tax rates across states for various goods and
services. State finance ministers will come to an agreement on the rates on
various goods and services that will be citizen friendly while also ensuring
no revenue losses to the states. The Centre will also levy and collect
the Integrated Goods and Services Tax (IGST) on all inter-State supply of
goods and services. The IGST mechanism has been designed to ensure seamless
flow of input tax credit from one state to another. The GST will be divided
into the CGST and SGST for the Centre and states, respectively. Headed by
Chief Economic Adviser Arvind Subramanian, a panel has recommended a
revenue-neutral rate of 15-15.5% while a standard rate of 17-18% would
be levied on most goods and all services. The business and banking fraternity
responded with enthusiasm to the GST Bill on social media. Yes Bank CEO Rana
Kapoor tweeted that ‘GST Bill will usher a virtuous growth cycle in India for
several decades up to 2050’,
while Amitabh Kant, Niti Aayog CEO remarked on his Twitter handle, ‘One
Nation One common market will give a huge boost 2 productivity, efficiency
& ease of doing business. Now execution is key.
From http://egov.eletsonline.com
08/08/2016
TOP↑
Govt Shows
Political
Will,
Takes
GST Bill to Its Logical Conclusion
Through Goods & Services Tax, the Government of India
intends to bring uniformity in taxation
The much-delayedGoods &
Services Tax (GST) Constitution Bill– which was passed by Lok
Sabha, on August 8 and the Rajya Sabha, on August 3 – marked a historic step
for tax reforms in the country. The 122nd Amendment to the Constitution will
certainly go down in India’s political-economic history as a watershed, as it
is about to give the country the most progressive tax reforms till date in
the form of GST, making life easier for the trade and industry and reducing
the cost of goods and services for the consumer. The excitement among the
industry, trade and investors is justified. By a single measure, India would
move up the World Bank ranking of Ease of Doing
Business by several notches. The GST Bill had been pending
for over a decade, but the fact that the Government of India has been able to
build a wide political consensus on, what has been one of the most
contentious issues, has conveyed a huge positive signal to the rest of the
world that India enjoys a broad political support for the economic reforms,
crucial for over a billion people. Prime Minister
Narendra Modi described the GST as “a Great Step by Team India, a
Great Step Towards Transformation and a Great Step towards Transparency”. He
also described the imminent passage of the Bill as a victory not for any
particular political party but for the Indian democracy. “With GST, we intend
to bring uniformity in taxation,” said Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
What is GST?
It is a plethora of indirect taxes, which contribute to the bulk
of revenues of the states and just about half of the tax kitty of about Rs 16
lakh crore of the Central Government. While direct taxes, like the personal
income tax, relate to a small fraction of the population, the indirect
taxes impact every Indian. Since the indirect taxes are on consumption,
both by the rich and the poor, both have to pay the same amount. Currently,
the Constitution gives mandate to the Centre and the states to levy indirect
taxes ranging from excise duty, customs, service tax, valued added tax (VAT)
or sales tax, entertainment tax, entry tax, purchase tax, luxury tax and
various other surcharges. Both the Centre and the states have their own
official machinery to collect these taxes. But for central excise and VAT,
most of the taxes get calculated on a base which itself has been
subjected to taxation at some or the other stage of manufacturing value
chain. So, it is a tax on tax, making goods and services rather expensive for
the ultimate consumer while making life hard for the trade and industry. The
most visible example of inefficiencies of the system can be seen at
inter-state borders with long queues of trucks being subjected to different
kinds of tax inspection and payment of octroi and entry tax, and in the
process blocking traffic on the highways for hours together. With the roll
out of the GST, expected from April 1, 2017, all these taxes would be
subsumed into a single tax for the consumer. The Centre would levy and
collect Central Goods and Services Tax (CGST), and States would levy and
collect the State Goods and Services Tax (SGST) on all transactions within a
State. The input tax credit of CGST would be available for discharging the
CGST liability on the output at each stage. Similarly, the credit of SGST
paid on inputs would be allowed for paying the SGST on output. Services and
goods would be subjected to taxes only on value addition at each stage, thus
bringing down the overall tax burden for the consumers.
From manufacturing to destination.
As against the present system, where the taxes like excise and central
sales tax, are levied on manufacturing at the factory gate or on inter-state
movement of goods, the GST involves taxation at the destination level. This
would mean gains for the consuming states and loss for the manufacturing
state. That is why states with a good manufacturing base, like Tamil Nadu,
was opposed to the GST and consuming states, like Bihar,West Bengal andOdisha,
favoured the same. But, the GST Bill provides for fully compensating the
losses to the states for five years. The earlier provision of additional one
per cent levy for the losing states has now been done away with. There would
be about three rates – Standard Rate in the form of X, which will cover bulk
of the items , X-minus for the items of mass consumption and X-plus for the
luxury goods or the so-called “sin goods’’. In the constitutional amendment,
there is no mention of the GST rates, which would be decided by the GST
Council comprising the Union Finance Minister as the Chairman and the finance
ministers of states. Any decision of the GST Council would require approval
of the Council by three-fourths of its members. The states would have
two–thirds of the voting powers and the Centre one-third. Petroleum products
and alcoholic beverages have been left out of the GST, for now, on concerns
of the states, which feared these major revenue heads could not be bargained
for. For the sake of wider political consensus, these heads have been left
for future reforms.
What Next?
After the approval of Parliament, the GST Bill would go for
ratification by at least half the states. The process is expected to be
completed soon. Afterwards, the parliament will have to again pass two
enabling bills – one for the Central GST and the other for the Integrated
GST. Besides, the state legislatures will have to pass the enabling law of
the State GST. According to Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley,
there still remains work to be done as three more
laws have to be created, of which two will have to go through the parliament.
The rates of taxation – or the GST rates – will be decided by a GST Council
that will be formed, Mr Jaitley said, indicating that there’s still a long
way to go for the bill’s provisions to become effective. The Centre on its
part wants the GST to be rolled out by April 2017. The minister said the
government is making an attempt “to avoid complexities”, so that the GST
becomes the best version of ‘One Nation, One Tax’.
From http://egov.eletsonline.com
08/14/2016
TOP↑
Nepal, India Plans Setting Up Energy Bank
KATHMANDU: India
and Nepal
are planning to setting up an energy bank so that they can help each
other to overcome the problem of power shortage. The proposal was
discussed at a meeting of the India-Nepal Joint Standing Committee, a
bilateral technical mechanism on water resources, power and irrigation
projects, which concluded yesterday. The two countries have conducted
informal discussions regarding the energy bank before, but this is the first
time that Nepal
has made a formal proposal, Kathmandu Post reported. According to
the energy bank concept, Nepal
would export electricity to India
during the summer season and import power from India in the winter when output
drops sharply resulting in crippling power shortages. The Power Trade
Agreement signed by Nepal
and India in 2014 during
Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Kathmandu
has opened the way for the two countries to establish an energy bank.
"The concept of an energy bank is clear: We export to India when our production exceeds domestic
consumption and we import from India during times of
crisis," said Mukesh Raj Kafle, managing director of the Nepal
Electricity Authority, who participated in the meeting.
India is agreeable to the
concept, but there is no open access to India due to legal complications.
"The proposal is good, but we have to clear a number of regulatory
provisions. We will start to work on it," Khanal quoted Indian officials
as saying. According to Nepali officials, it depends on India's
willingness. Nepal has
also requested India
to resume production from the 15 MW Gandak Powerhouse.
The plant was constructed as per the Gandak Agreement. Similarly, Nepal has also requested India to
build the Birpur Powerhouse as soon as possible. Meanwhile, the two sides
also discussed extensively the construction of roads by India on the
common border. Nepali officials drew the attention of the Indian government
to the road building projects saying that they had increased the possibility
of floods and inundation on the Nepali side. "The roads are like
embankment dams which might cause floods during the summer season. The Indian
side has taken the issue positively. They have asked for a specific
report," said Kafle. India
raised the issue of security at these areas, and Nepal has pledged to address its
concerns. The two sides also assessed the ongoing irrigation projects. The
two-day meeting is the first official engagement between the two countries
after the cancellation of President Bidya Devi Bhandari's visit to India and recalling of Nepal's
ambassador Deep Kumar Upadhyay.
From
http://www.siliconindia.com 05/29/2016
TOP↑
PAKISTAN: Cyber Crime Bill Passed by Senate---Opposition Forces 50 Amendments
The Prevention of Electronic Crimes Bill (PECB), 2016 was
unanimously passed by Senate on Friday after incorporating about 50
amendments of opposition, prominent of which included parliamentary and
judicial oversight of the bill to control its misuse. The leader of the
opposition in the Senate and a harsh critic of ruling Pakistan Muslim
League-Nawaz (PML-N) Aitzaz Ahsan, showered praise like no one else on the
ruling party for bringing the bill, saying the bill has
been made quite comprehensive with the incorporation of amendments. "The
parliamentary and judicial oversight are the two important amendments that
have been incorporated in the bill, and it will help prevent its misuse to a
great extent, but still there is a lot more to do to make it
comprehensive," he added. In Clause 34 of the bill, a new sub-section
was inserted which states that an appeal against the decision of the
Authority in review will lie before the High Court within 30 days of the
order of the Authority in review. Another major amendment is that the agency
designated or established under section 26 of the Act shall submit a half
yearly report to both houses of the parliament for consideration by the
relevant committee in-camera, in respect of its activities, without
disclosing identity information.
The bill was moved by State Minister for Information Technology Anusha
Rehman, which was adopted by the house unanimously. The Senate session
remained suspended for over two hours as major opposition political party -
Pakistan People''s Party - was reluctant to pass the bill in the current form.
However, the PPP agreed to support the bill after some 50 amendment were
incorporated in the bill which, according to Aitzaz, made it much better than
the original bill passed by the National Assembly. "We can''t call it a perfect bill but it''s still far better than
we''d received from National Assembly. Both law minister and Anusha Rehman
were kind to open heartedly accept whatever amendment we wanted to
incorporate," he added. Speaking in the house before passage of the
bill, Senator Colonel Syed Tahir Hussain Mashhadi (Retd), who is
parliamentary leader of Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), said his party would
abstain from the vote on the bill, as no one from his party was invited to
the meeting of opposition parties before presenting the bill in the House.
However, the MQM voted for the bill after Aitzaz Ahsan tendered an
unconditional apology to Mashahadi for not inviting his party to the meeting
that made a detailed deliberation on the bill before bringing to the House
for final its approval. He also said that the PPP tried its level best to
make the bill state and citizen friendly, for which he and Sherry Rehman had
to convince PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari as he was reluctant to
support the bill till last minute.
Senator Sherry Rehman said that the opposition saved the bill from becoming a
''complete black law'' by making amendments, adding that it is deeply
imperfect law, which would be streamlined with the passage of time. "The
government has agreed to bring a comprehensive whistleblower bill which will
be introduced in the house, and if it failed to honour its commitment, we''ll
take the initiative as the bill needs to be streamlined," she added. The
State Minister for Information Technology Anusha Rehman said the government
took the initiative, as there existed no proper law
to control the cyber crime, adding due to absence of any law, the
investigating agencies were helpless in taking action against criminals. She
said all the stakeholders were taken onboard; public hearings were conducted;
civil society and rights groups were consulted, to make it comprehensive. She
said that reservations of both print and electronic media have been addressed
and the bill will not apply on them. She added that special courts would be
set up to listen to such cases, however, she added that except for those
involve in terrorism-related and in child pornography crimes, no other person
could be arrested without court''s orders. In clause 10 sub-clause (b) the
words "shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a
term which may extend to 14 years or that fine which may be extended to 50
million rupees or with both" were dropped.
In clause 10 sub-clause (c) after the words "under the law" the
full-stop shall be deleted and the words "shall be punished with
imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to 14 years or
that fine which may be extended to 50 million rupees or with both" were
inserted. In clause 10-A for the word "ethnic" was substituted by
word "racial". And in Clause 19, sub-clause (1), clause (c) after
the words "explicit conduct" the word "or" was inserted
and a new clause "(d) discloses the identity of the minor" was
inserted. In Clause 21, sub-clause 2, the word "one year" was substituted
with the word "three years". In Clause 22 sub-section (3) after the
words "with fine" the words "of rupees fifty thousand which
may extend up to rupees five million" were inserted.
From
http://www.brecorder.com 07/30/2016
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It Will Become Law from Next Week
Minister of State for Information Technology and
Telecommunication Anusha Rehman has said that the amended "Electronic
Crime Bill 2016" will be made a law next week to affectively deal with
cyber crimes in the country. "The amended Bill will be presented before
the National Assembly on August 1 (Monday) and we expect an easy sail for it
to become a law," Anusha Rehman told Business Recorder here
on Friday. After passing the Bill from the Senate, it would be sent back to
the National Assembly as amendments are being made in the Bill. The Bill
would come into law, after passing it from the Lower House. However, the
minister refuted the Opposition claim of brining 50 amendments in the
Electronic Crime Bill and said those were not more than 18 amendments. Those
were slight amendments/changes which would not affect the basic purpose of
the Bill, said the minister. She also criticised Bilawal Bhutto Zardari,
Chairman Pakistan Peoples'' Party, for his objections on the Bill at the
eleventh hour while saying that the Party had nominated Senator Farhatullah
Baber who gave a significant input in the Bill. She said a meeting with the
Leader of the Opposition in the Senate of Pakistan Aitzaz Ahsan was held
before presenting the Bill in the House, where the later raised concerns
about the repercussions of the proposed law on electronic media, but he was
told that electronic media did not fall in the ambit of Cyber Crime Bill. The
minister said the proposed law would help in reducing women harassment.
"Women living in rural areas some times fall pray through
internet/social media/computer and get victimise, and this law would help in
reducing such crimes," the minister added. IT Minister said that
internet was the engine of economic growth in the modern world and any
country could not afford to block it every time; however there was need of
such legislation to resolve the issue permanently.
Currently Pakistan
has no law to comprehensively deal with the growing threat of cyber crime.
Telecommunication laws had no such provision to deal with traditional offline
crime, said the minister, adding that effectively addressing those unique and
unprecedented crimes with similarly unique and necessary procedural powers
required a completely new and comprehensive legal framework that focuses on
online conduct of individuals/organisations in the virtual world. She further
said the legislation would cover offences including illegal access of data
(hacking), as well as interference with data and information systems,
specialised cyber related electronic forgery and electronic fraud, cyber
terrorism (electronic or cyber attack on the critical information
infrastructure), unauthorised interception conducted by civilians, use of
malicious a
From
http://www.brecorder.com 07/30/2016
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Controversial
Cybercrime
Law Passed by National Assembly
The National Assembly has passed "The Prevention of
Electronic Crimes Bill, 2016" with a majority vote and established new
offences including illegal access of data, interference with data and
information system, specialised cyber related electronic forgery, electronic
fraud, cyber terrorism, unauthorised interception by civilians, use of
malicious code viruses and identity theft. Minister of State for Information
Technology and Telecommunication Anusha Rehman Khan presented "The
Prevention of Electronic Crimes Bill, 2016" in the House for its
passage. The opposition opposed the bill or grounds that it is violative of
fundamental rights, freedom of expression and information and made particular
reference to including a 10-year-old child in the bill's ambit. The Senate
already approved the cyber crime bill with 50 amendments in July 29 this
year. The National Assembly also passed "The Private Power and
Infrastructure Board (Amendment) Bill, 2016" to process Public Sector
Projects for provision of efficient, affordable and sustainable electricity
to the citizens of Pakistan and "Pakistan Engineering Council
(Amendment) Bill, 2016" to provide legal cover to the Engineer-in-Chief,
Pakistan Army on the Governing Body of the Pakistan Engineering Council. The
Prevention of Electronic Crimes Bill, 2016, provides new investigative powers
hitherto unavailable such as search and seizure of digital forensic evidence
using technological means, production orders for electronic evidence,
electronic evidence preservation orders, partial disclosure of traffic data,
real time collection of data under certain circumstances and other enabling
powers which are necessary to effectively investigate cyber crime cases.
The introduction of this legislation will effectively prevent cyber crimes
and shall also contribute to national security whilst providing and enabling
a secure environment or investment in Information Technology, e-commerce and
e-payments system. This Bill shall also afford protection from exposing
citizens to the unmitigated threats posed by cyber criminals both at home and
abroad. According to clause 10 (c) about "Cyber terrorism" of the
Bill, "c) advance the objectives of organisations or individuals or
groups proscribed under the law, shall be punished with imprisonment of
either description for a term which may extend to fourteen years or with fine
which may extend to fifty million rupees or with both." The Clause 9 of
the Bill about "Glorification of an offence, says:-
"Whoever prepares or disseminates information, through any information
system or device, with the intent to glorify an offence relating to
terrorism, or any person convicted of a crime relating to terrorism, or
activities of proscribed organisations or individuals or groups shall be
punished with imprisonment for a term which may extend to seven years or with
fine which may extend to ten million rupees or with both." The clause 10A about "Hate speech' states:
"Whoever prepares or disseminates information, through any information
system or device, that advances or is likely to advance inter-faith,
sectarian or racial hatred, shall be punished with imprisonment for a term
which may extend to seven years or with fine or with both. "Clause 10B.
Recruitment, funding and planning of terrorism.- Whoever prepares or
disseminates information, through any information system or device, that
invites or motivates to fund, or recruits people for terrorism or plans for
terrorism shall be punished with imprisonment for a term which may extend to
seven years or with fine or with both."
The clauses 7 and 8 of the Bill about unauthorised copying or transmission of
critical infrastructure data and interference with critical infrastructure
information system or data says "whoever with dishonest intention and
without authorisation copies or otherwise transmits or causes to be
transmitted any critical infrastructure data shall be punished with
imprisonment for a term which may extend to five years, or with fine which
may extend to five million rupees or with both. Whoever with dishonest
intention interferes with or damages, or causes to be interfered with or damaged,
any part or whole of a critical information system, or data, shall be
punished with imprisonment which may extend to seven years or with fine which
may extend to ten million rupees or with both." According to clauses 6
and 11 of the Bill, "unauthorised access to critical infrastructure
information system or data.-Whoever with dishonest intention gains
unauthorised access to any critical infrastructure information system or data
shall be punished with imprisonment which may extend to three years or with
fine which may extend to one million rupees or with both. Electronic
forgery.- (1) "Whoever interferes with or uses any information system,
device or data, with the intent to cause damage or injury to the public or to
any person, or to make any illegal claim or title or to cause any person to
part with property or to enter into any express or implied contract, or with
intent to commit fraud by any input, alteration, deletion, or suppression of
data, resulting in unauthentic data with the intent that it be considered or
acted upon for legal purpose; as if it were authentic, regardless of the fact
that the data is directly readable and intelligi1e or not, shall be punished
with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to three
years, or with fine which may extend to two hundred and fifty thousand rupees
or with both.
(2) Whoever commits offence under sub-section (1) in relation to a critical
infrastructure information system or data shall be punished with imprisonment
for a term which may extend to seven years or with fine which may extend to
five million rupees or with both. There is also punishment of two years or
with fine which may extend to Rs 10 million or both in crime electronic fraud
including wrongful gain interferes with or uses of any information system,
device or data or induces any person to enter into a relationship or deceives
any person, which act or omission is likely to cause damage or harm to that
person or any other person." The clauses 14 and 15 of the Bill described
as "unauthorised use of identity information.-"(1) Whoever obtains,
sells, possesses, transmits or uses another person's identity information
without authorisation shall be punished with imprisonment for a term which
may extend to three years or with fine which may extend to five million
rupees, or with both. (2) Any person whose identity information is obtained,
sold, possessed, used or transmitted may apply to the Authority for securing,
destroying, blocking access or preventing transmission of identity
information referred to in sub-section (1) and the Authority on receipt of
such application may take such measures as deemed appropriate for securing,
destroying or preventing transmission of such identity information. 15. Unauthorised issuance of SIM cards
etc - Whoever sells or otherwise provides subscriber identity module (SIM)
card, re-usable identification module (R-IUM) or universal integrated circuit
card (UICC) or other module designed for authenticating users to establish
connection with the network and to be used in cellular mobile, wireless phone
or other digital devices such as tablets, without obtaining and verification
of the subscriber's antecedents in the mode and manner for the time being
approved by the Authority shall be punished with imprisonment for a term
which may extend to three years or with fine which may extend to five hundred
thousand rupees or with both".
There are also clauses which described the imprisonment of three years or two
years or with fine of one million rupees in the crime of tampering with.
About the clause 19A
of the Bill about Child pornography.- "(1) Whoever intentionally
produces, offers or makes available, distributes or transmits through an
information system or procures for himself or for another person or without
lawful justification possesses material in an information system, that
visually depicts- (a) a minor engaged in sexually explicit conduct; (b) a
person appearing to be a minor engaged in sexually explicit conduct; or (c)
realistic images representing a minor engaged in sexually explicit conduct;
or (d) discloses the identity of the minor, shall be punished with
imprisonment for a term which may extend to seven years, or with fine which
may extend to five million rupees or with both."
From http://www.brecorder.com
08/12/2016
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AZERBAIJAN: Launching
New Social Project
Azerbaijani Online Group start-up company has launched a social
project in the field of health, Farid Farkhadov, head of the project, told
Trend Aug. 23. The issue is Doctormap mobile application, which is currently
available in Play Market and App Store. Doctormap project is being financed
by the Azerbaijani State Fund for Development of Information Technologies,
the Ministry of Communications and High Technologies. The users can obtain
free e-cards to get discounts for medical treatment in more than 20 clinics
in Baku and Sumgait through Doctormap. Doctormap will
also inform the users about free diagnostics campaigns, etc. Doctormap
project is based on an interactive map depicting the hospitals. Moreover, the
number of medical specialists, indicated on the website is limited, as the
main criterion is highly qualified specialists. Farkhadov added that
"Online pharmacy" module will be integrated into the app by
October. He stressed that it will be possible to search for the required
medication through this module. The users will be able to visually compare
the prices for required medication.
From http://en.trend.az/
08/23/2016
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UZBEKISTAN: Law "On Electronic Government"
Comes into Force
The Law "On electronic government", providing for the
introduction and development of e-government services came into force in Uzbekistan.
The law was passed by the lower house of Parliament in November and approved
by the Senate (upper house) in December 2015. It entered into force six
months after its publication in the press. The main purpose of the law is to
regulate relations in the field of e-government. The general provisions of
the law are about the basic objectives and principles of e-government, the
principle of openness and transparency of activities of state bodies, etc.
The main objectives of e-government are: - ensuring the effectiveness,
efficiency and transparency of activities of state bodies, strengthening of
their responsibility and discipline, the creation of additional mechanisms to
ensure feedback with the population and business entities; - establishment of
opportunities to applicants for the implementation of relations with public
authorities within e-government throughout the country; - formation of
databases of the state bodies within the framework of their functions, the
Single portal of state interactive services and the Single registry of
electronic state services; - implementation in the public administration of
the "one window" principle; - implementation of electronic document
management, including in processes of presentation of statistical reporting,
customs clearance, issuance of licenses, permits, certificates, as well as
obtaining information from state bodies; - extended usage of e-commerce
systems, sales and procurement through the world information network the
internet, as well as the introduction of automated systems of accounting,
control and payment of utilities; - development of a system of cashless
electronic payments, public procurement, remote access, and other electronic
forms of activities in the banking and financial sector. According to the
law, the state regulation in the field of e-government is exercised by the
Cabinet of Ministers, Ministry for development of information technologies
and communications, which is the authorized body in the field of e-government
and other state bodies. The law also provides a procedure for the assessment
of the quality of rendering of state electronic services. Thus, in accordance
with the law, assessment of the quality of rendering of electronic state
services is carried out by the authorized body in the field of e-government
on the basis of the methodology approved by the Cabinet of Ministers of the Republic of Uzbekistan, as well as the study of
public opinion. The results of the assessment of the quality of rendering of
state electronic services are subject to regular publication in the media.
State bodies, providing e-government services are committed to take measures
to improve the quality of their provision based on the results of the
assessment. The Cabinet of Ministers of the Republic of Uzbekistan
has been instructed to bring decisions of the government in accordance with
this law, as well as to provide revision and cancellation by bodies of state
management of their normative acts, contradicting the law.
From http://politics.uzreport.uz/ 06/11/2016
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Uzbekistan Can Change
Rules of Providing Internet Services
Uzbekistan’s Ministry
for Development of Information Technologies and Communications has worked out
a draft order “On making amendments to the rules of rendering services for
data transmission network, including Internet”. Internet providers should
organize the record of used web resources of Internet (log files) and their
storage within three months, according to the document. The operators and
providers should take hardware and technical measures for identifying the
users when rendering services to them, said the document. The users can be
identified by their phone number or other registration data. Currently, the
number of Internet users in Uzbekistan
is around 13 million. Under Uzbekistan’s
law, Internet providers and operators get access to the international
information networks, including Internet only through the technical means of
the monopoly national communications operator Uzbektelecom JSC and only legal
entities serve as Internet providers and operators of the data transmission
networks. According to the amendments made to Uzbekistan’s Criminal Code in
2013, those engaged in creating, storing and distributing information
reflecting all forms of terrorism, extremism, genocide and separatism should
be held criminally responsible.
From http://en.trend.az/
07/25/2016
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Government Approves Measures to Improve
Infoportal of UZEX
The resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of the Republic of Uzbekistan dated July 27, 2016. approved measures to further improve the accessibility of
the information portal of JSC "Uzbek Republican commodity exchange"
and the processes of government and corporate procurement. The document was
adopted in order to enhance the transparency and competitiveness of public
and corporate procurement, implementation of modern information and
communication technologies, prevention of offences in the procurement process.
According to the document, the conclusion of a contract for public and
corporate procurement without prior announcement of their sale on a special
information portal of JSC "Uzbek Republican commodity exchange" is
forbidden. Only cases stipulated by the legislation can be considered as an
exception.In addition, it prohibits the conclusion of a contract for public
and corporate procurement with suppliers included in the register of unfair
suppliers. Managers and officials responsible for organizing public and
corporate procurement are responsible for strict observance of the
requirements of the legislation on public and corporate procurement.
The Resolution has instructed JSC "Uzbek Republican
commodity exchange", as well as other interested ministries and
departments to jointly ensure: - from 1 January 2017, the development and
implementation of a software module, which provides all users of the special
information portal of JSC "Uzbek Republican commodity exchange"
with free access to information on the level of prices prevailing following
the results of trading, public and corporate procurement; - during 2017, the
implementation of the National classifier of goods (works and services) for
the needs of public and corporate procurement, e-commerce; - in the period of
2017-2018, the phased introduction of the mechanism of the organization of
payments and delivery of products within the framework of agreements on
public and corporate procurement through the clearing and settlement chamber.
Consequent organization of monitoring and control over the execution of
contractual commitments, as well as providing the participants of the
procurement with services for the remote management of funds on their
personal accounts. The document also approved the regulations on the
procedure for publishing and disclosing the information by public and
corporate procurement at the information portal of JSC "Uzbek Republican
commodity exchange".
From http://news.uzreport.uz/
08/02/2016
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Implementation of ICT in Real Sector of Uzbekistan's
Economy Discussed
The building of the Museum of the history of communications saw
a meeting that brought together the employees of state administration bodies,
concerning the implementation of projects approved by the Decree of the
President of the Republic of Uzbekistan of August 1, 2016 “On measures for
further implementation and development of information and communication
technologies in the real sector of the economy in 2016-2018”. The event was organized by the
Ministry for the development of information technologies and communications
of the Republic
of Uzbekistan.As
reported by information service of the Center for developing system
"Electronic government", in the course of
the meeting the participants discussed such issues as the further development
of the economy, improving product quality, strengthening export capacity.
Particularly, questions were raised concerning the automation of
technological processes in the production, personnel management, management
of financial and economic activities, as well as improving the systems of
accounting and reporting.
From http://news.uzreport.uz/
08/12/2016
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State of ICT in Asia and the
Pacific 2016: Uncovering the Widening Broadband Divide
New UN ESCAP
report highlights alarming disparity in broadband access among Asia-Pacific
countries and broadband concentration in East-Asia. Despite the widely
reported phenomenal growth in Information and Communications Technology (ICT)
in the Asia-Pacific region, a new study by the United Nations Economic and
Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), has found that broadband
capabilities and access are highly concentrated in East and North-East
Asia. The report titled State of ICT in Asia and the Pacific
2016: Uncovering the Widening Broadband Divide also confirms that the gap
between advanced and developing countries in fixed broadband access is indeed
widening, and unless targeted policy interventions are put in place, the
trend will continue to the detriment of future development opportunities. The
Report shows that 74.89 per cent of total fixed broadband subscriptions in
Asia and the Pacific are concentrated in East and North-East Asia, followed
by South and South-West Asia (9.77 per cent), North and Central Asia (7.68
per cent), South-East Asia (5.74 per cent)
and the Pacific (1.93 per cent), according to the 2015 data.
Findings
indicate that over 52.3 per cent of global fixed broadband subscribers now
come from ESCAP member States, a dramatic increase from 2005 when the region
constituted only 38.1 per cent. The Report also found that in 2015, less than
2 per cent of the population had adopted fixed broadband in as many as 20
countries in Asia and the Pacific, widening
the digital divide between high-income and low-income countries at an
alarming speed. United Nations Under-Secretary-General and Executive
Secretary of ESCAP Dr. Shamshad Akhtar underlined that broadband connectivity
is a critical foundation for the digital economy and the achievement of the
Sustainable Development Goals in Asia-Pacific, and that ESCAP is working with
member States to improve broadband access for countries in the region. “As a
result of this digital divide, millions of people are shut out from
transformative digital opportunities in education, health, business and
financial services,” said Dr. Akhtar. “In response to the widening gap, ESCAP
is promoting the Asia-Pacific Information Superhighway (AP-IS) initiative, to
increase the availability and affordability of broadband Internet across Asia and the Pacific, by strengthening the underlying
Internet infrastructure in the region,” she added.
In
particular, the Report shows that e-commerce strongly correlates with access
to fixed broadband connectivity, suggesting that enhancing ICT infrastructure
connectivity would increase business-to-business e-commerce in the region.
The Report also examined emerging trends in developing online content,
differential patterns of mobile broadband expansion and usage, as well as the
impact of regulatory quality and investment in broadband adoption. The study
findings will serve as the basis for the inaugural ESCAP Committee on ICT,
Science, Technology and Innovation to be held from 5 to 7 October 2016 in Bangkok, Thailand.
From http://reliefweb.int
08/19/2016
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AUSTRALIA: Telco Groups See Flaws in Website-Blocking
Guidelines
A draft
document setting out guidelines for the use of Section 313(3) of the Telecommunications
Act 1997 contains some useful material for government agencies but also has
some significant flaws, according to industry group Communications Alliance.
A public consultation on the draft guidelines closed earlier this month.
Section 313 has been employed by agencies to request that Internet service
providers block access to overseas hosted sites, for reasons ranging from
online scams to combating the spread of malware. (Pirate website blocking by
copyright owners is covered by a separate mechanism.) The guidelines were
developed in response to a parliamentary inquiry into the use of Section 313.
That inquiry was itself sparked by a high-profile bungle involving the
Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC). ASIC accidentally
had some Australian ISPs block access to hundreds of thousands of sites
unrelated to the fraud-linked sites the watchdog organisation was targeting.
The
guidelines are intended to prevent a repeat of the incident, with the report
of the parliamentary inquiry, released in June 2015, rejecting any
watering-down of the Section 313 power. However, the Communications Alliance
in its submission on the draft guidelines repeated its concern that the
material covered in the document should be incorporated into primary
legislation. The submission was co-authored by the Australian Mobile
Telecommunications Association. The groups noted that the guidelines will
only be mandated for federal government agencies, not state and territory
agencies. The current legislation is broadly worded, compelling telcos to
"give officers and authorities of the Commonwealth and of the States and
Territories such help as is reasonably necessary" for "enforcing
the criminal law and laws imposing pecuniary penalties", "assisting
the enforcement of the criminal laws in force in a foreign country",
"protecting the public revenue", and "safeguarding national
security". As a result, a wide range of agencies have access to the
power and can employ it for a large variety of reasons.
“The
Associations contend that the range of agencies making use of s313 for the
purpose of website blocking ought to be more limited than is currently the
case,” the submission states. There should be a “gating” process for imposing
website blocking, it adds. Agencies that wish to employ the mechanism should
obtain sign-off from the portfolio minister, with individual website blocks
approved by a senior officer within the agency. Other areas of concern
include the scope for agencies to temporarily abandon the guidelines “due to
operational, security or other reasons”; for agencies to require
consideration of additional factors when seeking a block (“requiring
consideration of the general factors be guided by the stated national
objective to ‘champion an open, free and secure internet’”); and for ‘stop
pages’ to be hosted by the relevant agency. ‘Stop pages’ for blocked sites
should “implemented in all cases and that they contain as much information as
required and can be given in the circumstances to enable impacted customers
and website owners to contact the appropriate agency”; the current draft says
that such pages should be published “where appropriate”.
From http://www.computerworld.com.au
05/30/2016
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Standards Australia
Puts Enhanced Focus on Standards for the Digital Era
Standards Australia has
approved a digital transformation strategy that will see the organisation
establish a digital repository built on a platform that it says is best of
class technology. Dr Bronwyn Evans, chief executive officer of Standards
Australia, says the digital strategy lays the core foundations of the digital
standards needed to support growth in Australia’s future. “Our goal in
this work has been to ensure the viability, strength and capacity of
Standards Australia as a contributor to Australia’s economic future. By
leveraging our international relationships, member insights, and by looking
outside of the standards publishing world, we have a plan that will set us up
to be the digital standards body Australia needs tomorrow.”
Dr Evans
said that, in the first phase of the digital transformation — expected to be
implemented by the end of 2016 — Standards Australia would see benefits
realised in:
• Establishing
a central and searchable content repository
•
Streamlining multiple workflows, and
• Connecting
content development to digital curation and flexibility of outputs.
According to
Dr Evans, further stages will see Standards Australia with the capacity to
move to different collaboration and distribution models. The standards body
has said it will be consulting with stakeholders through the transformation
process to maximise the benefits from both development and user perspectives.
From http://www.itwire.com
06/01/2016
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Digital Transformation
Roadmap by November, Coalition Says
The
Coalition has promised a digital transformation roadmap for government
services by November. The digital services policy, released last week, states
that the Digital Transformation Office will work with agencies to produce and
publish agency-level roadmaps. “The Digital Transformation Office will also
identify the highest value services and prioritise them for digital
transformation,” the policy states. “Examples include child care attendance
and registration, incoming and outgoing passenger cards, and support services
for job seekers and employers. Roadmaps will include clear milestones,
including delivery timelines and key performance indicators such as cost per
transaction, user satisfaction and completion rates.” Other elements of the
policy include previously revealed government priorities including work on
‘tell us once’ functionality for government services, procurement reform,
improvements to MyGov, and the release of more datasets for use by the
private sector. The Coalition also said it would work to boost the use of
cloud services (including the development of a Secure Services Strategy). The
DTO launched last year and is led by Paul Shetler.
From https://www.computerworld.com.au
06/20/2016
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ACCC Inquiry to
Consider ADSL Deregulation
The
competition watchdog, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, has
started a public inquiry into ADSL services as it looks to determine whether
the digital subscriber line services should be deregulated. The ACCC first
declared access to the wholesale ADSL service in February 2012 and is
required to review the declaration before it expires in February 2017. ADSL —
which provides high-speed fixed-line broadband services over copper networks
— is the dominant fixed-line broadband technology in Australia, and ACCC
commissioner Roger Featherston says a number of changes have occurred since
ADSL service was first declared in 2012, including the progressive rollout of
the NBN. “This inquiry will assist the ACCC in determining whether continued
declaration of the wholesale ADSL service is in the long-term interests of
end users.” The ACCC issued a discussion paper on Monday and submissions to
the inquiry need to be received by 29 July.
From http://www.itwire.com
07/04/2016
TOP↑
Australia to Adopt European Standard to Make Government
IT More Accessible
The
Australian government has announced it will be adopting an internationally
aligned standard for IT accessibility in government, requiring vendors at
procurement stage to offer accessible website, software, and digital device
services. The standard, Accessibility requirements suitable for public
procurement of ICT products and services, is a Direct Text Adoption of
European Standard EN 301 549 and establishes a minimum standard to ensure
that all Australians can access information and use services electronically
by public authorities and other public sector agencies, the government said.
The government expects the new standard will be used by all levels of
government when determining technical specifications for the procurement of
accessible IT products and services, including computer software and
hardware, telecommunications, and office equipment such as printers,
photocopiers, and scanners. Australian Communications Consumer Action Network
(ACCAN) CEO Teresa Corbin said that while the standard is intended in
particular for use by public sector bodies during procurement, she believes
there is application in the private sector.
"The
standard will help industry and operators avoid creating technologies that
exclude users from the information society," she said. "This way
everyone can access information and use services that are being delivered
electronically." The decision to implement the standard came out of
consultation between the Department of Finance, Standards Australia, ACCAN,
and others, and follows a report by the Australian Human Rights Commission
into the accessibility of IT in the Australian public service. The commission
published its report titled Information and Communications Technology in the
Australian Public Service - the need for change, in April last year, which
concluded the low rate of employment of people with disability in public
service was unsatisfactory. To rectify this, the commission said widening the
use of accessible IT was necessary to improve the public service's
performance on the employment of those with a disability. At the time, the
commission said the establishment of the federal government's Digital
Transformation Office (DTO) alongside the government's proposed shift towards
a shared services model for government agencies presented the opportunity to
implement change in IT procurement policy.
The commission
made eight recommendations to the government to fix its position, which
included the government adopting existing international standards for IT
accessibility, or developing a new set of standards to suit the Australian
context, noting public service agencies should also comply with the same
standards. "Universal design principles should be applied to all IT, but
currently this is not the case," the report said. "Universal design
is not only important for people with disability, but also for older people,
people with an illness or injury and all people who, with a wide spectrum of
capabilities, make up human diversity." It also suggested that a
Government Product Accessibility template be developed for vendors with
tailored training on IT accessibility also recommended to be provided to
chief information officers across government agencies. In its report, the
commission also pointed to the private sector, noting ANZ bank, Westpac, and
Telstra had already implemented IT strategies that were inclusive of those
with a disability, making what the commission called a significant commitment
to product accessibility for staff and customers.
From http://www.zdnet.com
08/22/2016
TOP↑
PAPUA NEW GUINEA:
New Cyber Law Forces Namorong Out of Blogging
ON THE eve
of his visit to Australia to attend the Brisbane Writers Festival, award
winning writer and political commentator Martyn Namorong has decided to shut
down his blog to, as he put it, “avoid the risk of being charged under PNG's new cybercrime
laws”. Namorong announced to his readers yesterday that “in light of PNG's new draconian
cybercrime legislation, I regret to inform you all that my blog is no longer
available for public viewing.” He says he is concerned that the new
legislation, passed by parliament last week, could lead to a crackdown on
freedom of expression in Papua
New Guinea although officially the
Cybercrime Bill seeks to control things like spam, hacking, forgery and
computer fraud. Namorong, publisher of the long-running Namorong Report, said
such laws were much needed in Papua
New Guinea.
But he said
the legislation had elements that caused him concern, including a section
with vague references to "defamation" and "undermining the
state." He said these provisions could potentially be used to quash
criticism of the government. "You use social media to talk about
protesting, for instance,” he told Radio New Zealand International. “Is that
undermining the state or undermining the government? You know, where does it
stop in a democratic society like PNG wants to be? "I mean the rest of
the stuff that's in the law, they need to be there. But the other stuff that
could potentially prevent community organising is, yeah, it's really quite scary."
From http://asopa.typepad.com 08/17/2016
TOP↑
SOLOMON ISLANDS: Prime Minister Launches IT Society
Prime
Minister Hon. Manasseh Sogavare has launched the Information Technology
Society of Solomon Islands (ITSSI). A statement by the Office of the Prime
Minister says the establishment of the organization provides an “excellent
opportunity for the Government to obtain its professional views on the draft
National Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Policy.” “The ICT
Policy would be an important document upon which legislation governing the
country’s use of emerging technologies will be formed,” said Prime Minister Sogavare.
He says the first meeting he had with the ITSSI last week, impressed upon him
the pivotal role it would like to play in help shaping this policy. Mr.
Sogavare says that national security, social order, and effective governance
would be amongst many of the agendas topping the government’s list of issues
that must be addressed within the proposed National ICT policy. Meanwhile,
Prime Minister Sogavare says information technology is an effective way of
obtaining and disseminating information that is both good and bad and this is
a ‘policy dilemma’ one that the government and ITSSI must work together in
addressing to avoid ‘throwing the baby with the water.’ He says the ITSSI has
a pivotal role in establishing such standards as technological advances waits
for no one.
From http://www.solomontimes.com
08/26/2016
TOP↑
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EUROPE: France
Inaugurates New Digital Agency
France has
inaugurated its new Digital Agency (Agence du numerique), which will
coordinate the government's policies for realising the digital economy. The ministers
Axelle Lemaire and Emmanuel Macron presented the aims of the new agency
alongside its director Antoine Darodes. The Digital Agency will be part of
Macron's Ministry for the Economy, Industry and Digital Affairs. The agency's
three main projects will be coordinating the 'Plan France Tres Haut Debit',
to deploy faster broadband infrastructure across the country; manage the
'Societe Numerique' project for ensuring adoption of digital technologies by
the population; and to run the initiative French Tech, which supports French
technology start-ups.
From
http://www.telecompaper.com/
06/15/2016
TOP↑
RUSSIA: ITC Sector Vacancies Increase in May
The number of job vacancies in the Russian ITC sector grew by 46
percent year-on-year in May, reports Cnews.ru, citing a study from
HeadHunter. The growth totaled 3 percent in May 2015. The number of CVs
submitted in May of this year grew by 15 percent year-on-year, compared with
a 34 percent rise in May 2015.
From
http://www.telecompaper.com/
06/30/2016
TOP↑
UK: Govt to Match EU Research, Development Funds
The UK
government said it will match any EU development funds, in order to provide
certainty for investment and research projects relying on EU funding.
Chancellor Philip Hammond said the government will guarantee funding from the
EU for all structural and investment fund projects through a series of
assurances, even when these projects continue beyond the UK’s planned
departure from the EU. This includes projects under the EU Horizon budget for
R&D, the European Regional Development Fund including European
Territorial Cooperation, the European Social Fund and the European
Agricultural Fund for Rural Development. The caveat is all EU funding must be
secured before the UK
government's autumn budget statement this year, in order to benefit from the
guarantee following the UK's
exit. The budget statement usually takes place in November or December.
From
http://www.telecompaper.com/
08/15/2016
TOP↑
NORTH
AMERICA: U.S.
- A New Trend Blurs Budget Transparency
Governments’ increasing reliance on special funds can put them
in financial and legal trouble. State and local budgets are based on general
fund revenues. The cash usually comes from such primary sources as income and
sales taxes, and pays for a wide swath of government services. When managers
talk about “balancing the budget,” they’re almost always referring to
balancing the spending and revenues from this repository. Reliance on the
general fund as the centerpiece of fiscal management, however, has growing
flaws. This is largely because the general fund is diminishing as the main
source of money for governments. Data from the National Association of State
Budget Officers shows a fairly steady drop in the portion the general fund
makes up of the total -- 41 percent in 2014 compared with 52 percent in the
early 1990s. In Virginia,
the general fund made up 47 percent of the total in 2006 and only 39 percent
in 2015.
Some of the drop comes from an increase in bonds and, even more
so, federal funds, but there’s also been a slow and steady rise in the size
and quantity of special funds that are earmarked for specific purposes and
get little attention in the annual budget debate. The Fiscal Futures Project
at the University
of Illinois at Chicago
(UIC) has pinpointed a number of problems with this shift. Depending on state
law, special funds may bypass the appropriations process, and unlike the
general fund, money collected and unspent may be retained at year’s end
rather than being returned to the general coffers. This makes special funds
an appealing target when tough budget times hit. Lawmakers see these plush
balances outside the general fund as a means to balance the budget. They may
transfer or lend money from the special funds to the general fund.
That leads to additional problems. It is a common tenet of
responsible budget management that one-time money be used for one-time
expenditures. If these funds are raided, then unless revenues are raised or
expenses are cut, the government will still come up short in the next budget
cycle. The movement of money between general and special funds “has reduced
the transparency of budgeting,” says David Merriman, a professor at the Institute of Government and Public Affairs at UIC.
The cloudiness of the budget picture enables political leaders to boast about
a reduction of general fund spending, when spending has just been added to
one or more special funds. States can also put themselves in legal peril by
using funds for general purposes that are restricted to a specific use. Just after
the recession ended, for example, the Wisconsin Supreme Court nixed the
transfer of money from a malpractice fund into the state’s general fund. The
state had to pay back the $200 million along with interest.
New Mexico’s reliance
on special funds has led to a host of policy and management problems. As the
state auditor pointed out in a February analysis of fund balances, New Mexico had $4.4
billion in unused balances socked away outside of the general fund at the end
of fiscal year 2015. Some of that money is untouchable because of iron-clad
restrictions about its use. The large amounts of unspent money raise
questions about whether so much should be in funds that get so little
attention. Auditors in New Mexico,
for instance, found that a significant amount of money was being retained in
revolving funds, which are intended as a cash-flow device for agencies and
local governments. Localities are supposed to use this money and then return
it so it can be used again. The practice isn’t the problem, but the auditor
found that some of the funds had very little lending activity, even though
the state faces critical infrastructure needs for which it could be used. For
example, $34 million sat unused in a revolving fund account for rural
infrastructure between fiscal years 2014 and 2015. “You can’t justify a loan
fund that had no loans out of it,” says Tim Keller, New Mexico’s state auditor.
Keller, who was a legislator for six years before he took over
last year as state auditor, spells out the real-life drawbacks of
low-attention money. As a member of the legislature, he helped secure
financing to build a dam in Las
Vegas, N.M. “I
thought that fixing the dam was important and I put my political weight
behind it,” he says. He wasn’t alone. The governor and local legislators
“were all taking credit for the dam,” he says. But that back-patting was
premature. With less visibility, money outside the general fund can go
unspent, particularly when a legislative appropriation only provides partial
funding as was the case for the dam. That’s because “there’s no one
constantly monitoring it,” says Sarita Nair, general counsel in the auditor’s
office. Today, the dam is half finished, the money that was appropriated is
largely unspent, the project’s opponents have brought a lawsuit to stop its
progress and the town still has a water crisis. “You can take credit for
funding something, but that’s a different question than actually having it
built,” Keller says.
From
http://www.govtech.com/
06/03/2016
TOP↑
Data
Analytics Help Agencies Transform Government
It is a fact of life that for many years the public sector has
been asked to do more with less, deliver better and more timely services,
provide transparency, give citizens
better access to government and improve customer service. At the same time commissioners,
managers and business users within public sector agencies have been relying
on the same reports they’ve been looking at for years, dealing with an IT
queue that prioritizes work requests, and trying to match and make sense of
multiple spreadsheets many of which are laid out differently. Business users know that if they had
better access to the mounds of data available to them they could make more
informed and better business decisions and they could be looking ahead not
backwards. We finally have modern user-friendly data analytics tools
available to do just that. Let us
tell you how.
Modern Data Analytics
Data Analytics tools have finally caught up with workplace
demands and the public sector has figured out that data analytics can
help. Agency leaders no longer
need to review reports and just observe trends; they now have real-time insight
into their business and can predict what is likely to occur and make
decisions based on forward looking information, not on what already
happened. Measurements can be put
in place to quantify program effectiveness – not after the fact – but as a program
or a fiscal year progresses.
We can now truly measure the effectiveness of our programs, by getting
answers to questions such as:
- Are expenditures in line with the budget or projected to
exceed the budget? If there are
project over-runs what are they, what are they projected to be and where can
those costs be recouped?
- Are we serving as many citizens as promised? Are wait times decreasing?
- Do citizens have access to the information they need? Are those most ‘at risk’ receiving the
services they are entitled to?
- And the list goes on and on
Modern data analytics tools are built with the business users in
mind. Although IT still has a
role to set up the data connections, and data scientists help build the
predictive models, business users can now ask their own questions and create
their own ad-hoc queries. Users
can now explore the data without a predetermined list of questions. As an example, a query about the cost
of a particular government program per individual served could lead to the
discovery of one or more clients abusing the system by receiving multiple
prescriptions for drugs and then having them filled by ‘preferred pharmacies’
and selling them on the street for profit. In this example the query was cost per
patient served – but when that question was answered and it was clear that
one program was way out of line with the others – further discovery led to
why it was so skewed. But that
was not where the questioning had started. This one example illustrates how
access to data and the ability to interrogate that data is very
powerful. This simple line of
questioning highlights abuse, fraud and ultimately program savings.
Data Analytics in Action
Examples of how data analytics can impact positively your
mission:
This is merely a sample of how data analytics can help government
agencies measure and enhance effectiveness by having access to insight to
make better decisions. We
encourage you to check out the ‘How You Can Use Data Analytics to Change
Government’ guide that GovLoop has published earlier this year. It offers an in-depth view of what is
data analytics and how it can help government.
Conclusion
Traditionally, the ‘techies’ have looked for the next silver
bullet, focusing on the tool but not on the business problem. It is no longer
about the tools but all about the business decision that needs to be made and
the data that drives that decision.
Business users do not want just a report, they want access to all of
their data, they want to explore their business from every angle and gain
insights. They don’t care what
tool they use, they just want to be able to do it themselves without relying
on IT for every question they want answered. Today the cliché of a picture is worth
a thousand words could not be more relevant. Data analytics helps people understand
the data by viewing it in charts, graphs, and an almost limitless set of
visualizations. The focus is now
on making data analytics user-friendly.
From
https://www.govloop.com/
07/08/2016
TOP↑
The
Three Pillars of the Public Sector
Splunk helps you unlock the hidden value from your machine data.
And with the ability to bring in insights from your other tools, you get
value from the full spectrum of your data, not just a subset. With it, you can
collect, index, search, analyze and visualize all your data in one place.
Splunk provides a unified way to organize and extract real-time insights from
massive amounts of machine data from virtually any source. Splunk provides a
real-time data platform that enables Operational Intelligence. Unlike legacy
data platforms and separated monitoring tools, Splunk provides a single,
massively scalable platform that collects data once and delivers the
visibility to support multiple, discrete use cases.
The platform provides data driven intelligence for security, IT
operations, analytics and more. It includes a rich ecosystem of apps that
allow you to retire multiple legacy tools for greater value, cost savings and
simplicity. With the Splunk platform, government agencies can work smarter
and faster, and address key security and IT operations needs. This potential
for big data analytics to serve all areas of government becomes clear when
you break down how government needs to use Operational Intelligence to support
three main public sector mission pillars: protect, serve and grow.
Protect
Government agencies face many challenges, but few have grown
more recently, and more quickly, than cybersecurity threats. Our national
security and way of life depend on safe, secure and robust cyber defense.
However, even with world class technology, eliminating cyberattacks and
breaches continues to be an uphill battle. To increase resiliency against
cyber and other threats, government agencies must improve visibility to
understand events happening on their networks. This can be done with
Operational Intelligence via Splunk’s platform. The Splunk platform, with
security solutions for security information and event management (SIEM) and
user behavior analytics, provides advanced offerings for security analytics.
Leveraging this scalable platform, Splunk User Behavior Analytics (UBA)
applies unsupervised and supervised machine learning to detect anomalies,
breaches and identify advanced attacks (attacks without signatures). Integrated
with UBA, the Splunk Enterprise Security solution provides the real-time
monitoring of known threats and incident response capabilities to confirm, pinpoint and take action on threats. From
national security to homeland security to local law enforcement and public
safety, the Splunk Platform offers agencies the operational insight into
cybersecurity threats that they need.
Serve
Delivering better service to citizens and government employees
is critical to every mission and program. In fact, the public sector’s
success depends on its ability to provide the populace with easy access to
resources and services, and it’s built complex infrastructures around them
and the public’s ability to retrieve them. It is imperative that all levels
of government be able to quickly, effectively and efficiently deliver these
services to their citizens to fulfill their serve mission pillar. Operational
Intelligence and data play a part in the delivery of these services. The
Splunk platform can be positioned as the monitoring and analytics foundation
that supports the key tenets of each of these most basic but necessary
services: optimizing resource use, consolidating infrastructure, sharing IT
resources and providing communications frameworks associated with each
mission. A key to mission success is data centric monitoring and analytics.
The Splunk platform, with the IT Service Intelligence (ITSI) solution,
provides breakthrough visibility into the health and key performance
indicators of IT services. This solution helps overcome and potentially
replace traditional IT silos and delivers a central, unified view of critical
IT services. It uses advanced analytics driven by machine learning to
highlight anomalies, detect root cause and pinpoint areas of impact.
Grow
A broad range of programs is in place to help the government evolve and grow. But this doesn’t necessarily
mean creating “big government.” Rather, it means creating a more scalable and
agile government. Some programs help the government grow by subtraction.
Programs that mandate government transparency, efficiency, accountability and
public and private sector innovation help the government grow in new and
better ways. Some of the supporting initiatives include open data, the
National Spatial Data Infrastructure, data center consolidation and green
energy. Each supports delivering a better — not necessarily bigger —
government. The Splunk platform includes a large suite of mathematical,
statistical and visualization capabilities to evaluate and model the machine
data streaming through the platform. As agencies consider opportunities to
find efficiencies and provide better service, the ability to apply these
advances analytics against time-series data could mean the difference between
understanding and defining a response and not even realizing there was an
opportunity to innovate and grow. This capability applies to every use case
we have described, from the emerging DevOps practice to cybersecurity and
agile IT operations.
From
https://www.govloop.com/
07/15/2016
TOP↑
Workforce
Management Advice for the Next Administration
The National Academy of Public Administration wants to see more
workforce accountability and bottom-up feedback from the next presidential
administration. In a new report, titled “Transition 2016: Equipping the
Government for Success in 2016 and Beyond," NAPA offers recommendations on effective
approaches to workforce recruitment and retention. They include empowering
the government’s C-suite, appointing a strong Office of Personnel Management
director, hiring officials with change management experience, holding federal
executives accountable and using feedback from federal employees.
Additionally, the recommendations encourage innovation on the part of the
executive branch to sustain the momentum of the previous administration in
building a robust cybersecurity workforce.
NAPA President Dan Blair said the purpose of the recommendations
is to provide practical ways of establishing strong partnerships and
communications between the White House and government agencies and to build
on the progress made by the previous administration rather than scrapping
effective programs and starting over from square one. According to the most
recent Plum Book, there are 1,141 full- and part-time presidential
appointment positions that require Senate confirmation, 314 presidential
appointments without Senate confirmation, 600 to 700 political Senior
Executive Service positions and 1,559 Schedule C positions. With a high
volume of positions for an incoming president to fill on a compressed
timeline, Blair said early preparation and cooperation between the exiting
and entering administrations are essential to a successful transition.
He cited the 2008 transition as exemplary due to the efforts of
the exiting George W. Bush and the entering Barack Obama. So far, Blair said,
Obama has shown a similar commitment to preparing his successor. "This administration
has made a commitment to make sure their transition is indeed smooth,"
Blair said. "I think we're off to a good start. What's interesting about
this time is the efforts to transition have started earlier than they have in
the past." He said the notion that candidates should not start preparing
for the event of their election because it would be seen as presumptuous is
outdated and even detrimental. That attitude shift has occurred because
"the stakes are so high," he said. “I think everyone realized that
coming in for a new election and a president taking over is an incredibly
complex and substantial undertaking…. You just can't begin this the day after
the election."
In addition to the burden on the incoming president, the
prospective appointees face "quite a process," Blair said.
"It’s not for the faint of heart." He noted that candidates must
stand up to the scrutiny of background checks, Senate confirmation hearings
and financial inquiries. When it comes to the practical implementation of workforce
retention and recruitment for the two presumptive candidates, Blair cautioned
against investing too much in what is said on the campaign trail. That might
be especially relevant advice in an election in which one of the leading
candidates is known for the reality TV show tagline "you're fired."
"You have to separate the campaign from actually governing," Blair
said. "There are a lot of promises made and things said during the
campaign that don’t necessarily equate to" what would happen if that candidate
is elected.
From
https://fcw.com/
07/19/2016
TOP↑
Recruiting
a Top Tech Exec into Government
GSA Administrator Denise Turner Roth says finding the right
person to run the Technology Transformation Service is less a science than an
art. The General Services Administration's search for an exceptional
candidate to lead its Technology Transformation Service cannot rely on simply
posting an ad on the federal jobs website. As GSA Administrator Denise Turner
Roth told FCW, the next commissioner of TTS must be an extraordinary leader
and a visionary IT thinker. A traditional job search won't suffice.
"It's a different kind of effort," she said. The agency formally
kicked off its search to replace TTS' inaugural commissioner, Phaedra
Chrousos, on July 11. Although GSA did place an ad on USAJobs, that listing
is more of a placeholder, according to Roth. And although both Chrousos and
Roth have said the hire could come from within government, the TTS commissioner
slot is not being treated as a career Senior Executive Service position.
TTS is home to some of the federal government's highest-profile
digital transformation efforts — 18F,
the Presidential Innovation Fellows program and the Federal Risk and
Authorization Management Program. Each has been controversial on occasion,
and all continue to evolve. Roth said finding the right person for such a
highly visible position requires active recruiting in Cambridge,
Mass.; Silicon Valley; Seattle; and other tech hot spots. And it
involves working contacts at top universities and technology companies across
the country. Chrousos herself came to GSA via a nontraditional path. The
co-founder of two New York City-based startups, Chrousos met then-GSA
Administrator Dan Tangherlini through the Partnership for Public Service and
became the agency's first chief customer officer in June 2014. In 2015, she
was named associate administrator of the Office of Citizen Services and
Innovative Technologies and was tasked with overseeing 18F. She became commissioner of TTS when 18F, FedRAMP and the PIF program were
rolled into the new organization.
Roth said finding the right person for the position is less a
science than an art. "It can be word-of-mouth" that brings in the right
person rather than traditional recruiting techniques, she added, although she
left open the possibility of hiring a headhunter to boost the agency's reach.
The job, however, isn't like a typical executive leadership position in the
corporate world, Roth said. The fact that it's a public-service job is one of
its strongest selling points, she added. Companies compete for top-level
executives by offering huge incentive packages and perks, but instead of
cash, the TTS commissioner's primary reward will be the opportunity to propel
the federal government into the 21st century with new technology and
acquisition methods. She said the message to prospective candidates is
simple: "You can change the world."
From
https://fcw.com/
08/05/2016
TOP↑
The
Presidential Transition Should Include Civil Service Reform
Maybe, just maybe, the time has come for civil service reform.
The idea keeps surfacing: Hillary Clinton promised “VA reform will be a top
priority.” The Defense Department has begun implementing its new civilian
personnel system, New Beginnings, while Congress considers a proposal to
reform hiring—the Workforce Flexibility Act of 2016. Overhauling the Senior
Executive Service has been discussed since 2012. The Republican platform
calls for cutting federal pay and benefits. And numerous reports calling for
reform have been published. The recognition that reform is needed is widely
shared. Something is needed because the civil service system is no longer
serving the needs of government at a time when public support has declined.
The last time the public’s trust in government was this low was
at the start of Bill Clinton’s presidency. Two months after his inauguration, he
authorized the National Performance Review with the goal of “creating a
government that works better and costs less.” In October 1993, a month after
the initial NPR report was released, Clinton
issued Executive Order 12871, creating the National Partnership Council with
union and management members, and charged it with planning what would have
been civil service reform. Since then, agency management has been reinvented
through successive laws—the 1993 Government Performance and Results Act was
the first—but civil service reform was forgotten. Today the problems
government needs to address have become more complex and more urgent, making
the argument for reform even more compelling. Despite repeated investments in
management systems, performance problems continue, and there’s evidence the
problems are getting worse. Through the same period, businesses have
generated significant performance gains with innovative management practices.
The Civil Service System is Antiquated
It may be hard to believe (at least it is to me) but the current
civil service system has not been changed in any meaningful way in almost a
century. All the efforts to upgrade agency management over the past two
decades have largely ignored the workforce. There has been ongoing interest
in reform, starting with the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978, but the
“system” is essentially unchanged. The classification system, the hiring
process, the emphasis on seniority, and the work environment in far too many
agencies are reflective of a decades-old approach to “people management.”
With the anticipated surge in retirements and reported problems recruiting
and retaining millennials, the situation is likely to deteriorate.
To generalize, the civil service system is central to the
psychological contract with employees. That defines what employees expect and
influences their motivation and behavior. But it has calcified the
supervisor/employee relationship, creating behavioral patterns that are
difficult to change. Employees who are accustomed to frequent or even
periodic change accept it far more readily; where the work experience is
stable, employees are much more likely to resist change. In government, the
contract is deeply entrenched and it’s the reason proposed marginal changes
are unlikely to influence performance.
For some employees, the commitment to public service—the
academic phrase is Public Service Motivation—helps them to live with the
negatives. I’ve had conversations with employees who were solidly committed
to making a contribution. There are agencies where the mission has been an
individual’s career goal since grade school. But the pay freezes, staff
reductions and the ongoing “fed bashing” contribute to a work experience that
is not conducive to raising performance levels. Reform is the only real
answer to the performance problems. Focusing on issues like improving the
USAJOBS website is not going to “fix” the hiring process or make a dent in
improving the day-to-day work experience for millennials. Every HR policy and
system needs to be evaluated to assess its impact, positive or negative, on
agency performance. That’s metrics and focus groups. Managers and employees
know what’s working.
The Revolution in the Management of Work
In the private sector, the revolution in the way work is
organized and managed has been going on for 20 years. The contrast between
the people management practices in government and the work experience in
successful, progressive (it’s unfortunate that word is often understood in political
terms) companies is striking. It would be eye opening for federal employees
to talk to employees in those companies. The practices in those “great places
to work” are documented in multiple books, reports and articles. It would be relatively easy to develop
summaries of proven ideas. Perhaps more important would be using the
information to inform government leaders how those practices benefit the
companies. Part of the problem is that leaders are often focused on public
policy issues, not day to day management, and have limited knowledge or
experience with the changes in the private sector.
The impetus for the revolution was the 1990-1991 recession that
prompted U.S.
companies to look for ways to become more competitive in world markets. They
eliminated layers of management along with bureaucratic practices,
decentralized decision making, and in doing so, gave greater autonomy to
employees. The business textbooks were rewritten, dropping old phrases like
span of control and highlighting new ideas like empowerment. This has been a
management revolution, initiated by corporate leaders. The changes led to a
new philosophy of managing people. Employees and their skills are managed as
assets; added spending is an investment expected to pay off with improved
performance. Until recently, HR played a very limited role. Civil service
reform will require leadership at the highest levels.
Defining the Aspirational Goals for Reform
Experience with major change initiatives is mixed. Disasters
like the now-abandoned National Security Personnel System still trigger
tension. But there are also success stories including a list of demonstration
projects. Plus several agencies have had separate HR systems now for years
(most prominently the agencies covered by the 1989 Financial Institutions
Reform, Recovery, and Enforcement Act, which was triggered by the savings and
loan crisis). Looking across government reform efforts (including experiences
in several states and other countries, especially the U.K. where
reform is ongoing) it’s clear there is no textbook. Another obvious point is
that it’s almost impossible in Washington
to gain agreement on anything.
That of course could change after the election. Even agreeing on what
needs to change would currently be impossible.
But if this is pushed back until after the inauguration, it may
never get started. It would be too easy to kick this can down the road. The
other possibility is that reform could be undertaken without adequate
evaluation of its viability or the impact on agency performance. Government
cannot afford another failure. A suggested strategy is to adopt the U.K. approach
and initially limit the discussion to aspirational goals. Those goals would
be similar to the NPR’s “works better and costs less.” The four goals in the U.K. are
improved outcomes, effective leaders, skilled people, a
great place to work. Even with the political differences in Washington, it should be possible to agree
on a similar set of goals. That will be the starting point for my next column.
From
http://www.govexec.com/
08/12/2016
TOP↑
Internet
Freedom: A Tool for Both Democracy and Authoritarianism
The irony of internet freedom was on full display shortly after
midnight July 16 in
Turkey
when President Erdogan used FaceTime and independent TV news to call for
public resistance against the military coup that aimed to depose him. In
response, thousands of citizens took to the streets and aided the government
in beating back the coup. The military plotters had taken over state TV. In
this digital age they apparently didn’t realize television was no longer
sufficient to ensure control over the message. This story may appear like a
triumphant example of the internet promoting democracy over authoritarianism.
Not so fast.
In recent years, President Erdogan and his Justice &
Development (AKP) Party have become increasingly authoritarian. They have
cracked down heavily on internet freedom. President Erdogan even once called
social media “the worst menace to society.” And, ironically, restoration of
these democratic freedoms was one of the stated motivations of the coup
initiators. This duality of the internet, as a tool to promote democracy or
authoritarianism, or simultaneously both, is a complex puzzle. The U.S. has made
increasing internet access around the world a foreign policy priority. This
policy was supported by both Secretaries of State John Kerry and Hillary
Clinton. The U.S. State Department has allocated tens of millions of dollars
to promote internet freedom, primarily in the area of censorship
circumvention. And just this month, the United Nations Human Rights Council
passed a resolution declaring internet freedom a fundamental human right. The
resolution condemns internet shutdowns by national governments, an act that
has become increasingly common in variety of countries across the globe,
including Turkey, Brazil, India
and Uganda.
On the surface, this policy makes sense. The internet is an
intuitive boon for democracy. It provides citizens around the world with
greater freedom of expression, opportunities for civil society, education and
political participation. And previous research, including our own, has been
optimistic about the internet’s democratic potential. However, this optimism
is based on the assumption that citizens who gain internet access use it to
expose themselves to new information, engage in political discussions, join social media groups that advocate for worthy causes
and read news stories that change their outlook on the world.
And some do.
But others watch Netflix. They use the internet to post selfies
to an intimate group of friends. They gain access to an infinite stream of
music, movies and television shows. They spend hours playing video games.
However, our recent research shows that tuning out from politics and
immersing oneself in online spectacle has political consequences for the
health of democracy.
The power of distraction
Political use of the internet ranks very low globally, compared
to other uses. Research has found that just 9 percent of internet users
posted links to political news and only 10 percent posted their own thoughts
about political or social issues. In contrast, almost three-quarters (72
percent) say they post about movies and music, and over half (54 percent)
also say they post about sports online. This inspired our study, which sought
to show how the internet does not necessarily serve as democracy’s magical
solution. Instead, its democratic potential is highly dependent on how
citizens choose to use it. The study was situated in two non-democracies, Russia and Ukraine. The two share a common
history, geography and culture. Both rank well above the global average of 48
percent of internet penetration. More than 70 percent of Russians and 60
percent of Ukrainians reportedly use the internet.
The results of our study revealed the internet’s double-edged
sword. Citizens who used the internet for news and political information were
more likely to express greater criticism about their country’s autocratic
political institutions and leaders. As a consequence, they were more likely
to demand greater democratic reforms. But, when used differently, the
internet can actually harm democratization efforts. Those who spent more of
their online time engaging with entertainment content were more satisfied
with living under autocratic conditions. These users were happy with the
authoritarian elites who oversaw them and were uninspired by the prospects of
greater freedom. In other words, online political use enhanced democratic
attitudes, while online entertainment use entrenched authoritarian ones. And
it gets worse.
Tamping down political interest
It seems the world’s most shrewd authoritarian leaders have
predicted these consequences. They have implemented policies that greatly
restrict the internet’s political benefits while enabling a rich
entertainment culture that carefully sidesteps political issues. For example,
since 2012, Russia
has precipitously increased its censorship of political opposition websites
and has recently engaged in consultations with Chinese censorship experts to
curtail it even further. In China’s
tightly controlled online environment, even entertainment content is
carefully screened for subversive messages. Unsurprisingly, both Russia and China did not support the UNHRC
human rights resolution guaranteeing citizens
unfettered access to the internet.
However, censoring political content is only part of the
authoritarian’s “online toolkit.” As we have discussed previously at The
Conversation, authoritarian governments seek to create a “psychological
firewall” that paints the internet as a scary world full of political
threats. This rationale increases threat perceptions among the public. This,
in turn, increases the public’s support for online political censorship.
These threat perceptions also further motivate audiences to seek “safe”
entertainment content rather than “risky” news and information.
When this approach proves unsuccessful, authoritarian regimes
instead turn to even more overt scare tactics. Under President Erdogan, the
Turkish government has created an aggressive program of legal, political and
economic intimidation targeting not only journalists but also average
citizens. As a consequence at least one-third of Turkish internet users are
afraid to openly discuss politics online. This trend will likely only become
worse as the Turkish government carries out its purge of political opponents
in the wake of the failed coup. The final component of the authoritarian
toolkit is propaganda and disinformation. Such efforts limit the ability of
citizens to separate truth from fiction, demobilize citizens and “undermine
the self-organizing potential of society” to pursue democratic change.
The internet freedom advocacy challenge
Ensuring citizens have access to the internet is not sufficient
to ensure democracy and human rights. In fact, internet access may negatively
impact democracy if exploited for authoritarian gain. The U.S.
government, NGOs and other democracy advocates have invested a great deal of
time and resources toward promoting internet access, fighting overt online
censorship and creating circumvention technologies. Yet their success, at
best, has been limited. The reason is twofold. First, authoritarian
governments have adapted their own strategies in response. Second, the “if we
build it, they will come” philosophy underlying a great deal of internet
freedom promotion doesn’t take into account basic human psychology in which
entertainment choices are preferred over news and attitudes toward the
internet determine its use, not the technology itself. Allies in the internet
freedom fight should realize that the locus of the fight has shifted. Greater
efforts must be put toward tearing down “psychological firewalls,” building
demand for internet freedom and influencing citizens to employ the internet’s
democratic potential. Doing so ensures that the democratic online toolkit is
a match for the authoritarian one.
The Conversation
Elizabeth Stoycheff is an Assistant Professor of Political
Communication at Wayne State University and Erik C. Nisbet is an Associate
Professor of Communication, Political Science, and Environmental Policy and
Faculty Associate with the Mershon Center for International Security Studies
at The Ohio State University. This article was originally published on The
Conversation. Read the original article
From
http://observer.com/
07/29/2016
TOP↑
United
Nations E-Government Survey 2016: E-Government in Support of Sustainable
Development
The UN E-Government Survey 2016 on “E-Government in Support of
Sustainable Development” offers a snapshot of trends in the development of
e-government in countries across the globe. According to the Survey more
governments are embracing information and communication technologies (ICTs)
to deliver services and to engage people in decision-making processes in all
regions of the world. The 2016 UN E-Government Survey provides new evidence
that e-government has the potential to help support the implementation of the
2030 Agenda and its 17 sustainable development goals (SDGs). The Survey
indicates a positive global trend towards higher levels of e-government
development as countries in all regions are increasingly embracing innovation
and utilizing new ICTs to deliver services and engage people in
decision-making processes. It underscores that one of the most important new
trends is the advancement of people-driven services - services that reflect
people’s needs and are driven by them. At the same time, disparities remain
within and among countries. Lack of access to technology, poverty and
inequality prevent people from fully taking advantage of the potential of
ICTs and e-government for sustainable development.
From
https://publicadministration.un.org/
07/31/2016
TOP↑
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CHINA: Developing New Radar System
China has
completed research and development of a new radar system, which can penetrate
walls and provide scanning imagery of objects inside houses. According to a
report on the website of the State Administration of Science, Technology and
Industry for National Defense on June 15, China Electronic Technology
Corporation (CETC) has completed the prototype R&D of China’s first
all-solid-state Terahertz imaging radar system, with all the major indexes
meeting the expected effects aimed for. The achievement means that CETC’s
Terahertz imaging radar technology is advanced at a world-wide level.
Terahertz technology has been a research hotspot in recent years. Terahertz
signals carry high frequencies, have short wave
lengths, high temporal-frequency spectrum signal to noise ratio and low
transmission loss in dense smoke-filled or dusty environments. It can go
through walls and scan objects inside of houses, which is an ideal technology
for the environment of battlefields. In urban combat and anti-terrorist
combat in the future, the Terahertz imaging radar system can provide
three-dimensional stereoscopic imaging of objects behind walls; detect hidden
weapons and militants under disguise and show tanks, artillery and other
equipment even hidden by smoke. With the joint efforts of several research
institutes under CETC, the R&D of this new radar system only took over
two years to achieve major research progress. Now, they have completed the
broadband Terahertz one-dimensional range profile and ISAR imaging experiment
and acquired the first ISAR image with resolution, image side lobes,
electrical levels and other indexes meeting the expected effect.
From http://www.chinagate.cn/
06/21/2016
TOP↑
China Launches Website for
Bankruptcy Cases
The Information Website for National Bankrupt Enterprises
Recombinational Cases went live Monday, according to the Supreme People's
Court (SPC). The new site provides services to investors, including debtor
company information, investment requirement posting and communication
channels with bankruptcy administrators. Through the website, creditors,
debtors, investors and other related parties can exercise their legal rights
online, including filing cases, reporting claims, filing objections,
attending creditors' meetings and voting. The website will expedite
bankruptcy proceedings and support legal procedures in bankruptcy cases, the
SPC said.
From http://www.news.cn/ 08/01/2016
TOP↑
Charming or Challenging? Chinese Seniors
Embrace Mobile Internet
Liu Li, 54, teaches third grade in Beijing and keeps touch with parents of her
students via WeChat. Four years ago, she did not even own a smartphone and
then, in 2012, her sister brought her an iPhone5 and a whole new world opened
up to her. "I found there were so many things that I needed to
learn," she said. Liu soon noticed that many of her coworkers were using
WeChat, so she asked a colleague to install the app for her and teach her how
to use it. She still remembers her first "moment," a kind of WeChat
newsfeed to share text, photos or videos. She posted photos of the first snow
in Beijing in
2012. Now she does far more. She has a chat group that includes parents of
all her students. When there is an activity at school, she sends photos or
videos of students to their parents. "I can send notifications and
answer parents' questions at any time via the group. It's so
convenient," she said. "Convenient" is a word she uses
frequently to describe smartphones and mobile Internet, and convenience is
probably the main reason why she has become so dependent on them. "Now I
use my phone for checking maps, booking trips, shopping and calling
cabs," she said. When she first came across payment by phone, she was a
little skeptical but soon began to "rely on it." Mobile payments
also changed the life of Liu Jianhua, 55. After her daughter showed her how
to shop online with her phone, she seldom goes to supermarkets. "It
really saves me a lot of time," she said.
Mobile Internet also caters to her needs for information.
Instead of reading newspapers, she now gets the news on phone every morning.
"I usually spend two or three hours each day reading news on my
phone," she said. She subscribes to a dozen newsfeeds from newspapers
like the "People's Daily" and "Beijing Daily." "If
there is a good article, I share it in my moments," she said. For
retiree Zhu Dan, 56, browsing WeChat moments has become part of her routine.
"I would feel a little awkward if I could not do it one day," Zhu
said. "It is like closure for the day." Beside
browsing, Zhu posts things herself. "I mainly post photos of myself
going out for activities or trips. It's just a record of my own life, but
when my friends comment or like the photos I get very excited," she
said. She has even learned how to use photo processing apps to make her
photos look better, which takes time but makes her happy. "I'm quite
into this new stuff now and very willing to learn more," she said.
However, Luddites remain. According to a 2015 survey by Wuhan University,
around a third of the seniors "frequently" encounter difficulties
when using the Internet and about half of them "occasionally" have
problems. Li, 65, told Xinhua that he is annoyed that many restaurants offer
discounts for mobile payment but he hardly knows anything about smartphones
except chatting on WeChat. "As seniors, we have to spend more money or
time to accomplish what young people do just by tapping their fingers,"
he complained.
Aware of this problem, some businesses have tried to help. In
2015, Wang Guanchun founded Laiye, a mobile Internet platform that helps
ordering cabs, food, hotels, air tickets, housekeeping.
Users can send requests by text or voice message, and Laiye staff do the technical stuff. Laiye aims to save users the
time and stress. Although the company targets busy young professionals,
senior people are also clients, Wang said. Wang's mother uses Laiye every
week. Another senior client, despite his lack of online shopping skills,
orders toys for his grandson with the help of Laiye. There is still be a long way to go. The main problem for seniors is not
that they are incapable, but that they have not had the chance to learn.
"Many seniors assume that new things are challenging, but if they have a
try and learn from the young, there are not too many challenges. You have to
believe that you will be able to do it," said Liu Li.
From http://www.chinagate.cn/
08/11/2016
TOP↑
JAPAN: Marine Data to Be Unified at JCG
A government task force decided Tuesday to develop from next
fiscal year, starting in April, a system that allows the Japan Coast Guard to
unify marine data from relevant government institutions. The JCG is expected
to develop and operate the system to show the situation in the ocean. Through
the system, satellite information supplied by the Japan Aerospace Exploration
Agency as well as information collected by the JCG on submarine topography
and navigation are slated to be shared within the
government. The system is also aimed at enabling the public to have access to
marine information with low secrecy through the Internet.
From
http://the-japan-news.com
07/27/2016
TOP↑
SOUTH KOREA: Government 3.0 Expo Promotes Big Data
Services
The Government 3.0 Expo, held at the COEX convention center in
southern Seoul,
bustled with visitors on day three, June 21. The expo showcased the many ways
in which the Korean government has been utilizing big data to transform
administration in recent years. Visitors were given the chance to see this
positive change for themselves at the expo, through a number of hands-on
events set up at booths run by a wide range of government organizations. In
the various sections of the expo, visitors could be seen exploring national
parks using virtual reality goggles or getting a health diagnosis at the
Ministry of Health booth by tapping into big data. Many visitors also spent
their time talking to system experts, sharing their opinions on the benefits
of Government 3.0. The "Open Section" featured booths that
displayed big data services offered by organizations like the Ministry of
Land, Infrastructure and Transport, the National Tax Service and the Ministry
of Health. Groups of businessmen and women lined up by the touch screen
monitors set up at the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, to
take a look at information on real estate, housing welfare and housing
application services. A few booths down, the National Tax Service corner was
crowded with new business owners who carefully looked over national
statistics for recent start-up operations, and asked for advice from the
organizers.
The "Smart Section" was most popular among university
students and office workers. At a booth run by Incheon City,
young people hopped on a bicycle set up in front of a large monitor, allowing
them to pedal through cobbled streets in virtual reality. The Korea
Meteorological Administration equipped their booth with a camera and a green
screen, giving visitors a chance to enjoy a few minutes in front of a camera
like a weather forecaster. Across the room, a booth set up by the Ministry of
Employment and Labor gathered a crowd of job hunting students and older
people looking to reenter the workforce. While there, the visitors got to try
out services offered by the ministry such as application review, welfare
support, and financial advice. Finally, the "Future Section" had a
booth run by the Rural Development Administration, showcasing infrastructure
for farmers based on big data. The Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries booth
took visitors on an adventure to the depths of the ocean floor around Jeju Island
with the help of its 360-degree virtual reality technology. At the Cultural
Heritage Administration booth, visitors could take a glimpse at the
conservation technology used by experts to preserve the country's national
heritage. Lee Seung-hee, a student preparing for the civil service
examination said "I came to the Government 3.0 Expo to learn more about
the different organizations ahead of taking the civil service exam. It was
very interesting to learn about the services offered by the various
ministries and to experience them firsthand."
From
http://www.korea.net
06/22/2016
TOP↑
1.4 Million
Pieces of Public Data Released on New Website
More than 1.4 million pieces of data about Korean history,
cultural heritage and traditions, data that used to be only scattered across
the nation's museums, galleries, libraries and archives, have now been
brought together on one single platform. The Ministry of Culture, Sports and
Tourism launched the new Korean-language website, “Smart Glam Korea” (http://glam.culture.go.kr/),
jointly with the Korea Culture Information Service Agency on July 4. The
"glam" in the name is an acronym for: gallery, library, archive and
museum. On the new platform, the culture ministry has now made public about
1.4 million pieces of "linked open data" (LOD). They include
historical documents, as well as sound and visual records. The Ministry of
Science, ICT and Future Planning also funded the establishment of this
website. The Smart Glam Korea
website allows visitors easy and quick access to information at galleries,
libraries, archives and museums. The system is also based on an Open API
program, which allows developers to access backend data that can then be used
to enhance their own services or business offerings.
When a certain subject is typed in or a search query is made, the service
unveils as much information as possible as quickly as possible. For example,
when a user types in “Joseon” (조선) in Korean in the
search query window, the system brings up search results that span the
kingdom's history, monarchs, historic remains and geography. The site also
features a themed exhibition section where a list of lifestyle features of
ancient people, including famous ancestors, porcelain works and other ancient
relics, as well as Buddhist and other religious records, can trace people’s
ancient lives. They're categorized into about 400 themes. This is where users
themselves can create their own space that focuses on one single aspect of
history in which they are interested, collecting related records from across
the database that are on offer at the website. Finally, through this project,
the culture ministry plans to expand public access to such data about tourism
sites, sports and other types of arts and traditions.
From
http://www.korea.net
07/06/2016
TOP↑
E-Gov't
Garners Rave Reviews at Home, Abroad
On July 18, the Ministry of the Interior welcomed a group of
official guests from Indonesia.
Ten civil servants from Indonesia’s ministries of administrative reform,
communication & information and of national development planning, as well
as from the Presidential Office of Indonesia, visited Seoul to check out
firsthand some of the trials, errors and successful implementations the
Korean government has undergone as it pushes ahead with the development of
online and tech-enabled government services, or e-government. The Indonesian
guests took part in a training program that aimed at enhancing their
capabilities at running and managing their own version of e-government
services back home. Running until July 28, the program allows them to fully
comprehend the policies that the Korean government has put in place to
operate its online government services, as well as learn more about online
systems used in civil affairs and for immigration control. The group also paid
a visit to IT centers and firms that offer e-government services, such as the
National Computing and Information Service (NCIS), the Seoul Transport
Operation & Information Service and LG Display. This training program was
part of joint projects being carried out by the ministry and the Korea-Indonesia Electronic
Government Cooperation
Center, a center that the two
governments jointly established in Jakarta
in March this year.
Ideally, the visiting civil servants want to learn about
e-government services that “satisfy the public.” According to a 2015
E-government Satisfaction Index released by the Ministry of the Interior on
July 25, more than 93.6 percent of the 4,000 people surveyed, ranging in age
from 16 to 74, said that they are satisfied with the central government's
range of electronic and online services. The highest satisfaction was found
among those between the ages 16 and 19, of whom 93.8 percent said that they
were satisfied, followed by 93.8 percent of people in the 20s, 93.1 percent
of people in their 30s, 83.8 percent of people in their 40s, 69.3 percent of
people in their 50s and, lastly, 34.7 percent of people between the ages of
60 and 74. Most e-government services are involved with the search for
information, and to make applications for and to search for civil affair
documents, such as birth certificates and passports, or national health or
tax records. When asked why they keep using the online government services,
29 percent said it was for “the quick handling of civil affairs,” 28.5 percent
said due to the “easy availability, at any time and any place,” and 19.5
percent said because of the “easy access to information and services on
offer.”
From
http://www.korea.net
07/26/2016
TOP↑
Gov't to
Release Aid Info, Push Transparency
For the first time, the Korean government has released data
regarding its official development assistance (ODA) programs to the
International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI). The IATI is a voluntary body
that contributes to the transparency of the records showing how funds for
overseas aid are spent and governed. It does so by encouraging its members --
international and private aid organizations -- to disclose their data about
their projects. Since December 2015, Seoul has
been one of the 14 IATI members, including Australia,
Belgium, Canada, Denmark,
Finland, the U.S. and Germany. On Aug. 11, Seoul made public data
from 13 out of 39 IATI categories, with statistics current as to June this
year. The data include information about aid organizations, such as
organization identifiers, names, reporting organizations, and, more broadly,
aid activities such as project IDs, reporting organizations, titles,
descriptions, participating organizations, activity statuses and dates,
recipient countries and regions, and sector. There are also data about 740 or
so ODA projects currently being carried out or set to be carried out by the
Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) and by the Export-Import Bank
of Korea.
The South Korean government plans to gradually expand the amount of data it
discloses and also information about its participating organizations. It will
also join the campaign to release data about civic and academic groups that
engage in overseas aid programs.
From
http://www.korea.net
08/16/2016
TOP↑
Korea Expands Partnership with Uganda, Vietnam on E-Gov't, Railways
The Korean government has now shared its online public
procurement system, the Korea Online E-procurement System (KONEPS), and
related management systems with the government of Uganda. Starting Aug. 9, the
government's Public Procurement Service organized a nine-day online
procurement training workshop for 15 civil servants from Uganda. This
is now the second year for the Korean government to offer the training to Uganda, and
the participants are learning about the development of the KONEPS and the
multiple award schedule (MAS) system. In the first
year, they learned about the outline of the Korean government's procurement
systems and about KONEPS. KONEPS has been adopted overseas and helps numerous
governments manage their systematic problems that arise by adopting the new
system into their government organizations. KONEPS has been adopted by
governments in Vietnam, Costa Rica, Mongolia,
Tunisia, Cameroon, Rwanda
and Jordan.
Meanwhile, Korea and Vietnam have
agreed to run a 32-month training and consulting program for the Vietnamese
railway industry and for related government officials, with the goal of
improving the Vietnamese train network.
This August, the Korea Railroad Research Institute (KRRI), the
Korea Railroad Corporation (KORAIL) and the Korea Transport Institute began a training and consulting program, together with the
Korean International Cooperation Agency (KOICA). The program will be run in
three phases: manpower training; railway-related legal systems and
consulting; and, consulting on developing models for public-private
partnerships given Vietnam's
transport and infrastructure industry. Through the policy consultation
process, the institute is planning to train about 360 railway experts in 20
or so training programs, all in Korea. Policy advice on revising
the current Vietnamese railway legal and institutional system will also be
provided. The consultations will cover laws ranging from urban rails and
railway safety, to railway system standards and related technology standards.
A feasibility study for the Bien Hoa-Vung Tau railway project will also be
implemented, alongside an analysis of the development of a model for
public-private partnerships. KRRI President Kim Ki-hwan said that this
project will be an opportunity to strengthen the railway partnership between Korea and Vietnam,
and added his hopes that Korea
would play an important role in the development of the railway network in Vietnam.
From
http://www.korea.net
08/17/2016
TOP↑
Sharing with
the World: E-Gov't Part 1
The Korean government has been concentrating on establishing
e-government services since 1987 when it enacted laws expanding the supply of
desktops and promoting the use of computer networks in order to provide high
quality government service to its citizens in a more convenient manner.
Thanks to such ongoing efforts to develop related technologies, Korea’s
e-government systems are now receiving praise from all around the world. We
would like to trace this journey from its initial footsteps through to some
of today's successful cases, and look at future directions for Korea's
online government services and international cooperation. This is
part one of a series about the Korean government sharing its e-government
systems with the world. E-government aims to provide better services, more
conviniently
Incheon International Airport is filled with vacation-goers in the summer,
the peak holiday season. You can easily find long queues waiting for their
turn at the immigration desk. However, you can also see some people who don't
have to wait. They go straight to an immigration kiosk and finish their
screening by simply showing their passports. This is thanks to an automatic
immigration screening process where the traveler registers with an online
e-government service before leaving the country. The expedited immigration
screening system shortens immigration processing time with pre-registered
passport, fingerprint and facial information. This is one of the Korean
government's representative e-government systems. Airports are not the only
place where you can find government services being provided more efficiently
by using computers and associated technology. Thanks to a system of issuing
civil documents, users can download residence registration forms or any kind
of form related to civil affairs through the internet without having to visit
a government office. They can also pay their taxes online. Such online
document retrieval systems and online tax systems are all part of the Korean
government’s e-government ecosystem.
According to laws concerning the provision of online government services,
e-government is any online website or database at any tier of government that
can effectively provide administrative and governmental services to citizens
and residents through the use of automation and IT. In other words,
e-government provides some of the best services at the least cost, by using
IT to boost the effectiveness and productivity of government. In 1987, Korea enacted
laws to expand the supply of computers and to promote the use of computer
networks. Since then, the government has focused on establishing computer
networks based on a Korea-made electronic telephone exchange, the TDX-1, to
build a nation-wide network of connected government computers that covered
civil affairs, real estate registration, automobiles and employment records.
In 1995, the government enacted its first e-government laws and created a
high-speed national computer network to cover electronic procurement and to
handle national financial information.
The government continued to expand its online administrative services through
the expansion of e-government websites in 2003 and with even more
sophisticated services in 2008 aimed at providing upgraded services for civil
affairs and to expand e-government offerings. Its overall goal was to
establish one integrated computer network that could provide sophisticated
online administrative services and which could increase government
efficiency. In 2002, the government established an online e-government civil
affairs website (www.egov.go.kr) which later developed into the Minwon 24
site (민원24,
www.minwon.go.kr). By using this website, citizens can request, issue or read
any kind of civil affairs document -- online, around the clock -- without
having to visit any government office. The government's push for the
development of e-government services is not new. In 2013, President Park
vowed to “make a people-centered, service-minded government” at a ceremony to
mark her administration's “Government 3.0”
vision. This initiative is a reform drive to boost transparency,
information-sharing, communication and cooperation at all levels of
government. Since that time, the Korean government has decided to broaden its
disclosure of administrative information, barring cases of national security
or personal privacy. Under the initiative, there are now big data and
cloud-based advanced administrative services that can provide
citizen-centered tailored services.
In June 2016, President
Park said that her
administration would change the way in which the government works to make it
smarter by actively using new technologies, such as the Internet of Things
(IoT), cloud computing, big data and mobile communications. Regarding the
background of the establishment of Korea’s e-government services,
it's hard not to mention the country’s continued efforts at developing its
computer networks. In 1996, Korea
commercialized the use of mobile communications services based on Code
Division Multiple Access (CDMA) technologies, which are characterized for
excellent efficiency in frequency and rapid processing speeds of up to 2
megabits per second, 100 times faster than analogue methods. Korea further
strived to build faster networks. In 2005, the country built a broadband
network that was more than 100 times faster than CDMA networks and in 2010
established a "Giga Internet Network" with speeds in the range of
100 megabits per second and 1 gigabit per second, never ceasing in its drive
to develop a high-speed internet network that could transmit large amounts of
data in an ever faster, more stable manner.
Today, the world is eyeing Korea’s
e-government services. The government's online procurement system received a
Public Service Award from the U.N. in 2003. Since then, its customs and
immigration management system, e-procurement system, civil affairs management
systems, intellectual property rights administration systems and online tax
systems all received public service innovation and public service awards from
the U.N. Korea's system of online government services earned the top rank in
the U.N.'s biannual E-government Survey in 2010, 2012 and 2014. Korea has
been actively working with its neighbors to share its knowledge and experiences
in the establishment of an e-government. The world’s interest in Korea’s
e-government system has now led to exports. According to the Ministry of the
Interior, as of 2015, Korea
exported various e-government computer systems to 11 non-Korean organizations,
with contracts worth some USD 534 million. Government officials from
countries in Africa, Asia, Oceania and in North,
Central and South America are heading to Korea to learn more about its
knowledge and experience in e-government systems.
From
http://www.korea.net
08/17/2016
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Gov't 3.0
Now Available Via App
A selection of the Korean government's online services can now
be browsed and accessed at the click of a button via a new mobile app that
was released today. On Aug. 19, the Ministry of the Interior unveiled its
"Gov't 3.0 Alert Service" in an effort to consolidate the core
services offered to the public by the central government and other public
organizations. Upon opening the app, users are met with three distinct
sections: Frequently Visited Services, Services by Category, and Services by
Life Stage. In Frequently Visited Services, users can find 19 of the most
popular government services used by the public. Here, you can access Minwon
24, a civil service consultation center where you can apply for paperwork or
file complaints. There is also Worknet, where job seekers can browse openings
in both the public and private sector. You can also find travel information
for every region of Korea
by clicking on Visit Korea. For those wanting to explore what's on offer,
Services by Category is a good starting point, as it breaks down the services
into 12 areas of interest, like health, housing, safety, welfare and leisure.
Alternatively, you can check out the range of services in Services by Life
Stage, categorized by age group. Clicking on the Infant tab, for example,
takes the user to a list of services related to raising a young child, like
the Childcare website run by the Ministry of Health that provides useful
information on pregnancy, childbirth and child rearing. Other infant-related
services include information on nursery schools and vaccinations, as well as
health and nutrition. The Young Adult tab provides links to 44 services that
cover topics like domestic and overseas employment, application guidelines
for university programs and scholarship offerings. The Senior tab offers
information on employment and start-ups, healthcare, pension management,
travel and cultural events. "Gov't 3.0 Alert Service" is available
at the Google App store and can also be accessed via the Government 3.0
website itself (www.gov30.go.kr). A version of the app for the iPhone is
pending release.
From
http://www.korea.net
08/19/2016
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MYANMAR: Official Trade Website Launched
The Ministry of Commerce has opened a trade website to ease
Asean-wide business exchanges. A ministry official said: “This website aims
to ensure entrepreneurs can easily understand trade information and help
support the smooth functioning of business. Since 2014, USAid has sent
technical experts and our officials have visited USAid. It has provided funds
of US$500,000 for the project.” The website should enable traders to comply
with Asean's trade agreements and provide details of the country's business laws.
The trade portal also aims to enable the authorities and researchers to get
more accurate trade information and help develop the private sector.
From
http://www.elevenmyanmar.com/
07/16/2016
TOP↑
PHILIPPINES: President Names Minister of Newly-Formed ICT
Department
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has appointed a lawyer as
minister of the newly-created Department of Information and Communication
Technology, Malacanang, the presidential palace, said Friday. Duterte has
named Attorney Rodolfo Salalima as head of the department and described
Salalima as "an information technology expert, an activist advocating
the rights of the poor, and a long-time government
servant are among the experts in their respective fields who have joined my
Cabinet." Salalima was a former executive of a private Philippine
telecommunication firm, serving as its chief legal counsel and as senior vice
president for corporate and regulatory affairs until his retirement in 2008.
He represented the country's information and communication technology
industry as Asia Pacific representative and vice chair of the International
Telecommunication Union council working group, which crafted the amendments
to the International Telecommunication Union constitution and convention in Geneva, Switzerland.
The new department was created following the enactment of Congress and
approved by former President Benigno S. Aquino III shortly before he stepped
down from office.
From
http://news.xinhuanet.com/
07/01/2016
TOP↑
SINGAPORE: Internet Access Block for Public Servants
Under Consideration for "A Very Long Time"
SINGAPORE: From May next year, public servants will be able to
surf the internet only on designated computers - a decision that
Communications and Information Minister Yaacob Ibrahim said had been under
consideration for "a very long time" and was necessary, given the
increasing sophistication of hackers. "At the end of the day, as the
custodian of data concerning our citizens and because of national interests,
we have to protect that,” he said. “We are constantly under attack. That's a
fact of life. We cannot ignore that.” Speaking at the sidelines of a
community event on Saturday (Jun 11), Dr Yaacob acknowledged that while the
move won't be easy, agencies like the Foreign Affairs Ministry and the Trade
and Industry Ministry have already adopted this practice. "This is about
the security of our system. We do not want it to be infiltrated,” he said.
”But having said that, I'm not going to give you a guarantee that we will be
100 per cent secure. Nobody can do that. But at least we know what are the challenges,
what are the risks. If we can mitigate the risks, we should do that."
Addressing the issue on Thursday, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong revealed
that Singapore has seen very sophisticated attacks on the Government's
Internet system, which is why Singapore is making the move after having put
it off for as long as possible. Weighing in on the move as well, Foreign
Minister Dr Vivian Balakrishnan, who is also the country's Minister-in-Charge
of the Smart Nation Initiative, warned of the "clear and present threat
of espionage and criminal activity on the Internet" and said that
cybersecurity is essential if Singapore
is to become a smart nation.
From
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/
06/11/2016
TOP↑
THAILAND: Committee to Target Online Referendum
Offences
A joint working committee will be set up to monitor the Internet
for offences against the referendum law. The Election Commission, the
Technology Crime Suppression Division (TCSD), and the Ministry of Information
and Communications Technology yesterday resolved to work in collaboration in
targeting such offences. EC member Somchai Srisutthiyakorn met with Pol
General Nitiphat Wuttiboonyasit, TCSD superintendent, and Phongsahtorn Wanasukhon,
director of the ICT Ministry's Department of Technology Crime. They discussed
the use of online media to spread false and inciting messages in regard to
the upcoming referendum. Somchai said the three parties would work together
to track online wrongdoings related to the referendum. The Internet has
become a major battlefront on the plebiscite, he said. "The working
committee will monitor any online wrongdoings 24/7," he said. "If
any false, rude, or inciting messages about the charter referendum are found,
legal action eill be taken immediately." Somchai said the public should
not be worried about the action. Opinions on the charter were still allowed
if they were |not rude, false, or inciting.
From
http://www.nationmultimedia.com/
06/18/2016
TOP↑
IP Dept
Urges Copyright Owners to Spare SMEs
THE INTELLECTUAL Propert Depart-ment has called for copyright
holders and copyright-fee collectors to exempt small and medium-sized
businesses from paying fees for playing music to customers and to send
warning letters before taking legal action. After meeting with 19 copyright
owners and 29 fee collectors last week, Nuntawan Sakuntanaga,
director-general of the department, said yesterday that it would try to find
a fair outcome to ensure satisfaction for everyone concerned. The meeting
followed a coffee-shop owner being threatened with a Bt200,000
fine for breaching copyright law by playing songs on YouTube. The case has been
a hot topic on social media, with much disagreement over whether the shop
violated the law. The department has asked copyright owners and fee collectors to keep it informed, and says it will use
the information to try to ensure fair practice for all involved. It was also
proposed at the meeting that the department set up a one-stop service for
collecting copyright fees to prevent duplication in such collections and to
decrease expenses for copyright owners. Copyright owners and fee collectors
urged the department to provide the public with clear information about
intellectual-property rights and the penalties for copyright infringements.
From
http://www.nationmultimedia.com/
07/12/2016
TOP↑
VIETNAM: Judicial Systems Go Online
The adoption of a one-door mechanism at civil judgement
enforcement agencies must be expedited across the country to allow online
applications for enforcement in the coming period, officials said. Deputy Minister
of Justice Trần Tiến Dũng made the statement at a press conference held on
Wednesday to review the judicial activities conducted in the first half of
this year ahead of the execution of judicial tasks in the coming period. The
one-door judicial mechanism is expected to be a new online system that will
update and link judicial information systems. Relevant ministries, agencies
and individuals will share the same software system as a way to increase
efficiency and transparency and to help reduce the need for citizens to
travel. Dũng said that in terms of administrative procedures and business
conditions, the ministry would conduct a careful review to ensure
transparency and efficiency and to cut costs for citizens and businesses.
Figures from the ministry showed that there are nearly 9,900 lawyers and
nearly 2,100 public employees working in the sector across the country. In
the first six months of this year, enforcement activities increased by 4.79
per cent compared to the same period last year, with a total of 643,722 cases
filed.
The ministry has completed key tasks, producing 169 documents
detailing the laws that will come into effect on July 1, evaluating 151 draft
legal documents and 61 international treaties and checking for and
discovering 58 illegal documents. In particular, the ministry has launched a pilot birth registration software in Hà Nội, HCM City,
Đà Nẵng, Hải Phòng and Nghệ An Province. By
July 5, more than 149,830 births were registered via the software. In the
next six months of this year, Dũng said the ministry would focus on creating
the amended Law on State Compensation Liability and the amended Law on Legal
Aid. The ministry will also study and create the Law on Asset Registration
while continuing to monitor and supervise the relevant ministries and sectors
for the drafting of amended laws on investment and trade. The ministry will
have regular briefings with the Governmental Office and the ministries and
sectors to review and support the drafting of such laws. However, Dũng
required the ministries to create these laws quickly to ensure the quality of
the ministry’s appraisal and the progress of the laws. In response to
questions on the postponement of the implementation of the Criminal Code in
2015, Dũng confirmed that the ministry had been working with the National
Assembly agencies to amend the law. The ministry accepts part of the
responsibility for the delay as it is in charge of drafting the law, he said.
From
http://vietnamnews.vn/
07/08/2016
TOP↑
HÀ Nội
Health Department Launches Online Services
The Hà Nội Health Department on Monday launched its online
administrative services at qlhanhnghekcb.gov.vn to issue practice permits to
healthcare workers and business licences to healthcare stations. Applicants
can get the free registration forms for the services at the department’s
administrative request receipt office and its portal soyte.hanoi.gov.vn, and
then submit it online to the department during working hours on all working
days. The department has also announced that its hotline numbers 0437343622
and 0439902390 will receive feedback about its administrative services. Last
week, the capital city also launched its website egov.hanoi.gov.vn, covering
12 districts, to provide public services such as registration of births,
deaths and marriages, and certified copies of documents in Vietnamese.
From
http://vietnamnews.vn/
08/15/2016
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INDIA: Cloud Changing Governance Dynamics
The availability of Microsoft cloud services through local data
centers has the potential to make “Digital India” a reality. Cloud can open
new possibilities in eGovernance, Financial Inclusion, Healthcare and
Education, and impact the lives of millions. Karan Bajwa, Managing Director,
Microsoft Corporation India, in an exclusive interview with Souvik Goswami of
Elets News Network (ENN), talks how cloud computing promotes ease of
interaction with citizens and businesses Throw some light on the various
cloud computing solutions offered by Microsoft.
Microsoft is the only company building out a hyper-scale public
cloud while also meeting customer needs for private cloud and hybrid
solutions. Our complete portfolio of cloud services through our local
datacenters – Microsoft Azure, Office 365 and CRM Online, are designed to
fuel innovation and accelerate India’s digital transformation.
The Microsoft Cloud turns massive streams of data into insight, helps drive
unparalleled productivity, transforms a mobile
workforce into a connected team, and scales rapidly to meet customers’ needs
for organizations across verticals. Similarly, cloud can deliver enormous
computing power to drive advanced analytics and machine learning, enabling
the government to address the country’s pressing problems. At Microsoft, we
have analyzed all regulatory, security and privacy requirements of the
Government of India and ensure that our datacenters will exceed these
requirements.
The Cloud Decision Framework can help government departments unlock
the power of public and hybrid cloud with very compelling economic models.
For instance, in Andhra Pradesh, we are helping the Government predict school
dropouts by using Machine learning. We have a 10,000 strong partner community
to bring the best in class technology to the Indian citizens. We and our
partners are helping Government departments, large enterprises, SMBs and
startups use technology to transform India. We are proud to be a
partner in the change the country is experiencing. There are concerns around
trust and security of cloud technology. How can your organization counter
these? To support a comprehensive approach to security, Microsoft invests
more than a billion dollars in security research and development every year.
Microsoft is the first company in the industry to win a certification ISO/IEC
27018 that validates the high- est levels of data security and privacy. Our
commitment to cloud is reflected in our heavy investment on 100 data centers
in 19 regions in over 40 coun- tries, including India. These local datacenters
use the next-generation infrastructure, data and developer services, with
thousands of servers, petabytes of storage and massive network capacity in
the most secure and safe environment.
Can you put some light on some of the global best cases related
to using Microsoft Cloud.
Cloud technologies and especially public cloud has been widely
adopted by Governments across the world. Public cloud gives the Government
ready access to the latest technologies without having to invest in setting
up of datacenters. Cloud has the potential to bring Government agencies the
benefits of big IT even on a small budget, at an affordable monthly
subscription rate. What are the challenges for governments to adopt more and
more cloud computing? The Government recognizes the transformative power of
technology and sees it as an enabler to amplify the change that we all seek
in delivering better citizen services. We continue to work with the
Government to dispel issues pertaining to data security and last mile
connectivity to increase cloud uptake. It is equally important to support
policy initiatives that enable thriving and competitive local knowledge
economies. These include open technology standards, intellectual property
rights, freedom of expression, and addressing evolving challenges in areas
such as data security and privacy.
What is your vision for the use of cloud computing in governance
in the Indian context?
Governments and citizens don’t need innovation for innovation’s sake, they need innovation that enables organizations and
individuals to make a real impact on their communities. Harnessing the power
of innovation to address big societal challenges,
requires more than technology itself. It requires a holistic and
collaborative approach that spans the institution to the end-user. It is
critical for stakeholders across the eco- system to come together –
governments, industry players, academics, NGOs and citizen groups, to
maximize the impact of the cloud and innovation for sustainable impact across
the society. Today, cloud computing is making it possible to drive
intelligence and insights from the immense magnitude of data, converting it
into predictive and analytical power. This power puts data and cloud
computing at the core of analysis and action that the governments world over
have set out to address, including poverty, hunger, health and education. Our
vision is to put the infinite power of cloud computing to work for India’s
development.
From
http://egov.eletsonline.com 05/25/2016
TOP↑
Smart City
Projects in India
BENGALURU: You may be living in big cities, metropolitan cities; but do you
know how it would be to live in a Smart city? Recently, Government has set
out plans to make 100 Indian cities ‘Smart’. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has
already designed plans to make Indian cities smart in a term of 7 years. He
describes that these cities will be no less to any European city in terms of
quality of living. Quality of life here points to better and equal access for
water, electricity, affordable homes, education and health services, and IT
connectivity. The list of spotlighted cities is recently appended with
Agartala (Tripura), Bhagalpur (Bihar), Chandigarh (Punjab/Haryana),
Dharamshala (Himachal), Faridabad (Haryana), Imphal (Manipur), Lucknow (UP),
New Town Kolkata (West Bengal), Panaji (Goa), Port Blair (Andaman and
Nicobar), Raipur (Chhattisgarh), Ranchi (Jharkhand), and Warangal
(Telengana). Smart cities will have a shot at efficiently using technology,
information, and data to improve infrastructure and services. As part of this
venture, major part of government services will be offered online, especially
on mobile, making it affordable and transparent for the public. Also, people
can give their feedback on e-groups which in turn increases the public
participation in administration and governance.
Further, citizens can have increased access to public transport,
smart parking, intelligent traffic management, and also multi-modal transport
for better mobility in the city. The surroundings will be maintained in such
a way that they are pedestrian/cyclist friendly. Slums will be renovated and
developed to accommodate growing population. Care will be taken to keep the
neighborhood disaster-immune. The heat effects will be attempted to remediate
by building and managing open spaces like parks, playgrounds and recreational
spaces. When it comes to the most important aspect of security, any kind of
criminal activities will be suppressed by installing Video surveillance
systems in the public places, roads to protect general public.
From
http://www.siliconindia.com 05/26/2016
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97% of Govt Websites
Fail to Pass Quality Certification Test
In a scenario where the Narendra Modi-led Government is trying
to work towards making India
a digital nation, the Centre has discovered that over 920 websites of
various government departments are not compliant with quality certification!
This led to the government issuing a 115-point parameter to rectify the
situation. As per the instructions, all the sites should be up-to-date and
must not display the message of “page under construction”. This way, the
government is aiming to fulfil the agenda of “minimum government, maximum
governance” and “Digital India” for making governance a citizen-friendly
affair. The websites have been audited by the Standard Testing and Quality
Certification (STQC) Directorate, which highlighted that only 31 portals (or
just 3 per cent of the websites) are complying with the Guidelines of Indian
Government Websites (GIGW). The STQC Directorate is an
internationally-recognised body under the Ministry of Communications and Information
Technology. To speed up the process of making all governmental websites
properly functional, the Department of Administrative Reforms and Public
Grievances (DARPG) has sought personal intervention of respective secretaries
and has issued 115 matrices along with asking for a monthly report on the
implementation of GIGW guidelines.
Under the guidelines, the government departments have to ensure
that national identity symbols like flag, national emblem etc., are in a
proper ratio and colour. They are also tasked with making these portals
bi-lingual. Security is also one of the parameters for better functioning of
these websites with the departments having a contingency plan for handling
situations such as defacement or hacking. It needs to be ensured that website
ranks in the first five results on major search engines when searched with
relevant keywords. The secretaries also have to see if the websites
are accessible to the intended audience in an efficient and secure manner on
24×7 basis and that they have been tested on multiple browsers.
The website should also be free from any offensive or
discriminatory language along with having a mechanism to ensure that all
outdated announcements are removed from the portal or moved to archive.
From
http://egov.eletsonline.com 05/31/2016
TOP↑
Govt’s ‘Twitter Seva’
Initiative Gives Major Push to Digital Governance
For the first time in the history of the country, 95 per cent of
ministers in the ruling Narendra Modi Government are active on Twitter, with
22 of his Cabinet ministers and 42 of his 50 ministries actively using
Twitter to engage with citizens, update them on government policies, and
connect with them through live conversations. Over the last two years, the
NDA government has used Twitter effectively for transparent and accountable
governance. Given below is the complete list of ministers and ministries in
the NDA Government using Twitter actively. The ministries leading the charge are
doing so using Twitter Seva, a customised e-governance delivery service
developed for the Indian Government. As an India-first innovation, Twitter
Seva is currently being used by the Ministry of Commerce (@DIPPGOI), Ministry
of External Affairs (@MEAIndia) and the Ministry of Railways (@RailMinIndia),
with more ministries and government agencies to follow. These ministries have
changed how the government and citizens interact and have redefined the
customer service culture in the public sectors. Twitter Seva helps process
large volume of Tweets, converts them into
resolvable tickets and assigns them to the relevant authority for real-time
resolution. The service is driving efficient and effective customer service
as well as collation of real-time citizen feedback. Along with the personal
accounts of ministers, the ministries are providing live assistance via a
range of official handles (@CimGOI, @ctopassportseva, @eesl_india) and
hashtags (#mociseva, #passportseva).
From
http://egov.eletsonline.com/ 05/31/2016
TOP↑
NPCI, CSC
e-Governance Services Launch Aadhaar-Enabled Payment System
In a bid to facilitate government entitlements such as NREGA and
old age pension, the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) has
partnered with CSC e-Governance Services India to launch Aadhaar-enabled
payment system (AePS) at locations where CSC eGov has been acting as Business
Correspondent of the bank. The system will pave way for disbursement of
government entitlements like NREGA, social security pension, handicapped old
age pension, etc, of any Central or State Government bodies with the help of
Aadhaar which acts as a authentication proof by
Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI). The system will be useful
as it is based on demographic and biometric/iris information of an
individual, which eliminates the threat of any fraud and non-genuine
activity. Aadhaar will facilitate “anytime, anywhere, anyhow” authentication
to its beneficiary. The service was inaugurated at Puducherry’s Ariyankuppam
Grama Panchayat by V Sabapathy, Speaker of its Legislative Assembly, in the
presence of Balachandran M, Chairman, NPCI and A P Hota, MD & CEO, NPCI.
From
http://egov.eletsonline.com 06/20/2016
TOP↑
RTI a Powerful Tool to Promote Good
Governance
Vice President M Hamid
Ansari, along with Uttar Pradesh Governor Ram Naik, Chief Minister Akhilesh
Yadav, Senior Judge of Lucknow Bench of Allahabad High Court Justice A P Sahi
and Chief Information Commissioner Jawed Usmani at the New Building of Uttar
Pradesh Information Commission, in Lucknow on July 11, 2016. The Right
to Information (RTI) is a powerful tool for enhancing citizen’s ability to
participate in the governance, Vice-President of India M Hamid Ansari has
said. Addressing the inaugural ceremony of the New Building of Uttar Pradesh
Information Commission in Lucknow on Junly 11, 2016, the Vice-President said
that democracy requires an informed citizenry and transparency of
information, which are vital to its functioning and also to contain
corruption and hold governments and their instrumentalities accountable to
the governed Uttar Pradesh Governor Ram Naik, Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav,
Senior Judge of Lucknow Bench of Allahabad High Court Justice A P Sahi and
Chief Information Commissioner Jawed Usmani were present on the occasion. Vice
President Ansari further said that the legislative intent of RTI is to
empower the citizens to promote transparency and accountability in the
working of public authorities, reduce the gap between the information
provider and the information seeker, enhance efficiency in administration of
public authorities, mitigate corruption and promote good governance. “There
can be little doubt that this Act is one of the most empowering and
progressive legislations passed in the post-Independent India,” he
observed and added that this Act provides for better governance, and
impacts the very nature of governance itself.
He maintained that the
basic tenets of the Act have been implemented and institutional mechanisms
are in place, and are being used by citizens as a tool to bring in
transparency and accountability at all levels of Governance. He further said
that while the Civil Society Organisations and Media can act as pressure
points, most of the correctives need to be carried out by the Government and
Information Commissions. “There is a need for a sustained mass awareness campaign,
need for greater voluntary disclosure of information held with public
Authorities, need to rid ourselves of the old mindset regarding secrecy of
government processes and transactions and the need for person demanding
information under the RTI to be emboldened and secure,” he concluded.
From
http://egov.eletsonline.com 07/16/2016
TOP↑
Govt Launches E-marketplace for Procurements by Departments
With an aim to bring in greater transparency and streamline the
process of government procurements, the Ministry of Commerce has launched an
e-marketplace for online purchase of goods and services by various central
government ministries and departments. A portal has been developed by the
Directorate General of Supplies and Disposals (DGS&D) for the purpose.
The Department, under the Commerce Ministry, carries out the procurement.
Talking about the initiative, Union Commerce and Industry Minister Nirmala
Sitharaman told the media that the DGS&D has worked on it very hard so as
to bring in transparency. The Department of Electronics and IT (DeitY) has
also played a very big role in this. “To begin with, they (DGS&D) are
putting on their portal all regularly purchasable items, which the various
government departments will need.” Citing the example of computers, she said
if one wants a particular specification of a computer, various brands and
specifications are available at the portal, along with their cost. Through this
portal all the government departments and ministries can procure goods, she
said adding, “The prices are going to be there, it is for you to say how many
units you want.” She also hinted that “this is just a beginning and many more
things are in the offing”. “It will get expanded in the longer term. By March
next year, we want it to make it comprehensive. So this is one way to make
government procurement absolutely transparent,” she added. The DGS&D has
asked the departments that for the success of the marketplace, it is
necessary to upload the demands of commonly-used goods and services required
by government buyers. This would help aggregate demand which will lead to
lower prices, better choices and faster procurement.
From
http://egov.eletsonline.com 07/21/2014
TOP↑
e-Governance Crucial for Citizen
Services
In a bid to ease out administration work and make it
corruption-free, Pravir Kumar, Chairman of Noida, Greater Noida and Yamuna
Expressway Industrial Development Authority (YEIDA) asserted the use of
technology to facilitate citizen-centric services, while addressing a meeting
attended by officials of the three concerned authorities. After reviewing the
online services being offered by the departments, Kumar asked the officials
to adopt the best practices of each authority to provide an effective
public-government interface. Kumar feels there is gap between the required
civic services to be provided to the citizens which needs
to be filled with efficient working of the authorities with the help of
technology. Hence, the public service delivery system should be
consolidated keeping in mind the needs and interests of the citizens. The meeting
observed that the model of Noida’s Citizen Charter services be adopted in the Greater Noida Authority and YEIDA to
yield the benefits of its effective working. The charter includes 152
services spread across 12 departments which have been largely effective in
dealing with public grievances. YEIDA is already making efforts to bring
about paperless governance in place by implementing online tools such as
file-tracking system, dak (postal) tracking system and government order
tracking system.
From http://egov.eletsonline.com
08/06/2016
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BhubaneswarOne Portal
Launched;
First
Among
Smart Cities
BhubaneswarOne portal, a Smart City
initiative which integrates geo-spatial data from all the Govt. and Private
organizations, was launched by Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Pattnaik
recently. The portal will provide easy and hassle free information for the
residents and the tourists. It is an integrated GIS based map system for
government agencies to deliver location-based services and information. It is
a multi-agency collaboration with many government agencies currently
participating and contributing information. This e-platform can be used to
find locations, ward information, information on public services, updated
notifications from various Govt. organizations, location and significance of
different tourist sites, event calendar of Bhubaneswar City
and much more. The portal will update the data on a regular basis and more
government departments will be partnered for a better service delivery and to
have a one stop solution for each resident of Bhubaneswar. Based on the lines of
SingaporeOne, the Bhubaneswar Smart City Ltd company, the Special Purpose
Vehicle, has developed the Bhubaneswar One application to enable citizens to
learn everything about the city. From locations of hotels, healthcare centers
and government offices to getting online services provided to the citizens,
the app would provide everything, said an official. Bhubaneswar has become first in the country
to provide such online services to the citizens, said a release from Chief
Minister’s Office. The portal supports IE9+, Firefox 10+, Safari 2+, Opera 8+
and Google Chrome 10+. The state Urban Development department,
Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation, Bhubaneswar Development Authority have
worked together in designing the portal.
From http://egov.eletsonline.com
08/08/2016
TOP↑
PAKISTAN: KP Police Set Up New Info Network
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa police has established an incentive based
Police Information Network (PIN) to serve as a platform for the citizens to
win significant amount of cash rewards for sharing credible information about
terrorists and their facilitators. The network is initially being launched in
Peshawar and
will later on be extended to other parts of the province. With the launch of
PIN, citizens of Peshawar
will be able to earn up to Rs 100,000 without compromising their identities
as reward for informing police about terrorists, extortionists, target
killers and their facilitators. The decision to launch PIN was taken during a
high level security meeting held in the office of the Inspector General
Police last week. The meeting which was chaired by the IGP was attended by
the heads of special branch, counter terrorism department and Peshawar police. During
the meeting it was decided that a lot of valuable intelligence can be
obtained from the fellow citizens provided they are confident that their
identities will remain confidential. It was in this backdrop that the
Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for the working of PIN was chalked out.
According to the SOP, PIN will be personally handled by senior most officers
including DIG CTD, CCPO, SSP CTD and SSP Peshawar. The citizens having any
credible intelligence about the said categories will only have to send the
term PIN as SMS on mobile phones of the above mentioned officers.
These senior officers will then be contacting the sender
personally for obtaining the information. Though unprecedented the
involvement of senior most officers will help build public trust and
credibility of PIN. Platforms like PIN are being used globally by different
LEAs involved in counter terrorism and crime control. In fact if successful
it can prove to be the most potent weapon in state’s counter terrorism
arsenal. In addition to having devised measures for keeping the identities of
informer confidential, the police department will also be giving rewards
ranging from Rs 10,000 to Rs 100,000 to the informers whose information
culminates in a successful apprehension or foiling of an attack. According to
the sources at Central Police Office, an aggressive publicity campaign will
be launched during the next week with the objective of apprising the public
about the network as well as contact details of officers responsible for
running the network. The campaign will be simultaneously launched through
banners, pamphlets, print media and electronic media. If successfully, the
network will serve the dual purpose of helping LEAs identify the miscreants
and act as a deterrent for the sleeper cells of different militant
organizations within settled areas.
From
http://nation.com.pk
05/23/2016
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AZERBAIJAN:
E-government Portal Received over 30 Mmillion Requests So Far
The e-government portal has received more than 30 million
requests from the population since it was launched, according to the Data
Processing Center of the Ministry of Communications and High Technologies of
Azerbaijan. “This year alone the portal has received 8 million requests,” the
center said.The portal presently offers 423 e-services of various
organizations.
From http://www.azernews.az/
08/13/2016
TOP↑
KAZAKHSTAN: EBRD to Help Develop “Green” Financial
System
The European
Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is taking the first step
towards developing a "green" financial system in Kazakhstan in
partnership with the Astana International Financial Centre (AIFC), the EBRD
press service said May 27. The agreement to commission a scoping study for
the development of a green financial system in Kazakhstan has been signed by the
EBRD President Suma Chakrabarti and the AIFC Governor Kairat Kelimbetov. The study, scheduled to be completed
in 2017, will assess the demand for green investments, identify gaps in
current regulations, and make recommendations for the introduction of green
financing standards and for the development of the green bonds market and
carbon market services. The
development of a green financial system would be consistent with the Paris
Agreement (COP21), aligning financing flows with a pathway towards low
greenhouse gas emissions and climate resilient development. Kazakhstan is
implementing the concept of transition to a "green" economy. It
aims to improve the quality of the environment by reducing emissions of
harmful substances and reduce waste, and involves the creation of new
technologies.
From http://en.trend.az/ 05/27/2016
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UZBEKISTAN: Procedure for Provision of E-Government
Services to Be Optimized
On June 2, the Cabinet of Ministers in the framework of the
implementation of the Law of the Republic
of Uzbekistan "On
electronic government" adopted a resolution "On measures to improve
the order of provision of electronic government services". The document
defines measures to improve the order of provision of e-government services
by eliminating repetitive procedures, reducing the list of documents and
information, terms and cost of obtaining services requested from the public
and businesses, and bring documents of state organs to a common format. Improvement of the procedure provision
of e-government services will include several stages. At the initial stage
the most necessary for businesses and public government services will be
selected. Moreover, they will be carefully analyzed. Furthermore, the
implementation of service will be done by making amendments to the relevant
legislation, taking into account public and expert opinion, as well as the
automation of public service delivery procedures. Currently, the Ministry of
Development of Information Technologies and Communications of the Republic of Uzbekistan and the Center for the
development of "Electronic government" system has already started
work on the survey of a number of important state services for the
improvement of the order of their delivery and transfer into electronic form.
From http://society.uzreport.uz/ 06/09/2016
TOP↑
Website
"Government Through Children's Eyes" Launches
A new website "Government through children's eyes» has been
launched on the Internet (www.kids.gov.uz) within the framework of the
governmental portal of the Republic. The website has been developed in
connection with the announcement of 2016 year as the "Year of a healthy
mother and child", as well as the logical continuation of ongoing
large-scale work on the formation of harmoniously developed generation
through the widespread introduction of advanced information and communication
technologies, to familiarize children with the such concepts as
"state" and "government", providing general information
about Uzbekistan. The website has been developed by the Centre for
development and introduction of computer and information technologies
"Uzinfocom" under the Ministry for Development of Information
Technologies and Communications of the Republic of Uzbekistan.
The website is designed for children aged from 6 to 12 years and comprises
general information about Uzbekistan,
the structure of the government, and other information. Because of the new
website is a pilot project, it is envisaged that in the future it will be
improved on the basis of received suggestions and proposals.
From http://politics.uzreport.uz/ 06/15/2016
TOP↑
Uzbekistan to Build
Interagency Data Transfer Network of E-government
The resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers dated August 12, 2016
approved measures for building interagency data transfer network of
e-government. According to the document, the interagency network is to be
created for communication between departmental and interdepartmental
information systems and information resources of state bodies, providing
e-government services, as well as central databases of e-government.
According to the document, "Uzbektelecom" JSC has been assigned as
operator of interagency network, whose main tasks are: - establishment of
interagency network based on modern information and communication
technologies, ensuring its smooth functioning and further development; -
provide state authorities, who provide electronic state services, an
opportunity for electronic interaction between departmental and
interdepartmental information systems and information resources, as well as
central databases of e-government; - information security and data protection
in the implementation of electronic interaction through the interagency
network.
According to the document, the interagency data transfer network
will be launched on 1 January, 2017. The document also approved the list of
state bodies and other organizations providing e-government services, who are to be connected to interagency data transfer
network with priority. This list includes: the Cabinet of Ministers, 15
ministries, 7 state committees, 5 agencies, 3 centers, 2 banks, 3 companies
and 14 public authorities. In addition, the decision approved a plan of
measures for creating and ensuring the effective use of interagency data
transfer network of e-government. The plan provides for implementation of 15
events, including the creation and organization of the interagency network,
information security and data protection in the framework of the interagency
network, the organization of training and advanced training of specialists of
state bodies who provide e-government services.
From
http://news.uzreport.uz/
08/24/2016
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AUSTRALIA: Government
to Boost Cloud Services Procurement Panel
The
government has invited service providers to tender for an expanded cloud
procurement panel. The government yesterday released the tender documents for
a refresh of its whole-of-government cloud services panel, which covers SaaS,
PaaS, IaaS as well as specialist cloud services. The panel was initially
launched in January 2015 and is set to continue until the end of March 2017,
although the Department of Finance, which manages the panel, has options for
four extensions of up to 12 months. The refresh is an opportunity to add new
providers as well as for existing members of the panel to increase the
services they offer to government agencies and departments through the panel
arrangement. Currently the services offered by panel members are divided into
nine categories, with limitations on the services offered by vendors based on
those categories.
“Under the
refreshed Cloud Services Panel, there will be no such limitations based on
these categories,” tender documents state. “While Finance may still use the
concept of dividing Cloud Services into 'categories' for Panel administration
purposes (eg for structuring the Service Catalogue, or requiring reporting
from Panellists), this approach will not limit the Cloud Services that a
Tenderer may include in its Tender, or that a Successful Tenderer may later
request be included in the Service Catalogue.” Effectively, members of the
panel will be able to request that finance adds additional services to the
service catalogue (providing they meet certain requirements related to the
government’s definition of a cloud service). There is no limit on the size of
the panel. The Department of Finance revealed in July 2015 that the existing
cloud services panel had set a record, becoming the largest ever
whole-of-government procurement panel. The initial tranche of 49 service
providers on the panel was revealed in February 2015. The panel’s launch
followed a government revamp in late 2014 of public sector cloud policy. That
policy said agencies must adopt cloud where it is “fit for purpose, provides
adequate protection of data and delivers value for money” when obtaining new
ICT services or replacing existing services.
From http://www.computerworld.com.au 06/10/2016
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ACS Releases
2016 Federal Election Manifesto: Five Key Issues
The
Australian Computer Society (ACS) has released its federal election
Manifesto, "identifying five key policy areas that must be addressed if Australia is
to secure its economic future in the information age". The ACS bills
itself as "the professional association for Australia’s ICT sector", and
its manifesto. The manifesto was released ahead of today’s Innovation Debate
between Christopher Pyne, Minister for Industry, Innovation and Science, and
Kim Carr, Shadow Minister for Higher Education, Research, Innovation and
Industry, details of which you can see here and which will be broadcast on
the main ABC channel at 12.30pm AEST today (20 June 2016). ACS notes that it
"is a corporate partner of the National Press Club and has been a strong
supporter of this debate taking place".ACS president Anthony Wong
highlighted the "critical need for our political leaders to focus on
policies and programs which address the twin challenges of digital disruption
and an economy in transition".
He said:
“The information age is driving a depth and pace of change which is
unprecedented in human history. Added to this is an Australian economy
transitioning from one based less on our natural resources strength to one
built increasingly around successful services and knowledge‑based industries.
“Now more than ever, we need our leaders to focus on the issues which will be
pivotal to ensuring Australia
captures the opportunities of the information age, whilst at the same time
ensuring our people do not get left behind. The ACS Federal Election
Manifesto identifies the areas we believe must be prioritised by our
political parties. We are at a potential tipping point as we pursue our
aspirations for current and future generations of Australians. “We need our
political leaders to acknowledge this and we need them to bring fresh,
innovative and bold new thinking to address the challenges before us. It is
time for decisive action across a number of policy areas,” said Mr Wong. Here
are the five priority areas the ACS lists (in its own words):
1. Digital
skills and digital literacy – "It is critical that we see
changes to our education system, particularly in our schools and
universities, and in our approaches to workforce planning and training. "The ACS makes a number of recommendations aimed at
ensuring our students learn new skill sets and our teachers and the pedagogy
support that learning; our universities and employers are working more
collaboratively to better match job opportunities with graduate competencies;
and that we have workforce planning models which provide real-time
information on job markets and education pathways. We also need a stronger
focus on increasing SME digital capability."
2. Diversity
– "We are significantly under-utilising our human capital
at a time when we have critical shortages in specialist ICT skills. Women
account for only 28% of workers in the ICT profession, and mature aged
workers only 11 per cent. The ACS makes "a number of recommendations
including the development of national workforce strategies which facilitate
better collaboration across multiple stakeholders to boost labour force
participation rates for women and mature age workers. To help close the gap
between male and female employment rates in ICT, the ACS also recommends
implementing a campaign to educate and inspire young female students about
the exciting opportunities available through a career as an ICT
professional".
3. Cyber
security – "Cybercrime is estimated to cost Australians over $1
billion each year, and could be as high as $17 billion annually. See the
Federal Government’s recently released Cyber Security Strategy (page 4). As Australia’s
digital economy grows – from $70 billion in 2014 to $139 billion by 2020 (see
page 13) – increasing our pool of skilled cyber security professionals will
be key to transforming our capabilities in this space. We also need to be
raising awareness amongst Australians of the potential risks of the internet,
such as identity fraud, and educating them on how they might protect
themselves online." The ACS recommends the incoming government work
closely with relevant stakeholders, including the ACS, to expedite the
implementation of the Commonwealth’s "Cyber Security Strategy". As
a high priority, the ACS also recommends addressing the shortage of cyber
security professionals through a series of targeted actions at all levels of
the education system, including establishing centres of cyber security
excellence in universities.
4. NBN – "The
reach, speed and quality of a national broadband network is the foundation of
a successful digital economy. In 2015, Australia ranked 60th in global
internet speed rankings, and 47th for percent of connections above 10Mbps.
Despite an accelerated NBN rollout, our relative position globally has not
improved. This must change." The ACS recommends that "the NBN
ready-for-service (RFS) target for 2018 be revised from 9.1 million to 10
million, and the activations target be revised from 4.4 million to 5 million.
ACS also advocates a higher priority be placed on connecting SMEs and
educational institutions, both of which have a critical role to play in the
information age, and that the NBN engage more with local industry as part of
its technology supply chain so a competitive telecommunications industry can
develop and its network can provide truly innovative service offerings".
5. Policy
framework – "It is critical that the incoming government adopt a new
philosophical approach to policy development in the information age. The pace
and size of change driven by digital technology is taking governments into
unchartered waters and presenting policy challenges for which history is no
guide. A new, innovative approach to the policy development process is
needed."
So, what
else does the ACS recommend? It says that "a new approach should involve
a greater input from organisations at the forefront of the information
economy".In addition, it advocates "the establishment of an
independent policy advisory organisation, housed and resourced outside of
government, with membership drawn from employers, the education and training
sector, not-for-profits and professional bodies".We are told that
government employees "should also be seconded for long-term placements
as a way of bridging the gap between private and public sector experience of
the information age".
From http://www.itwire.com
06/20/2016
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Turnbull Wants IT Services
Delivered ‘Within Government’ – Not Outsourced
Prime
Minister Malcom Turnbull has ruled out the outsourcing to the private sector
of a contract to update and modernise the “outdated” Medicare payments
system, while also expressing his scepticism of the benefits and efficiencies
from outsourcing large IT services to systems integrators. On the ABC’s
Q&A program on Monday night, Turnbull made it clear the government’s
preference was for “very large” IT services contracts in the future to be delivered
from within government, and not outsourced to private companies. Turnbull
told his Q&A audience that while the Medicare payments system was badly
in need of updating “to get it to a sort of smartphone-era”, the work would
be done within government, not outsourced. “I am very sceptical about the way
in which very large IT services have been outsourced to big systems
integrators in the past – and the efficiencies have often been less in
reality than were promised. That’s why I set up the Digital Transformation
Office. It’s like a start-up within government, but with the innovation edge
of a start-up, to revive, renew government online services from within
government, rather than just signing big contracts with the big systems
integrators."
Turnbull
told Q&A host Tony Jones he was not an “unqualified fan of outsourcing at
all – and if I was I would never have set-up the Digital Transformation
Office”. “What we have to do is ensure we bring government services into the
21st century – and you don't do that, solely, by pushing them out the door so
there is nothing left inside government." The Prime Minister also
restated his commitment that Medicare would not be privatised, nor sold off
by the government. He was responding to Labor leader Bill Shorten's statements
that the govermnment was planning to privatise the healthcare service.
"I am saying to all Australians unequivocally that no part of Medicare
that is delivered by government today will be delivered by anyone else in the
future," he said, adding that this included the Medicare payments
system.
From http://www.itwire.com
06/21/2016
TOP↑
Government
Prepares to Boost Offensive Cyber Capability
The
Australian Signals Directorate has commenced a recruitment campaign that will
help boost the government’s offensive and defensive cyber capabilities. The
ASD, which has the dual mandate of signals intelligence and information
security guidance for government agencies, is seeking to increase its
headcount. The agency is currently recruiting offensive cyber operators,
penetration testers, software developers, vulnerability researchers, and
network and system admins. The organisation is also recruiting for a range of
non-cyber-related ICT roles and non-technical roles. “The positions include
specialists to help develop Australia’s
offensive cyber capability to deny, degrade or disrupt adversaries if they
try to attack Australian computers or networks,” a Department of Defence spokesperson
told Computerworld Australia.
Prime
Minister Malcolm Turnbull during the launch of the government’s cyber
security strategy earlier this year acknowledged that Australia
possesses an “offensive cyber capability”. “While cyber security measures sit
at the forefront of our response to cyber threats, defensive measures may not
always be adequate to respond to serious cyber incidents against Australian
networks,” the PM said. “The government can draw on a range of options to
respond, such as law enforcement, diplomatic, or economic measures,” Turnbull
said during the strategy’s launch. “An offensive cyber capability housed in
the Australian Signals Directorate provides another option for government to
respond.” “Australia’s
defensive and offensive cyber capabilities enable us to deter and respond to
the threat of cyber attack,” the cyber security strategy states. “Any measure
used by Australia
in deterring and responding to malicious cyber activities would be consistent
with our support for the international rules-based order and our obligations
under international law.”
The ASD
occupies a central role in the cyber security strategy, including as the lead
agency for the Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC), which in addition to
Defence draws on cyber capabilities from across the Attorney-General’s
Department, ASIO, the Australian Federal Police and the Australian Crime
Commission. The new positions the ASD is recruiting for build on the
priorities in the 2016 Defence White Paper, which earmarked a $300m boost for Defence’s cyber
capabilities. “This investment will deter and defend against the threat of
cyber attack,” the Defence spokesperson said. “The 2016 Defence White Paper
allows for enhancements in Defence’s intelligence, space and cyber security
capabilities.” This will involve recruiting for some 900 additional
Australian Defence Force positions and around 800 Australian public service
positions, which will be offset by ongoing reductions elsewhere in the APS
workforce over the decade to FY2025-26, the spokesperson told Computerworld.
“A significant number of these will be working in cyber roles.”
“ASD needs
flexible, creative thinkers who can think outside the normal bounds of cyber
security to understand current threats and techniques and anticipate future
security challenges,” the spokesperson added. “Recruits will be able to do
things that most people cannot. They will grapple with complex and unusual
problems and will be counted on to find innovative and clever solutions. ASD
requires a rare mix of staff with specialist skills, adaptability and
imagination. These abilities are needed to outthink and out-imagine some of
the most testing adversaries and problems imaginable.” In addition to the
White Paper boost to Defence’s cyber capabilities, the national cyber
security strategy outlined new ASD initiatives to shore up the information
security of government agencies, including $1.3 million for a rolling program
that will assess the security of agencies and $11 million to boost the
ability to uncover vulnerabilities in government systems.
From http://www.computerworld.com.au
07/18/2016
TOP↑
Census 2016 - Will First Digital Census Crash the Internet?
It is billed
as the night the nation pauses but could it also be the night that breaks the
country's internet? The Click Frenzy meltdown of 2012 all over again? Census
Australia 2016 is upon us but this time the biggest peacetime logistical
operation in the country is going digital - en masse. More than 15 million
people are expected to flood the Census site over the course of Tuesday to
complete their forms and fears have been raised the great snapshot of 2016
might be end up being the great digital failure of 2016. Not possible,
Australian Bureau of Statistics' Census boss Chris Libreri told news.com.au.
He said the system had passed testing with flying colours, so was unlikely to
repeat the much-hyped failure of the 2012 Click Frenzy "sale that stops
a nation" that only sent servers into meltdown. "We have load
tested it at 150 per cent of the number of people we think are going to be on
it on Tuesday for eight hours straight and it didn't look like
flinching," he said. "We wouldn't do it unless we were able to
safely do it, we have evolved it and we are confident."
Libreri said
the expectation was that 65 per cent of Australians, or nearly 16 million,
would complete their Census online this year. He pointed out that while this
year was the first time it was widely promoted as digital, it was not
actually the first time there was the option to complete it digitally. He
said 30 per cent of respondents in 2011 completed their forms online, while
about 10 per cent did so back in 2006. Even back in the relative dark ages on
the internet, 2001, a very small percentage of people completed it online.
"It is a misnomer that this is the first year we have gone digital, we
have been experimenting since 2001," he said. "It's the same
system, we have just kept evolving it, and we have not had a problem at all
with it, it has never even quivered. We have designed the thing to be very
simple, very lightweight and secure, it doesn't take
up a lot of space, so it basically flies through." While Libreri regards
the chance of a total system crash as unlikely, in the event it does, people
have been advised not to panic. People have until September 23 to complete
their forms online or in paper form, before fines are issued.
Field
officers will begin knocking on doors of those who have not completed their
forms from two weeks after Census night. Fines will only be issued to those
who refuse to participate, not to those who forget. In relation to security
concerns, particularly hackers with the first large scale online Census,
Libreri moved to allay concerns there too. "It is a very unlikely event,
we don't have any present threats," he said. "We have been planning
this a long time. Our systems are as strong as we can possibly make them and
we have done it before. We know it's a badge of honour for hackers, you know,
so we actually do employ our own hackers, we employ ethical hackers to test
the system." As for the rampant privacy concerns being expressed this
Census, given it is the first where filling in a name is not optional, Mr
Libreri said the concerns were not new. "98 per cent of people did the
Census in 2011 and if you Google 2011 Census privacy you'll see many similar comment as we are seeing now," he said.
"Privacy is a big concern for Australians, and that's something we deal
with every single day. We do household surveys every month, so we are well
aware of concerns about privacy."
The ABS says
names will be held separately to form replies, and they will never be
recombined. Records will be destroyed after four years. In the unlikely event
the system does meltdown on Tuesday night, concerned people who already have
their forms can always complete it early, or wait until after the date.
Access codes that have been posted will remain valid until September 23. On
Friday, Libreri said 200,000 households had already opted to submit their
forms early.
From http://www.nzherald.co.nz 08/09/2016
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NEW ZEALAND: Is Budget a Boost for a Digital Nation?
Budget 2016
is an encouraging boost for technology, New Zealand’s fastest growing
industry, according to NZTech CEO Graeme Muller. For Muller, rising surpluses
and forecast growth in the economy spells more digital and hi-tech jobs and
expanding tech businesses. “It’s heartening to see the $761 million for
Innovative New Zealand, a package of science, skills and regional development
initiatives to help grow and diversify the economy,” he says. “The $2.1
billion public infrastructure package focusing on transport, schools and a
fresh tax system will need significant digital input which will help grow the
tech industry, which is contributing $16.2 billion to the annual gross
domestic product. This public package will deliver better public services and
we know government agencies accounts for 29percent of the ICT purchasing. We
can see technology playing increasingly important roles in science and
innovation and it is great to see the Budget allocating $410.5 million in
these areas producing the 21st century skills New Zealand needs to grow our
digital nation.”
For Muller,
Minister of Science and Innovation Steven Joyce understands the value of the
hi-tech sector, with over 20,000 jobs created in the last three years,
including record numbers of highly-skilled graduates and major growth in new
and emerging hi-tech sectors like the software services sector. “I agree with
him that we need more skilled people in disciplines like science,
engineering, agriculture and the key trades if we are to continue to grow the
new-age New Zealand
economy,” Muller adds. “Another area where technology will drive change is
the IT tax system. The Budget is investing $503 million of new operating
funding over the next four years and $354 million of new capital funding a
new tax system so New Zealanders and their businesses can better manage their
tax affairs online through digital technology.”
From http://www.computerworld.co.nz
05/27/2016
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EUROPE: 4G
Subs to Reach 2bn Globally This Year
LTE to become largest contributor to global revenues this year,
analyst firm says; China
is 'envy of other developing markets.' The number of LTE subscriptions worldwide
will approach 2 billion by the end of this year and will grow almost
threefold by 2022, according to new analyst company statistics published this
week. There will be 1.9 billion user-linked 4G subscriptions – that is handsets, modems, tablets
and connected devices, but not machine-to-machine connections – by end-2016,
up from 1.1 billion at the start of the year, Strategy Analytics predicts. By
2022, it forecasts that figure will have grown to 5.6 billion, equivalent to
62% of all user-linked mobile subscriptions. By that date, 5G connections will also have started
to make an impact. There will be 116 million 5G subscriptions in 2022, up from around 2 million
in 2020, the year in which the first 5G
deployments are expected to commence.
From a revenue point of view, 4G will start to dominate this year. 4G revenue will grow by 35% to US$426
billion this year, accounting for 49% of global mobile revenues, despite the
fact that 4G
represents just 25% of connections, Strategy Analytics believes. That puts it
ahead of 3G and
2G, which will see
revenues decline by 19% and 21% respectively. While the revenue share coming
from 4G will be as high as
90% in South Korea, 82% in
Japan and 79% in North America, there are still many markets where the
technology has yet to fully take off. 4G
revenue share will be as low as 10% in the Middle East and Africa,
for example. "The advanced markets of the USA, Japan, and South Korea
will see the vast majority of their revenue come from 4G LTE services this year, though China will also
make a significant contribution," said Phil Kendall, executive director,
wireless operator strategies, at Strategy Analytics. "Overtaking the USA to become the world's largest 4G market in Q3 2015, China is the
envy of other developing markets with over half of its 2016 revenue projected
to come from 4G
LTE," he added.
From
http://www.totaltele.com/
06/03/2016
TOP↑
Europeans
OK Trans-Atlantic Data Deal
Representatives of European Union member states approved the
Privacy Shield framework on July 8, setting the stage for a resolution of the
uncertainty that has plagued data transfers across the Atlantic.
Privacy Shield was initially negotiated in February to replace the Safe Harbor
agreement that had previously governed U.S./EU data
transfers. A European court struck down Safe Harbor
late last year. Affecting billions of dollars in international trade, the
replacement agreement has been a long time coming as privacy-conscious
Europeans navigated concerns about the use of citizens' data for U.S.
government surveillance and U.S. companies' advertising. The Privacy Shield
agreement would task the Commerce Department with helping Europeans pursue
redress if they believe American companies are misusing their data. Although
the EU's Article 31 Committee approved the deal, Reuters reported that a few
central and southeastern European countries' representatives are still
concerned about privacy protections and abstained from the vote.
The Article 29 Working Party, a group composed of EU Data
Protection Authorities that is also involved in the vetting process, has been
skeptical about the framework. As FCW reported last month, even if Privacy
Shield is enacted, it's unlikely to settle privacy tensions between the U.S. and EU,
and legal challenges are likely. Nevertheless, in a July 8 statement, the
European Commission defended the arrangement and said the most recent
approval demonstrates strong support from EU member states. "[Privacy
Shield] is fundamentally different from the old 'Safe Harbor':
It imposes clear and strong obligations on companies handling the data and
makes sure that these rules are followed and enforced in practice,"
European Commission Vice President Andrus Ansip and Justice Commissioner Vera
Jourova wrote. "For the first time, the U.S. has given the EU written
assurance that the access of public authorities for law enforcement and
national security will be subject to clear limitations, safeguards and
oversight mechanisms and has ruled out indiscriminate mass surveillance of
European citizens' data." Jourova plans to speak with the European
Parliament's Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs Committee about the
deal on July 11, and a signing could come the next day. U.S. Commerce
Secretary Penny Pritzker is scheduled to meet with Jourova regarding Privacy
Shield on July 12, where some observers expect the deal to be finalized.
From
https://fcw.com/
07/08/2016
TOP↑
CROATIA: Internet Advertising Grows 43.6% in 2015
Croatian advertisers increased investments in 2015 by 3.1
percent, to HRK 1.45 billion, according to the Croatian Association of
Communications Agencies (Hura). For the second year running, internet
advertising registered significant growth, advancing 43.6 percent compared to
2014. TV continues to lead advertising expenditure, responsible for 51
percent of the total, while internet is in third place with 11.6 percent.
From
http://www.telecompaper.com/
07/24/2016
TOP↑
GERMANY: Committing a Further �1.3bn to Broadband
Rollout
Government will spend �4 billion in total on deployment of
superfast Internet in areas that are not commercially viable. The German
government has pledged to allocate a further �1.3 billion of public funding
to the rollout of high-speed broadband networks in difficult to reach areas.
The country's Transport and Digital Infrastructure Ministry made the
announcement on Friday, noting that the new funding will take the total
invested by the state in high-speed broadband to �4 billion. "The money
will be invested specifically in underserved regions where network expansion
would otherwise not be economically viable," the ministry said, in a
statement. "We are investing in the development of the gigabit
society," added Alexander Dobrindt, minister for transport and digital
infrastructure. "For this we need superfast Internet for all, throughout
Germany."
In October last year the government allocated �2.7 billion for
the rollout of networks capable of providing Internet access at speeds in
excess of 50 Mbps with a view to covering the whole country by 2018. �1.3
billion of the sum came from revenue generated by the auction of mobile
spectrum, in addition to �1.4 billion from the state budget. There are a
number of funding models available. Municipalities can apply for funding to
build their own infrastructure which they would then lease to operators, or
use the funding to plug the profitability gap of a private operator, the
ministry explained last year. It said grants are available to cover up to 50%
of the costs of a project, rising to 70% in particularly depressed areas. The
maximum grant for a single project is �15 million, but it is possible to
combine state funding with the support programmes of the federal states, the
ministry explained.
From
http://www.totaltele.com/
07/04/2016
TOP↑
LATIN AMERICA:
Global Public Cloud Spending to Hit $195bn in 2020
IDC predicts IaaS, PaaS revenues to grow faster than SaaS in
five years to 2020. Global spending on public cloud services will reach
US$195 billion by 2020, compared to nearly $70 billion in 2015 and an
estimated $96.5 billion this year, predicted IDC this week. According to the
research firm, that represents a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 20.4%
between 2015 and 2020. "Cloud software will significantly outpace
traditional software product delivery over the next five years, growing
nearly three times faster than the software market as a whole and becoming
the significant growth driver to all functional software markets," said
Benjamin McGrath, a senior research analyst covering software-as-a-service
(SaaS) and business models at IDC. IDC said SaaS and platform-as-a-service
(PaaS) together accounted for 83.7% of all public cloud revenue in 2015,
while infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) accounted for the remaining 16.3%.
However, growth in IaaS and PaaS spending is expected to outpace SaaS
spending growth over the forecast period, expanding their share of overall
revenues.
Discrete manufacturing, banking and professional services are
the leading industry verticals when it comes to public cloud spending; IDC
expects them to account for a third of worldwide revenues in 2016. "By
2020, about half of all new business software purchases will be of
service-enabled software, and cloud software will constitute more than a
quarter of all software sold," McGrath predicted. "Organisations
across all industries are now free to adapt to market changes quicker and
take more risks, as they are no longer bound by legacy IT constraints,"
added Eileen Smith, programme director, customer insights and analysis, at
IDC. On a geographic basis, the U.S.
is expected to represent the largest market for public cloud services,
generating two thirds of global revenues during the forecast period, followed
by Western Europe and Asia Pacific, excluding Japan.
From
http://www.totaltele.com/
08/12/2016
TOP↑
ARGENTINE:
E-commerce Spend Up 60% to ARS 45 bln in H1
Online purchases in Argentina soared to ARS 45
billion in the first six months of 2016, up over 60 percent year-on-year,
reports Telam, citing a report by TNS Argentina for the country'se-commerce
chamber CACE. At least 58 percent of the population makes at least one online
purchase a month, up from 52 percent a year ago, driven by fashion, food and
online ticket sales. Other findings include the fact that more than half of
respondents selected to pay in 6 to 12-month installments, while 93 percent
of companies now have mobile sales platforms, up from 77 percent in H1 2015.
From
http://www.telecompaper.com/
08/15/2016
TOP↑
NORTH
AMERICA: Canada
- IT and Business Leaders Agree More Often Than You Might Think - Report
A new survey commissioned by Dell Inc. indicates that IT
managers and the C-suite might be stronger partners than previously believed.
For example, according to the Dell State of IT Trends 2016 survey, both
business and IT leaders agree that cloud technology should be the tech
department’s number-one spending priority, followed by data storage upgrades
and data centre investment. “While the original intent of this survey was not
to specifically focus on the similarities and differences between IT and
business decision makers, we found that there is an increasingly common
understanding between the two groups, and more than perhaps it’s generally
perceived to be,” Dell executive director of strategy and enterprise
solutions Matt Baker wrote in a July 28 blog post discussing the study. “The
results indicate that IT and business leadership are better collaborating on
the same page about the latest in IT and how it can propel businesses
forward,” he wrote. Dell commissioned research firm Penn Schoen Berland (PSB)
to conduct the study, which consisted of online interviews with 700 IT
decision makers and 500 business decision makers in seven countries (the U.S., U.K.,
Germany, Japan, Brazil,
India, and China)
between April 15 and May 4, 2016.
Other signs that executives and their IT departments are
increasingly in sync include:
- Both departments (62 per cent of IT leaders, 51 per cent of
executives) agree that cloud computing is the most important technology
trend;
- 73 per cent of IT leaders, and 77 per cent of executives, have
strategic IT plans mapping out the next two or three years;
- More than 80 per cent of respondents said their company has
considered moving its network, storage, CPU, and digital security to a
software-defined data centre.
And since Dell commissioned the study to gauge enterprise
opinions of data centres, the company was also pleased to learn that:
- Both departments plan to use more open data centre
technologies in the future, by 2:1 margins;
- Worldwide, they also agree that a software-defined data centre
is the number-one key to digital transformation;
- Hybrid cloud is considered the best data centre platform; and
- The ability to quickly address issues is the top global
concern regarding data centre management.
From
http://www.itworldcanada.com/
08/05/2016
TOP↑
Canadian
Enterprises Aren’t Prepared for Digital Transformation: IDC
While Canadian organizations have clued in that digital
transformation can be the key for future business success, many firms still
lack the requisite digital expertise to compete on a global level, according
to a recent report. According to Toronto-based research firm IDC Canada — in
sponsorship with SAP Canada Inc. — a whopping 83 per cent of Canadian
enterprises still require the appropriate infrastructure to make nurturing
and empowering digital talent a top priority as they prepare to do battle in
the digital economy. This talent includes software development teams and will
need skills around big data analytics, mobile apps, IT security and design
thinking. The report reveals that while 86 per cent of executives have
discussed the implications of a digital economy —and 60 per cent feeling it
to have a major impact on their business within five years — only 17 per cent
of Canadian firms have considered digital transformation to be a key tenet of
company strategy.
A mere 26 per cent of executives surveyed cited a lack of
relevant workforce skill sets as one of the top three immediate concerns for
their business. In order for the process of digital transformation to occur,
notes Tony Olvet, the research firm’s group vice president, first there needs
to be a common understanding of what the concept means within the business
along with a shared goal to initiate change. “It’s time for an assessment of
what expertise an organization needs to enter the digital economy and thrive
in it – whether that talent is nurtured in-house or brought in more
effectively from outside,” said SAP Canada’s president John Graham in a
statement.
From
http://www.itworldcanada.com/
08/15/2016
TOP↑
U.S.: DISA Opens Competition for Massive IT
Services Contract
The Defense Information Systems Agency is now taking proposals
for its 10-year, $902 million Communications Capacity Services Contract (CSC
II), a single-award task order contract. DISA will use the contract to get
reliable, responsive, and cost-effective communications infrastructure
services. The winning contractor will provide defense customers with hardware
and software equipment, including routers, switches, appliances, monitoring
equipment, monitoring and reporting software and other supporting devices.
The incumbent contract is with Knight Point Systems, which has booked $182.9
million in task orders since winning the contract in 2011, according to
Deltek. The old contract was competed only among service-disabled,
veteran-owned companies. The new contract, however, is being competed as
full-and-open, according to Deltek. DISA will use the contract to buy
hardware and software equipment, including routers, switches, appliances,
monitoring equipment, monitoring and reporting software and other supporting
devices. For all communications capacity requirements, the company will buy
and provide the necessary hardware, hardware maintenance, communications
operating software and service to support the communication infrastructure
associated with the capacity service. The contractor will also have cabinets,
racks and cabling as supply items, owned by DISA. DISA released the RFP Aug.
2; responses are due by Sept. 1.
From
https://fcw.com/
08/05/2016
TOP↑
How
Over-Customization Kills Government Technology
Yesterday Scott Burns, the CEO and founder of GovDelivery
(disclaimer: not an endorsement) published "The Elephant in the
Room...Is Government the Worst Possible Customer?" on LinkedIn. As
someone who has worked for the government for more than a dozen years, and
who frequently helps define requirements for government IT projects, I was
interested to hear a vendor's idea of the things that are taboo to say. His list of reasons why venture capitalists shy away from
government as a customer include: 1) excessive customization requirements; 2)
excessively cost-based decision-making; and 3) excessive paperwork.
Overall I agree with Burns' assessment, and hope that the next
administration will take on the challenges he outlines. It will not be an
easy undertaking, for the following reasons:
- Excessive customization requirements are a mask for
self-interest. Frankly, many departments, functions, and jobs are outdated
and even superfluous. Commitment to a true commercial-off-the-shelf IT
solution, together with the adoption of private-sector best practices, makes
that obvious.
- Excessive cost-based decision making is a mask for
self-interest. The government has a notoriously high IT project failure rate
for many reasons, chief among which is the ignorance and risk-aversion of
those writing contract requirements. If you know your stuff, you aren't
afraid to specify what a quality solution is. If you don't, you can always
defend your decision by saying it was the cheapest. In the end, such thinking
is always just the opposite—a costly mistake.
- Excessive paperwork is a mask for self-interest. Government
contracting is currently a nightmarish field of endeavor. I have known some
outstanding professionals who work in this area and all of them were
unusually well-schooled in the law and also unusually thick-skinned when it
came to dealing with the sharks inside and outside the agency who relentlessly pursued their own agenda and financial
self-interest regardless of whether it benefited the agency's mission.
In my view, it is unnecessary to implore individual government
professionals to solve these problems. Rather, we have to take a sledgehammer
to the structural incentives that enable them to persist. Regardless of who
we work for, I think most people can agree on the very basic idea that
government exists to serve the taxpayer. The taxpayers do not exist to prop
up a bloated, inefficient and self-serving bureaucracy.
From
http://www.govexec.com/
08/05/2016
TOP↑
4G Subs to Reach 2bn Globally This Year
LTE to become largest contributor to global revenues this year,
analyst firm says; China
is 'envy of other developing markets.' The number of LTE subscriptions
worldwide will approach 2 billion by the end of this year and will grow
almost threefold by 2022, according to new analyst company statistics
published this week. There will be 1.9 billion user-linked 4G subscriptions – that is handsets,
modems, tablets and connected devices, but not machine-to-machine connections
– by end-2016, up from 1.1 billion at the start of the year, Strategy
Analytics predicts. By 2022, it forecasts that figure will have grown to 5.6
billion, equivalent to 62% of all user-linked mobile subscriptions. By that
date, 5G connections will
also have started to make an impact. There will be 116 million 5G subscriptions in 2022, up from
around 2 million in 2020, the year in which the first 5G deployments are expected to commence.
From a revenue point of view, 4G will start to dominate this year. 4G revenue will grow by 35% to US$426
billion this year, accounting for 49% of global mobile revenues, despite the
fact that 4G
represents just 25% of connections, Strategy Analytics believes. That puts it
ahead of 3G and
2G, which will see
revenues decline by 19% and 21% respectively. While the revenue share coming
from 4G will be as high as
90% in South Korea, 82% in
Japan and 79% in North America, there are still many markets where the
technology has yet to fully take off. 4G
revenue share will be as low as 10% in the Middle East and Africa,
for example. "The advanced markets of the USA, Japan, and South Korea
will see the vast majority of their revenue come from 4G LTE services this year, though China will also
make a significant contribution," said Phil Kendall, executive director,
wireless operator strategies, at Strategy Analytics. "Overtaking the USA to become the world's largest 4G market in Q3 2015, China is the
envy of other developing markets with over half of its 2016 revenue projected
to come from 4G
LTE," he added.
From
http://www.totaltele.com/
06/03/2016
TOP↑
Global 5G Subscriptions to Reach 24m in 2021
Ovum predicts networks will be up and running in 20 markets in
five years. Global 5G
subscriptions will reach 24 million by the end of 2021, predicted Ovum on
Tuesday. By then, the analyst firm expects 5G services to have launched in 20 markets
worldwide. North America and Asia will each account for more than 40% of
global subscriptions, with the vast majority concentrated in the U.S., Japan,
China, and South Korea.
Meanwhile, Ovum expects Europe will make up more than 10%, while Africa and
the Middle East will account for the
remainder. Ovum has issued a more conservative outlook than Ericsson, which
last November predicted 150 million 5G
subscriptions by the same year; however, Ovum says that its forecast concerns
5G broadband
connections, and doesn't include other types of 5G connection, such as narrowband IoT, for example.
"The main use case for 5G
through 2021 will be enhanced mobile broadband services, although fixed
[wireless] broadband services will also be supported, especially in the
U.S.," predicted Mike Roberts, Ovum practice leader for carrier strategy
and technology.
"Over time 5G
will support a host of use cases including Internet of Things and
mission-critical communications, but Ovum does not believe those use cases
will be supported by standardised 5G
services through 2021," Roberts said. Then there is the issue of what
counts as 5G.
For Ericsson, devices must support 'LTE Evolved' – comprised of upgrades to
access technology that use existing mobile spectrum – and/or 'NX' – new
access technologies that use spectrum where LTE has not been previously
deployed. Ovum's definition appears to be narrower, excluding any
pre-standard 5G
technology from its forecast. The analyst firm defines a 5G subscription as an active connection
by a 5G device to a 5G network, both of which have to
comply with 3GPP's LTE Release 15 standards. Roberts said Ovum plans to
update its 5G forecast
every six months due to the fact that "5G is at an early stage and there is a high degree
of uncertainty around 5G
deployment and adoption."
From
http://www.totaltele.com/
06/28/2016
TOP↑
NFV to Be
$15bn Market by 2020
The global network functions virtualisation (NFV) market will be
worth US$15 billion (�13.6 billion) by 2020, up from $2.7 billion in 2015,
predicted IHS Markit this week. This represents a compound annual growth rate
(CAGR) of 42%, the research firm said. "We expect strong growth in NFV
markets in 2020 and beyond, driven by service providers' desire for service
agility and operational efficiency," said Michael Howard, senior
research director, carrier networks, at IHS Markit, in a research note on
Tuesday. Virtual network functions (VNFs) – the applications that run
telecoms services – will account for 73% of the market's value by 2020,
according to IHS. NFV hardware, including servers, storage and switches, will
account for 16%, while software will account for 11%. "Operators are now
starting to realise the benefits of NFV, making significant investments to
take advantage of the flexibility, price and performance of virtualised
network functions," said Jonathan Bell, vice president of VNF software
maker OpenCloud. Unsurprisingly as a VNF provider, Bell was keen to stress the importance for
telcos to avoid vendor lock-in. "Locking themselves into a big closed
VNF environment waters down the original aims and benefits of
virtualisation," he said. "To compete, operators need to have
control over the composition of their VNFs, so they can utilise the various
components to differentiate their services."
From
http://www.totaltele.com/
07/21/2016
TOP↑
Wi-Fi
Segment Led the Global Connectivity Enabling Technology Market in 2015 with
Over 70% Market Share and Will Retain Its Leadership Until 2020, Says
Technavio
According to the latest market study released by Technavio, the
global connectivity enabling technology market is expected to grow at a CAGR
of approximately 3% during the forecast period. This research report titled
‘Global Connectivity Enabling Technology Market 2016-2020’ provides an in-depth analysis of
the market in terms of revenue and emerging market trends. This market
research report also includes up to date analysis and forecasts for various
market segments and all geographical regions.
Based on technology, the report categorizes the global
connectivity enabling technology market into three major segments. They are:
Bluetooth
Wi-Fi
ZigBee
Global connectivity enabling technology market by Wi-Fi
Wi-Fi is an essential component in the WLAN devices, as it
enables wireless connectivity to other devices such as smartphones, tablets,
and smart meters. Generally, Wi-Fi enabled devices such as smartphones and
tablets are designed to fulfill one-to-one connectivity. However, WLAN
devices are enabled to provide one-to-multi point connectivity. This is
because, WLAN devices act as a gateway and route the entire traffic of voice
and data from backhaul and then distribute to various connected devices.
Similarly, all the traffic, voice and data, coming from connected devices
like smartphones, tablets, PCs, smart watches, and smart bands are routed to
the internet through WLAN devices. While OEMs are achieving economies of
scale by lowering the cost of Wi-Fi technology, chip manufacturers are
upgrading the technology, to pitch the product at a higher price. The latest
version of Wi-Fi technology follows 802.11ac
standard, while 802.11ax is under development and testing phase, which will
increase the wireless communication data transfer speed to more than 2Gbps.
Many network operators are increasingly adopting cellular offloading concept,
where they shift the mobile data consumption from fiber to WLAN directly
through gateway, instead of transmitting the data from fiber to 3G or LTE and then to the end-user over
the air interface.
Global connectivity enabling technology market by Bluetooth
Bluetooth as a connectivity enabling technology has been
considered based on the cost of incorporation of Bluetooth technology such as
chip- transceiver, baseband processor, and MAC cost in the end-user products.
Smartphones, PCs, and tablets hold the highest market share in terms of unit
shipment, thus driving the Bluetooth connectivity enabling technology market.
Apple, Samsung, Huawei, Xiaomi, Sony, BlueAnt, Jabra, Jawbone, Plantronics,
and Sennheiser are a few prominent OEMs in the market. “Emerging applications
such as connected cars, smart bands, smart watches, and Bluetooth beacons
will also drive the market for Bluetooth technology in the forecast period,”
says Sunil Kumar Singh, a lead analyst at Technavio for research on embedded
systems.
In the Bluetooth segment, Technavio research analysts consider
the following devices:
Smartphones
Tablets
PCs
Headsets
Smart bands
Speakers
Smart watches
Connected cars
Smart glasses
Bluetooth beacons
Global connectivity enabling technology market by ZigBee
The STBs segment is expected to continue its dominance in the
global ZigBee home automation market during the forecast period. The growing
adoption of connected homes is driving the demand for STBs. ZigBee STBs serve
as a central hub for a smart home. Apart from entertainment, they can control
various other ZigBee-enabled devices and act as a central coordinator, by
creating a mesh network through which the connected devices in the smart home
can interact with each other. However, the market share of STBs is likely to
decline by 2020, because of rapid adoption of ZigBee wireless technology by
other segments. Some of the vendors that provide ZigBee-enabled STBs are
Advanced Digital Broadcast (ADB), AirTies, ARRIS Group, and Pace.
ZigBee-enabled remote controls provide a global standard for
advanced, greener, and easy-to-use RF remotes that provide a longer range,
extended battery life, two-way communication, and eliminate line-of-sight
restrictions. The ZigBee-enabled remote control uses ZigBee RF4CE standard,
which is a standardized specification for RF-based remote controls. This was
created jointly by the ZigBee Alliance and RF4CE Consortium. “The remote
control provides a multi-vendor interoperable remote control solution for
consumer electronics featuring a simple, robust, and low-cost communication
network for two-way wireless connectivity,” adds Sunil.
Some of the key vendors highlighted by Technavio’s research
analysts in this report are:
Atmel
Broadcomm
Digi International
Freescale Semiconductor
Fihonest Communication
GreenPeak Technologies
Hosiden
IVT
Browse Related Reports:
Global Public Safety LTE Devices Market 2016-2020
Global WLAN Market 2016-2020
Global Industrial Ethernet Market 2016-2020
Do you need a report on a market in a specific geographical
cluster or country but can’t find what you’re looking for? Don’t
worry, Technavio also takes client requests. Please contact
enquiry@technavio.com with your requirements and our analysts will be happy
to create a customized report just for you.
From
http://www.businesswire.com/
07/28/2016
TOP↑
An Internet Censorship Company Tried to Sue
the Researchers Who Exposed Them
Netsweeper is
a small Canadian company with a disarmingly boring name and an office nestled
among the squat buildings of Waterloo,
Ontario. But its
services—namely, online censorship—are offered in countries as far-flung as Bahrain and Yemen. In 2015, University of
Toronto-based research hub Citizen Lab reported that Netsweeper was providing Yemeni rebels with censorship technology.
In response, Citizen Lab director Ron Deibert revealed in a blog post on Tuesday,
Netsweeper sued the university and Deibert for defamation. Netsweeper discontinued
its lawsuit in its entirety in April. If the suit was successful, Deibert
wrote, damages would have amounted to more than $3 million. “It should be
pointed out that this is not the first time a company has contemplated legal
action regarding the work of the Citizen Lab,” Deibert wrote. “However, it is
the first time that a company has gone so far as to begin litigation
proceedings. I suspect it will not be the last.” "It is clearly in the
public interest for them to be able to share those results"
When reached over email, Deibert said Citizen Lab is not
offering comments to the press on the lawsuit. Netsweeper did not respond to
Motherboard’s request for comment. If the lawsuit had gone to court, Deibert
wrote that Citizen Lab intended to lean on the 2015 Protection of Public Participation Act, which
was designed to thwart litigation against organizations acting in the public
interest. “Citizen Lab does rigorous research into censorship,
surveillance, and digital attacks and it is clearly in the public interest
for them to be able to share those results,” Brenda McPhail, director of the
surveillance project at the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, wrote
Motherboard in an email. “We support their right to freely disseminate and
discuss their important work.” Netsweeper has come under scrutiny numerous
times in the past several years, most recently because it was paid $1,175,000 by the Bahraini government for
providing a “national website filtering solution,” according to a tender
filed by the government in January of this year. Previously, the media has
criticized Netsweeper for providing similar services to censorious countries
like Pakistan, Quatar, and the United Arab Emirates. Even
though Netsweeper decided to discontinue their lawsuit, they may very well
embolden other companies, upset about having their misdeeds aired in public,
to sue the researchers who expose them.
From
http://www.i-policy.org/
07/29/2016
TOP↑
MARKET
REPORT: Investors Back Paysafe's Plan for Online Gaming with Revenues Up and
Shares Soaring 6.2%
Providing digital payments is one of Britain's growth
industries.And with a lot of firms providing similar services, finding your
niche is all important.Analysts have given a vote of confidence to Paysafe's
strategy of providing pay solutions for users of online gaming and gambling
sites.The strategy seems to be serving it well if its latest trading update
is anything to go by – Paysafe has upped its revenue forecast for the year by
around £15million to between £745million and £761million. Yesterday, it
reported revenues were £373.5million for the six months to June 30, up from
£171.1million a year ago.The firm said the integration of international money
transfer business Skrill is now complete, after it acquired the firm for
around £920million in August last year. Acquisitions continued with the
purchase of Dallas-based payments processor MeritCard in February.The group
also added 250 new employees to its numbers in the first half of the year, making
a total headcount of 1,828.
Deutsche Bank, which has a 'buy' rating on the stock, said it
was encouraged by the firm's accelerating revenue growth while Berenberg said
the firm's strategy 'is the right one for a relatively smaller player in the
global payment industry'.Shares surged by 6.2 per cent, or 24.1p to
415.2p.Lookers leapt after it revealed plans to sell its vehicle parts
business to Alliance Automotive.The car retailer and after-sales business
will pocket £120million from the sale of the division, which includes brands
such as BTN Turbo and Apec Braking. The division generated sales of
£218.8million in 2015.Alliance is a European distributor of vehicle parts.
The deal is expected to complete by the end of October and Lookers will use
the proceeds for acquisitions within its motor division.Shares rocketed 10.6
per cent, or 11.5p to 119.5p, on a day when the FTSE 100 climbed another 0.22
per cent, or 15.12 points to 6866.42.Rolls-Royce (up 4.4 per cent, or 33.5p
to 797p) was the highest blue-chip climber following a late upgrade from
Morgan Stanley the day before. ITV was also among the top flight despite its
£1billion offer for Peppa Pig owner Entertainment One being rejected. The
broadcaster climbed 0.9 per cent, or 1.8p to 200.5p.Investors predicting an
increased bid pushed Entertainment One shares up 10.3 per cent, or 22.5p to
240p in the day.Share, the AIM-listed stock broking group, nudged forward as
it said performance had been in line with expectations despite a subdued
environment because of the referendum in June.Revenues in the first half were
down slightly on last year at £7.2million, and underlying pre-tax profit fell
to £110,000 from £608,000 a
year ago due to the costs of a digital transformation programme.
The firm has spent a year investing to enhance its systems. But
Share said it is outperforming its peer group; it has increased its market
share to 9.8 per cent and now manages £3.4billion of savers' assets. Its
shares climbed 0.9 per cent, or 0.25p to 28.5p.Tiny, AIM-listed Harvest
Minerals rocketed as an independent scoping study strengthened its plans to
supply potash to Brazil.The Australian-based mineral exploration firm wants
to further develop its assets in the South American country, where it already
has four projects, including the only potash mine in Brazil.Following the
study, Harvest said it should be able to sell potash – predominantly used for
fertiliser in agriculture – for at least $50 per tonne, while the cost of
production is estimated at $7.34
a tonne.Harvest aims to start production under a trial mining
licence later this year, which it hopes will provide it with cash to fund
larger, longer-term projects.It estimates production of 100,000 tonnes per
year for seven years based on initial capital expenditure of around £614,000
for equipment. Shares advanced 30 per cent, or 1.88p
to 8.12p.
From
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/ 08/10/2016
TOP↑
6th APEC
E-Commerce Business Alliance Forum Held in Jinjiang, China
The 6th APEC E-Commerce Business Alliance Forum was held on June
29, 2016 in Jinjiang, Fujian
province, China.
The forum was co-organized by APEC and China's
Ministry of Commerce, with the support of the Chinese Foreign Ministry and
the General Administration of Customs, and jointly sponsored by the China International Electronic
Commerce Center,
the APEC E-Commerce Business Alliance and the municipal government of
Jinjiang. Jinjiang is witnessing dynamic growth in foreign trade and
especially in cross-border e-commerce. APEC Secretariat Executive Director
Alan Bollard, Chinese Assistant Minister of Commerce Wang Bingnan and senior
government officials from APEC economies as well as over 300 representatives
from leading companies in the Asia Pacific region and e-commerce experts
discussed the topic of how cross-border e-commerce boosts inclusive trade at
the forum. The China International Electronic
Commerce Center
released the key data from China
E-commerce Report 2015.
The 2nd Experts Committee of the APEC E-Commerce Business
Alliance was announced at the forum. The new Expert Committee includes 32
members, who were approved and whose names were recorded as part of the
minutes of APEC's inaugural E-Commerce Task Force Session at the Senior
Officials Meeting 2016, following the selection by the alliance's Secretariat
of candidates that had been nominated or recommended by the governments of
APEC members. At the closing ceremony of the forum, Chairman of the APEC
E-Commerce Business Alliance Zhu Xiaoliang released the Jinjiang Proposal put
forth by the alliance. The Jinjiang Proposal will be an item on the agenda of
the APEC Senior Officials Meeting and reported to the APEC E-Commerce
Steering Group as well as made available to APEC member countries on APEC's
official website.
From
http://finance.yahoo.com/
07/04/2016
TOP↑
Lower
Digital Barriers Key to Small Business-Led Growth
The prospects for improved growth of economies in the
Asia-Pacific increasingly hinge on bridging the digital divide impeding the
development of small and medium enterprises that are their foundation,
according to the region’s business community. Steps to enhance access to the
internet and use of electronic commerce within the sector, opening up new
market opportunities for small businesses, were among the policy
recommendations fleshed out by representatives from the APEC Business
Advisory Council this week in Shenzhen. The recommendations will be
considered by APEC Senior Officials and technical working groups when they
convene in Lima, Peru, later this month to
engineer measures for optimizing growth and living standards in the region.
“No economy in the Asia-Pacific will realize its potential for new growth
without healthy and expanding small businesses supported by the power of the
internet,” said Juan Raffo, 2016 Chair of the APEC Business Advisory Council.
“It is incumbent upon governments and business to aggressively
work to reduce barriers to digital development,” added Ambassador Luis
Quesada, 2016 Chair of the APEC Senior Officials. “There are huge
opportunities for small firms to more widely engage in international commerce
but the connectivity and knowhow needed to get started must be within reach.”
Small and medium enterprises account for more than 97 per cent of all
businesses, 60 per cent of GDP and half of the labor force across the 21 APEC
member economies. But the sector’s participation in trade remains
disproportionately low and is prompting public-private collaboration in the
online space to achieve greater alignment. The focus is on advancing measures
for delivering reliable, low-cost internet access, electronic commerce
training programs and a regulatory environment that facilitates small
businesses integration into complex international production and supply
chains via the internet.
“Online channels are creating an opening for small and medium
enterprises to play a greater role in the design, production, distribution and
sale of added value goods and services across borders than was true in the
past,” explained Dr Alan Bollard, Executive Director of the APEC Secretariat.
“APEC’s work to virtually move small businesses into international production
and supply chains could provide an important boost to trade and productivity
in the Asia-Pacific,” Dr Bollard concluded. “Lessons from the private sector
are critical to building our capacity to implement digital solutions that
maximize the potential of the region’s rapidly transforming economies.”
From
http://www.apec.org/ 08/05/2016
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CHINA: Didi in New Funding Round over 3.5 Bln USD
Chinese e-hailing company Didi said on Thursday that it wants to
raise more than 3.5 billion U.S. dollars after rival Uber announced fresh
funding that values the company at over 60 billion dollars. Didi president
Jean Liu told a conference in California
that its fundraising is ongoing and that the company is looking for strategic
investors similar to Tencent and Alibaba. Tencent and Alibaba were early
backers of two companies that merged to become Didi in February last year,
putting an end to a year of bitter competition. Uber announced this week that
it had raised 3.5 billion dollars from the investment arm of the Saudi
Arabian government, taking the company's valuation to over 60 billion
dollars. As part of Didi's current funding round, Apple has invested 1 billion
dollars into the firm.
From http://www.news.cn/
06/02/2016
TOP↑
China Publishes Online Porn Cases
China on Monday
published eight typical cases solved during a special campaign to crack down
on piracy and online pornography to ensure the healthy development of young
people. The National Office Against Pornographic and Illegal Publications in
February launched a campaign against production, sale and distribution of
illegal publications and online content that could affect juveniles. In one
of the eight typical cases, police in east China's
Zhejiang Province found 27 suspects, some of
whom were minors, were using online chat groups to spread pornography for
profit. The groups on chat service QQ had more than 600 members, the majority
of whom were minors, according to the office's statement. In another case,
police uncovered suspects selling obscene videos via cloud storage services.
The primary suspect in the case was a juvenile. In other cases, police busted
the illegal printing and sale of pirated books for children. Production and
storage sites and illegal bookstores were closed.
From http://www.news.cn/
06/06/2016
TOP↑
Robots Lending Hand to China's Manufacturing
Transformation
The SAIC-GM automobile production floor in Shanghai might remind you of the movie
"Transformers." Giant yellow robotic arms are busy welding parts.
The whole car body can be assembled by these robotic arms and human employees
just sit in front of computer screens and type in instructions. China's auto
industry was quick to take up automation, but other industries are rapidly
catching up. From assembling keyboards to sticking on labels, factories across
China
are replacing workers with robots in the ongoing government-backed,
automation-driven industrial revolution. With costs rising and profits
shrinking, Chinese manufacturers have realized that they have to transition
from the current labor-oriented mode to automation to survive and thrive as
the population ages. Improving quality, reducing costs, lifting productivity
and ensuring sustainable growth are the eternal pursuits for manufacturers
and the key is in technology. Robots can help factories achieve this,
according to Gu Chunyuan, head of China business with ABB Group, a
global leader in robotics. Once the "world's factory," China is
experiencing slower growth, especially in the manufacturing sector amid tepid
global demand. The government rolled out an ambitious plan last year to
upgrade the manufacturing sector to move upward along the global industrial
chain and boost economic growth. The application of new industrial systems,
including robotics, will help improve enterprises' productivity by up to 25
percent, creating added value worth 6 trillion yuan (91.4
million U.S.dollars), according to recent research by Boston
Consulting Group (BCG).
The central leadership called for a "robot revolution"
last year in acknowledgement of automation's vital role in raising
productivity. Authorities have announced measures such as subsidies and tax
incentives over the past few years to encourage industrial automation as well
as development of the domestic robotics industry. The Ministry of Industry
and Information Technology (MIIT) in April released a development blueprint
for robotics-market growth in the next five years, which aims to have about
800,000 robots in stock by 2020 and achieve breakthroughs in high-end robots
in areas such as surgery or nursing. Since 2013, China has bought more industrial
robots each year than any other country and is expected to be the world's
biggest operator of industrial robots in 2018, according to the International
Federation of Robotics. There is plenty more room for market growth. China has about 36 robots for every 10,000
factory workers compared with about 478
in the Republic of Korea and 164
in the United
States, according to MIT Technology
Review. China
is home to about 800 companies producing or assembling robots, however, most
of them only make low-end products.
We have noticed trends of low-tech utilization and development
of robots in the sector, and the industry might be flushed with inefficient
investment, according to Xin Guobin, deputy head with MIIT. Chinese companies
are taking action to catch up with global pioneers. Agic Capital, the
Chinese-European private equity fund launched last year, bought Gimatic, an
Italian supplier of robotic end-of-arm tools, in mid June. Midea, a
Guangdong-based appliance maker launched a 4.5 billion euros offer this month
for Kuka, a globally renowned robot producer that serves customers such as
Audi, BMW and Boeing. Enterprises should be well aware of future trends and
focus on one's strength and improve competitiveness via cross-sector
partnership and global resource integration, Xin suggested.
From http://www.news.cn/
06/23/2016
TOP↑
China's Huawei Ranks 1st in Brand Power in Myanmar: Report
Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei scored highest on brand
power in Myanmar
for its ability to boost sales and gain market share, according to a report
released on Thursday. The BrandZ research "Spotlight on Myanmar,"
released by advertising and public relations company WPP and market research
firm Milward Brown, is based on 1,660 consumer interviews and covers 42
international and regional brands. Apple has emerged as the most
differentiated brand followed by Coca-Cola and Samsung. Myanmar's
local telecom MPT is highlighted as the most loved brand while Norway-based
Telenor was seen as the most innovative brand. David Roth, CEO at The Store,
EMEA and Asia, said that there are huge opportunities for international
brands to be successful in Myanmar,
if they get the cultural message right and understand the diversity of the
country, particularly in the border areas. The report also highlighted the
key trends that will change how brands and agencies should approach the
market, such as the country's rapid improvement in infrastructure and the
growth in e-tailing.
From http://www.news.cn/
07/01/2016
TOP↑
China's Mobile Manufacturers Quickly
Catching Up with Big Names
As technological advancement temporarily slows down in today’s
telecom scene, China’s
local mobile manufacturers are quickly catching up with the industrial big
names, market trends suggest. China’s
leading indigenous smartphone company Huawei produced 17.3 percent of devices
sold in China
in May, according to stats by Counterpoint Research. Taking the next three
spots are Vivo, Oppo and Xiaomi, all of them local brands as well. Apple, now
dropping to the 5th, trails behind with a share of only 10.8 percent. Just
three years ago, Samsung was still the No.1 mobile vendor in China,
commanding as much as 18.8 percent of the market. The ever-popular Apple has
managed to secure a spot in the top two until as late as early 2015. Things
changed in 2014 as the native brands, probably finally done with biding their
time, entered the scene with a blast led by Xiaomi. The soar of Xiaomi that
year didn’t end even after taking the lead in the domestic market; it also
became the 5th largest overall in the world, as if to declare to the world
that China is striving to become more than the “World’s factory”. Stats last
year from tech industry researcher Strategy Analytics put Huawei and Xiaomi
comfortably in the leading spots, while Samsung’s name is nowhere to be found
in the top five. Indigenous Chinese brands constitute eight of the top 10,
compared to a mere four in 2011. Financial services group Canaccord Genuity
published a set of data in 2015 showing the global market share of Samsung
and Apple at 23.9 and 17.2 percent respectively.
Commentators at International Business Times have pointed out
that growing Chinese brands tend to enter the scene with low-end budget
models and gradually climb up the hierarchy. “Most [up-and-coming
manufacturers] were all low-brow versions of the Samsung Galaxy or the
iPhone,” notes Forbes in a column, “But companies like Xiaomi and Huawei in
particular have made big leaps in quality and are winning over local buyers.”
Xiang Ligang, analyst and founder of the Chinese telecom portal site CCTimes,
told the media that local manufacturers have “improved so much in technology,
build quality and after-sales service that a better price is the only thing
left to distinguish them from Samsung and Apple models.” As the largest
production center of smartphones in the world, years of foreign outsourcing
have endowed the local manufacturers with a mature environment for both
research and production. This enabled them to quickly draw consumers through
not only cost, but performance as well. “Even their marketing strategy is
unlike any other,” adds Xiang, “No one else in the industry compares to
them.” According to Samsung, their sales in China has
been declining for the third year in a row, adding now up to only 15 percent
of their total revenue. The situation isn’t much different for Apple either;
the 26 percent plunge in second quarter turnover this year went so far as to
make Yahoo exclaim “Apple Is Getting Killed In China”. The prestige
associated with such names as Apple and Samsung is waning as Chinese companies
venture steadily further into the high end sector. Meanwhile, it is also not
infrequent for foreign companies in China to suffer setbacks here and
there outside of the marketplace.
In recent months, Apple is noted to have been repeatedly sued for
patent and trademark conflicts, while its online media distribution services
facing censorship and suspension. Huawei also brought a case against Samsung
in May this year claiming patent infringement. “Whether it’s Apple of
Samsung, the Chinese native industry has now caught up to them in terms of
technology,” Xiang asserts, “when it eventually comes to new technological
advancements in the future, we won’t know for sure who’s going to take the
lead. Right now it’s the same starting line for everyone.”
From http://www.news.cn/
07/11/2016
TOP↑
China Begins Crackdown on Online IPR Infringement
China on Tuesday
kicked off a five-month campaign against unlicensed distribution of
literature and audio and visual products on the Internet. The crackdown
targets mobile device applications, e-commerce websites, online
advertisements, music and video streaming websites, cloud storage services
and online news providers, according to a statement released by the National
Copyright Administration (NCA). It urged local police and copyright, Internet
and telecom departments to strengthen supervision and "severely crack
down on" intellectual property rights infringement on online forums and
social-networking platforms. According to the statement, authorities will
also toughen monitoring of app stores and their uploaders. The action was
jointly initiated by the NCA, State Internet Information Office, the Ministry
of Industry and Information Technology and the Ministry of Public Security.
From http://www.news.cn/
07/12/2016
TOP↑
Huawei, Xiaomi Make
Foray into PC Market
The stagnant personal computer (PC) market has not discouraged
Huawei and Xiaomi, two major IT firms in China, from attempting to give a
boost to the industry. At the Mobile World Congress held in Barcelona, Spain,
in February, Huawei rolled out its newest PC series named Matebook, which
will be priced between 4,988 (US$752) and 9,688 yuan, while last week, Xiaomi
unveiled its first two laptops in the Air Series, to be sold for 3,499 and
4,999 yuan. Lei Jun, the founder of Xiaomi, admitted at the launching
ceremony that the PC market represents one of the most competitive and mature
industries. But the reason for Xiaomi's foray into the PC market is a desire
to meet unsatisfied demands and improve technologies. The company focuses on
developing thin and light high-performance laptops. Will Xiaomi and Huawei be
able to reshape the PC industry as much as they changed the smart phone
market? According to Gartner, a world renowned technology firm, shipments of
PCs in the second quarter this year were down by 5.2 percent year on year,
registering a decline for the seventh season in a row. Bai Fan, general
manager of the ITO business division of GFK, a multinational market
consulting company, said that the PC market in China is even worse than in the
rest of the world. "The major PC suppliers in China have suffered a decline, a
domestic situation different from those of the overseas markets," said
Bai. Around 2010, China
launched a subsidy programs to boost the sales of electronic home appliances
in the countryside. But the program overdrew the sales of the electronic
devices in the following years. "It is usually believed that a PC can be
used for four to five years. However, the reality is that it may work even
longer," Bai said. The analyst added that even if Huawei and Xiaomi make
achievements in the PC industry, the landscape of the sector has little room
for change, indicating that the two domestic tech firms cannot constitute a
major force in the PC market in the short term. But the PC can be marketed
for more specific demands in the market by installing apps for online education
or by providing high-performance computers designated for online video games,
Bai said.
From http://www.chinagate.cn/
08/04/2016
TOP↑
E-commerce Boosts Farmers' Lives in Old
Revolutionary Base Areas
Premier Li Keqiang once said that we'll be able to bring the
Chinese economy up to a new level with the tail wind generated by the
Internet Plus strategy. Now a county in old revolutionary base areas in
Southwest China's Sichuan
province has tasted the sweetness of Internet Plus, as farmers' lives are
greatly improved by e-commerce. Hanyuan
County in Ya'an City, Sichuan, was
recognized as an old revolutionary base area in 2010 by Sichuan provincial government. Most
revolutionary base areas are scattered among mountainous areas with
inconvenient transportation, lagging behind in economic and social
development over the past decades. Located along an altitude between 550
meters and 4,021 meters, the county enjoys 1,475.8 hours of sunlight and
741.8 millimeters of rainfall per year on average. The unique geographic and
sunlight resources contribute to many premium
agricultural products, such as cherry, apple and Sichuan pepper. As nearly 90 percent of
Hanyuan's population engages in agriculture, the county government has
decided to take agriculture development as their key work. The county now has
cherry bases, apple bases, Sichuan
pepper bases and other vegetable bases, covering 44,000 hectares. The one
fatal disadvantage of relying on agricultural products is that farmers will
lose big when there are few distribution channels and agricultural products
go rotten in the field. Previously, farmers had no other way but to wait for
wholesalers to come and purchase their goods or go to a nearby market to
sell. As e-commerce booms in China,
local people and government see opportunities.
Wang Shibing, who worked in Tianjin, went back to his hometown in
Hanyuan in 2013. He set up a cooperative, purchasing fruits from farmers and
selling them online. Farmers in the cooperative are required not to use
potentially harmful pesticides. All cherries are shipped by air the same day
they are picked. Every single fruit is larger in diameter than a one yuan
coin. This past spring, he sold 15 tons of cherries online and 10 tons
offline in 20 days. Fifty farmers in the cooperative with him earn 20% more
on average, year-on-year. All cherries in their orchards are sold. According
to farmer Jiang Li, her cherries sell at 80 yuan (about $12) per kilogram
online, while they only sell for 50 yuan per kilogram wholesale. The Hanyuan
branch of China Post also helps farmers sell cherries. It purchases cherries
from 50 farmers in the cooperative. "We test the sweetness of cherries
and purchase them if they are up to standard," said Yang Yinquan, vice
director of the Hanyuan branch of China Post. To deliver fresh cherries to
customers, the branch sets up purchase sites in the main producing areas,
employs workers to do the picking, testing, sorting out and packaging work.
The fruit can be delivered to customers in Sichuan
within 24 hours and to customers outside Sichuan in 48 hours. The Hanyuan branch
helped farmers sell 60 tons of cherries in 40 days of the peak season this
year. According to Hanyuan county's commerce bureau, the government has
introduced four e-commerce companies to sell cherries.
Many cooperatives and farmers with large-scale orchards have
entered e-commerce platforms. Hundreds of farmers sell cherries on their
WeChat friends' circle. In 2015, the per capita disposable income of rural
residents in Hanyuan reached 9,357 yuan, up 10.2 percent, year-on-year.
President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang have stressed poverty relief for
old revolutionary base areas several times, encouraging the regions to make
the best of what they have. Hanyuan’s county government has witnessed
e-commerce's role in improving farmers' lives in recent years and decided to
do more. According to a report on e-commerce development in Hanyuan, the
government plans to train farmers and cadres to raise their awareness of
e-commerce, step up construction on broadband communication facilities,
improve transportation and cold-chain logistics, and build a comprehensive
platform to draw individual farmers into an alliance, enjoying a scale effect
from e-commerce.
From http://www.chinagate.cn/
08/09/2016
TOP↑
China Mobile to Axe Roaming Fees
China Mobile Communications Corp, the country's largest telecom
operator, said it will scrap domestic roaming charges by the end of this
year, a fee that is considered as a key source of revenue for telecom
carriers, as the company focuses on more lucrative 4G services. "Since July, China Mobile has
stopped selling new service packages that include domestic roaming charges on
cross-province phone calls," said Li Yue, president of China Mobile. He
predicted that the company will cancel all roaming long-distance packages by
the end of the year, and boost integrated service packages in the future.
China Mobile's first-half net profit grew 5.6 percent due to fast growth in
lucrative 4G
services. Its 4G
subscribers grew to 429 million, reaching 51 percent of the total. It is
noteworthy that the firm's revenue from its data transmission business
exceeded traditional businesses such as voice services for the first time,
becoming the company's largest source of income. China Mobile is not the
first telecom carrier to scrap domestic roaming charges. In July, China
Telecommunications Corp announced it would cancel such fees and implement
full-flow charges, which means that calls and short messages will be
converted into data flow and then charged.
From http://www.chinagate.cn/
08/16/2016
TOP↑
Revolutionary Village in East China
Becomes E-commerce Hub
A village in East China has
turned from one that used to supply goods to revolutionary forces during war
times to one that sells local farm produce online. On Sept 30, 1934,
thousands of Red Army soldiers and their officers began the Long March
(1934-1936) at Zhongfu village, Changting county in Longyan city, East
China's Fujian
province. During their journey, villagers at Zhongfu village provided goods
and materials to help the Red Army soldiers complete the Long March and meet
with other comrade-in-arms at Huining county, Southwest China's Gansu province.
Nowadays, following the trend of internet and e-commerce, locals at the
revolutionary village have opened nearly 50 online outlets. Selling the farm
produce online not only broadens the market, but also avoids low selling
prices, which helps increase the villagers' income. What's more, the booming
e-commerce attracts local migrant workers to return home and establish their
own businesses, Zhong Changyang, head of Zhongfu village, told Xinhua. An
online shop owned by villager Luo Tianling earned nearly 10 million yuan
($1.5 million), making her the sales champion in the village. Besides, the
profit margin of the online trading is higher than that of the offline
trading. For example, after careful selections and packages, unit price of
the passion fruits sold online is at least 20 percent higher than that of the
passion fruits sold offline.
In 2015, Luo not only sold all the passion fruits planted at her
family's farm, covering more than 200 mu (13.3
hectares), but also purchased the fruits grown in nearby villages and sold
them nationwide online. Besides Luo, migrant worker Xiang Lihua opened her
online taobao shop selling home-made chilli sauce and ginger candy after
returning home in May 2015. The online shop helped her earn a net income of
more than 100,000 yuan ($15,045), which was more than twice her salary as a
migrant worker. "People who come to visit our revolutionary village will
purchase local farm produce through our online shops after returning to their
home. My online shop receives orders every day," Luo said to Xinhua.
Local government has also taken measures to encourage more villagers to take
part in the e-commerce trend. A local government official told Xinhua that
villagers who open taobao shops do not need to pay rents for three years and
are provided training free of cost. Local government not only installs
network and power facilities for them without charging any fees, but also
will reward the ones who show best sales report. At present, with passion
fruits and ginger candy as pivotal industries, these taobao shops at Zhongfu
village have become the largest internet business incubator in the rural area
of Changting county.
From http://www.chinagate.cn/
08/16/2016
TOP↑
Apple Goes Green,
Company Commits to Zero Environmental Waste in China
Apple announced on Wednesday that all 14 of its final assembly
sites in China
are now compliant with UL (Underwriters Laboratories) zero waste standards.
"It means that all the manufacturing waste from the 14 facilities is either reused, recycled or composted," said Lisa
Jackson, vice president of environment, policy and social initiatives at
Apple. The tech giant now has a total of 18 final assembly plants in the
world. The zero waste program began in January 2015
and has helped divert more than 140,000 metric tons of waste from landfill to
more environmentally sound procedures, Jackson
said. The UL standards, set by a well-known US safety consulting and
certification company, are widely adopted in safety-related testing and validation
around the world. "It's the same standards that Apple uses," Jackson said. "All
the factories submitted plans to get the verification." One of Apple's
top suppliers, Foxconn saw its two sites, one in Shenzhen, southern China's Guangdong
Province, and the other in Taiyuan, northern China's
Shanxi Province, become the first to get the zero waste validation,
earlier this year. "If you visit our final assembly plants, you will see
a lot of materials stacked up to be shipped back to the vendors so that they
can be reused," Jackson
said. According to Jackson, packaging that goes back to vendors undergoes a
cleaning process to get refreshed and is then inspected to make sure it is
still good enough to be used again. In recent years, Apple has made clear efforts
to improve the environmental impact of its supply chain, which is responsible
for 77 percent of its total carbon footprint.
Apple is also looking at its energy usage, and on Wednesday the
company announced a commitment from its major supplier Lens Technology to run
its Apple operations entirely on renewable energy by 2018. Lens, a company
based in central China's Hunan Province, produces cover glass, home buttons
and cameras for Apple, and consumes about 500 million kilowatt hours per
year, according to Lens CEO Zhou Qunfei. To fulfill the commitment, Lens will
continue to build solar panels and purchase wind power from local companies,
Zhou said. Lens is the first supplier to make a clean energy commitment for
all of its Apple production, which will reduce carbon dioxide emissions by
nearly 450,000 metric tons per year, equivalent to the energy use of 380,000
Chinese homes, Jackson
said. "We are very excited, not because it is something that Apple is
doing, but because it's great to see our suppliers show leadership on clean
energy, clean water and clean skies," she said. "It's really a sign
of advancement and the transformation to green manufacturing is also very
important to China
right now." Apple, which has 346 suppliers in China, has committed to
partnering with Chinese suppliers to build more than two gigawatts of solar
power projects by 2020, which will help cut 20 million metric tons of
greenhouse gas pollution. "We are already sponsoring the development of
200 megawatts of solar power projects in China,
with 170 megawatts in Inner Mongolia," Jackson said. Foxconn will finish building
400 megawatts of solar power projects, starting in Henan Province,
by 2018. It is currently on its way to constructing the first 80 megawatts.
"Environment is our core value," Jackson said. "We make beautiful
products, but we should also leave the planet beautiful."
From http://www.news.cn/
08/17/2016
TOP↑
SOUTH
KOREA:
SK Telecom Builds First IoT-Only Network in Daegu
Network operator SK Telecom said Monday that it has completed
the installation of Korea’s
first network exclusively dedicated to the Internet of Things services across
Daegu City. The IoT network, called the
long-range wide area network or simply LoRa network, covers the entire city
to provide connected services for the public. SKT expects the IoT businesses
to gain further momentum when the city is designated as a regulation-free
zone for the technology. “SKT will contribute to transforming Daegu into a
hub of information and communications technology,” said Lee Hyung-hee, head
of SKT’s mobile network business. “The company will also create an ecosystem
for cooperation with small- and medium-sized firms and start-ups by expanding
the IoT network across the nation in June,” he said. In line with SKT’s goal
to nurture IoT businesses and the start-up ecosystem, SKT and the Daegu
government inked a partnership deal to set up an IoT laboratory in the city
in March. The IoT test bed, dubbed the T Open Lab, will open at the city
government building in July to allow fledgling start-ups to conduct research
and development projects. At the lab fitted with IT devices, sensors and
equipment, entrepreneurs can also participate in lectures run by seasoned technicians
and businessmen and exchange information with other start-up runners. The
network operator will pour 90 billion won ($75.6 million) to establish the
test bed while the city government will try to set aside more than 1 trillion
won to establish the IoT infrastructure for energy, health care and
autonomous car businesses.
From
http://www.koreaherald.com
05/30/2016
TOP↑
Tech
Firms Seek to Entice Consumers with Design
Korean electronics-makers are trying to remain competitive in
the cutthroat competition of the global electronics sector by rolling out
products with unique and user-friendly designs. Dongbu Daewoo Electronics,
the nation’s third-largest electronics-maker, has made some progress in
infiltrating the global market with its Classe front-load washing machine.
The washer features what the company calls an “ergonomic design,” as the
washer door is placed 11.5 centimeters higher than that of the average
front-load washer, and it is also inclined slightly backward, around 10
degrees, to allow users to put laundry in the washer with ease. The Classe
washer with the inclined door has especially caught the eyes of consumers in Saudi Arabia, China
and Iraq.
The company said it shipped around 7,000 units of the washer to global
markets, in addition to 3,000 in
the Korean market. “The inclined door saves users the trouble of bending down
and crouching when putting in laundry in a washer,” Kwon Dae-hoon, a public
relations representative at Dongbu Daewoo Electronics, said. The automatic
detergent dispenser fitted in the washer also eliminates the nuisance of
adding detergent every time the user does laundry, the company explained.
“The washing machine with the inclined door also boasts great laundry
performance and reasonable price,” he said. Tech giants LG Electronics and
Samsung Electronics have been reinforcing their design capacity as part of
efforts to get ahead in the competition with global household electronics firms,
including those from China.
LG Electronics’ Twin Wash, which features a sleek design with its dual drums,
one on top and the other on bottom, has been boosting the firm’s market share
in the U.S. Posting 26.4 percent market share there in the first three months
this year, up from 24.6 percent in 2015, the Seoul-headquartered tech giant
was No. 1 in the front-load
washing machine sector in the U.S. “The most important thing is not the sales
numbers of those products, but momentum (created by the design-oriented
premium products) to improve the brand value of the company,” the CEO said.
Aiming to top the front-loading washer sector in the U.S. for the
10th straight year since 2007, LGE plans to roll out premium products in the
coming months.
“LGE’s washer business, which accounts for 35 percent of the firm’s entire
revenue, will see its profit margin increase this year thanks to improved
presence in the U.S. market,” said Kim Dong-won, an analyst at Hyundai
Securities, adding that the recent ruling of the World Trade Organization
against the U.S. government’s antidumping duties on Korean washer-makers will
likely benefit LGE. Joining hands with French furniture designers Ronan and
Erwan Bouroullec, Samsung released a TV last year that looks like the English
letter “I” when seen in profile. The TV product, which drew attention from
both the TV industry and design segment, is designed to complement home
furniture. The I-shaped TV was exhibited at the
Milan Furniture Fair trade show in April. Currently available at upscale
department stores and furniture shops in Korea
and Europe, the product will also be sold at the Museum
of Modern Arts in New York City later this year. Samsung did
not unveil the sales figures for the TV, but is said to have set a sales
target of 30,000 units this year. “Even though the Serif TV is sold at
limited places, its sells fairly well,” Kim Choon-gon, a public relations
representative from Samsung, said.
From
http://www.koreaherald.com/
06/01/2016
TOP↑
SK
C&C, CISCO to Develop Next-Generation Network Management Platform
Information technology solutions firm SK C&C and network
equipment firm CISCO will be working together to develop a software platform
that can manage network and security systems. Yang Yu-seok, the head of SK
C&C’s information and communications technology infrastructure business,
and Park Jae-beom, the vice president of CISCO, signed a partnership deal for
the collaboration at C&C’s office in Pangyo on Wednesday. The platform to
be developed by the two partners will enable network operators to monitor
different network devices and systems as well as change the settings and fix
errors. It will feature a “rollback” function, which returns systems back to its
previous state through a few clicks to solve unexpected system errors, and
the network function virtualization, which will enable operators to manage
firewalls and network ports without the installation of any hardware system.
It will also allow a one-stop checkup of network routers and switches. “The
two companies will continue to work to improve the IT infrastructure and
deploy advanced network technology in a range of industries for the
development and operation of big data services,” Yang Yu-seok of SK C&C
said in a press release.
From
http://www.koreaherald.com
06/08/2016
TOP↑
Samsung
to Focus on Building Global IoT Ecosystem
Samsung Electronics Co., South Korea's leading tech firm,
said Monday it will accelerate a push for the establishment of a global
Internet of Things (IoT) ecosystem based on its ARTIK platform. One of the
key words for the ecosystem is an "end-to-end (E2E)" solution to
link module and cloud services to make it easier and faster for its worldwide
partners to develop IoT products. ARTIK is Samsung's IoT module composed of
an application processor, memory, sensor and
communication module. It supports various types of high-end technologies
including security solutions, storage, software and cloud computing services.
"ARTIK is an end-to-end, integrated module-cloud solution," So
Byung-se, executive vice president and CTO in charge of Samsung's Strategy
and Innovation Center, said at the "2016 Investors Forum." It is a
system to enable independently developed devices to be interlocked and the
cloud systems of separate companies to be integrated, he added. He expected
the semiconductor industry to grow 7 percent each year on average by 2020 and
the IoT field to account for 25 percent of that, he said, adding that Samsung
has no plans yet to develop new chips for the IoT business. "We will use
existing semiconductor chips. For lower-price products, we plan to look for
other partners," he said. "Existing chips, mainly for mobile
services, require one or two years of optimization process, however."
From
http://www.koreaherald.com
06/20/2016
TOP↑
Samsung
Vows to Invest $1.2b in US for IoT Tech
Desperate to find new future growth engines, Samsung Electronics is betting big on the
Internet of Things, a network technology which connects objects with humans.
The electronics giant has announced a package of plans to grow the business
for the connected technology at the Internet of Things Policy Dialogue, an
industry conference held at the head office of the US
daily Washington Post in Washington
on June 21. In his speech at the event, Samsung’s vice chairman Kwon Oh-hyun
vowed to invest around $1.2 billion in the US over the next four years,
aiming to nurture the IoT business. “Samsung, together with its research and
development centers in Silicon Valley, Samsung
Strategy & Innovation Center, Global
innovation Center,
and Samsung Research America,
will focus on developing IoT technologies and collaborate with start-ups in
the sector,” vice chairman Kwon said. He did not give details on the
investment plan, but some market watchers expect Samsung to set aside a large
portion of the money to take over emerging start-ups as the Korean tech giant
has done in recent years.
The company has purchased a handful of Silicon Valley
start-ups, most prominently mobile payment solution firm LoopPay in Feb.
2015, and home automation solution firm SmartThings in Aug. 2014. The Korean
tech firm also acquired cloud firm Joyent earlier this month, whose software
development platform Node.js is one of the most-used programing tools in the
world. “The company will execute investments for various purposes, for
example, to fund projects at its R&D centers and proceed with acquisition
deals of start-ups,” said Chae Soo-yeon, a public relations representative from
Samsung. Concerted efforts among market players, academia and relevant
organizations to foster IoT businesses are an integral factor to make a truly
connected world, the Samsung vice chairman said. “The IoT (technology) is
already penetrating our daily lives, and collaborative works are highly
necessary in order to find ways to enhance the potentials and value of IoT
tech,” the Samsung vice chairman said.
In order to accelerate such collaboration, Samsung said the company and US chipmaker
Intel have launched the National IoT Strategy Dialogue, an advisory group
committed to growing the IoT technologies and businesses. “The group has been
formed at the right time as more attention is being paid to IoT at the
moment,” said Douglas Davis, the senior vice president of Intel. The IoT
group will be led by the U.S. Information Technology Industry Council, a
Washington-based trade association for the IT industry. The IoT push by
Samsung and Intel is expected to boost chip manufacturing businesses of the
two semiconductor powerhouses as most digital devices need chips to be
connected with each other. Samsung said earlier this week it would ramp up
its efforts to grow the ARTIK platform, an integrated Systems on Module that
combines multiple chips, including application processor, memory, sensor, and
communications module.
From
http://www.koreaherald.com/
06/22/2016
TOP↑
Korea to Ease Regulations to Kick-Start
Internet-Only Banks
Korea will ease
regulations and revise rules to help the country's first internet-only banks
make a soft landing and grow down the road, its financial regulator said
Wednesday. Among the necessary steps to propel the growth of Kbank and
Kakaobank, the Financial Services Commission picked an immediate revision to
the existing banking laws to allow information-technology companies, as the
largest shareholders, to participate in the web-only banks' management
decisions as the most urgent measure to be taken. "To differentiate
themselves from existing banks in terms of products and services, the
online-only banks badly need to work with IT companies from the outset of
their businesses," FSC Chairman Yim Jong-yong said in a press briefing
held during his visit to Kakaobank's headquarters in Pangyo, just south of Seoul. For that aim,
the banking laws should be revised to allow an IT company with a minimum
capital of 25 billion won to take a controlling stake of less than 50 percent
in an internet-only bank and have a say in the bank's business decisions as
is the case in advanced countries, the chairman said.
In collaboration with related parties, the financial regulator will make
bigger efforts to help pass the proposed revision submitted by Rep. Kang
Seok-jin from the ruling Saenuri party to the banking laws this year, he
said. In other steps to create a business environment for internet-only
banks, the government revised rules in January to allow them to have credit
card businesses as well, even if they don't have more than 30 outlets or hire
more than 300 workers, Yim said. Under the changes, "if internet-only
banks are fully ready to run credit card, insurance and financial investment
businesses in terms of staff and systems, they can directly apply for final
approval to have multiple businesses without the process for an initial
approval," the FSC chief said. Moreover, the government plans to
have the Korea Credit Information Services provide customers' credit
information at microfinancing companies to web-only banks. It is to allow the
new banks to extend mid-rate loans with an interest rate of around 10 percent
to low-rate customers, he said.
Currently, microfinancers can charge an interest rate of up to 27.9 percent
for loans extended to low-credit customers who are denied access to bank
loans with a rate of less than 10 percent these days. The country's key rate
stands at an all-time low of 1.25 percent. To ensure stability in
computing systems, "Even before a final go-ahead, we will help the online
banks test their systems in connection with KCREDIT, the Bank of Korea and
the Korea Financial Telecommunications & Clearings Institute. Multiple
tests will guarantee the banks start their businesses with a relatively
stabilized system," the chairman said. But Yim didn't paint only a rosy
picture for the future of internet-only banks. "Their mid- and long-term
competitiveness depends on whether they can offer 'killer content' that
didn't exist before in the banking industry,” he said. Meanwhile, Kbank, led
by mobile services operator KT Corp., and Kakaobank, controlled by Korea
Investment Holdings Co., are wrapping up preparations to obtain final
approval from the Financial Services Commission in the third and fourth
quarter, respectively, with an aim to begin operations within this year, the
banks said.
The final approval will bring newcomers to the fourth-largest Asian economy's
banking scene for the first time in 23 years. In November, the government
granted preliminary permits to the two web-only banks as it seeks to
reinvigorate the banking sector suffering from slow growth and slim margins.
It expects online-only banks will be able to offer not only traditional
financial services but also fintech-based innovative services that existing
commercial banks can't offer through mobile platforms. Under financial
technology (fintech), partnerships, banks and information-technology
companies cooperate for business synergy. Yim has said,
"Establishing internet-only banks should stir healthy competition in the
stagnant local financial market amid a slowing economy and record low
interest rates." No doubt, the internet and mobile banking sector has
emerged as a new economic growth driver in recent years in one of the world's
most wired countries as consumers increasingly prefer convenient deals on
mobile devices to visiting offline branches.
Threatened by the planned launch of internet-only banks, existing ones have
bolstered their mobile banking services in order not to lose customers. The
FSC chief called the banks' move "positive signs of sound competition
and tension in the making" in the markets. Korea Federation of Banks
Chairman Ha Young-ku, former chief of Citibank Korea, said the launch of the
web-only banks will stimulate the banking sector to innovate themselves and
reemerge with competitiveness. He asked Kakaobank and Kbank to become leading
players in providing financial services to low-credit customers based on a
thorough analysis on credit data and an effective cost management.
"Domestic banks have sought for a presence in overseas markets but with
no tangible results yet. The two web-only banks are better positioned as it
takes much less workforce and facility investment to open a business
overseas," Ahn Dong-hyun, president of the Korea Capital Market Institute
President, said.
From
http://www.koreaherald.com
07/06/2016
TOP↑
Korea to Invest W12.5b in ‘Soft Robots’
The Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning said July 19
that the ministry will invest a total of 12.5 billion won (US$11 million) in
the field of bio-inspired robotics, often called “soft robotics,” over the
next seven years. Soft robots are highly flexible and look like sea
creatures. The research aims to build machines that handle tasks impossible
with traditionally designed robots. The Ministry of Science, ICT and
Future Planning said July 19 that the ministry will invest a total of 12.5
billion won (US$11 million) in the field of bio-inspired robotics, often
called “soft robotics,” over the next seven years. Soft robots are highly
flexible and look like sea creatures. The research aims to build machines
that handle tasks impossible with traditionally designed robots.
From
http://www.koreaherald.com/
07/19/2016
TOP↑
Network
Carriers Engage in IoT War
The dawn of Internet of Things technology has sparked a fierce
war between Korea’s
three major telecom carriers as they seek to become the dominant network
provider for IoT-based services. While improvements in information and
communications technology have advanced communication between people through
objects, the Internet of Things seeks to facilitate communication between
objects themselves. According to a July report by the Hyundai Research
Institute, the Korean IoT market is expected to grow at 38.5 percent each
year until 2020. The market will increase in size from 3.3 trillion won
($3.02 billion) in 2015 to 17.1 trillion won in 2020, the report said.
For now, the carriers are focusing on gaining ground. “In the B2C (business-to-consumer) sector, the
three telecom carriers are fighting it out through home IoT solutions, but
it’s difficult to get consumers to open up their wallets,” a spokesman for
Korea Telecom told The Korea Herald. “Targeting the government or corporate
sectors to help them launch IoT services is much more forward-looking in
terms of profits.”
The new push by network carriers is expected to change the overall tide of
the Korean IoT industry, which so far has concentrated on hardware rather
than network or services, and on products for
individual consumers. According to the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future
Planning, nearly half of sales related to IoT in 2015 came from hardware
sales, while one-third of available services were in consumer services such
as smart homes, health care, and child location tracking. The entry barriers
to developing IoT products and services have lowered due to networks that
allow small amounts of data to be transferred at a much lower cost than
existing 3G or
LTE networks. In July, SK Telecom became the first of the three major
networks to launch an exclusive IoT network covering the whole country. The
LoRa (long-range) network, which targets IoT services that require little
data such as monthly gas usage meters, is available to users at low prices of
380 won to 2200 won per month. “Services like automatically calculating gas
usage per household require less than 100 megabytes of data a month,” a
spokesman for SK Telecom told The Korea Herald. “There’s no need to use
expensive LTE or 3G
networks for that kind of service. LoRa allows those services to be provided
at low prices.”
With the LoRa network running alongside the existing LTE-M network -- which
was launched in March and sets aside certain bandwidth from existing LTE
networks for IoT devices -- SK Telecom is moving quickly to find partners to
roll out new IoT products and services. “After rolling out the network, we’re
very busy talking to manufacturers about what we can provide,” the SK
spokesman said. “We’re hoping to see a lot of new ideas. Services that were
impossible before have now become possible. So we want to work together with
venture companies or start-ups to create new services.” SK currently partners
with about 100 companies. “A lot of our partnerships so far focus on safety
services, such as automatic gas gauges or manhole maintenance,” the spokesman
said. SK plans to launch 20 more new services by the year’s end. Meanwhile,
KT is focusing on the Internet of Small Things using the LTE-M network.
Recent partnerships, such as those with bicycle-maker Alton Sports and
furniture manufacturer Hanssem, are designed to introduce the IoT into daily
consumer life.
KT also launched a LTE-M-based GiGA IoT Alliance, which includes over 400
companies in Korea
and abroad, to create new IoT services. Meanwhile, LG Uplus remains
aggressively focused on expanding its smart home services since their launch
last year. Its smart home service has approximately 360,000 members who enjoy
IoT services in everyday home products such as light switches, outlets, and
thermostats. The carrier hopes to expand their services to cover fifty
different functions and reach 500,000 households by the end of the year.
Recently, LG Uplus signed a memorandum of understanding with development
company Taerim Construction to construct 1,000 studios with built-in IoT
functions. The Future Planning Ministry has also pledged active support for
the IoT Industry through investments such as 5.63 billion won to support
small and medium-sized enterprises, and 2 billion won to create a test bed in
the city of Goyang
to use IoT solutions for community issues such as safety, environmental
conservation and energy efficiency.
From
http://www.koreaherald.com
08/11/2016
TOP↑
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CAMBODIA: Telecom Operator Smart to Invest More in
High-Speed Mobile Internet Service
Smart Axiata, a leading telecom operator in Cambodia,
planned to invest another 75 million U.S. dollars in 2016 to keep rolling its
4G LTE network and
mobile Internet infrastructure expansion nationwide, according to its press
release on Friday. The operator said it has completed the upgrade of 100
percent of its 2,000 base station sites with 3.75G. Smart Axiata introduced 4G LTE, the fastest mobile Internet
available technologically as of now, to Cambodia
in 2014, the press release said, adding that in 2015, Smart invested more
than 63 million U.S. dollars to expand its 4G network to all 25 provinces of Cambodia.
Currently, more than 40 percent of its base stations nationwide are equipped
with 4G LTE already, and by
end-2016, more than 50 percent of all base stations will offer 4G in addition to 2G and 3.75G,
it said. Thomas Hundt, CEO of Smart, said that Cambodia has the exact same or
even better 4G LTE
that many Asian countries enjoy, but at a quarter of the price per gigabyte.
"While you need to spend 10 U.S. dollars in Singapore
or 5 U.S. dollars in Thailand
per 1 GB, with Smart you can get an amazing 1.5 GB for just 1 U.S.
dollar," he said. "As a long-term investor in Cambodia, we
will keep advancing our network and mobile Internet infrastructure,"
said Thomas.
From
http://news.xinhuanet.com/
07/29/2016
TOP↑
IE
Singapore Helps SMEs to Innovate Business Operations for Overseas Growth
International Enterprise (IE) Singapore's Going Global with
Innovation (GGI) conference on Thursday attracted over 400 participants from
Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) to discuss innovative business operations
for overseas growth. Innovation, a key focus of Singapore's Committee on the
Future Economy, is also the driving force for companies to prepare for the
economy of the future, including SMEs. The GGI conference showcased how
companies can adopt practical applications of innovation through business
strategies as well as business operations, such as product or solution
offerings, marketing and HR practices. Chief Executive Officer of IE Singapore Lee Ark Boon reiterated the importance of
innovation for internationalization at the conference. "Singapore
companies are renowned for trust, quality and reliability, but these will
become insufficient. Innovativeness, from products and services, to processes
and functions, should be the hallmark of our future enterprises," Lee
added. Innovation in business strategies, marketing and HR were three themes
echoed throughout the discussion. During the conference, participants delved
deeper into how the three themes could be applied to their businesses. GGI is
part of IE Singapore's series of flagship events aimed at driving change and
growth of Singapore SMEs to prepare them for overseas expansion.
From
http://news.xinhuanet.com/
07/28/2016
TOP↑
THAILAND: Private Sector Prodded on R&D,
Innovation
SCIENCE And Technology Minister Pichet Durongkaveroj yesterday
urged the private sector to urgently invest in research and development and
innovation to make use of generous incentive schemes the government has
provided. "Everything is in place but the missing component is the
private sector, which has not yet stood up," said the minister in his
keynote speech at the Thailand Management Association conference yesterday.
He said students were still reluctance to take science and technology courses
- not because they did not want to do so, but because there were a lack of
career paths offered in the corporate sector in this area. The corporate
sector has not paid enough attention to R&D and innovation activities, he
added. The government made the historic decision of including the Science and
Technology Ministry as part of its economic team for the first time after
Deputy Prime Minister Somkid Jatusripitak took charge of the economic affairs
late last year. Pichet said the government had come up with many promotional
packages to promote R&D and innovation, but they were under-utilised,
especially the 300 per cent tax deduction allowance for R&D and
innovation expenditure. Thailand's
R&D spending rose steadily from 0.6 per cent of gross domestic product
last year to 0.7 per cent this year, and is projected at 0.8 per cent next
year. However, the figures should be higher and more contribution from the
private sector is needed to achieve that.
"Now we're at an important crossroads where science and
innovation have to become a tool to shift Thailand out of the middle-income
trap," he said. Pichet said the government would shortly unveil a
"governance structure" for the national research system and was
expected to officially inaugurate Food Innopolis, the first R&D and
innovation hub in the country, this October. The ministry is organising
roadshows overseas to try and entice key multinational food players to join
the planned food industry cluster as well as discussing with the Ministry of
Finance a plan to exempt taxes for top-notch researchers who work at the Food
Innopolis. The government is considering setting up a Bt10 billion fund to
support startups, and transfer a fund for small and medium-sized enterprises
and an Asian Development Bank loan facility so they are under the
responsibility of the Science Ministry. To promote startups throughout the
country, the Science and Technology Ministry will organise venues for
startups to showcase their works in Chiang Mai, Khon Kaen, and Phuket
provinces over the next few months. "In Phuket we will hold it at a marina.
Startups will pitch their works on a yacht. We hope CNN may be interested in
covering it," he said. The minister is also talking with Chulalongkorn University's new president Bundhit
Eua-arporn over a plan to turn Siam
Square into a "startup district."
"[We are] considering how to create an atmosphere [so Siam Square] is not only a shopping
place for Chula students," he said. Vasit Taepaisitphongse, president of
Betagro, said the leading Thai agro-industry and food processing company
invested in an R&D facility at Science Park 11 years ago and now spends
of 0.4 per cent of its sales turnover on R&D. It aims to increase the
figure to 1 per cent by investing wisely.
From
http://www.nationmultimedia.com/
07/16/2016
TOP↑
SMEs Urged to Use
Digital Media to Tap Customers
SMALL and medium-sized entrepreneurs should work on all digital
media platforms to enhance engagement with customers and boost sales, a
digital media expert suggested. Uraiporn Cholsirirungskul, chief executive
officer and digital transformation consultant at Mirum (Thailand),
said SMEs could be affected by major social media platform operators like
Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Line always updating their engagement
systems to stimulate the participation of their subscribers. This is
particularly the case for SMEs that relied on social network as key platforms
to communicate with customers, she said. Uraiporn pointed to Facebook's Bot
for the Messenger, a micro-application in a main application that offered
benefits while using the main application. She said the new feature allowed a
business to be exposed to targeted consumers. She stressed that getting a
consumer to make a purchase was not enough. E-commerce was used as a tool to
get people to repurchase and to cross-sell. On its website, Facebook states that
bots can provide anything from automated subscription content like weather
and traffic updates, to customised communications like receipts, shipping
notifications and live automated messages - all by interacting directly with
the people who want to get them.
Apple and Line are also developing similar tools to encourage
business transactions via their platforms and devices. "It is very
important that Thai SMEs quickly adopt new technology which will be
introduced in the near future," Uraiporn said. "On top of that, to
spread risk from this rapid change, they should have their own online store
while using the main platforms to interact with consumers." She also
said businesses must analyse their strengths and support digital innovation
to create more opportunities. She said mobile phone users were now more
interested in using their phones for accessing data, entertainment and
financial applications than for making calls. Businesses should be aware of
digital lifestyles that shape consumer behaviour. "Data analytics is
also important so all businesses including SMEs to understand the changes in
consumer behaviour so they can listen to what consumers want as well as
whether they talked about their brand either positively or negatively,"
she added.
From
http://www.nationmultimedia.com/
07/18/2016
TOP↑
Data Utilisation,
Analytics Key to Business Growth
DIGITAL-DATA UTILISATION and analytics are
together becoming an increasingly crucial growth engine for business amid an
expanding online consumer base, according to leading research firms and media
operators. Surachet Bumrungsuk, chief executive officer of VGI Global Media,
said yesterday that big-data utilisation would take the lead in driving his
empire to achieve its ultimate goal of being a leading provider of nationwide
integrated media platforms. Ranked the No-1 out-of-home media business in the
Kingdom, VGI Global Media now operates transit media at 30 BTS stations and
160 office buildings in Bangkok.
Through its media affiliates, the company aims to reach wider target
audiences by using outdoor media, digital screens at 13 airports around the
country, Rabbit member cards and marketing activation. To make this media
integration come to life, Surachet said his company would put more investment
into its digital media platform to make sure that it collected as much
digital data as possible.
The company will also work closely with advertisers to
understand customers' behaviour and their purchasing journey, particularly
among those who spent more time out of their home and those who were connected
to the Internet. He added that Bangkok
residents and people living in other big cities were on the whole physically
and digitally connected via online media, mainly driven by the rising
penetration of smart phones and the expansion of Wi-Fi connection and
wireless Internet broadband service. In line with this technology trend, the
development gap between urban and rural areas will become narrower and
bridgeable, he suggested. To cash in on this trend, media research giant
Nielsen Thailand
yesterday announced a collaboration with Thoth
Zocial - a local provider of social-data analysis services - to provide a
social listening and monitoring service to Thai firms. Pawoot Pongvitayapanu,
director of Thoth Zocial, said data and insight from social monitoring would
lead marketers and corporates to follow the right business direction, and
could be used "to empower their traditional approach more
effectively".
Explaining how social listening and monitoring works, he said
raw data generated by online users - such as their complaints, opinions and
conversations about brands - would be collected from Facebook, Twitter,
Instagram, websites and bloggers. Meanwhile, apart from brands and companies
wanting to gain more insights from online consumers, TV broadcasters and
media agencies are also seeking similar guidance with a view to creating
high-rating TV shows and attracting more advertising revenue, while young
viewers tend to enjoy their viewing experience via multi-screens - mobile,
personal computer and tablet, as well TV screens. Sinthu Peatrarut, managing
director for Nielsen's media client leadership, said yesterday that his
company would launch a new TV-audience measurement called "digital
content ratings" early next year. Collected from 20 million Facebook
accounts and other sources permitted by its partnered broadcasters, the data
will be analysed and used as a "common currency" for TV ratings.
"Thailand will be the
third place in the world to have this advanced TV-audience measurement, after
the US and Australia,"
he said. The MD said he hoped this would be an attractive new option for
digital-TV operators, media agencies and brands alike, and that it would
encourage them to stay with Nielsen.
From
http://www.nationmultimedia.com/
07/27/2016
TOP↑
Micro-Enterprises Finds
Online Market Crowded
MICRO-ENTERPRISES will find it increasingly difficult to survive
and compete in the online marketplace, digital-marketing veteran Kampol
Tanapanyaworakhun has warned. These very small players that are mushrooming
on social media and other digital platforms, such as those who sell clothing
and gadgets online, will be squeezed as online advertising costs soar and
larger companies take up online space. "You may see that large brands
have already occupied most of Facebook's newsfeed," said Kampol, who is
chief executive officer of iTopPlus, a digital marketing agency. His firm
offers digital marketing and website development services to small and
medium-sized enterprises that are mostly B2B (business-to-business) and are
larger than micro-enterprises, most of which are B2C (business-to-customer). The company, which is one
of the four Google SME Premium Partners in Thailand, expects its Google
advertising sales to grow by 40 per cent this year. Chief marketing officer
Praewpilai Chinsakchai said the average rate of Google's search keywords in Thailand was
currently about Bt20 per click and the highest was Bt300. Since Google
adjusted its search algorithm in March, the click rate of some keywords has
skyrocketed from Bt70 to Bt220. Kampol said: "It's like a good location
- the good places have their prices increase over time." ITopPlus will
this year target industries that sell high-value products such as real
estate, education and manufactured goods, since many of them have not yet
started to do online marketing.
The company also foresees an opportunity to develop mobile sites
for enterprises since Google has announced a plan to introduce an algorithm
that will exclude websites that are not mobile-ready from its search results.
"Thailand
has about 400,000 websites, of which about 250,000-300,000 are likely not to
be mobile-ready," Kampol said. ITopPlus has 8,000 clients, 85 per cent
of them using its website development services, and the rest buying online
advertisements. A total of 60 per cent of its Bt200-million annual revenue is
derived from advertisement sales and the rest from website services. For the
past two years, the group has expanded into large corporate customers through
its affiliated firm iTopSpark as well as setting up iTopClasses to provide
online marketing courses and training. Praewpilai said iTopSpark had
increased its customer base from 10
in the first year to about 40 at present. "This year our
target is to increase the number of customers by 60 per cent and to double
our team [headcount]," she said. ITopSpark's customers include
Kasikornbank, the Institute for the Promotion of Teaching Science and
Technology, L'Occitane, Pruksa Real Estate, the Electronic Transactions
Development Agency and Garmin. ITopSpark says it strives to be a
performance-based digital partner for corporate customers, offering a full
range of services from strategic planning to online advertising technical
skills and data analytics. It recently opened a new department to provide
online research service. Since 2014, iTopClasses has offered six courses,
with more than 250 participants. By the end of this year, it will open three more
courses on Google Apps for Work, Google Apps on Mobile for Business,
and YouTube for Business. It also provides digital-marketing training for
organisations.
From
http://www.nationmultimedia.com/
07/29/2016
TOP↑
Wealth Management
Behind in Adopting Digital Technology: PwC
WEALTH management is one of the least tech-literate sectors of
the financial services industry, and is falling well behind non-financial
services industries, finds a report published by PricewaterhouseCoopers. What
wealth managers currently offer is sharply at odds with the expectations of
the high-net-worth individuals (HNWIs) who make up their clientele. PwC's
report, "Sink or Swim: Why Wealth Management Can't Afford to Miss the
Digital Wave", draws on interviews with wealth relationship managers,
chief executives and financial-technology innovators. It includes insights
from a survey of 1,000 HNWIs in Europe, North America and Asia.
The report says only a quarter of wealth managers offer digital channels
beyond e-mail. This is despite
the fact that 69 per cent of HNWIs globally and 77 per cent in the
Asia-Pacific region use online and mobile banking. More than 40 per cent go
online to review their portfolio or investment markets. More than one-third
globally use online services for portfolio
management. Vilaiporn Taweelappontong, partner for PwC Consulting (Thailand),
said CEOs of traditional wealth-management firms needed to accelerate their
efforts to integrate technology into their business.
"Wealth management is one of the sectors most vulnerable to
digital disruption today," she said. "Wealth managers currently
rank among the slowest adopters of digital technology in the global
financial-services industry. This tells us that the sector remains focused on
a conventional way of servicing clients and that major changes need to take
place." Demand among HNWIs for finance-related technology is similar for
both younger and older HNWIs. The exception is portfolio management, where
under-45s are more interested in managing investments online. More than half
of HNWIs surveyed globally (55 per cent) and nearly two-thirds in the
Asia-Pacific region (62 per cent) believe it is important for their financial
adviser or wealth manager to have a strong digital offering. For those under
45 and in Asia, the number rises to 64 per
cent. HNWIs are increasingly aware of automated technology in the investment
advisory space. More than a third of HNWIs in the Asia-Pacific region who do
not currently use robo services that cut out the middleman would consider
using them in the future.
Overestimating digital capability
Even so, players in the wealth-management sector seem to be
oblivious to their technology inadequacies. Some rate themselves as digitally
sophisticated, when the only service offer to clients is a website.
Two-thirds of wealth relationship managers globally do not consider
robo-advisers a threat to their business. Moreover, they say their clients do
not want digital functionality. Only 34 per cent of HNWIs in the Asia-Pacific
region are likely to recommend their current wealth manager to others. This
falls to 23 per cent among US$10-million-plus (more than Bt348 million)
clients worldwide. Vilaiporn said the industry was acutely vulnerable to
digital innovation from fintech incomers who can offer wealthy clients slick
and highly personalised ways to manage their assets, and leverage real-time
data continuously to make better financial decisions. PwC's report finds that
"investment performance" and "range of products and
services" are the most important aspects for all clients.
However, "rapport with adviser" is much less valued,
at 41 per cent in the Asia-Pacific region versus 50 per cent globally. Some
77 per cent of clients in the region rank "investment performance"
as the most important, against a global figure of 62 per cent. In PwC's view,
to survive, wealth-management firms must accelerate efforts to adopt a
comprehensive digital infrastructure that integrates every aspect of their
activities and corporate culture, from the back office to how they service
clients and market new prospects. They should also harness the potential of
digital to realise greater efficiencies, manage costs and advance their core
client proposition by drawing on a much wider range of available data. They
should be willing to partner strategically with fintech innovators to deliver
technological solutions at the speed the market expects. As for Thailand, Vilaiporn
said some wealth-management players had started to make progress over the
past few years into better use of technology and analytics to enhance the
client experience. Even so, the
broader industry largely remains in its infancy in adopting digital
technologies. If wealth managers miss this growing trend, they risk losing
market share.
From
http://www.nationmultimedia.com/
07/30/2016
TOP↑
Bid to Create 10,000
Online Community Shops
THE Information and Communication Technology Ministry intends to
create 10,000 community online “shops” nationwide under its digital
community-centre project. Their transaction value is expected to reach Bt120
million by the end of this year. The ministry is in the process of upgrading
600 out of the existing 2,280 community ICT centres nationwide to become
digital community centres. ICT
Minister Uttama Savana-yana said the digital centres would promote community
products like rice, silk, crafts, food, and tourist areas via the online
channel. They would also be a venue where community members can come to
acquire knowledge. "We have learnt that more and more people have their
own smartphones and are starting to join online e commerce; they need wireless
access to search for more information and sell their products online. So
we'll provide free Wi-Fi access to each of these digital centres,"
Uttama said. The ministry will provide to the digital centres high-speed free
Wi-Fi, a computer set for graphic design, printer, a TV and media box to
watch educational channels, as well as meeting desks. Free Wi-Fi would be
offered for one year. Initially,
the ICT Ministry will send experts to the digital centres to teach the
communities how to sell their products online via Facebook and Instagram,
plus how to create packaging, and state regulations on e commerce.
Each centre will have one leader to administer and manage the
centre so as to become a self-supporting centre in the next year. He said
digital community centres would also be a co-working space for communities to
hold meetings for business planning and a learning centre for all people.
"We expect that more than 1 million people from the centres can reach
and learn on the Internet within a year," Uttama said. Last week, the ICT minister visited
the Digital Community Centre in Buri Ram and Roi-Et provinces in the
Northeast. In Roi-Et, the highlight is the Digital Community Centre in Wat
Photikaram, led by the abbot of the temple - Phra Kru Photiveerakun. The
centre offers co-working space for members in the community with an open-air
coffee shop for meetings on selling products, plus free Wi-Fi. Popular
products of the community are honey, rice, and handicraft dolls. Revenue from
the shop will support the centre's further development.
From
http://www.nationmultimedia.com/
08/08/2016
TOP↑
VIETNAM: Smartphone Subscription to Triple
Việt Nam is
expected to witness one of the largest growths in mobile broadband
subscriptions in Southeast Asia together with Myanmar,
Indonesia, Bangladesh and the Philippines, by 2021. The latest
edition of the Ericsson’s Mobility Report and the South East Asia and Oceania
report, highlighting mobile network coverage and network performance,
predicts smartphone subscriptions in Việt Nam will triple from around 30
million in 2015. By the end of 2015, mobile subscription penetration reached
almost 150 per cent in Việt Nam
while mobile broadband subscription penetration was close to 40 per cent.
Ericsson ConsumerLab analysis based on face-to-face interviews reveals that
more than 30 per cent of smartphone and weekly Internet users in Việt Nam are using
all these key application categories on a daily basis: social networking,
instant messaging and social videos (free online videos or videos on social
media). When looking at each application category, more than 70 per cent of
the survey respondents are using social networking, more than 50 per cent
using instant messaging and more than 40 per cent using free online videos or
videos in social media on a daily basis. “With a view to monetising mobile
data services growth, operators need an environment that enables agility in
service creation, delivery and management, with fast launch of a much broader
range of innovative products. Innovation comes through an ecosystem of
partners and suppliers,” said Jan Wassenius, head of Ericsson Việt Nam and Myanmar. ”With the roll out of
the 4G/LTE network in Việt
Nam we expect to see more mobile data services being used. Services such as
social networking and video streaming will continue to grow as Vietnamese
people continue to embrace the benefit of data connectivity,” Wassenius
added.
Co-operation with MIC
At a meeting with Jan Wassenius on Wednesday, minister of
information and communications Trương Minh Tuấn praised Ericsson’s investment
in Việt Nam.
“Việt Nam
is focusing on building telecommunication infrastructure and information and
technology (IT)," said the minister. The minister also asked Ericsson to
invest in research and development (R&D) centres in Việt Nam, especially
at hi-tech parks in Hà Nội, HCM City and Đà Nẵng, The minister also expressed his hope that Ericsson
would boost co-operation with domestic enterprises, encouraging them to join
the company’s global IT service supply chain and implement training courses
in order to help Việt Nam enhance the quality of its human resources. In
response to the minister’s proposal, Wassenius said that the company would consider
training programmes in collaboration with Việt Nam given that co-operation in
the field of education and training was compatible with the company’s
policies.
From
http://vietnamnews.vn/
06/17/2016
TOP↑
Telecom Firms Should
Focus More on Quality: Minister
Deputy Minister of Information and Communications Phạm Hồng Hải
has said telecom companies should grow substantially, offering better quality
and customer care services, instead of just promotions and discount
campaigns. Hải was speaking at a meeting yesterday in Hà Nội, held to review
the business performance of Vietnam Mobile Telecom Services (Mobifone) in the
first six months. He said Việt Nam had three large local telecom
firms, but promotions and discounts remained a major focus of these
companies. This was unsustainable development. According to the Vietnam
Telecommunications Authority, it is currently studying how to manage
promotions more effectively by preventing large network providers from
running rampant promotional campaigns. Some even offer promotions below their
production costs, leading to unfair competition. A policy to manage new
promotions stipulates that if a telecom firm offers too many promotions against
its revenue ratio, it will lead to problems affecting its business
performance. Hải said network providers should maintain their market shares
along with giving positive and sustainable competition, such as by offering
quality services and customer care. Too many promotion campaigns resulted in
a large volume of new subscribers, while revenues did not rise, Hải said.
The information and communications ministry (MIC) has asked
network providers to announce their 3G
coverage areas, and has asked Mobifone to invest more in telecom
infrastructure, Hải said. The announcement of their 3G coverage areas is aimed at promoting healthy
competition, just as other countries have done. Therefore, the ministry would
soon consider applying it in Việt Nam, he said. The number of newly
built base transceiver station (BTS) is an important factor in assessing the
ability of network providers in the time to come. Investment in
infrastructure development has become more important as the government has
agreed to grant 4G
licences by the end of the third quarter. Lê Nam Trà, CEO of Mobifone, said
this was the first year Mobifone, the country’s second-largest mobile
services operator in terms of subscribers, piloted its 4G and MobiTV services on July 1 by depending on
four pillars of cell phone, retail, television and multimedia services. In
the first six months, Mobifone earned VNĐ17.4 trillion in revenue, bringing an after-tax profit of
2,336 billion.
From
http://vietnamnews.vn/
07/15/2016
TOP↑
Digital Economy a Big
Issue for VN: Expert
Building a digital economy will be very important for Việt Nam to keep
pace with rapid technology developments across the globe, a senior Australian
scientist has said. “We are not going to create prosperity purely on hard
work. It will be smart work, which is connected to digital technology, that
increases the effectiveness of the work that we do,” Dr Stefan Hajikowicz,
senior principal scientist, strategy and foresight of Commonwealth Scientific
and Industrial Research Organisation, said on the sidelines of a workshop on
global trends and their implications yesterday in Hà Nội. Digital immersion
is a global trend that will change the world, according to him. He noted that
Việt Nam was at the beginning of the digital revolution, which unleashes
productivity and can change economic and social landscapes. He said it was
necessary for the country to build policies and strategies to ensure that its
workforce is well connected to technologies and able to take advantage of
them. This would help create more jobs for future generations in the context
of depleted natural resources and a constantly changing economy, according to
Dr Hajikowicz. He also suggested Việt Nam build a start-up culture
where people are given a chance to experiment on new business models to
attain their own form of success. “Individuals should make their own jobs,
create their own companies. And digital technology will let them do that,” he
said.
Senior economic advisor Phạm Chi Lan pointed out that Việt Nam
faces many challenges in order to keep pace with global technology
development. “Việt Nam
is at risk of falling behind, even compared with other countries in the
region which have found better solutions than us. For example, Laos and Cambodia have surpassed us in
some areas,” she said. “Global trends of technology development have been
raised many times, but the responses, which are reflected in policies, are
still insufficient,” she said. According to her, policies on this issue have
failed to stimulate creativity and encourage workers to make use of and
develop technologies. She said the country’s top policymakers still emphasise
institution-related issues rather than using technology to boost economic
growth. The situation is also attributed to the fact that Vietnamese
intellectuals, who play the role of think-tanks for the Government, fail to
give strong recommendations in terms of technology development. “Their
research points out development trends, but not solutions to adapt to them,”
she said. Nguyễn Văn Vịnh, vice
president of Development Strategy Institute, Ministry of Planning and
Investment, said Việt Nam was still “groping its way” in terms of technology
development strategy. “We do have policies but a lack of concrete mechanisms
to turn them into real actions,” he said.
From
http://vietnamnews.vn/
08/19/2016
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INDIA: 94 Per Cent Willing
to Be Part E-Commerce Packaging Reuse
NEW DELHI: With
e-commerce rapidly growing in India,
a survey has said that 94 per cent people want to be part of any initiative
for re-cycling of packaging material and contribute to the cleanliness
campaign. "Ninety four per cent people surveyed said that they would be
willing to recycle for a small incentive," said the survey by
LocalCircles, a citizen engagement platform. The participants were asked if
they would take part in box recycling programme towards the cause of Swachh
Bharat (Clean India) if e-commerce companies or their affiliates collected
empty goods boxes for a small shopping credit. The survey report has also
been shared with the Urban Development Ministry and the Commerce Ministry.
According to an Assocham report, digital commerce market in India has
grown steadily from $4.4 billion in 2010 to $13.6 billion in 2014. The
economic survey said that e-commerce in India is expected to grow at 21.4
percent in 2015-16 to reach a turnover of $17 billon. The rise in the number
of people using e-commerce is leading to generation of a lot of packaging
waste including card board and plastic. Waste generation in India is
expected to increase from 62 million tonnes to about 165 million tonnes in
2030. Of the waste generated annually in the country, 5.6 million tonnes is
plastic waste, 0.17 million tonnes biomedical waste, 7.90 million tonnes
hazardous waste and 15 lakh tonne e-waste. About 75-80 percent of the
municipal waste gets collected and only 22-28 percent of this waste is
processed and treated. The Environment Ministry had earlier this year revised
solid waste management rules which are now applicable beyond municipal areas.
The new rules state that it is the responsibility of generators to segregate
waste into three categories - wet, dry and hazardous.
LocalCircles said it had prepared a list of inputs on "how
e-commerce packaging can be recycled" from the responses it received
"in the 3,40,000 strong Swatchh Bharat Circle - the largest
national community for the cause." Among the suggestions received was
that packaging of delivered products should be taken back by the product
company in exchange for some discounts on the next purchase. It also
mentioned several other suggestions - customers could be given reward points
on return of packaging material, drop off points could be created for the
customers, a third party vendor could be empanelled by each e-commerce
company whose contact details can be mentioned on card board boxes. Another
suggestion was that e-commerce company could mention contact information of a
registered waste recycler so that the user can contact them to dispose the
waste. There was also a suggestion that entrepreneurs should be encouraged to
invest in on-call junk pick-up business and customer could be given a choice
to get credit in return of packaging material. The Swachh Bharat Mission,
launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, aims at achieving the goal of
sanitation for all by 2019. Its objectives include elimination of open
defecation, conversion of insanitary toilets to pour flush toilets,
eradication of manual scavenging and 100 per cent collection and scientific
disposal of civic solid waste. LocalCircles has been connecting citizens
through social media at local, city and national level to participate in
governance and make their urban life better. LocalCircles has more than
1,000,000 citizens connected on it across the country.
From
http://www.siliconindia.com
06/01/2016
TOP↑
Microsoft to Offer
Cloud Services to Punjab Government
In a move to facilitate better services in education,
agriculture and healthcare sectors, the Punjab government has signed a
memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Microsoft India to use its cloud computing
infrastructure. This will be a step towards digital inclusion with the
state’s network getting extended by the use of Microsoft’s cloud technology.
Specifically, the services by Microsoft India will pave way for the
development of mobile-based solutions and use of machine learning and
advanced visualisation to help solve challenges in different fields.
According to the MoU, company will also train
manpower in advanced IT technology in the state of Punjab.
From http://egov.eletsonline.com
06/02/2016
TOP↑
Google - RailTel’s
WiFi Networks See Huge Increase in Users
Don’t be sad if you cannot find a Cyber Café in your vicinity. Your
railway station has it. At least that’s what reveals the data from 15 railway
stations, where Google has installed high-speed WiFi networks. It shows that
commuters in some of the tier-II cities are performing heavy duty downloads
using these networks. This in turn has resulted in 20 per cent higher data
consumption in these cities when compared to tier I cities. For example,
users at Bhubaneswar
railway station surpassed those of one of the busiest stations in the
country, like Mumbai Central, which registers around 100,000 users per week.
Similar pattern has been noticed in cities like Patna, Jaipur, Ranchi
etc. Currently, RailTel has 45,000
km of fibre optic network across the country that Google is
hopping on to for its WiFi network to 400 stations. So far, services have
been rolled out at 15 stations, including towns such as Kacheguda, Raipur, Ranchi and Ujjain. The company has
witnessed a whopping rise in users from 300,000
a week to 4,30,000, up since last
month. It has also been noticed that an average netizen uses around 25 MB of 3G data on mobile networks but the same
increases to 250 MB consumption of data at stations. Soon the plan will be
rolled out to 100 cities across the country, and Gorakhpur, Lucknow Junction and Sealdah
stations will also get this service.
From
http://egov.eletsonline.com/ 06/13/2016
TOP↑
SRI
LANKA: CICT Launches
Country’s First Mobile App to Track Movement
of Containers
A first for Sri Lanka’s
port industry, CICT’s ‘eZPort’ app for smartphone users can be downloaded
free from the App Store or Android Play store, and enables users to access
key information pertaining to the despatch and arrival of containers from and
to the CICT-managed South Terminal of the Port of Colombo. In its first
phase, the new app provides information such as Vessel Schedulewhich includes
detailed information such asvessel name and voyage, Estimated Time of Arrival
(ETA), Estimated Time of Berth (ETB) and Estimated Time of Completion (ETC);
Full Container Load (FCL) opening time;details of
nominated container;status and position of the truck; demurrage and storage
charges due and Equipment Interchange Receipt (EIR) details. “Access to all
of this information via a smartphone is a significant advancement in
convenience over the existing on-line access,” CICT CEO Ray Ren said. “But
this too is the just the first phase of the app. We hope to offer much more
as the app is developed further.” He said the envisaged evolution of CICT eZPort
would encompass Mobile Booking in phase II, Mobile Payments in phase III and
personalised customer services in phase IV. “With the rapid increase in the
use of smartphones, the CICT mobile app will increase in versatility and
value. CICT will continue to add new services of eZportas a value addition
for our customers as part of our commitment to be the best service provider
in the Colombo Port,” Mr Ren said.
He added thateZPort is
also intended to provide Business Intelligence and paperless solutions to
CICT customers in addition to efficient information access and real-time
terminal services. CICT eZPort is the second IT-facilitated customer service
introduced by the company in the past two months. In May, CICT became the
first terminal operator in the Port
of Colombo to implement
‘e- Boat Notes’ in collaboration with Sri Lanka Customs, breaking new ground
in efforts to reduce paper in export documentation. CICT, which commenced
full operations in April 2014, manages the Colombo South terminal of the Port of Colombo,
the first and currently the only deep water terminal in South
Asia equipped with facilities to handle the largest vessels
afloat. The company ended FY 2015 with an impressive 1.561 million TEUs, with
the ULCC (Ultra Large Container Carrier) and VLCC (Very Large Container
Carrier) segments making a 67% contribution to that volume. A member of CMHI,
the world’s second largest global terminal operator by throughput, CICT has
access to a network of 72 terminals operated and invested in by CMHI across
the globe, none of which are in any form of competition with the Port of Colombo.
From
http://www.lankabusinessonline.com 07/04/2016
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AZERBAIJAN: World Bank Advices to Change IT Rates
The World Bank (WB) experts have investigated the
Information and Communication Technologies (IT) sector of Azerbaijan, Baku office of the bank announced on May
24. The World Bank and the government of Azerbaijan
have presented the results of the study named “The Information Technology
sector in Azerbaijan
and IT-skills: challenges and opportunities,” Trend reported. “The strengths
and weaknesses of the IT sector in Azerbaijan and the difference
between the IT skills offered by the education system and the requirements of
employers in IT sphere were evaluated during the research,” they noted. The
study was based on discussions with the government, interviews with
interested parties from the public and private sector and surveys among the
main subjects of IT industry and technological universities. “Azerbaijan
has the potential of strengthening and diversifying its economy through the
development of the IT sector,” Larisa Leshchenko, head of the WB Baku office,
said. She noted that the IT sector has the potential of strong economic
growth and can provide young professionals with workplaces. Carlo Maria
Rossotto, head of the research group and a leading expert in the IT sphere,
noted that Azerbaijan
has created favorable conditions for the development of the sector.
“Continuing support of high-speed Internet development, qualified
human resources and innovation ecosystems can transform Azerbaijan
into a center of Information Technology of the region," he noted. The
study detected that the share of jobs in the IT sector and its contribution
to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of Azerbaijan still remains low. In
this regard, along with the development of local IT skills, IT market,
service sector and production of local products should be developed. The
research noted that it would help the Azerbaijani IT sector to lead the competition
at the regional and global markets. The WB recommended Azerbaijan to
improve the rates on products and services of IT sector, increase the
effectiveness of regulatory reforms to support private investment in the IT
sector and strengthen private sector leadership in the IT industry. Azerbaijan
has been a WB member since 1992. As of February 1, 2016, the Bank issued
loans amounting to $3.785 billion to Azerbaijan. The funds were used
to finance over 60 projects. By early 2016, Azerbaijan has used $2.764
billion or 73 percent of all loans drawn via WB. Besides the loans, WB
delivered 45 grants totaling $41.586 million to Azerbaijan in 1995-2014.
From http://www.azernews.az/ 05/26/2016
TOP↑
Azerbaijan to Support Developers of Domestic Software
Platforms
The Azerbaijan State Fund for Development of Information
Technologies will render all necessary assistance to the developers of
domestic software platforms, Yashar Hajiyev, Head of the Research Center
for Information. He also mentioned that the use of software based on the
domestic platforms is one of the main criteria of the forth grant competition
held by the fund.“Previously grants were presented
for certain software based on famous infrastructural platforms. Currently we
are mainly focused on the projects based on our own platforms. We admit that
the requirement has a high level of difficulty nevertheless the competitors
have a chance to develop prospective and promising start-up project and get
necessary support for its further improvement,” he said. He also stressed
that infrastructure projects have a wide coverage which in its turn may
trigger the progress of engineering developments. The projects may include
simplification of telecommunication services, solutions in the sphere of
health care, education as well as engineering solution such as equipment and
devices.“We are expecting to get a diverse approach. Those wishing to
participate in the competition have should submit their proposals within the
framework of 2 month. The period will let them thoroughly investigate the
issue,” he added.
“The emphasis will also be made on the expansion of e-services
in the regions of the country which may include services of municipal
authorities and bodies of executive power. The main feature is new ways of
thinking and innovative approach,” he said. The State Fund for Information
Technologies Development provides grant funding for start-up projects which
are selected on a competitive basis. The financing is provided from the
country’s state budget. Being established in March 2012 the State Fund for
Information Technologies Development operates under the Ministry of
Communications and High Technologies. The main objective of the fund is to
carry out state policy on the development and support of small enterprises in
science and technology, providing them with direct financial assistance and
training which, in its turn, will contribute to the creation of new jobs.
Meanwhile, formation of e-government in Azerbaijan is considered to be
one of the important tasks of the National Strategy for information and
communications technologies for the development the country. The e-government
portal which was launched in the country in 2013 has allowed state institutions
to establish e-service sections on their websites. All services provided by
Azerbaijani government agencies are expected to be online by 2020.
From www.azernews.az
06/28/2016
TOP↑
UZBEKISTAN: Project for Acquiring Unionpay Cards Opens
The opening ceremony of the project for acquiring international
cards «UnionPay» took place today in Uzbekistan. The event, held in the Uzbekistan
Banking Association was attended by members of the delegation of UnionPay
International, headed by the President of China UnionPay, Mr. Shi Venchao,
representatives of the Central Bank of Uzbekistan, Uzbekistan Banking
Association, Common republican processing center, commercial banks, travel
agencies and companies, as well as representatives of the media. The main
themes of the event were questions about the launch of the project on the
reception of cards «UnionPay» in the terminals system of Interbank
"Uzcard". During the
ceremony, it was noted that the launch of this project will provide an
opportunity to use «UnionPay» cards in "Uzcard" system, which
includes more than 190 thousand points of commercial and service enterprises.
It was also noted that modern technological platform processing center that
meets all current requirements of the industry was built based on the
"Uzcard". The processing system received certificate PCI-DSS, which
in the future will allow integration with other international payment
systems. Attention was also
focused on the fact that several banks in Uzbekistan are already members of
the international payment system UnionPay International, and the introduction
of this project is a strategically important step towards an integrated
collaboration and cooperation among IPS "Uzcard" and IPS UnionPay
International.
From http://finance.uzreport.uz
06/20/2016
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Single Center Develops New Software for POS-Terminals and
Information Kiosks
Single Nationwide Processing
Center (SNPC) has
developed a new software for POS-terminals and
information kiosks, which will expedite payments, the press service of the
interbank payment system “UZCARD" said. Until today, POS terminals and
information kiosks of our country had been using a software
developed by foreign companies, which required large material costs.
Developed by domestic programmers new software meets the requirements of
safety standard PCI-DSS. This
software will allow banks-participants of the IPS "UZCARD" to
accelerate the payments, to effectively implement new banking services, and
to improve security within the payment system. As of today, banks-participants of the
IPS “UZCARD” have already started using the new software. SNPC recommends all
merchants to replace and use the new software that doesn't require any costs.
From http://news.uzreport.uz
06/21/2016
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Experts Discuss Development of Advertising
Market in Uzbekistan
On July 15 the Committee on information and communication
technologies of Legislative Chamber of Oliy Majlis of the Republic of Uzbekistan
jointly with the State Committee on privatization, de-monopolization and
competition development held a round table discussion on the theme:
"Improvement of the legal framework of advertisement activities".
The roundtable was attended by deputies of the Legislative Chamber,
specialists of the Cabinet of Ministers, the State committee on
privatization, de-monopolization and competition development, the relevant
ministries and departments, representatives of advertising agencies, the
media and civil society institutions. During the roundtable, participants
received detailed information on the current state and prospects for the
advertising industry, the measures taken to further develop the advertising
market. The text on the draft Law of the Republic of Uzbekistan
"On introducing amendments and addenda to the Law "On
Advertising" was under scrutiny along with other urgent tasks to
optimize the current legislation.
It was stressed that from the point of view of compliance with
the public interest, it is very important to ensure that the advertising
activity of business entities would be socially-oriented in nature, would be consistent
with the norms and traditions of public morality and national mentality.
Issues of effective legal regulation of the permissible total duration of
disseminated advertising in TV, radio, video, newsreel program, the frequency
of interruption of TV and radio advertising, processes, distribution of
advertising on the Internet and other networks drew particular attention of
the participants. In the course of the meeting, the representatives of
factions of political parties and the Ecological movement of Uzbekistan
made their suggestions and recommendations for further improvement of the
legislation of the advertising sector. Appropriate decisions aimed at further
improvement of advertising legislation and its enforcement were
adopted following to the results of the meeting.
From http://news.uzreport.uz/ 07/15/2016
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Uzbekistan to Increase
Production of Electrical Products by 5.1 Times
The Committee on industry, construction and trade held a
conference on "Development of electro-technical industry in Uzbekistan:
status and prospects". The event was attended by deputies of the
Legislative chamber of Oliy Majlis of Uzbekistan, representatives of
ministries and departments, heads of enterprises, members of the JSC
“Uzeltehsanoat” and employees of the mass media. The conference discussed the
stages of development and achievements in the electrical industry over the
years of independence, the current state of the industry and prospects of
development of the electrical industry. Speakers at the conference noted that
the electrical industry is one of the most developing branches of the
Republic. If in 2005 the volume of production in this industry amounted to 80
billion soums, in 2015 it reached 1 trillion 300 billion soums. In 2015 and
in the first half of 2016, the industry made a delivery of the produced goods
worth over 1.5 trillion soums to different sectors of the economy, in
particular, to companies of the energy, oil and gas enterprises, enterprises
of mining and metallurgical industry and enterprises of the social sphere.
To date, the company has some 50 enterprises operating within
its structure, specialized in the production of cable, electrical, household
appliances. 27 enterprises of the system are engaged in export of competitive
products to the countries of Central Asia,
the CIS and other foreign countries. The diversification of production in the
period 2005-2015 has greatly increased the output. In particular, if in 2005
the share of products of home appliances accounted for 3.7% in 2015 it made
up 29%. At the event, special attention was paid to prospects of development
of the electrical industry. In accordance with the Branch development
program, until 2030 it is planned to utilize $1 billion, to establish the
production of 22 new products, and at the expense of modernization of all
enterprises to increase the volume of production of finished products by 5.1
times. In the period 2016-2019 the company plans to implement 95 investment
projects for the sum of $295 million. As a result of the implementation of
these projects, it is expected to create about 5 thousand new jobs. The
conference participants exchanged views on the need for further improvement
of legislation in the field of electrical industry, strengthening the system
of staff training, the introduction of modern corporate governance
mechanisms.
From http://news.uzreport.uz/
07/26/2016
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UZEX Introduces New Electronic Module
The specialists of the Uzbek Republican Commodity Exchange
(UZEX) has developed and implemented a new electronic module of the Special
Commission on consideration of disputes and disagreements on issues of public
and corporate procurement. The integration of this software into the personal
account of the user allows to simplify the
interaction between customers of e-procurement and Commission of the exchange.
In particular, responsible employees of budgetary organizations, natural
monopolies, state unitary enterprises and economic societies with a
prevailing state share, can send decisions of economic courts of the Republic
about unfair suppliers, in order to include them in the register of the
special Commission. They can also send appeals on the application of measures
to suppliers that have not registered the contracts concluded in the
electronic system. According to the press service of the exchange, in the
nearest future, it is planned to expand functions of the electronic module of
the special Commission with application of electronic digital signature in
it. For reference: the Special Commission on consideration of disputes and
disagreements on issues of public and corporate procurement is an institution
formed by the exchange, specialized on a pre-trial consideration of issues
related to bidding and registration of its results.
From http://news.uzreport.uz/
08/16/2016
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“Uzbektelecom” Launches into Operation New Data Center
“UZCLOUD”
On the eve of the 25th anniversary of the State Independence of
the Republic of
Uzbekistan, the
National Telecommunication operator "Uzbektelecom" has announced
the launch of a new data processing center «UZCLOUD». According to experts,
the first data center will benefit domestic companies, whose activities are
directly dependent on the uninterrupted supply of fast and efficient
processing of large data flows. Other features and benefits of the new data
center were told at the briefing held in the capital.At the event, media
representatives and potential customers were presented the basic services of
data processing and storage of the Center. Thus, among cloud-based services
Uzbektelecom also offers "virtual server" to customers of the new
data center. It allows renting computing powers of Data Processing Center
through a cloud platform to build own infrastructure in the "cloud"
and thus to have non-stop access to a fully isolated autonomous
infrastructure from anywhere.
In addition, UZCLOUD customers can use web-hosting services,
which will allow entrepreneurs to develop business through the Internet as
well as via video conferencing. Moreover, placement of servers in the data
center will allow companies to significantly reduce the financial costs. -
The main advantages of the data center are very high fault tolerance, high
performance. It is designed and made entirely for the conditions of Uzbekistan.
And in the greatest heat and cold it will run continuously 24 hours a day, 7
days a week, 365 days a year, - head of press service of "Uzbektelecom”
JSC Alexander Suchkov said. It is planned to establish processing and data
storage centers not only in Tashkent, but also
in Bukhara and Kokand.
From http://news.uzreport.uz/
08/19/2016
TOP↑
Huawei Establishes Partnership with
Information Agency UzReport
The signing of the partnership agreement between Huawei
Technologies (JV LLC "Huawei Tech Investment Tashkent") and
«UzReport» Information Agency is a logical continuation of cooperation
established at the beginning of this year. Selecting «UzReport» Information
Agency as a media partner is not accidental. Nowadays «UzReport» is one of
the recognized leaders in the information market of Uzbekistan.
The possibility of rapid response by media agency resources («UzReport TV»
channel, UzReport news portal (www.uzreport.uz) and financial-economic newspaper
"Biznes Vestnik Vostoka") complies fully with Huawei communications
policy. The cooperation includes fast preparation of materials on activities
and achievements of Huawei in Uzbekistan
and in the world as well as their distribution to various electronic and
print media. It is also planned to establish a special program dedicated to
the latest IT developments and the latest trends in the development of this
market. The partnership agreement was signed for one year and the parties
hope to continue cooperation. "Huawei is known worldwide as a leading
provider of ICT solutions and creator of innovative products. Our main task
in the framework of this cooperation is to illuminate fully the activities
and achievements of Huawei while not forgetting social projects. After all,
corporate social responsibility is an important part of the activities of
Huawei », - said General Director of «UzReport» Information Agency, Ravshan
Juraev.
"We are happy to have established a partnership with
“UzReport” Information Agency. Huawei is always open for cooperation with the
media in Uzbekistan.
We have chosen a path of dynamic development and social orientation. Since
the beginning of the year, Huawei has supported national sports federations
of boxing and table tennis. Memorandums with a number of ministries of the
country on information and communication technology interaction have been
signed. Two projects of corporate and social importance together with TUIT
(HAINA project) and Inha (support of young talents) have been implemented.
The company has also developed "Opinion Leaders" project with the
participation of representatives of business and science. The fact that we
have been recognized as "The most innovative brand of the country"
on the basis of marketing and advertising week Adweek became an adequate
assessment of the work we do. Through a partnership with the media we will be
able to report quickly and fairly on the work carried out by the company in
different directions and its results ", - said CEO of Huawei Tech.
Investment Tashkent, Wang Peng. Moreover, Huawei is not going to stop on
achieved. Signing of partnership agreements is planned with a number of other
domestic media. A media tour to China was announced so that
journalists can clearly see how and where the company's products are
produced.
From
http://news.uzreport.uz/
08/24/2016
TOP↑
Three New Telecommunication JV's Launch in
Jizzakh SIZ
On the eve of the celebration of the 25th anniversary of the
independence of the Republic
of Uzbekistan, Special
Industrial Zone "Jzzakh" saw a solemn ceremony of the opening of
three joint ventures "Broadband Solutions", "ZTT Telekom"
and "Smart Vision". They are established with the participation of
the National Telecom operator Joint Stock Company "Uzbektelecom"
and foreign investors from China,
including Huawei Technologies. Products produced in new joint ventures are
widely demanded in the market of high technologies in our country both among
enterprises and organizations and private users. This is particularly
important in the context of large-scale modernization of telecommunication
networks of Uzbekistan.
The opening ceremony of the new joint ventures brought together the
representatives of the khokimiyat of Jizzakh region, the Ministry for
development of information technologies and communications of the Republic of Uzbekistan, Joint-stock company
"Uzbektelecom", as well as foreign investors.
The new joint ventures are established in accordance with the
decree of the President of September 18, 2013 "On measures for
implementation of the agreements reached during the state visit of the
Chairman of the People's Republic of China
XI Jinping to Uzbekistan,
and the further development of bilateral cooperation". After the opening
ceremony, the guests were given a tour to the enterprises. First, they
visited JV “Broadband Solutions” that specializes in the production of modern
telecommunication equipment. The enterprise produces outdoor and station
distribution equipment, as well as subscriber terminals for the construction
of networks based on the xPON technology. The enterprise has been established
in the framework of the project "Organization of production of
telecommunication equipment (active components to build an optical network)
with the participation of foreign investor - Huawei and
"Uzbektelecom"JSC. "On the first line
we build ONT optical modems and at the same time test them. In the first
stage, we check the data transfer speed of the device and find out if there
are any deviations from the specified technical parameters. The average line
can produce 20 thousand of these modems per year. On the second line we
produce station and outdoor distribution equipment," - the head of
Department of JV “Broadband Solutions" Aziz Akhmedov said.
It is worth to note that this JV has become the first project of
its kind for Huawei in Uzbekistan.
In the short term, the company's products will be supplied to the domestic
market, and in future to foreign. The total project cost is $3 million (share
of Uzbektelecom" — 51%). The guests also familiarized with the work of
the joint venture "ZTT Telekom", which has been established in the
framework of the project "Organization of production of
telecommunication equipment (passive components to build optical
network)" with the participation of the foreign investor - the company
"ZTT" (China)
and JSC "Uzbektelecom". The new enterprise is specialized in the
production of mounting supplies of fiber optic cable for building optical
access networks with different connectors, external telecommunications
distribution cabinets, optical cable for the construction of optical access
network with different capacity. The third JV "Smart Vision" has
been put into operation in the framework of the project "Organization of
production of IP and video phones" with the participation of the company
"ZTE" and "Uzbektelecom" JSC. The company manufactures IP
phones and videophones for users of xPON networks. All three joint ventures
are registered in Jizzakh SIZ, have law benefits and preferences and
certificates of conformity for the whole range of products.
From
http://news.uzreport.uz/
08/28/2016
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AUSTRALIA: Peak Mobile
Industry Bodies Support Spectrum Regulatory Reform
The mobile
communications industry has thrown its weight behind the federal government’s
commitment to regulatory reform of the allocation and management of spectrum.
Two major industry bodies — the Australian Mobile Telecommunications
Association (AMTA) and Communications Alliance (CA) — in a joint submission
to the Department of Communications and the Arts say that the government’s
approach would result in a more timely and efficient allocation process,
reduced costs and greater flexibility to enable innovation and the adoption
of new technologies. The aim of the proposed spectrum reform process is to
promote the overall public interest derived from the radio frequency spectrum
resource by facilitating the economically efficient allocation and sustainable
use of spectrum. The AMTA and CA say the spectrum licensing framework should
contain a number of key elements including:
• Simplicity
– Only a limited number of licence issue schemes
• Technology
neutrality – The framework, subject to international treaty obligations,
should avoid using purpose-based licence-issue schemes
•
Flexibility – Licences should support multi-purpose use such as re-farming
and re-allocation without the need for regulatory intervention
• Future
focused – Licence holders should be permitted to change licence conditions by
agreement with the ACMA
• Certainty
– The Bill should include a legislative presumption of re-issue of licences
to promote investment and maintain transferability of licences
•
Universality – The Australian Communications and Media Authority should
favour the allocation of spectrum even in circumstances where the immediate
demand for its use is not clear.
In their
joint submission, the AMTA and CA say that despite the consultation on the
proposed reforms, there were “gaps” that required further consultation and
clarification. “The associations also note that there have been significant
gaps in time between consultation processes in which there has been little
engagement with stakeholders. We would appreciate the opportunity for greater
engagement with the department as it develops its thinking prior to the next
phase of consultation,” the submission says. “…the associations stress that
fundamental reform of spectrum management must remain a priority for
government, and that limiting reform to incremental improvements to the
existing legislative framework should be avoided. Also, lessons learnt from
recent replanning and licence reissue processes should be front and centre of
the reform process to ensure the spectrum management framework evolves as a
driver and not an inhibitor of innovation.”
From http://www.itwire.com
05/26/2016
TOP↑
Cost of a Data Breach
Falls for Businesses
The cost of
a data breach to Australian companies is on the decline, bucking the global
trend, according to a study. The IBM sponsored Ponemon Institute research -
2016 Cost of Data Breach - found that the cost per compromised record as well
as the overall cost of a breach to an organisation had decreased. The total
average cost of a breach decreased for the first time: from $2.82 million in
2015 to $2.64 million this year. The per record cost
fell for the second year running to $142 after peaking in 2014 at $145. The
study noted that Australian companies were particularly good at retaining
customers in the wake of a breach and experienced no increase in 'abnormal
churn'. Costs relating to reputational damage and diminished goodwill fell
slightly. Extensive use of encryption, incident response plans, employee
training, CISO appointments, business continuity management and threat
sharing also helped decrease overall costs. Although the average number of
lost or stolen records had increased slightly among the 26 local companies
questioned, businesses had become more efficient when dealing with the fall
out of a breach, researchers said.
Detection
and escalation costs, including forensics and investigations, audits and
crisis team management decreased slightly from an average of $1.16 million
last year to $1.10 million in 2016. The cost of activities following a
breach, like running help desks, identity protection services and legal
expenditure also fell, as did the cost of notifying affected customers. Glen
Gooding, IBM security business unit executive ANZ, urged caution around the
figures. "Based on what we see overseas, Australia is similarly minded in
the way we provide our protective controls, but the actual trends of security
attacks take a while to filter down to us," he said. "When I first
got wind of the report I'm thought, 'Gosh, Australia is in such a great
position and we're doing such a great job with our security controls and
managing things appropriately that we're actually seeing a decline'. I eat
and breath this for a living and I'm in front of
customers and that's certainly not the case based on my own experience."
He added
that he'd observed more CISOs being appointed and that incident response was
becoming a "most talked about item".The study showed that a
malicious or criminal attack was the most common cause of a data breach with
46 per cent of companies experiencing an attack of this sort. Negligent
employees or contractors were to blame for 27 per cent of incidents, and
another 27 per cent were due to system glitches. Results indicated it took
Australian respondents more than five months to detect that an incident
occurred and almost two months to contain the incident.
From https://www.computerworld.com.au
06/17/2016
TOP↑
Government
Spends Big on Tech Products: Gartner
Federal,
state and local governments in Australia will spend $10.8 billion on
technology products this year as government chief information officers in
Australia and around the world remain under pressure to further optimise IT
and business costs while leading digital innovation in the public sector. The
technology spending forecasts from global analyst firm Gartner, show that
Australia’s public sector spending on technology this year has increased by
2.2% in 2015, while in New Zealand public sector technology spending is
forecast to grow by 1.7% and reach almost NZ$1.8 billion in 2016. According
to Gartner, after nearly a decade of "doing more with less",
government CIOs globally face organisational and cultural challenges that are
barriers to harnessing the synergistic potential of social, mobile, data analytics,
cloud and the Internet of Things (IOT) to drive transformational change.
Rick Howard,
research vice-president at Gartner, says legacy silos of systems, data and
processes reinforce “business as usual” practices and behaviours that limit
government participation in broader partner ecosystems capable of supporting
fully digital end-to-end citizen services. “In the digital service economy,
government must make strategic investments in IT or risk perpetuating
suboptimal business and service models that are financially unsustainable in
the long term.” According to Howard, “government CIOs who are too slow to
adopt the technology innovations that are transforming private sector service
industries will increase business risk and cost, while compromising the
mission of their organisations.” Gartner reveals that spending by national,
federal and local governments worldwide on technology products and services
is forecast to grow slightly by 0.3% to US$430.1 billion in 2016, growing to
US$476.1 billion by 2020 – a turnaround after a 5.2% decrease in 2015.
Gartner has identified the top 10 strategic technologies in 2016 and provides
recommendations to CIOs and IT leaders on adoption and benefits:
1. Digital
workplace
The
government workforce is increasingly populated with digitally literate
employees, from frontline workers to top-level executives. The digital
workplace is a business strategy to boost employee engagement and agility
through a more consumerised work environment. The digital workplace promotes
collaborative work styles, supports decentralised, mobile work environments
and embraces employees' personal choice of technologies.
2.
Multichannel citizen engagement
Delivering
an effective citizen experience requires a holistic approach: (1) using data
to capture and understand the needs and desires of the citizen; (2)
leveraging effective social media and communications to actively engage
citizens; (3) allowing the citizen to engage on his or her own terms; (4)
understanding the citizen's preferred engagement channels; (5) affording
seamless transitions among channels; and (6) ultimately delivering a more
satisfying set of citizen interactions. Adopting a citizen-centric
information management strategy with multichannel citizen engagement
opportunities will deliver quantifiable benefits.
3. Open any
data
Open any
data in government results from "open by default" or "open by
preference" governance policies and information management practices.
These make licence-free data available in machine-readable formats to anyone
who has the right to access it without any requirement for identification or
registration. Open data is
published as collected at the source (‘raw’) at the lowest granularity, as
determined by privacy, security or data quality considerations. Open data is
accessible with open APIs and is not subject to any trademark or copyright.
4. Citizen
e-ID
As
government becomes more digitalised, digital identity will need to become
more reliable in order to serve as the core for all digital transactions. Citizen
electronic identification (e-ID) refers to the orchestrated set of processes
and technologies managed by governments to provide a secure domain to enable
citizens to access these core resources or services. Governments should
require online authentication and identity proofing, because in-person
verification methods are becoming outdated for offering citizens integrated
and seamless access to resources and services. This "no wrong door"
business model must be able to associate each citizen with one unique and
persistent identifier within the bounds of what is culturally acceptable and
legally permissible.
5. Analytics
everywhere
Analytics is
the collection and analysis of data to provide the insight that can guide
actions to increase organisational efficiency or program effectiveness. The
pervasive use of analytics at all stages of business activity and service
delivery — analytics everywhere — allows leading government agencies to shift
from the dashboard reporting of lagging indicators to autonomous business
processes and business intelligence (BI) capabilities that help humans make
better context-based decisions in real time.
6. Smart
machines
In practice,
smart machines are a diverse combination of digital technologies that do what
we once thought only people could do. While capabilities are evolving
rapidly, it already includes deep neural networks, autonomous vehicles,
virtual assistants and smart advisors that interact intelligently with people
and other machines. Government IT leaders must explore smart machines as
enhancements to existing business practices, and possibly as foundations for
new public services or ways of accomplishing business goals altogether.
7. Internet
of things
The IoT is
the network of physical objects (fixed or mobile) that contains embedded
technology to communicate, monitor, sense or interact with multiple
environments. The IoT architecture operates in an ecosystem that includes
things, communication, applications and data analysis, and is a critical
enabler for digital business applications in all private-sector and
public-sector industries. The business use cases and adoption rate by
government agencies vary according to service domain or program mission.
Government business models are emerging that take advantage of the IoT; for
example, pay-for-use or subscription-based taxation models, smart waste bin
collection on city streets, and the remote monitoring of elderly patients in
assisted-living settings.
8. Digital
government platforms
Governments
face constant pressure to improve service delivery and save costs. Adopting
digital platforms reduces effort and facilitates user-centric design. These
platforms deliver services such as identity management and verification,
payments, reusable application services, and notifications (for example, SMS
and email) that are commonly used across multiple domains. Globally,
governments are taking a platform approach to simplify processes, improve
citizen interactions and reduce expenditures.
9.
Software-defined architecture
Software-defined
architecture (SDA) inserts an intermediary between the requester and the
provider of a service so that the service can change more dynamically – in
other words, it is the IT equivalent of changing the tires while the car is
moving. Adding a layer of software to abstract and virtualise networks,
infrastructure or security has proved to be a useful way of deploying and
utilising infrastructure. Applying the same technique to software
architecture improves the manageability and agility of the code so that the
organisation can respond to the fluidity requirements of digital government
and the IoT. Some government organisations have begun implementing
software-designed infrastructure (SDI), but most are still operating in
traditional data centres.
10.
Risk-based security
The
cybersecurity threat environment is constantly evolving, but it represents
only one dimension of a complex, multifaceted set of threats and risks.
Government CIOs must adopt a threat-aware, risk-based security approach that
allows governments to make knowledgeable and informed decisions about risks
in a holistic fashion, allowing for a wiser allocation of resources; more
sound decisions about risks and their impacts on government missions,
operations, assets and people; and engagement of senior leadership in
risk-based decisions.
From http://www.itwire.com
06/30/2016
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Australian Smartphone
Market Holds It Breath in Anticipation of Multiple Vendor Releases
The
Australian mobile phone slide continued in 2016Q2 as only 1.8 million mobile
phones were shipped as opposed to 2.2 million units one year ago. This
represented a fall of 18% YoY for the overall mobile phone market, which
includes feature phones and smartphones, as it experienced its third
consecutive quarter of double digit YoY decline. According to the
International Data Corporation (IDC) Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker, 1.7m of total mobile phones shipped
were smartphones. "The market has reached its saturation point for a
while now and shipments are driven more and more by refresh cycles rather
than first-time purchases" says Bilal Javed, Market Analyst at IDC
Australia. Faced with intense competition, market leader Apple continued to
struggle as market share plummeted from 48% in 2016Q1 to 40% in 2016Q2.
Recently, Apple experienced its slowest quarter in over 2 years. Slow down at
the top has allowed other vendors to join the playing field, with mid-range
vendors benefiting the most.
Samsung
consolidated their second spot in Australia as they rode on the
success of the highly rated flagship handsets, Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 Edge
and closed in on Apple to grab 33% of the market as compared to 31% in
2016Q1. Features of the flagship device such as removable storage,
waterproofing and faster processer grabbed consumer attention and accounted
for over 63% of Samsung's shipments. "Whilst the Galaxy S7/S7 Edge was
locking horns with Apple devices, the refreshed J series (J1, J1 Mini and J3)
along with the still successful Galaxy S5 was Samsung's answer to the other
Android vendors in the low/mid-market space" says Bilal. Alcatel
controls just over 5% of the smartphone market as they consolidated their
hold on the low-end space. The targeted strategy of pre-paid phones exclusive
to telco providers is the key driving force behind Alcatel shipments. Huawei
took fourth spot with 4% market share as they launched the much anticipated
flagship P9 as well as the Mate 8 towards the end of the quarter. However,
Huawei's majority shipments came from Y series models in the sub AU$100 price
bracket. Huawei struggles to build momentum as they lack brand awareness
amongst Australian consumers.
ZTE rounded
out the top 5 in Australia as
they push into the market through a variety of channels and attractive price
points. Vendors such as LG Electronics and HTC had a disappointing quarter as
the much hyped flagship LG G5 and HTC 10 respectively did not live up to
expectation. "Australian consumers are becoming increasingly aware of alternative
buying options in smartphones and the lack of innovation, minimal marketing
and high price point of the device forced HTC out of the top 5. A major
surprise came from OPPO who experienced triple digit growth and could move
onto challenging the likes of HTC, Huawei, LG and Microsoft in the near
future" adds Bilal. The recent slowdown may simply be the calm before
the storm, as major launches from Apple, Samsung and the new Google Nexus
device are pending in the coming quarter. "These product launches are
likely to return the market to positive growth YoY and shipments are expected
to break the 2 million barrier" adds Bilal.
Vendors following the big 2 will need to continue to innovate and provide
attractive value propositions to gain market share.
From http://www.cellular-news.com
08/25/2016
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NEW
ZEALAND: Kiwi Survey Finds
Skilled Staff Crucial to Small Business Growth
Small
business confidence is up and growth expectations are rising, but the
clincher may end up being a lack of skilled staff, according to ANZ's
quarterly Business MicroScope survey. New Zealand's business landscape
is made up of more than 90% small businesses, so ANZ decided to use factors
such as activity, employment, profitability and investment to gain survey
responses. The survey says that 8% of respondents are confident about the
business environment, up from 1% in March. Respondents cite investment
intentions, profit and growth expectations as reasons for their positivity.
The survey found that Wellington and the South
Island, outside of Canterbury, were leading
the way in small business positivity, each with 19%, while Auckland
follows with 16% and the rest of the North Island
at 11%. “Small business owners are telling us they’re confident and ready to
put their money where their mouth is by investing to grow their business,”
said Andrew Webster, regional general manager Retail and Business Banking.
However,
Webster says that although 27% expect to increase their activity over the
next year, hiring skilled staff is holding small businesses back, with one in
five respondents saying it is their biggest challenge. “Being able to recruit
the skills they need is a key factor influencing whether businesses can meet
demand in the market, yet nearly one in five small firms consider finding
skilled employees as their main obstacle. Migration and training will remain
to the fore in maintaining the national talent pool, while firms will more
than ever need to build their strategies to attract and keep good staff who can help take their business forward,” Webster
concludes.
From https://bizedge.co.nz 07/11/2016
TOP↑
New $2 Million Fund to Help
Prepare NZ for Digital Age
The
government has launched an independent $2 million research fund by the New
Zealand Law Foundation for projects that are designed to better prepare New Zealand
for the information age. Justice and Communications Minister Amy Adams
launched the Information Law and Policy Project at Parliament last night. It
will develop law and policy around IT, data, information and cyber-security.
“Technology affects virtually every area of our daily lives, and the pace of
change has law-makers and bureaucrats struggling to keep up,” explains Law
Foundation executive director Lynda Hagen. “The global nature of information
poses threats and opportunities for New Zealand – how we manage it,
and trade in it. What capabilities do we need to deal with cyber-crime, now a
$400 billion global industry? How can citizens control use of their data –
and what is the impact of technology on our democracy?” she says.
Hagen says these
are just some of the big challenges that the information age has thrown at
us. “The Information Law and Policy Project seeks to
focus New Zealand’s
best experts on solutions that are right for us. For our small,
trade-dependent nation, this work couldn’t be more critical,” she adds. The
Law Foundation, an independent charitable trust, has launched ILAPP with
input from relevant public and private interests. Hagen says the project will bring together
teams of experts to examine challenges and opportunities in areas like global
information, cyber-security, data exploitation, and technology-driven social
change.
Seven broad
themes of enquiry have been identified and research projects will align with
these:
1. The
global nature of information – how we manage it and trade in it.
2. Cyber
security and crime – what capabilities are needed to protect against this?
3. Social
change following technological change – how is technology affecting society
and how can the law keep up?
4.
Ownership/exploitation of data – how can citizens
control use of their data?
5.
Philosophical notions – looking at the impact of technology on the State and
what that means for democracy and other constitutional issues.
6. The
ethics of inference – algorithmic decision making and its implications for
society.
7. The
exclusionary effect of technology – catering for citizens and business
lacking the ability to access and unlock the benefits of technology.
The research
teams will have around three years to complete their projects, according Hagen. University law
schools are working closely with the Law Foundation on the project. Hagen says a special
feature of this project will be its collaborative approach to research. “Law
faculty deans will help develop cross-institutional research proposals and
bring together the best available multi-disciplinary teams from New Zealand’s talent pool,” Hagen says. “We expect the quality of the
research to be much higher as a result. The Law Foundation will be sponsor,
funder and administrator of research under ILAPP.” Hagen says that, in addition to legal
experts, potential collaborators include computer scientists, economists,
sociologists, philosophers, IT and data specialists, business, cyber-security
experts, government/public sector, crown research institutes, civil society
and users. “The Law Foundation supports independent legal thinking. We will
work collaboratively with government and private interests, but the research
outcomes must serve the wider public rather than any vested interest,” she
says.
We expect
the projects to have practical outcomes, in particular on how New Zealand
can gain commercially, and be protected, through technology developments.
“For example, how can New
Zealand’s predominantly small businesses,
lacking expertise and scale, unlock the economic value of their data? “While
the rapidly-evolving information landscape makes the development of lasting
law and policy solutions especially challenging, we expect the projects to be
future focused, to identify ongoing issues and propose solution frameworks,” Hagen says. The scope
of ILAPP has been developed in consultation with many interests including
experts from the law schools, the Government’s 2015 cyber-security strategy,
InternetNZ, the Innovation Partnership, the Data Futures Partnership, Google
New Zealand, Spark, and the Office of the
Privacy Commissioner. “This input has been incredibly valuable in bringing
the Information Law and Policy Project together,” adds Hagen. ILAPP will be assisted by a
10-member independent specialist advisory review committee. The committee
will help assess and finalise aspects of research projects being supported.
From https://bizedge.co.nz
08/24/2016
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AFRICA:
Nigeria
- Google Trains 2,000 Youths on Digital Skills
Google, Kinetic Associates and the National Youth Service Corps
(NYSC) Taraba State Secretariat said more than 2,000 youths and other
stakeholders in Taraba
State have benefitted
from a free digital skill acquisition programme geared towards tapping into
the vast opportunities to create wealth using Google apps. In his
presentation Akingbade Akintunde, chief facilitator of training programme,
told the participants that a comprehensive analysis of the Google apps and
numerous sophisticated online tools and applications was vital to keep pace
with the changing global social and work environment, including marketing,
advertising, information, web creation, hosting and blogging, among others.
He stressed the need for individuals and organisations to be acquainted with
the growing array of digital platforms to keep pace with the changing world.
From
http://www.telecompaper.com/
06/30/2016
TOP↑
ISRAEL: Govt Set to Cancel Connectivity Fees -
Report
Israel's Ministry
of Communications is set to hold a hearing on cancelling connectivity fees
between telecom operators in both the fixed line and GSM markets, Globes
reported. The connectivity fee in the mobile market is currently ILS 0.06 per
call and ILS 0.01 in
the fixed line market. Estimates are that each of the major mobile operators
in Israel's
telecom market earns ILS 20-30 million annually from connectivity fees. The
last time connectivity fees were revised was in 2009 and the Ministry of
Communications was meant to look at them again in 2014. This review was not
carried out and consequently connectivity fees in the mobile market are
currently higher than the real cost to operators. The ministry now plans to
scrap the connectivity fee because at such low prices, there is no point in
hiring an international economic consultancy company to conduct a study and
find that the cost is close to zero. In addition, in light of the major shift
from telephone calls to web-based communications, and taking into account
that the mobile operators will soon be switching to more advanced
internet-based protocols, there is no reason to continue the current connectivity
model from the traditional telecom switch-based market.
From
http://www.telecompaper.com/
TOP↑
EUROPE: Has a Disconnect Between 5G Aspiration and Execution
'We should get the 10 people who can make this happen and stick
them in a room,' says Arqiva CEO Simon Beresford-Wylie. Europe
is pinning its hopes on 5G
when it comes to regaining leadership of the global telecoms sector, but for
Arqiva CEO Simon Beresford-Wylie, that opportunity is already slipping away.
During a panel session at Connected Britain on Wednesday, he reminisced about
how Europe "gave the world GSM,"
and followed it up with WCDMA. 15-20 years later, and "the U.K. and
European sector is not in rude health," Beresford-Wylie said,
attributing its decline to cash-strapped telcos not making the necessary
investments in new network technology. He does not expect the situation to
change any time soon either. "The idea that Europe
is marching to 5G
leadership is a little on the delusional side," he said.
The European Commission's 5G
Public Private Partnership (PPP) has set out to ensure that Europe
plays a key role in developing the next generation of mobile technology,
while operators and vendors throughout the continent are engaged in tests and
trials of prospective 5G
technology. "As I see it, there's a disconnect
between aspiration and execution," Beresford-Wylie said. One of the
major hurdles, he said, is the scale of network densification that needs to
happen and all the challenges that come with that. He claims that in order to
provide a city like London
with the kind of capacity promised by 5G,
mobile operators will have to deploy 350,000-500,000 small cells. By
comparison, today, London
is served by 4,000 macro sites.
"There aren't enough lamp posts" to support that kind
of deployment, he said, which means small cells will have to be installed on
the sides of buildings and connected to backhaul networks, which requires
more planning and conversations with landlords, all adding up to high cost
and complexity. In order to solve issues like these and help Europe and the U.K. retake
the initiative in 5G,
"we should get the 10 people that can make this happen and stick them in
a room," Beresford-Wylie said. When pressed about who in the U.K. should be in this room, he listed Ofcom;
the Department for Culture, Media and Sport; the National Infrastructure
Commission; the U.K.'s
four MNOs; and Arqiva, of course. "We need a room and a list of things
we need to do," he said. 'We should get the 10 people who can make this
happen and stick them in a room,' says Arqiva CEO Simon Beresford-Wylie.
From
http://www.totaltele.com/
06/16/2016
TOP↑
EC
to Propose 100 Mbps for All by 2025 - Report
The European Commission wants to set a new target for bringing
at least 100 Mbps broadband to all the EU by 2025
and plans to call for more public funds to build faster networks, according
to a leaked document obtained by EurActiv.com. The Commission is expected to
publish the proposal on 21 September along with its proposals to overhaul the
telecom regulatory framework. This is expected to include a proposal for
giving national regulators more power to sanction "dominant operators
that unjustifiably deviate from their declared intentions" to invest in
networks. An estimated EUR 155 billion in investment is still needed to build
fast internet networks and meet the Commission’s 2025 goal. It will propose
more money for the Connecting Europe Facility to meet the 2025 speed target,
along with "an appropriate mix of grants and other instruments".
From
http://www.telecompaper.com/
07/18/2016
TOP↑
FRANCE: Minister Renews Calls to Tackle Messaging
Encryption
French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve has reiterated the
need for international action to tackle the threat of terrorism coming from
messaging encryption, reports Reuters. Cazeneuve will meet his German
counterpart, Thomas de Maiziere, on 23 August in Paris to discuss proposals on a European
initiative, with a view to launching an international action plan. Cazeneuve
declined to comment on the nature of the proposals and whether he is seeking Germany’s
support to request decryption techniques from service operators. Cazeneuve’s
statement follows a French investigation which uncovered the use of
end-to-end encryption by Islamist extremists communicating via a messaging
service called Telegram.
From
http://www.telecompaper.com/
08/15/2016
TOP↑
IRELAND: Household Broadband Penetration at 83%
The number of fixed broadband subscriptions in Ireland increased
by 4 percent in Q1 2016 as mobile broadband subscriptions fell by 0.4 percent
(from Q1 2015), according to the latest Quarterly Communications Market
report from regulator ComReg. Household fixed broadband penetration reached
67 percent in Q1. The estimated household total (fixed and mobile) broadband
penetration rate at the end of Q1 was 83 percent, higher than the EU average
of 80 percent. Fixed broadband speeds continue to increase with 58.1 percent
of subscriptions equal to or greater than 30 Mbps in Q1 2016, compared to
48.1 percent in Q1 2015. Bundled services accounted for 61.2 percent of all
fixed subscriptions sold in a bundle as of Q1 2016. Consumers also continued
to use more mobile data with mobile data traffic volumes increasing in Q1
2016, as voice minutes, MMS and SMS traffic volumes decreased. In Q1 2016,
mobile average revenue per user (ARPU) was EUR 24.12 compared to EUR 24.79 in Q1 2015.
From
http://www.telecompaper.com/
06/17/2016
TOP↑
NETHERLANDS: Fibre Broadband Reaches Milestone 1 Mln
Subscribers
Broadband via fibre networks reached the milestone of 1 million
subscribers in the Netherlands
at the end of March 2016, according to the Dutch Broadband 2016 Q1 report
from Telecompaper. The 5 percent quarterly growth in fibre broadband
connections helped the total broadband market to grow by 0.8 percent during
the first quarter and reach almost 7.2 million lines at the end of March.
Cable broadband also grew slightly in the quarter, and with over 3.3 million
connections remained the most popular broadband technology in the Netherlands.
Fibre grew to a market share of almost 14 percent, while DSL lost 0.3
percentage points during the quarter to end Q1 with slightly more than 40
percent of connections. Ziggo, the largest cable operator in the Netherlands,
added only 8,000 new broadband customers during the first quarter, ending the
period with just over 3.1 million customers. Its market share decreased
slightly to 43.2 percent. Number two KPN (including its other brands such as
Telfort, XS4ALL and Edutel) had more net additions during the first quarter
with 22,000, but its market share was unchanged at 40.8 percent of all
connections. Despite the increasingly saturated market, with 92.7 percent of
Dutch households having a broadband connection, the broadband market is
expected to grow by 2.5 percent in 2016, according to Telecompaper. Cable and
fibre are expected to continue to grow, offsetting the steady decrease in DSL
users. For the period 2016-2020, Telecompaper expects a CAGR of 1.9 percent
per year in the number of broadband connections. Telecompaper estimates the
Dutch broadband market was worth over EUR 463 million in retail revenue in
the first quarter of 2016. The revenues are expected to grow at a CAGR of 1.4
percent over the five-year period 2016-2020.
From
http://www.telecompaper.com/
06/05/2016
TOP↑
ROMANIA: Serious Network Incidents Fall 22% in 2015
The number of serious incidents on Romanian telecom networks
fell by 22 percent last year, according to report from regulator Ancom. A
total 281 incidents affecting the security and integrity of networks were
recorded, affecting around 6.4 million connections, down 27 percent on 2014.
Mobile (2.7 mln) and mobile internet (2.5 mln) connections were the most
affected, while only about 660,000 fixed telephony and 350,000 fixed
broadband connections reported problems. On average, a security incident
affected 22,773 connections and lasted four hours. Most security incidents
took place in Bucharest,
followed by the counties of Gorj, Teleorman and Dambovita. Around a quarter
of incidents were due to internal system or human errors, while 74 percent
came from external factors, such as the disruption of power supply, cable
cuts or theft or weather incidents. Ancom noted that around 90 percent of
incidents hindered access to the 112 emergency number,
but as most incidents were over mobile networks, users could still access the
emergency services by using another mobile network. Ancom's data is based on
information from operators. Earlier this year it published a guide for
operators on implementing security measures and incident management.
From
http://www.telecompaper.com/
06/22/2016
TOP↑
RUSSIA: Mobile
Retail Chains Face Changing Market - Study
The Russian mobile retail market faces slowing growth, according
to a study from ACM-Consulting. Specialised mobile retail chains could face
dramatically lower sales in the next two years, the market researcher
predicts. Some 10 percent of Russian mobile subscribers used LTE services at
the end of 2015, and 14 percent in Moscow.
At the same time 70 percent of the country‘s population was covered by LTE
network at the beginning of this year. A lack of LTE end-user devices was the
main obstacle for increasing 4G
penetration during the past two years. The other trend was that customers in Russia have
started changing their mobile devices more rarely, and they also are
switching from specialised retail chains to operator shops for their
purchases. The share of mobile devices in use that were purchased within 12
months has declined significantly this year in comparison to 2015. Handset
sales declined by 12-15 percent in units, according to various estimates. The
only growth driver was young users willing to buy LTE devices. The base of
LTE users grew by around 15 million since the beginning of this year.
Multi-brand shops will also face declining sales of subscription contracts,
as operators are expected to refuse aggressive offers on Sim sales. Mobile
retail chains Euroset, Svyaznoy and others also face sharp competition with
the retail chains of operators and will find it difficult to cope with the
declining revenues. This could lead to a decline in the number of such shops
by 10-15 percent within in a year, AC&M expects.
From
http://www.telecompaper.com/
07/24/2016
TOP↑
SWITZERLAND: Telcos Unit to Protect Children Using Online
Media
Swiss telecoms association Asut has announced a new
industry-wide initiative to protect young people when using media on
computers, tablets and smartphones. Initial signatories include Salt, Sunrise, Swisscom and
UPC, which will all have to implement the outlined measures by end-2016.
Signatories will be obliged to offer customers blocking options for their
video-on-demand (VoD) services with age restrictions; encourage their
business partners to implement youth protection measures; and to block access
to child pornography in co-operation with Swiss internet crime agency Kobik.
They will also offer information for protecting children online during the
sale process and on their websites.
From
http://www.telecompaper.com/
06/10/2016
TOP↑
UKRAINE: Why Ukraine Can Do It?!
I live few hundreds kilometers away from Kiev,
Ukraine
and this country is indeed close to my heart from different perspectives and
various reasons! It is always a great pleasure to take the drive from
Chisinau all the way to Kiev
and enjoy the beauty of this country. However, the aim of this post is not
about this … While not everyone on this Planet knows that Ukraine is at war,
that Russia has annexed the Crimean peninsula and is conducting military
operations in the Eastern part of the country, fewer probably know that this
war has taken, as per UN data, the lives of more than 10000
people of this country. But again, the post is not about all these. It is
about how a country at war managed to stand up several times, wipe all the
tears away, leave the frustrations behind, proudly look into its future and
continue working on its ambitious reforms, including the ones aiming at
bringing more transparency, accountability, innovation into the lives of the
Ukrainian people.
Ukraine, like Moldova,
joined the Open Government Partnership back in 2011. There have been a lot of
changes and political ‘turbulence’ taking place in the Ukrainian Government
since then, but Ukraine
managed to keep up with its commitments around Open Government Agenda. And
there are a number of reasons for that:
In the times of crisis, people either continue struggling and
being divided; or they can become more united, stronger and use their power
to create more, rebuild what was destroyed and stay together against any
potential challenges or threats;
Success is driven by people who have vision;
Success is driven by consensus building, by “building bridges”,
by negotiation, by bringing together those who are mandated with a specific
agenda, as well as those who care, have the expertise, have the desire to
move things forward. And this is not because they are expecting recognition,
or fame, but simply because things they do as part of their professional life
is something they have at heart;
Partnerships between different organizations help consolidate,
capacitate, motivate, and bring innovation into the play; helps build
sustainable initiatives that in the end benefit the lives of the millions in
the country.
Ukrainian Government, together with its civil society partners,
among which Transparency International Ukraine, managed to review recently
the degree to which Ukraine’s
Open Government related commitments were implemented
-http://ti-ukraine.org/en/news/monitoryng-deklaraciy/media/6187.html
It is overwhelming to learn that OGP related initiatives are
being recognizes by the Ukrainian Government as “one of the most clear, open,
and democratic mechanisms for interaction between governmental structures and
civil society in Ukraine”.
It is impressive to learn that among the commitments already implemented as
part of the most recent National Action Plan (2014-2015) are, among many:
The development of a web portal for income, asset, and
expenditure declarations of public officials has been started;
Amendments to the law of Ukraine On Citizens’ Appeals, the
mechanism of electronic petitions has been implemented;
Change of procedures for interactions between the government and
civil society;
Compliance with EITI.
In addition to the above, it is important to mention that back
in May 2016, in London, the World Procurement Awards (WPA) has distinguished Ukrainian
e-procurement system Prozorro with its Public Sector Award. It was for the
first time when the Ukrainian-developed technical innovation for public
sector has received worldwide recognition.
And this is not the only successful experience of Ukraine when
it comes to the Open Government Agenda:
A very big decision was made by the Ukrainian Parliament back in
2015, passing the law “On the access to the archives of repressive organs of
the communist and totalitarian regime of 1917-1991.” Thus, all documents
relating to repression and human rights violations will be transferred to the
state archive of the Ukrainian Institute of National Memory. Anyone who
wishes to access them will be able to do so, including Russian historians.
For us, in Moldova,
achieving something like this is almost impossible now and in the near
future.
When looking into the National Action Plan – it was for the
first time that government documents included a section entitled
„partners”. This is an example of
something that can gradually change the old paradigms and approaches when it
comes to collaboration among government and civil society. During my meetings
back in March 2016, in Kiev,
I learned from my colleagues in civil society about the six ongoing thematic
working groups that have been established with co-heads from civil society
and the government. And they might not be the perfect working groups, and
they migth face some challenges when it comes to operations, resources,
coordination – still, establishing these groups and the interest to
accomplish specific tasks via these groups is already a succes.
A lot is still to come ahead for Ukraine and a lot of work to
still be done. And even if for many years now, Ukraine’s government failed to
implement effective reforms aimed to curb corruption in the country, and it
was permanently receiving low scores in the key international
corruption-related indexes, such as TI’s Corruption Perceptions Index, the
Global Integrity Index, and the World Bank’s and World Economic Forum’s indicators,
there is still hope … Hope for a more open, transparent, citizen-friendly
Government in Ukraine. Hope that regardless of the military war and an
ongoing hybrid war with Russia,
the Government will be able to face all the challenges, continue working hard
on implementing more ambitious reforms, innovate and build trust! Citizens of
Ukraine, need more than ever, a Government that is stable, able to resist any
political turbulence (again, caused by the war), able to be accountable and
responsible for its actions, able to serve its citizens and value the
potential of the human capital it has …
Congratulations to the Government of Ukraine for participatory
approaches when it comes to the elaboration of the new Action Plan on Open
Government! Natalia Oksha (OGP Coordination Council Secretary and Deputy
Director of the Department for Information and Public Relations at
Secretariat of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine), together with her
colleagues from civil society (TI in particular, with Olesya Arkhypska) and
international community of partners and donors (among which UNDP – with Olena
Ursu, Diana Zubko and Maksym Klyuchar behind; USAID, others) have managed to
organize a co-creative process around the new plan. I remember fondly March
21st, 2016, in Kiev,
during which IRM report was presented. It was then when everyone could share
his/her thoughts about what’s next for Ukraine in the new Action Plan.
The results of these processes are ought to be successful in long run! And
this was just a new beginning of new processes around good governance,
citizen-engagement, accountability and transparency! These are the best tools
ever against any war! Because Ukraine
can do it!!!
From
http://opengov.si.md/
08/02/2016
TOP↑
U.K.: How London
Uses Crowdfunding to Build Projects — and Community
The Greater London Authority has set aside about $1 million to
contribute toward community-driven ideas for improving urban spaces.
Architect Chris Romer-Lee had a wild idea: Why not turn part of the River
Thames into a swimming pool? To see if the “Thames Baths” could work,
Romer-Lee and his firm, Studio Octopi, did what many creative people with an
idea have done in recent years: They launched a campaign on the crowdfunding
site Kickstarter. It was a rapid success. In less than a month, they raised
more than ￡140,000,
mostly in small donations. The money helped to pay for a pre-planning study.
Now Romer-Lee is at it again, trying to crowdfund another London swimming pool. The Peckham Lido
project would revive a neighborhood pool that fell into disrepair and was
filled in almost 30 years ago. This time, however, he’s running the campaign
through a program set up by the Greater London Authority.
The Authority has set aside ￡730,000, or about US$1 million, to contribute
toward community-driven ideas for improving urban spaces. Some 55 projects
are competing for the funds, from a not-for-profit kid’s cafe to a community
festival. One criterion for the judges is the project leaders’ success in
using crowdfunding to raise matching funds. Pledges from City Hall will be
announced June 29. The Peckham Lido would appear to be a strong candidate. It’s raised more than any other project so far — nearly ￡29,000 — from more than
700 backers. Romer-Lee calls crowdfunding an “intriguing technique,” noting
that the current campaign for the neighborhood pool has a different feel than
the one for the Thames project. “The
previous campaign was treating civic architecture almost as a product,” he
says. By contrast, the city-sponsored campaign “boosts a sense of community
and credibility.”
That’s exactly what the Greater London Authority’s regeneration
team is going for. In fact, the current campaign is their third use of an
approach that began under Mayor Boris Johnson and continues under the new
mayor, Sadiq Khan. City officials have come to see crowdfunding as an
important tool for what is essentially a new form of participatory budgeting.
It’s a bottom-up democratic method for transforming the built environment
that simultaneously fosters community engagement. In a time of fiscal
austerity, it’s also a way to keep momentum behind community projects.
Nationally in the UK, annual spending on civic projects has plunged from ￡3 billion to ￡600 million as a result
of cuts to funding for local councils. Crowdfunding taps the enthusiasm of
willing contributors without burdening all taxpayers. It also allows the
local government to support a project without bearing the weight of its
success or failure and without having to foot the bill for staffing and other
costs. “Crowdfunding allows the actual implementation of neighborhood ideas,”
says Konrad von Ritter, a consultant who’s been researching the ways cities
are using the strategy. Von Ritter says a key aspect of London’s approach is what the city lends in
terms of publicity — the lifeblood of any crowdfunding campaign. “It makes a
big difference to the crowd that the mayor is behind it,” he says.
PLATFORMS TO BUILD ON
None of this is brand new, of course. In 1885, thousands of New
Yorkers responded to Joseph Pulitzer’s call to help fund construction of a
plinth for the Statue of Liberty to stand on. Since then, the internet and
social media have simply made this kind of appeal easier to make — Pulitzer
owned a newspaper but now anyone can launch a campaign like this. In recent
years, dozens of web-based crowdfunding platforms have popped up. Some of
them, such as Citizinvestor, Neighbor.ly and Ioby, specifically cater to
neighborhood-driven urban projects. London’s
program uses a platform called Spacehive — the UK
cities of York and Hull are using it too. The London-based
company says its aim is to give citizens power in shaping their communities
and to connect them around a common goal.
“Regeneration can be seen as a dirty word,” explains Aaron
O’Dowling-Keane of Spacehive. “But the program is moving
away from the idea of ‘gentrification’ and asking people what they want from
the areas they live, work and spend their time in.” The London Mayor’s
Crowdfunding Programme has its own “hive” on the site. This is where city
officials can put out calls for urban regeneration projects, and where
community members launch their campaigns. In the London model, projects get started
crowdfunding on their own. About midway through the
campaigns, the city throws its weight behind a certain number of projects,
with the mayor pledging up to ￡20,000 of
additional support per campaign. That money is meant to push the most viable
projects over their funding goal — or at least give
them enough credibility and publicity to give organizers room for one last
fundraising push.
London puts some
parameters around its support. Projects need to be located on or near a high
(or “main”) street. They must seek to improve the environment, attract
visitors and improve empty spaces. They need to bring economic and social
vitality to the community and show strong support from the local area.
There’s also a good amount of vetting of the ideas. Spacehive does some of
this by verifying that projects are financially viable and won’t get tripped
up by problems such as project organizers not having permission to use a
certain plot of land, for example. “This works well with local councils,”
explains Harriet Gridley, community manager at Spacehive. “They like to have
that verification before giving their name to something.”
‘KNOCK-ON EFFECT’
The Greater London Authority judges projects based on four key
areas. First is the quality of the idea, whether it is innovative and likely
to make an impact; second is whether it realistically can be delivered if
funded; third is whether the project brings value for money; and fourth is
how successful the idea has been at generating public support via the
crowdfunding campaign. In London’s
two prior crowdfunding rounds, projects picked by the city went on to get
another big boost from the crowd. According to Spacehive, these projects saw
a 171-percent jump in the number of donations received after winning the
mayor’s endorsement. In addition, the average daily total pledged to these
projects increased from ￡60 to ￡200. One of the most
successful projects from the earlier rounds comes from the same south London neighborhood
where Chris Romer-Lee wants to build the swimming pool. It’s called the
Peckham Coal Line. The idea is to turn a disused elevated rail line into an
elevated park — Peckham’s own version of New York’s High Line.
In order to fund an initial feasibility study, promotional
materials and a basic asset protection agreement, the ambitious project set
out to raise ￡65,000
through Spacehive. Of the total funds that rolled in, 69 percent came from
the community, including ￡10,000 from
the local council. That was topped up with another ￡10,000 from the mayor’s fund. “You might get a couple of businesses involved
initially,” says Gridley. “But post-mayoral pledge, and then all the local
pubs and shops want to show support. It’s a knock-on effect.” One such
organization to join the crowd was the sustainable transport charity
Sustrans. “After meeting the group [behind the Coal Line], we could see
massive potential in the project,” explains Matt Winfield, London director for Sustrans. “There was a massive number of people who contributed small sums
of money, and [the campaign] did a very good job in the tight community of
Peckham in generating a lot of excitement.”
Chris Romer-Lee hopes the Peckham community can muster the same
energy again. The Peckham Lido reached 25 percent of its ￡66,000 target after
just four days. But it still has more than halfway to go. He’ll be watching
eagerly when City Hall announces its awards at the end of June. “It will be
interesting to see how it all pans out,” Romer-Lee says. The local council
has verbally agreed to support restoring the swimming pool at its former location,
but the financing is the missing link. “After this first stage, the fun and
games can begin.”
From
http://www.govtech.com/
06/17/2016
TOP↑
LATIN AMERICA:
Digital Divide at 49% of Population
The digital divide in Latin America currently stands at 49
percent of the region's population, impacted by macroeconomic weaknesses in
countries such as Brazil or Venezuela, reports El Financiero, citing Telecom
Advisory Services (TAS) director Raul Katz. He added that only five of the
region's countries are in a state of advanced digitalisation and that the
fixed broadband penetration rate stands at 45 percent of Latin American
households, while mobile broadband is at 29 percent. The fundamental reasons
for the digital divide are economic, with users unable to afford access to
the technology, said Katz. He added that an estimated USD 400 billion will be
required to bridge the digital divide in Latin America,
even though he claimed operators would be investing just USD 193 million
between 2014 and 2020.
From
http://www.telecompaper.com/
06/23/2016
TOP↑
BRAZIL: Most Broadband Subscribers Would Change Operator
Broadband internet consumers in Brazil are increasingly
dissatisfied with their operators, mainly due to the costs. According to a
study by CVA Solutions, 74.5 percent of respondents would change operator if
it was simpler and 74.4 percent say they would change operator if a data cap
was introduced. In the case of pay-TV, 75.9 percent say they would change
operator if it were simpler, especially with lower costs, and 11.5 percent
claim they have already cancelled their subscription to use only Netflix and
free-to-air TV. In the fixed broadband internet segment, GVT lead in Brand
Strength, while TIM Live had the best Perceived Value. In the pay-TV segment,
Sky was leader in both Brand Strength and Perceived Value. Finally, in the
fixed telephony segment, GVT was on top for both Brand Strength and Perceived
Value.
From
http://www.telecompaper.com/
06/30/2016
TOP↑
Could the
Rio Olympics Bring Enterprise
Network Problems?
As the world looks forward to the 2016 Summer Olympic Games in Brazil, a
long list of problems and solutions have received media attention. But
regardless of what happens in the arenas, is your organization prepared?
Here’s a primer on potential online trouble spots and how you can prepare.
Despite an unusually long list of serious concerns, I expect the 2016 Summer
Olympic Games in Brazil
to exceed expectations overall. But is your business or government ready? No
doubt, the global media is highlighting many issues surrounding physical
security, infrastructure, the Zika virus and other problems. So why am I
optimistic? Because the "success" bar has been set so very low for
these 2016 Olympic Games.
But barring a major terrorist incident, I expect the Brazilian
hosts to pull off some positive surprises. Perhaps they will even win over
the hearts and minds of the world in the opening and closing ceremonies. Just
as they did with the 2014 FIFA (Soccer) World Cup, event organizers should be
able to overcome short-term sporting event (and large crowd) obstacles and
deliver a memorable few weeks of summer fun for the world to watch. Once the
opening ceremony begins and surprise winners and losers start to emerge, I
expect the negative stories will quickly evolve into a series of positive
smaller stories that will become viral in social media channels. I have no
idea who will win various events, but there are always upsets and champions
that emerge as our new heroes.
Back at Home (and at the Office)
Which leads to the rest of us back at home. Regardless
of whether things go poorly or well, one thing is clear — the eyes of the
world will be on Brazil
from Aug. 5-21. Whether, good, bad or ugly, everyone will be watching events
— both live online and in various other forms (from tape delayed to media
summary snippets.) As far as the event schedule goes, NBC has published their
plan here. The viewing opportunities include numerous TV channels and
websites. As the article states, “NBCOlympics.com and the NBC Sports app will
live stream 4,500 total hours — including all Olympic competition for the
third consecutive Olympics. ...”
Keeping in mind that Rio
de Janeiro is one hour earlier than U.S. Eastern
Daylight Time (EDT), plenty of events will fall during normal work hours.
This also means that the opening and closing ceremonies will begin during
work hours on the West Coast and Hawaii.
Sports events that occur during the workday, such as the Olympics, World Cup
Soccer and March Madness, can bring down or significantly impact office
network speeds and even business ability to process important operational
tasks.
From
http://www.govtech.com/
07/24/2016
TOP↑
Brazil and UK
Team Up to Finance
Smart City
Technology
Brazil's Minister of Industry, Trade and Services, Marcos
Pereira, and the UK's Minister of Trade and Investment, Mark Price, signed a
memorandum for bilateral cooperation in innovation.The Brazilian Ministry and
Innovate UK, the UK's innovation agency, will soon launch an invitation for
Brazilian and UK companies financed by the Newton Fund, the UK fund for
scientific development, the Brazilian state development bank BNDES and the
Brazilian Company of Industrial Innovation (EMBRAPII). The invitation will be
focused on technology development projects for smart cities and sustainable
urban environments, and involves IoT, big data, smart grids, multi-modal
transport technologies and traffic control, clean energy, control and use of
water and blue-green infrastructure.
From
http://www.telecompaper.com/
08/05/2016
TOP↑
CHILE: Internet Access Up 45.3% in 2 Years
Fixed and mobile internet connections in Chile reached
13.4 million accesses in March 2016, according to the quarterly report of
telecoms services regulator Subtel. Out of the total, 10.6 million
corresponded to 3G and
4G mobile accesses
(+14.3% y/y), boosted by the deployment of 4G (1.3 million accesses added in the last 12
months). Specifically, 4G
connections totalled 3 million accesses at the end of March, representing
28.7 percent of mobile internet accesses. Fixed internet connections reached
2.74 million (+7.3% y/y), with residential accesses accounting for 87.6
percent of the total. Mobile telephony services reached a 127 percent
penetration rate, with 23 million accesses and post-paid subscribers
accounting for 34.3 percent of the total. In terms of market share, Entel had
35.7 percent (35.6% in March 2015), Movistar 34.3 percent (39.1%), Claro 24.1
percent (22.5%), WOM 3.5 percent (0.9%), Virgin 1.4 percent (1.1%), VTR 0.6
percent (0.5%) and others 0.4 percent (0.3%). MVNOs had a 1.9 percent market
share, growing by only 0.4 percent in the past 12 months.
The fixed telephony market remained stable in last 12 months
with the number of lines dropping by only 1 percent to 3.3 million and the
penetration rate reaching 18.8 percent. Movistar had the largest market share
with 42.8 percent (45.2% in Q1 2015), followed by VTR with 20.3 percent
(20.8%), Entel with 16.9 percent (14.1%), GTD Group with 10.3 percent
(10.2%), Claro with 7.9 percent (7.6%) and others with 1.8 percent (2.1%).
The number of pay-TV subscribers grew 4.5 percent year on year to 2.97
million, reaching a 16.4 percent penetration rate. DTH accesses surpassed
wireless, accounting for 51.2 percent of subscribers in March. In the pay-TV
segment, VTR remained market leader with 34.5 percent, followed by Movistar
(21.4%), DirecTV (18.1%), Claro (14.6%) and others (11.4%). The mobile
operators with the greater amount of net ported numbers in May were WOM
(33,204), Virgin (15,306), Movistar (12.258) and VTR (3,315). In contrast,
Entel (-60,492) and Claro (-5,644) recorded the most losses in the same
period. In fixed telephony, Entel and Netglobalis posted the highest net ported
gains.
From
http://www.telecompaper.com/
06/09/2016
TOP↑
Chile Eyes Diversity in Efforts to Boost Pacific Alliance: FM
Chile eyes
diversity while striving to boost the Pacific Alliance, Foreign Minister
Heraldo Munoz said on Sunday, three days prior to a summit of the four-member
trade bloc in Chile.
Chile, Colombia, Mexico
and Peru, which all border
the Pacific Ocean, have economic, cultural
and historic links with the Atlantic countries and for that reason, they had
proposed convergence when the bloc was first formed in April 2011, Munoz told
local media. "Obviously, it makes sense to strengthen the alliance if
there are new countries interested in getting closer to it. Recently we
approved Argentina's
application to become an observer country," the diplomat said, adding
that there is growing interest from Brazil. Uruguay and Paraguay are already observers.
Presidents of the four member countries will participate in the upcoming
summit, while Argentine President Mauricio Macri will attend as a special
guest.
When asked about political changes in several countries within
the region, the Chilean minister assured that "our approach of
convergence in diversity was made regardless of ideologies or economic
models, and long before these political changes." Munoz said joining the
Pacific Alliance "favors concrete and effective economic integration and
is not purely rhetoric." "We propose a pragmatic dialogue between
the region's main integration blocs, particularly the (Pacific) Alliance and Mercosur (the Southern Common Market, which
groups Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay,
Venezuela and Brazil),
without distracting them from their respective agendas and state of
progress," Munoz explained. The Pacific Alliance summit will be held in
Puerto Varas, around 1,000 km
south of Santiago,
from Tuesday to Friday. The Pacific Alliance has a total population of over
210 million and its gross domestic product represents over a third of Latin America's total.
From
http://news.xinhuanet.com/
06/27/2016
TOP↑
U.S., Cuba Broaden Social, Cultural
Contacts
Almost a year after restoring diplomatic ties,
Cuba and the United States
have increased people-to-people exchanges and cooperation in such
fields as culture and sports. The two former Cold War adversaries are finding
common ground in areas of mutual concern and interests after decades of scant
and often hostile communications. In April of this year, just a month after
U.S. President Barack Obama visited Havana, a
cultural delegation from the President's Committee on the Arts and
Humanities, composed of 70 academics, artists and intellectuals from all over
the United States,
spent four days in the Cuban capital. The visit aimed to build bridges of
understanding, promote cultural ties and explore areas of cooperation. During
its stay in Havana,
the delegation met with numerous Cuban artists, visited historical and
cultural sites of interest and enjoyed activities featuring local traditions.
The two countries signed half a dozen cooperation agreements
during the trip, and many other ones are in the works. The latest agreement
was signed on July 12 between Cuba's
National Natural
History Museum
and the American Museum of Natural History in New York. The agreement calls for boosting
specific collections, holding joint exhibitions and strengthening the
technical capacity of Cuban institutions through internships, courses and
other forms of exchange. In the past 12 months, Hollywood
has also taken advantage of the thawing ties between the two nations, sending
crews to film two major productions on the streets of Havana. During nearly 10 days in late April
and early May, parts of the Hollywood
blockbuster franchise "Fast and Furious 8" were shot around the
capital. Cast members Vin Diesel, Charlize Theron and Michelle Rodriguez
captivated Cubans, who bustled all over town to get a glimpse of the famous
actors.
Fast on the heels of "Furious," filmmakers again
invaded Havana's
streets to film scenes from the upcoming "Transformers: The Last
Knight." The fifth installment of this series presumably features the
colonial city as a backdrop. It remains to be seen how the movie's futuristic
robots fare in Old Havana's narrow cobblestone streets. Both movies are set
to premiere in 2017, with a special Havana
showing of "Fast and Furious" scheduled. In sports, the two
countries have inched closer to re-establishing cooperation between their
leagues, while Washington
has opted on basketball diplomacy to generate goodwill among Cuban youth. At
the end of June, NBA legend Shaquille O's Neal visited the island as the
first ever White House sports envoy, meeting with young Cuban basketball
players and sports officials, participating in training matches and touring
the sites.
The U.S. and Cuba, of
course, share a passion for baseball. Unfortunately, the U.S. trade embargo against Cuba has for
decades prevented Cuban players from signing on with Major League Baseball
(MLB) clubs, unless they defected. But recent changes in regulation indicate
the two sides will eventually reach an agreement. During Obama's visit in
March, the MLB's Tampa Bay Rays took part in an exhibition game against the
Cuban squad that potentially opened the door for future binational
professional baseball games in Cuba. Such exchanges are believed
to enable further development in relations and cooperation between the two
countries.
From
http://news.xinhuanet.com/
07/18/2016
TOP↑
MEXICO: OECD Helping to Train Digital Professionals
The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development
(OECD) has been helping Mexico
to train professionals in the digital economy, the country's Under-Secretary
of Industry and Trade, Rogelio Garza Garza, said on Saturday. The OECD was
seeking to develop the digital economy around the world, Garza told Xinhua in
an interview. As such, the institution was collecting best practices on
important topics, such as how to bring Internet access to rural areas.
"We are now in a cooperation stage in terms of developing innovation and
human capital," he said. "For Mexico, it is very important to
know how to develop professionals in this new digital era." Garza said
that information and communications technology (ICT) had proven to be one of
the fastest growing sectors in the Mexican economy. He admitted that Mexico was
still behind other Latin American economies in ICT, but he said that "we
are aware of the great challenge we have to overcome." Garza said that
in years to come, Mexico
would emphasize the development of its digital economy with specific public
policies. This will include a national coordination strategy for the digital
economy, overseen by President Enrique Pena Nieto. "We have to enter
this great ICT value chain, across many sectors, and our public policies will
reflect that," he said, adding that government grants would also be
available to help companies in transition to the digital economy. "In Mexico, SMEs
have a challenge to grow, modernize and provide added value. We will help
them do that through innovation and the digital economy," Garza said.
From
http://news.xinhuanet.com/
06/26/2016
TOP↑
NORTH
AMERICA: Canada
Can Weather Brexit Storm
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Friday that his
country's economy is in a good position to weather the storm in the wake of Britain's
vote to leave the European Union. "While last night's vote will
undoubtedly increase global economic uncertainty, Canadians can be reassured
that we are monitoring the situation closely and that we will work with our
partners across the world to maintain stability and create economic
growth," Trudeau said in French and broadcast by CTV. Trudeau said he
had spoken with Finance Minister Bill Morneau and Bank of Canada
Governor Stephen Poloz, who were in contact with their Group of Seven
counterparts. "They are monitoring world markets knowing that Canada's
financial system remains strong and stable," Trudeau said, after the
Canadian dollar lost more than a cent against the U.S. dollar.
"Canada
has tremendous economic fundamentals that we are strengthening with key
investments in infrastructure and measures to grow our middle class. We are well
positioned to weather global market uncertainty as we have done in the
past," added the Canadian prime minister. Calling Britain and the European Union (EU) important
strategic partners for Canada,
he said his country will continue to build relations with both. In his press
conference to mark the end of the parliamentary sitting on Wednesday, Trudeau
said the outcome was up to the British people, but Britain and the EU are
"stronger together." The fate of the Canada and European Union
Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) weighed heavily on the mind
of Trudeau's government as well as the opposition Conservative Party.
Canadian International Trade Minister Chrystia Freeland, who touted CETA as a
"gold-plated trade deal," said she has already spoken with her EU
counterpart about it. Conservative member of parliament Jason Kenney, a
former immigration minister and defense minister who congratulated the
British people for "embracing a confident, sovereign future," urged
Trudeau to make negotiations for a Canada-Britain trade deal a priority.
From
http://news.xinhuanet.com/
06/25/2016
TOP↑
U.S.: Civic Tech Sees Strong Growth Despite
Disunity, Report Says
Until civic tech generates more momentum, it will remain more of
an aspirational movement than a movement in itself. At the start of any
significant movement there’s always that urge to define it. We attempt to
crystallize the core dogmas, spotlight the guiding voices, measure influence
and predict potential. With the emergence of civic tech, it is no different.
This space — associated with government apps, open data, transparency and
civic engagement — is in a state of flux as practitioners wrestle to define
its character and vision. Against these existential challenges, the Omidyar
Network, one of the civic tech sector’s most prominent nonprofit and
for-profit investors, has attempted to accelerate the space with the release
of a new report analyzing civic tech within the framework of a social
movement. The group partnered with digital research firm Purpose to chart
civic tech’s investment growth, its activity, media reach and the strategic
steps needed to propel civic tech forward.
Looking at investment, growth is strong. The report noted that
civic tech funding totaled $870 million from 2013 to 2015, showing a rise of
119 percent. Similarly, in a tally of advertised events on Meetup,
grass-roots activity more than doubled at 609 events in 2013 and 1,645 events
in 2015. The top three cities hosting these events were San
Francisco, Miami and New York with lesser-known tech hubs like Salt Lake City, Virginia
Beach, Va., and Kansas City, Mo.,
rounding out the top 10 — see sidebar below for a
complete list. "I think when you look at the map [of civic tech events]
and you see the difference between 2013 and 2015 I think it's a pretty big
difference," said Purpose CTO Josh Hendler. "We're really seeing
that there are more and more people in parts of America
that aren't just big cities like San Francisco
and New York, or Washington,
D.C., and Chicago that are truly embracing civic
tech."
Omidyar’s Stacy Donohue, manager of Governance and Citizen
Engagement, agreed that what they found was as encouraging as it was
revealing. "The big takeaway is that civic tech is promising, but lacks
scale," she said, "and to get to that scale, we really need to
create a shared vision and identity in the same way other movements have a
shared vision and identity. " In comparison to
progressive movements like Black Lives Matter or the campaign for marriage
equality, the report — that analyzed a diverse array of online data —
observed civic tech’s objectives are far more abstract and far less unified.
Some, like Micah Sifry, founder of the New
York civic tech organization Civic Hall, describe
civic tech loosely as “the use of technology for the public good.” Others,
like Ron Bouganim, founder of the Govtech Fund, which invests exclusively in
government service startups, define it as tech that directly interfaces with
citizens. While still others — like those at Government Technology’s
e.Republic Labs — say the space is more of a sub-component within government
technology.
The report said these disparate definitions are problematic as
they blur civic tech’s impact and identity in the mainstream media. Hendler
suggested identity branding as a critical next step if advocates hope to
distinguish civic tech’s apps and contributions as something greater than
one-off city projects or as standalone ventures — like the popular
petition-signing platform Change.org or the fix of HealthCare.gov. “One of
our conclusions is that terminology matters and that people should be
conscious of this," Hendler said. For startups this means identifying
themselves as civic tech startups, for cities this means embracing the term
for public outreach, and for thought leaders and organizers this means
reaching outside of their tech circles for participation and agreeing on a
universal definition — even if they do retain their own internal definitions.
As it stands now, Purpose ultimately concluded that until civic
tech generates more momentum, it will remain more of an aspirational movement
than a movement in itself. Hendler said civic tech excelled in the social
movement measurements of sustained engagement, grass-roots activity and
collective action, but fell short of benchmarks in the categories of shared
vision, scale/growth and shared identity — since many active participants
still don’t identify themselves with the term.
From
http://www.govtech.com/
06/09/2016
TOP↑
States Try
to Help Private Sector Workers Save for Retirement
American families face substantial and growing challenges in
trying to build retirement savings. Private sector workers today typically
accumulate the bulk of their retirement funds in employer-sponsored plans,
but only 58 percent of workers have access to a plan and 49 percent
participate. In addition, less than 10 percent of all workers contribute to a
plan that is not job-based. The failure to save enough—or save at all—has an
impact on workers later in life and on all taxpayers. To address this
critical problem, many states are exploring programs to help private sector
workers save for their later years. Pew recently analyzed efforts underway or
under consideration in 25 states. It found that state objectives are
consistent: They want to increase retirement savings and reduce poverty among
retirees to reduce social assistance spending that strains state budgets. At
the same time, policymakers seek to ensure that new programs can be
implemented successfully, impose minimal burdens on employers, protect
retirement savings, and are cost-effective and sustainable. Generally, states
have taken one of three approaches: A state can sponsor and administer a plan
governed under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA), the
federal law that governs pensions; it can work within the current voluntary
employer-based system without sponsoring a state plan; or it can create a
state-based plan that may not be subject to the federal pension law.
Non-ERISA state plan
Most legislation on state-sponsored retirement plans for private
sector workers is being designed to avoid ERISA. In general, ERISA provides
important protections for plan participants and their beneficiaries. It requires that participants receive
information, including facts about plan features and funding; sets minimum
standards for participation and vesting; imposes fiduciary responsibilities
that require sponsors and providers who have control over plan assets to act
in the best interests of participants; and gives participants the right to
sue for benefits and breaches of fiduciary duty. Some legislators fear that
ERISA would require the state, the plan, or participating employers to take
on too many responsibilities or be subjected to unwanted liability. Many
employers who do not offer retirement plans cite worries about the costs, legal
and administrative burdens, and potential liabilities of doing so under
ERISA. Still, states pursuing this approach are attempting to provide
protections similar to those offered by an ERISA plan. A non-ERISA program
might require all employers meeting certain criteria to offer a retirement
plan for their workers or to enroll employees in the state’s automatic
enrollment payroll deduction individual retirement account, what is known as
an auto IRA plan. For example, the Secure Choice program in Illinois that takes effect in 2017 will
cover employers with 25 or more workers who do not offer plans. Connecticut, Oregon,
and Maryland
have enacted similar programs. In these state auto-IRA plans, employers must
process the enrollment and payroll contributions of their workers but
otherwise have minimal involvement. Employees are automatically enrolled in
the programs, starting with contributions at a specified amount of pay,
though they can adjust their contributions or opt out altogether.
From
http://www.routefifty.com/
06/16/2016
TOP↑
Smart Cities
- The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
More and more devices are plugging into your government’s corner
of the Internet of Things (IoT), but are we truly implementing the right
projects in 'smart' ways? Here’s what you need to know about the state of
smart cities opportunities along with some potholes to avoid and questions to
be answered. From watching tennis at Wimbledon
to emptying soap dispensers in washrooms in big cities, everyday life is
getting connected in smarter ways all over the planet. And the Internet of
Things (IoT) is making everything we do within government work better. Or is
it? No doubt, the world is full of many excellent smart cities case studies
demonstrating benefits, and smart cities resources
continue to expand at a rapid rate. Nevertheless, there are certainly some
less-than-stellar stories worth noting. Since we can often learn more from
failures than successes, it is time to ponder what not to do.
Smart Cities: Good Examples Abound
Any list of smart city “good news” stories must begin with the
city of Columbus, Ohio. The U.S. Transportation Department
(USDOT) announced last week that Columbus
has been selected to receive $40 million as the winner of the Smart City
Challenge. According to Transportation Secretary Foxx, Columbus won the challenge for several
reasons. Foxx said in a blog post that: “Columbus’ proposal puts people first. They
plan to install street-side mobility kiosks, a new bus rapid transit system,
and smart lighting to increase safety for pedestrians and improve access to
health care for traditionally underserved areas and neighborhoods. “We
predicted that the cities would formulate partnerships and that proved to be
true. When you aggregate all the matching funds that all the cities came up
with, it was in excess of $500 million,” he noted. “In Columbus’ case, they have very strong
private-public partnerships and were able to put together $90 million from
various parts of their business and civic community.” Also, more Columbus executives
will drive electric vehicles as a result of the Smart City Challenge
win.
Here is the #SmartCityPitch for #SmartColumbus (in video):
In another contest in the UK, Peterborough City Council
recently won the AWS (Amazon Web Services) Global Public Sector Smart City
Award. The council has won the top prize of $25,000 worth of promotional
credits that can be used to offset its AWS cloud infrastructure costs. And
there are plenty of other smart cities grants and awards worth noting from
around the world. Meanwhile, this "smart states" story from
Government Technology highlights the significant advances being made by
states like Illinois.
A report released on February 23, 2016 by the President’s Council of Advisors
on Science and Technology (PCAST), Technology and the Future of Cities, lays
out why now is a good time to promote technologies for cities. Topics
include: more (and more diverse) people are living in cities; people are
increasingly open to different ways of using space, living, working, and
traveling across town; physical infrastructures for transportation, energy,
and water are aging; and a wide range of innovations are in reach that can
yield better infrastructures and help in the design and operation of city
services.
Finally, a new agreement between Cisco and the government of Israel covers
many topics, including smart cities and innovation centers. But moving on, I
want to cover some other less-positive trends that are also emerging around
smart cities. Over the past decade, I have used this “good, bad and ugly” in
cyberspace theme on topics ranging from cloud computing to mobile devices to
cyber FUD to Black Friday and Cyber Monday shopping. I think it is important
to address the hard-to-answer questions, such as the approach taken in this
piece relating to BYOD cost savings or this piece on cybermetric deception
with fake clicks. I mention those other examples only to show that I am not singling
out smart cities for criticism.
The Bad
One of the difficult challenges we are facing with IoT and smart
cities is the reality that technology is outpacing policy. John Hayduk
writes:
“Today’s leaders and lawmakers face the unenviable challenge of
keeping up with a deluge of new technologies that were unimaginable just a
few decades ago. Drones, self-driving cars, advanced surveillance, digital
finance, smart cities and robotics are just a handful of examples that have
the potential to transform the way we live. Falling behind puts us at risk of
two distinct threats. On one hand, advancement and adoption may be stifled by
concerns about murky policy or a lack of accepted technological standards. On
the other, innovation without thoughtful oversight raises the specter of
security, privacy and ethical breaches. ...”
Furthermore, this article for The Urban Technologist in the UK outlines
six “inconvenient truths” about smart cities:
1) The “Smart
City” isn’t a
technology concept; it’s the political challenge of adapting one of the most
powerful economic and social forces of our time to the needs of the places
where most of us live and work
2) Cities won’t get smart if their leaders aren’t involved.
3) We can’t leave Smart Cities to the market,
we need the courage to shape the market.
4) Smart cities aren’t top-down or bottom-up. They’re both.
5) We need to tell honest stories.
6) No-one will do this for us — we have to act for ourselves.
As you probably expect, there are many cybersecurity and privacy
concerns with smart cities and the wider IoT topics. While I won’t cover
those issues here, several of those topics are covered in this webcast on IoT
security (Note this is in the new “blab” format, which requires a free logon
to watch.) This discussion on IoT security risks includes participants
Richard Stiennon, Dan Lohrmann, Andrew Borene and Scott Schober. And here are
another “5 Reasons That Smart Cities Fail” by Frank Rayal. The top item listed
is budget problems, and that issue is not going away. Finally under the “bad”
label, we have the reality that for all of these smart city competition
winners, there are many more cities that do not win (and get grant funding.)
For example, many articles were written about the city of Austin,
Texas, not
being selected in its smart city bid.
Now This Is Getting Ugly
There are plenty of commentators online saying that the
"smart city mania" around the world is full of hype or unreasonable
expectations. But perhaps the ugliest aspect of smart cities that I’ve read
about comes recently comes from this article in The Indian Express. Namely,
Sunita Narain believes that: “People becoming intolerant because our lives
are getting ‘bubble wrapped.’” Or, in other words, there is danger if smart
cities only benefit the wealthy.
Here’s an excerpt:
Taking up the case of Lutyens Delhi, which will be developed as
one of the smart cities by the government, she said “I called it ‘Lutayan’
(Lutneys) Delhi.
This is India’s
biggest gated community. Smart city was a good idea. But you (government)
decided to invest in its own area which is already
very clean. “It is creating a huge difference between this (developed area)
and the rest of the world. This idea is creating a global view that we should
only ensure cleanliness of our backyard,” she added. Explaining intolerance,
Narain continued saying that it was because of the enormous differences being
created between places which are green and good and the rest of the world, that
we were becoming more and more intolerant. She said that it has become
difficult to put forth an inconvenient message as people today lived in a
“bubble wrap” where they only listened to what they wanted. ... Some articles
on the same theme even highlight when smart cities are stupid. More
dangerously, the planned towns and cities we now see coming up across Asia
and Africa are almost exclusively for the
wealthy. Unlike their socialist European forebears of the 20th century, these
developments are initiated, planned and built by the private sector, which
means, simplistically: They are profit-driven.
Final Thoughts:
Late last year, The University of Melbourne in Australia
held a seminar titled, Future Cities: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly. The
presentation featured world-renowned British urban planner and geographer
Professor Mike Batty and a panel of Australian experts. For anyone remotely
interested in this topic, the video is worth watching. I want to close by
saying that I am an optimist and a supporter of many smart cities
initiatives. I think we will overcome these obstacles, and the private sector
can be a good partner in making more smart government solutions a reality
going forward. Nevertheless, we must listen to both sides of these arguments
and be ready to enable the good and address the bad and ugly issues that are
now surfacing. Just as we have done with problems encountered with early
adopters of cloud computing and other technological solutions, I am confident
that we will be successful in building inclusive smart cities around the
world that benefit everyone — whether rich or poor.
From
http://www.govtech.com/
07/03/2016
TOP↑
Which
Agencies Have the Happiest IT Workers?
The Partnership for Public Service's deep dive into the 2015
federal job satisfaction data shows some bright spots for IT, human resources
and contract specialists. IT professionals at the Social Security
Administration reported being the most satisfied at work, with an index score
of 71.4 out of 100, well above the 58.1 average for all federal employees.
NASA came in second with 69.7. IT workers at six other agencies -- Justice,
Commerce, Treasury, Labor, Interior and State -- reported being happier in their
jobs than the average federal employee. Feds' overall job satisfaction in
2015 improved for the first time in four years. Despite the high scores at
some agencies, however, the average score for IT and cybersecurity
professionals was 56.2, nearly two points below the governmentwide score.
Findings are based on data from the Office of Personnel Management's Federal
Employee Viewpoint survey, which includes input from more than 421,000 people
from April through June of 2015. The Partnership also held a workshop in May
2016 with HR, IT and contract specialists across the federal government.
The report found the three main factors influencing job
satisfaction in those fields are: serving as an advisor, strategic partner,
and team member in the agency; having a creative and innovative culture; and
investing in learning opportunities to help employees feel connected to the
agency's mission. Many participants in the May 2016 workshop said they often
feel "disconnected from the big picture." The report advised agencies
to include IT specialists in cross-functional teams and project planning
discussions. IT employees have the lowest "Best Places to Work"
scores when it comes to training and development. Only 43.5 percent reported
satisfaction with the training they received for their job, and just 47.1
percent believe their training needs are assessed. "Several employees
said that if they had the opportunity to learn their organization's culture
during onboarding, it would have helped them integrate more easily into their
jobs," the report stated.
From
https://fcw.com/
07/21/2016
TOP↑
Blockchain
Technology to Improve Press Freedom
Blockchain, the new technology that can store and transfer data
at minimal cost, decentralized, and totally secure, is a hot topic. It has
the potential to disrupt many industries, and it is now finding its way into
journalism. Dutch startup Publicism is developing a tool to use the
innovative technology to promote positive change in our industry. It enables
journalists to publish and finance their work safely by guaranteeing the
anonymity of sources, bloggers and themselves – hence encouraging press
freedom. The project received �50,000
in subsidies from the Dutch Journalism Fund. Blockchain is a
registry where data and transactions can be stored on a multitude of servers,
taking out the need for intermediaries like banks or states. It creates an
unfalsifiable history of exchanges that is kept and updated in real time, by
all users. "Decentralization is the essence of blockchain," Pieter
Haasnoot, co-founder of Publicism told the World Editors Forum.
It can be used for many different purposes, from financial
transactions, voting, insurances, copyright, tracking art and so forth. But
what can it do for journalism? "The concept of blockchain is just as
complicated as the technology behind it," Haasnoot said. While the
technology to decentralize transactions already exists, it hasn't been
applied to the journalism industry and it is not very accessible yet.
Therefore, Publicism will make it easier for journalists around the world to
make use of the technology by building a user-friendly interface around it.
Blockchain to fight for press freedom
The project aims to overcome the challenges that are currently
putting pressure on the freedom of the press. In countries with regimes that
are threatening press freedom, security is crucial for journalists to be able
to keep publishing. Therefore, Publicism will build a system in which they
can work under a pseudonym. Communication through this technology is
encrypted so that it conceals the identity of both the sender and the
receiver. For governments to clamp down on journalists, blockchain will
provide a real challenge. Decentralizing their communications and financial
transactions, the network can in no way be closed down or altered because the
data is dispersed over a large number of computers. It also allows
journalists to more easily finance their work by offering anonymous funding
solutions. "Particularly in countries where press freedom is being
threatened, we've received many positive reactions to this technology,"
Haasnoot said.
Disrupting online content monetization
In the Western world, the press is being threatened by the lack
of decent business models. "With advertising revenue flowing to
platforms like Twitter and Facebook rather than to news organisations,
journalism is under threat," Haasnoot said. To overcome these content
monetization issues, blockchain creates a direct relationship between news
organisations and their users by building a decentralized micropayment
system. While micropayment platforms such as Blendle, Tipsy, or Flattr
collaborate with news organisations to offer pay-per-article services, using
blockchain will allow a direct relationship between the news organisation and
their audience, with the network itself to perform these transactions.
However, it may also enable advertisers to bypass media companies in reaching
consumers by paying them directly for testing their products.
A tool for independent journalists
The direct connection and ability to track content could also be
interesting for independent journalists, René van Zanten, CEO of the Dutch Journalism
Fund, who allocated the subsidy, told the World Editors Forum. He believes
that blockchain technology will become important for journalists who will
have to work independently: “It guarantees that they'll have a say in the way
they collaborate, publish, do their administration and get paid, without the
intervention of other parties. “ With all these developments currently being
researched, Publicism will also look further into ways to use blockchain to
establish collaborations between journalists.
From
http://blog.wan-ifra.org/ 08/09/2016
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CHINA: Sci-tech Achievements Inspire Children's Imagination of Future
Life
China's push for
innovation is not just about the here and now, as it seeks to inspire the
younger generation to explore how science and technology can make their lives
better. Li Yuheng, 13, knows what his vision of the future will include:
Robots that do all the housework for his mom, and
factory floors manned by machines. "We have a vacuuming robot at home
but it's not smart enough, it always gets stuck in the corners," Li
complained when he interacted with robot Alpha 1 at a recent technology show.
"But I'm sure in the future robots will help humans with all manners of
jobs -- It's just a matter of time!" Robot Alpha 1 is one of more than 800
inventions showcasing Chinese technological achievements during the 12th
Five-Year Plan period (2011-2015) at an exhibition that opened on June 1,
International Children's Day, in Beijing.
The inventions, spanning fields like intelligent vehicles, deep-sea
exploration and automated surgery, have attracted many science enthusiasts,
and were especially a hit with the kids. For Zhang Yubo, 8, virtual reality
gave him a chance to experience his wildest dreams. The VR device he tried
out transported him to the gate of a spaceship and he was able to walk out
and explore space.
"It feels amazing!" said Zhang. "It feels so
real, like I'm really an astronaut and actually walking in space!" Zhang
said he thinks that in the future, VR technology may even make the virtual
into reality. Duan Chenghao, 12, was as equally excited as Zhang, but his
attention was drawn to a medical science booth. The boy, who dreams of being
a biologist when he grows up, believes that humans will eventually invent a
medicine that can cure all diseases. "I believe that when medical
science develops to a certain stage, all countries will have the same level
of medical skill," Duan said. Cui Yeming, 16, shared Duan's passion for
medical science, but his interest was piqued by an automated robot that could
conduct orthopaedic surgery. In his eyes, robots like this will revolutionize
medical science. He sees a future where even untrained, ordinary people can
operate on themselves thanks to robots. While these inventions would not seem
out of place in a blockbuster movie, some of the other items on show are
about giving back to the environment. One of six-year-old Yu Handong's
favorite stories is "The Magic School Bus."
"In the book, most of the water on earth is contaminated.
Meaning, many people will die," he explained as he looked at a water
purifying system on display that prevents and controls water pollution.
"So with a water purifying machine -- like this one -- all the dirty
water could be turned into clean water again, and humans will be saved,"
he explained. Like him, Zeng Yufei, 12, believes that science has the power
to make people's lives better. She is hopeful that in the future science will
find a way to eliminate smog and purify the air. In late May, He Manchao,
academician at the Chinese
Academy of Sciences,spoke at length about cultivating an interest in science
among the younger generation. "Only scientific innovation can make China a
stronger country," He said. At this year's national children's
scientific innovation competition, inventions like a self-cleaning blackboard
and an energy-saving lamp won prizes. About 72 percent of the products
children submitted were related to environmental protection, energy and
reduction of emissions.
From http://www.news.cn/
06/08/2016
TOP↑
Wi-Fi Connection Planned on Trains
Passengers on Chinese high-speed trains will be able to keep up
with their social networking and browse the internet when Wi-Fi service is
made available in the coming years. The service will be accessible through an
app passengers can download to their cellphones when they board a train.
China Railway Rolling Stock Corp, the country's largest train maker by
revenue, displayed the technology at the Modern Railway 2016 exhibition in Beijing, which ended on
Wednesday. Xu Houguang, deputy director of the press office at CRRC's
headquarters in Beijing,
said the company is able to install a Wi-Fi system on its bullet and regular
trains. CRRC's subway and bullet train factories — such as Qingdao Sifang Co,
CRRC Changchun Co and CRRC Zhuzhou Electric Locomotive Co — can offer the
service on products exported to overseas markets such as Malaysia and Malta, said Yao Kaijun, a
researcher at the China Academy of Railway Sciences. China has the
world's largest mobile internet population, which last year numbered 594
million users. However, commercially operated Wi-Fi service on bullet trains
may still be years away, analysts said.
"The project requires telecom companies and train makers to
upgrade networking solutions step by step until they cover all routes,"
said Xiang Ligang, an independent telecom analyst and founder of the industry
website cctime.com. Wi-Fi service on high-speed trains differs from that used
in homes and offices, with the instability of Wi-Fi signals in tunnels and
interference from mobile and static signals over the lengthy routes posing
major obstacles, Xiang said. There are also many administrative procedures to
go through before running this program, and permits and licenses from the
National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Industry and
Information Technology will be needed, Yao
said. Last year, three Chinese airlines received approval to provide
in-flight Wi-Fi service.
From http://www.chinagate.cn/
06/23/2016
TOP↑
Baidu to Produce
Driverless Cars in Five Years
Search engine giant Baidu plans to mass-produce driverless cars
in five years, said company president Zhang Yaqin on Monday. During the
ongoing Annual Meeting of the New Champions 2016, or Summer Davos, in Tianjin, Zhang told
Xinhua that Baidu will carry out road tests of driverless cars in ten Chinese
cities, with the aim to commercialize the technology in three years and realize
mass production in five years. The core technology of Baidu's driverless
cars, he said, is the "Baidu car brain," which includes
high-precision electronic mapping, positioning, sensing and decision-making
and control systems. Baidu has already completed its first road test of
automatic driving in mixed road conditions. The company has plans for more
road tests in various weather, road and traffic conditions in ten Chinese
cities, according to Zhang. After it launched its autonomous car project in
2013, Baidu joined the race with Internet giants such as Google and Tesla Motors. Baidu is now leading
the world in terms of the cutting-edge technology of driverless vehicles,
Zhang said.
From http://www.news.cn/
06/27/2016
TOP↑
Chinese Hospitals Using
Swallowable Robots for Medical Examinations
New pill-sized robots that patients swallow to perform
endoscopies, or examinations of the digestive tract, have been put into use
in more than 100 Chinese hospitals. The robot, created by a Chinese joint
venture company based in Silicon Valley,
contains a magnetic positioning chip, a probe and a light. As an alternative
to a conventional endoscopy in which a probe is passed over the tongue and
down the throat, the new technology provides a 360-degree examination of the
patient's stomach in about 15 minutes, without causing discomfort. "The
inspection results are as good as a traditional gastroscopy, but the capsule
robot is easier to control and cleaner, removing the risk of
cross-infection," said Xie Xiaoping, a doctor at the endoscopy center of
Wuhan Union Hospital.
China
has a high rate of digestive tract disease. There have been about 400,000 new
cases of stomach cancer in China
in each of the past five years, accounting for 42 percent of fatalities from
such cancer worldwide. Success in treating the disease lies largely in how
early it can be detected. But the discomfort associated with conventional
endoscopies makes many people reluctant to have them, reducing early
detection of stomach diseases, according to Xie. A patient surnamed Li from Wuhan has suffered
stomach problems for years, but fear of endoscopy prevented her from going to
hospital. She recently had an examination via the capsule robot in Xie's
hospital. Xie said hundreds of patients like Li have had the inspection
without any pain. They must fast for eight hours before the examination, and
the capsule is excreted from the body afterwards. Historically, capsule
endoscopy products used in Chinese hospitals have all been imported,
resulting in very high examination fees. Domestic products have greatly
reduced the cost of an examination to about 3,000 to 5,000 yuan (450-750 U.S.
dollars). "Though the product is small, there are over 300 components
and more than 100 patented items in each capsule," said Xun Dandan, a
researcher with ANKON Technologies, the robot's developer. Xun expects the
cost of examinations with the capsules will drop over time.
From http://www.news.cn/
07/11/2016
TOP↑
Plumbing Robot Debuts in Central China
A wireless plumbing robot is being used in central China's Hubei Province
for routine checks of drainpipes in which toxic gas would put workers' lives
at risk. The robot, standing 20 centimeters tall with six independently
driving wheels, easily penetrates pipes with a caliber of 15 cm to 200 cm. The camera on its head has a
focus-variable lens and can rotate 360 degrees to capture any damage, jam or
leakage in the pipes. "Unlike the previous generation of wired robots,
this new product can be easily operated through software on your
laptop," said Zheng Hongbiao, general manager of Wuhan Easy-Sight
Technology, the developer of the robot. "With a click of the mouse, the
robot can go forward and backward, make a turn or jump over an
obstacle," Zheng said at a training workshop on drainpipe surveillance
and assessment technology in the provincial capital Wuhan on Saturday. The front- and rear-view
images captured by the robot are displayed in real time on the computer
screen. "The resolution of the front-view images is nine times higher
than that of the previous generation of wired plumbing robot," Zheng
said. It takes the robot about two hours to complete a thorough check of a
1-km long pipe. Data and analysis are transmitted to the computer, again in
real time. The robot has traced more than 70,000 meters of drainpipes in
seven districts in Wuhan's city proper and
will be used in several other cities including Shanghai
and Zhengzhou.
From http://www.news.cn/
07/16/2016
TOP↑
China's First AGV Robot Parking Lot to Be Ready in October
China's first parking lot to feature an automated guided vehicle
(AVG) robot will open in east China's Nanjing by the end of October, said the
robot maker on Sunday. Shenzhen-based Yeefung Automation Technology Co. Ltd.
said that the laser-guided AGV robot can transfer a car into a carport in
about two minutes. Drivers guide their cars on to the robot which is in shape
of a movable platform, and it places the vehicle in an available port. Wu
Hao, Yeefung general manager, said the company developed the robot in
response to limited parking in big cities across the world. He said the robot
will help new and experienced drives alike. AGV robots can maximize parking
space in lots by around 20-40 percent. Although adding such a robot would
give an extra cost of 70,000 yuan (10,468 U.S. dollars) to each carport, it
would help operators earn profits through improving efficiency, said said Wu.
China
has about 172 million vehicles on its road. Based on an annual increase of 19
million units, there will be 250 million vehicles on China's road
in 2020. Pan Guofan, deputy director of the Guangzhou Parking Association,
said smart parking technology will help improve efficiency rather than
providing a solution to the lack of parking space in cities. He said parking
space should be a major consideration of urban planning, and local
authorities should build more multi-story parking lots in urban areas.
From http://www.news.cn/
07/17/2016
TOP↑
China Launches First Mobile Telecom Satellite
China on early
Saturday successfully launched the first satellite for mobile
telecommunication. The Tiantong-01 satellite was launched at 00:22 a.m. Beijing Time, at southwestern China's Xichang Satellite
Launch Center,
with the Long March-3B carrier rocket. It is the first satellite of China's
home-made satellite mobile telecom system, and a key part of the country's
space information infrastructure. More geostationary satellites will be sent
into orbit for the system. Tiantong-01 was designed by China Academy of Space
Technology and its ground service will be operated by China Telecom. It will
establish a mobile network with ground facilities, providing services for China, the Middle East, Africa
and other areas. The Long March-3B carrier rocket was produced by China
Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology. It was the 232nd flight of the Long
March series carrier rockets, and the 36th launch of the Long March-3B.
From http://www.news.cn/
08/06/2016
TOP↑
Chinese Cities Introduce Parking Payments on Smartphones
Drivers in eastern China's
Hangzhou can
now park their cars more easily by using smartphone apps to find available
parking spaces, urban management authorities said Thursday. Residents can now
have direct access to the latest parking lot information updated every minute
on Tencent's WeChat app, said Qi Tongjun, deputy director of the city's
digital urban management information center. Based on users' positioning, the
app marks nearby parking lots in green, yellow, orange or red, which means
empty, busy, crowded and full, respectively, Qi said. He said traffic
violation information could also be found on the "urban services"
option of WeChat. Hangzhou
is not the only city that has introduced smartphone functions to improve
parking services. In Jinan, capital of Shandong Province, drivers can pay parking fees
with their phone payment systems, such as WeChat or Alipay. Drivers can scan
QR codes in parking areas to pay fees, or pay them 24 hours later, according
to the city's parking management office.
From http://www.news.cn/ 08/18/2016
TOP↑
Chinese Watch Health on Wearable Smart Devices
Every night, office worker Li Zhe, 35, compares walking and
running distances with his friends on WeChat. The data is recorded on Li's
Xiaomi sports bracelet. "Comparing with each other helps aid our
progress, and everyone around here is doing some kind of exercise," he
said. Li used to drive home from work, enjoy dining and play lots of video
games, but his lifestyle has changed over the past three years, and now you
are more likely to find him cycling or running. "For the past two years,
sports and health have become popular with everybody around us, and people
are all wearing some kind of sports bracelet or watch," Li said. Li's
Xiaomi bracelet can monitor the number of steps he takes, his heart rate, and
even his sleeping time. Sales of the Chinese sports bracelet topped 30
million in March this year, and when the new version of the product was
released in June, over 36 million pre-orders were made on Xiaomi's online
platform alone. "Wearable smart devices started as sports bracelets, but
within a very short time they become the most popular and successful
intelligent hardware worldwide. Though, we are still surprised that Chinese
consumer interest in them has even surpassed the interest in their cell
phones," said Huang Wang, CEO of Huami Technology, the Xiaomi bracelet
manufacturer.
Big data from over 20 million Xiaomi bracelet users show that
more and more Chinese are paying attention to their health. "On average
5 to 6 million users run everyday, and the number is increasing," Huang
said. Besides Xiaomi, other Chinese companies have also joined the market.
Sports brand Li-Ning cooperated with the Xiaomi bracelet research team to
develop running shoes with intelligent chips that can analyze a runner's
movement and provide professional guidance. "Wearable smart devices
present sport with something that is visible and quantifiable," said
Jiang Xuexing, a fitness instructor who has worked in Guangzhou for 10 years. "They have
made exercise more interesting by giving participants a sense of
achievement." "My sports bracelet looks at my walking distance
against my weight and sleep patterns, and it tells me my recent health condition,"
said Xu Jing, a 55-year-old Hefei
resident. Xu has recently joined an "intelligent exercise group"
with many of her middle-aged friends. Through these wearable devices,
exercise is no longer a lonely activity. Such devices help people form new social
circles and promote a healthy lifestyle.
Wearable devices are also fun in other ways. They enable sports
lovers to compare exercise results with celebrities on Weibo, gain discount
coupons through their running miles and even donate to charities based on the
number of steps they make. Analysts believe that a Chinese government drive
to develop the sports industry has created an unprecedented public enthusiasm
for sports, which in turn has led to consumer demand for wearable smart
devices. Huang claims that in the future wearable devices will have functions
in other fields such as medicine and health. "The devices may even do
electrocardiograms and record blood pressure, becoming family doctors one
day, even giving suggestions on exercising and making emergency calls to
doctors and family when necessary," Huang said.
From http://www.news.cn/ 08/19/2016
TOP↑
Smartphones Help Blind People See the World
It was a frustrating day for Sun Tao. He was having difficulty
using Alipay, an online payment system created by Chinese e-commerce giant
Alibaba. What should have been a straightforward task was proving difficult.
Most people with such difficulties, simply turn to
cash instead, but it was not so easy for Sun. He is blind and cannot even
tell the difference between denominations of bank notes. After upgrading the
Alipay app on his Android cellphone, he found the screen reader, software
that converts text into synthesized speech, was no longer available. Sun
called customer services, only to get a puzzled response. "Blind people
can use cellphones? Really? How?" Sun didn't take offence. By now he is
used to ignorance about blind people's way of life, not to mention ignorance
of his smartphone use. Smartphones have transformed Sun's way of life. China has
about 13 million visually impaired people, and about 6 million of them have
smartphones, according to the China Information Accessibility Product
Alliance (CAPA).
With the help of screen readers such as VoiceOver on iOS and
TalkBack on Android, they are able to chat with friends, order food and shop
online by listening rather than looking. Wearing sunglasses and waiting for
the 603 Bus in downtown Beijing,
Li Chongyang plays with his smartphone while he waits for the bus like
everybody else. Unlike everybody else, the 25-year-old has never had a chance
to see the world as he was born blind. However, unlike everybody else, he
knows exactly when the bus is coming, as an app tells him it will be exactly
five minutes. When it arrives, the app even sends him an alert telling him to
him to board. Without his smartphone, riding a bus or taking a cab is a near
impossible mission. "I don't know which car the taxi is. Sometimes they
pull over right in front of me, but I am still waving my hand. They think I
am a nutter," he said. "Since installing car-hailing apps like DiDi
on my phone, I can tell the driver where I am, what clothes I am wearing, and
the driver can help me get in the car." Li has installed 120 apps on his
phone. With a screen reader, he invests in stocks and shares, and tracks his
daily exercises to keep fit. "Smartphones have opened the gates of the
world to me," he said.
MORE ACCESSIBILITY
But the gates are not yet wide enough. Since his news app was
upgraded, Li can no longer "read" news articles, just as Sun
struggles with Alipay. Sun was not able to make an online payment for nearly
three months, but finally managed to contact Alipay's technology department.
The engineers said they had removed the screen reader for fear that hackers
would hijack it and get access to users' passwords and other information.
"I felt frustrated when I received Mr. Sun's complaint because I think
technology should remove barriers for the disabled rather than create new
ones," said Li Jiajia, senior technician for Ant Financial Service
Group, Alibaba's financial services platform, which owns Alipay. Alipay
formed an emergency response team to solve the problem. Later they also
invited Sun and two other visually impaired users to become beta testers for
the new version of the wallet on Android. Blind users of QQ, Tencent's
popular online instant messaging app, reported similar problems. "We
will never give up on our visually impaired users just because we fear a few
risks," said Xian Yecheng, general manager of Tencent's Instant
Messaging Product Department. The department spent six months improving their
defenses against the hacking of the screen reader.
Emojis were also unreadable to blind people when they were
chatting with others online. However, thanks to engineers' efforts, the
screen reader can now tell Sun, "your friend Ming sends you a
grin." The possibilities are endless. "Internet firms are always
surprised when they receive complaints from blind users. They don't know that
the blind also use the Internet. Nor do they know how to make their products
accessible to this group," said Liang Zhenyu, secretary of CAPA. CAPA
was co-established in 2013 by top Internet firms, such as Alibaba, Baidu,
Tencent and Microsoft, and China's
Information Accessibility Research Association, to call for more information
accessibility for the disabled. "What disabled people need most is to be
treated as equals," said Liang. "Information accessibility is
essential for them to fit in to society. Without access to information they
will be shut out." Sun is glad that he can pay for food and daily
necessities online again, while Li Chongyang is expecting a new pair of eyes
-- a new app Baidu app for the visually impaired, which can read almost any
object it scans with a camera. "I hope the app can tell me, 'a
30-year-old man is standing in front of you,' or 'this a 10 yuan note.' In
this way, the mobile Internet can really open my eyes and help me see the
world," he said.
From http://www.news.cn/ 08/21/2016
TOP↑
China's Courts in
Ethnic Minority Areas to Go Digital
The Supreme People's Court (SPC) on Wednesday pushed courts in
ethnic minority areas to make better use of well-established technology at a
seminar on improving legal services in ethnic minority areas. Remote video
hearings and circuit courts should make it easier for people in remote areas
to access the legal system. Information searches and copies of legal
documents should be available online in both Mandarin and in local languages.
The SPC also expects judges in these areas to be bilingual and to have adequate
training. The authorities will work to ensure that judges are bilingual and
competent. China
has 56 ethnic groups and citizens of all ethnic groups have the
constitutional right to use their own ethnic language in litigation.
From http://www.news.cn/
08/24/2016
TOP↑
JAPAN: Digital Health Care Services Just Around
Corner
Businesses small and large are looking to cash in on the
potential for smartphones and wearable devices as health care trends toward
the digital age. They are especially interested in preventive medicine, an
area that could ultimately help rapidly graying Japan slash its ballooning
medical costs, which topped ¥40 trillion in fiscal 2014. “Japan’s
medical spending is reaching its limit … if there are things that can be
streamlined, we need to do it. I think digital health care services can spark
such efforts,” Masato Iwasaki, a director at Takeda Pharmaceutical Co., said
at a recent event for health care startups hosted with Daiichi Sankyo and
DeNA Co. But the harsh environment for startups in Japan is making it difficult to
find a viable business model, let alone cultivate a new tech-based market,
industry insiders say. “Preventive medicine is really a challenging field”
for turning a profit, Yota Yamada, CEO of Tokyo-based startup iCare Co., acknowledged.
The philosophy at Yamada’s company is that practicing preventive
medicine, or committing to staying healthy, will help people detect diseases
earlier, he said. Information technology devices will play a significant role
in achieving that, he said. To increase public awareness of the benefits of
prevention, “it is essential to penetrate people’s daily lives. In that
sense, these digital devices come in very handy because people have their
smartphones with them all the time,” he said. ICare markets a digital
chat-based counseling service for company workers concerned about their
health. “The truth is that people don’t really care about being healthy,”
until they aren’t, Yamada said, explaining why hospitals make money. The
former doctor said many people don’t think twice about changing their eating
or lifestyle habits until they feel pain, by which time it may be too late.
Yamada’s service connects people with doctors and public health workers
through online chat, allowing people to more casually get information on
their conditions so they can take actions needed to stay healthy, he said.
The service primarily focuses on assessing people’s problems and providing
information, he said, adding that it hopes to offer remote medical
examinations in the future.
His startup is just one of several that believe digital health
care is the key to a healthier society. At the startup event on July 24 at
Shibuya’s landmark Hikarie
Building, 10 firms
including iCARE gave presentations on products and services mainly focusing
on preventive medicine. Officials attending from the major drugmakers said
they were increasingly warming to the potential for digital health care
services. While the goal of streamlining medical spending is good, Yamada
said that more advanced and costly medical equipment will continue to emerge
at the same time, pushing it up. But many others think spending on treatment,
especially for such lifestyle-related diseases as diabetes and obesity, can be reduced by digital products. Given the
time and money required to develop innovative products on their own, however,
some drugmakers think that teaming up with startups will be a more viable way
to get digital services off the ground. “To spread the use of digital health
care and digital solutions in Japan, we think it’s best to involve more
startups or people who have brilliant ideas, minds and technologies to launch
businesses,” said Katsuhiko Hiwatashi, director of the business innovation
group at Tokyo-based drugmaker MSD K.K., owned by U.S. drugmaking giant Merck
& Co.
But “the ecosystem in Japan today is very small and
immature.” This is why MSD teamed up with Tokyo-based Globis Capital Partners
to set up its Health Tech Program, a mentoring program for startups looking
to get into the health care business. As a drugmaker, MSD knows the issues
that need to be solved in the field, has an abundance of connections and is
familiar with the regulations, putting it in good position to give startups
with support and know-how. Globis can then advise them on how to grow and
find financing. “We need to start making an ecosystem to encourage more
companies to enter the business,” Hiwatashi said. Building on its core drugs
business, MSD wants to expand into a wider range of health care services,
represented by its new slogan “beyond the pill.” And as technology marches
on, other drugmakers are looking to do the same. Thanks to the internet,
information that was once restricted to doctors can now be accessed by
smartphones nearly anywhere at anytime. In addition, with wearable devices
logging people’s vitals on a daily basis, IT innovations are only going to
make it easier for people to check on their health by themselves, Hiwatashi
said.
From
http://www.japantimes.co.jp
08/07/2016
TOP↑
Govt to
Employ Advanced Satellites for High-Tech Farming
The government plans to introduce to Japan’s agricultural sector
information technology that utilizes the nation’s advanced positioning
satellites, known as quasi-zenith satellites (see below). The quasi-zenith
satellites are scheduled to begin full-scale operations in fiscal 2018. The
government intends to use the system to make practical such technologies as
self-driving tractors. The move aims to strengthen the competitiveness of
domestic agriculture in preparation for the possible implementation of the
Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) free trade pact. Cases are increasing in
which young farmers contract to undertake farming duties from elderly
farmers, or inherit entire plots of farmland from them. However, partly due
to labor shortages during the harvest season, there have also been cases in
which young farmers decline to undertake such farmwork. If tractors and other
farm machines are outfitted with self-driving technology, young farmers could
more easily complete agricultural work even with a small amount of manpower.
Such a scenario would encourage the integration of small plots of farmland
into larger ones, thus strengthening domestic agriculture.
Under the scheme, quasi-zenith satellites will send signals to
tractors and other farm machines to trigger them to carry out tilling,
seed-planting, the removal of weeds, harvesting and other tasks, all in
collaboration with a control system for managing driving routes and other
details. The self-driving machines could also be made to work around the
clock. To introduce the scheme, farmers will in principle need to furnish new
agricultural machines. However, farmers with the newest-model machines will
likely be able to install receivers on them capable of receiving signals from
the quasi-zenith satellites, making them capable of automated driving.
Positioning satellites are mainly based on the United States’ Global Positioning
System (GPS). But the system has a margin of error of about 10 meters in
terms of positioning information, making it somewhat inaccurate, especially
in the mountains and in urban areas with many high buildings. In comparison,
the quasi-zenith satellite system will likely have a margin of error of only
a few centimeters at all locations across the nation. Experts point out that
the small margin of error will lower the risk of self-driving machines going
off course and damaging crops. Since 2014, the government has been conducting
verification tests in Australia
in which quasi-zenith satellites communicate with self-driving tractors. The
tractors have succeeded in removing weeds around rice plants within a margin
of error of a few centimeters. The government plans to sell the information
technology systems that use quasi-zenith satellites to Australia and
other Asian countries, and also to strengthen the overseas growth of
industries related to outer space.
The plan to use quasi-zenith satellites to strengthen
information technology in the agricultural sector has been included in the
government’s economic stimulus measures, which the Cabinet approved on Aug.
2. The government will earmark related budgets in a draft of the fiscal 2016
second supplementary budget, which will emphasize economic stimulus measures.
The draft will be submitted to the extraordinary Diet session in autumn.
Japanese positioning satellites that fly over Japan,
other parts of Asia and the Oceania region.
The first of the satellites, Michibiki, was launched in 2010 mainly by the
Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). Three more quasi-zenith satellites
will be launched in 2017, with the aim of providing positioning information
around the clock starting in fiscal 2018. Dubbed “Japan’s version of GPS,” the
satellites are expected to facilitate self-driving cars, the collection of
disaster information and other technologies.
From
http://the-japan-news.com
08/19/2016
TOP↑
SOUTH KOREA: More Seniors Accessing Internet Through
Digital Gadgets
More people in the older generations are connecting to the
Internet through their smartphones and other digital gadgets, although their
use of applications was fewer in number and diversity than younger age
groups, a survey said Thursday. Nielsen KoreanClick, basing its findings on
mobile behavioral data from October 2014 to April 2016, said 77 percent of
South Koreans in their 50s-60s use the Internet through personal computers
and mobile phones. This is an increase from 53 percent in 2013. The jump in
Internet connections using smartphones more than tripled to 61 percent from
18 percent in 2013, and is higher than 55 percent for PCs, the survey said.
Accordingly, the age group accounted for 28 percent of the population that
uses mobile gadgets. When it came to using applications, however, the age
group fell behind their younger counterparts. The senior group had an average of 105 applications but were using
only 45 of them, while the younger group had 132 applications and used 65 of
them. The most widely-used app types among the elderly group were financial
services (35 percent), messengers (25 percent), lifestyle (19 percent) and
online commerce (17 percent). This compares with concentrated use of social
networking services, entertainment and multimedia applications by the younger
age groups.
From
http://www.koreaherald.com
05/26/2016
TOP↑
Gov't
Ministries Team Up to Develop Drones, Self-Driving Cars
South
Korea's ICT and transport
ministries agreed Thursday to step up cooperation in developing drones,
self-driving cars and smart cities. The Ministry of Science, ICT and Future
Planning and the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport are two key
government organizations in charge of exploring the nation's fresh growth
engines. Top ministry officials held a discussion session on Thursday and
attended a demonstration of drones at the Gwangnaru
Han River Park
in eastern Seoul.
ICT Minister Choi Yang-hee and Transport Minister Kang Ho-in test-flew drones
themselves. The largely symbolic event was a follow-up to the inter-agency
ministerial meeting in May on deregulation, in which President Park Geun-hye
stressed the need for easing regulations on drones, self-driving cars and
other technology-based future industries. South Korea aims to commercialize
autonomous vehicles by 2020. "In the policy consultation session, the
officials of the two ministries discussed ways for specific cooperation to
nurture new industries such as drones and self-driving cars," they said
in a joint press release. The two sides will strengthen partnerships on the
development of relevant technologies including the cooperative intelligent
transport system (C-ITS) and high-precision GPS. "We also agreed to
cooperate in the radio frequency field, which is crucial to promoting the
drone and autonomous car industries, and our smart city projects based on the
Internet of Things (IoT)," the ministries said.
From
http://www.koreaherald.com
06/09/2016
TOP↑
Korea to
Develop World’s First 3-D Map for Drones
The Korean government said on July 21 it will develop the
world’s first 3-D map exclusively dedicated to flying drones. According to
the Ministry of Land and Transportation, the programmed route will be helpful
for it to control safety of drones and prevent accidents as they are expected
to be widely adopted by diverse areas such as logistics, disaster relief and
agriculture in the coming years. The ministry said it will be coming up
with a new 3-D map for drones that better collects data on space and obstacle
in a specific area. Thus far, 2-D maps have been used for flying drones but
they have failed to effectively offer safer routes. Of the nation’s five
regions where the ministry is conducting diverse testing programs for drones,
Jeonju in South Jeolla Province
and Youngwol in Gangwon
Province have been
selected to test the mapping project. The ministry said the mapping project
would be helpful for Korea
to introduce commercial drones in downtown areas earlier than other advanced
countries.
From
http://www.koreaherald.com
07/22/2016
TOP↑
Gov’t to
Expand Telemedicine Services, Healthcare Insurance Benefits
Telemedicine services will be expanded for those who have less
access to medical services, such as seniors, people with disabilities,
serving members of the military or people who live in remote areas. The
Ministry of Health and Welfare has announced a telemedicine pilot project
that will start this October that aims to expand access to telemedicine
services. Under the plan, the ministry plans to raise the number of service
recipients, such as healthcare facilities for seniors, soldiers and crews on
board fishing vessels, and to provide telemedicine services to South Korean
citizens who live in three East Asian countries, including Vietnam.
According to the plan, the ministry will increase the number of senior
healthcare facilities that have access to telemedicine services to 450, from
the current number of six. The number of remote areas with access to
telemedicine services will be almost doubled to 20, from the current 11.
Telemedicine services will also be newly available at 63 army bases, up from
the existing 40 bases, and on board 14 fishing vessels, up from the current
six.
The health ministry said that telemedicine helps to improve patients’ access
to medical assistance and helps to remarkably enhance their health, as it is
medical services that can be offered whenever the patient needs, and that it
provides timely responses to various diseases. Since April last year, the
ministry has operated a test program in Incheon and in Cheongcheongnam-do
Province, chosen remote areas, at certain army bases and onboard chosen
fishing vessels. Earlier in June this year, the ministry submitted a revised
bill on medical law to the National Assembly that allows telemedicine
services between doctors and patients. Currently, doctors and nurses must
visit nursing homes or remote areas once or twice per month to check
in-person on the physical condition of the patient or to provide medical
treatment. If the bill passes the assembly, doctors will be able to use
telemedicine to provide medical care and prescriptions. Coverage from the
national healthcare insurance plan will also be expanded to cover pregnant
women, premature babies and patients who suffer from four major diseases.
Starting in October this year, the national healthcare insurance plan will be
applicable to ultrasonic tests, too.
In order to reduce peoples' medical costs and to expand the benefits of the
national healthcare insurance plan, the health ministry decided on Aug. 5 to
cover ultrasonic tests for free with healthcare insurance, and to lower other
selective medical treatment costs. Thanks to the decision, pregnant women can
now benefit from the national healthcare insurance plan for ultrasonic tests,
up to seven times during each pregnancy. In the past, if a pregnant woman
received an ultrasonic test seven times before giving birth, they had to pay
KRW 400,000 per scan, or more than KRW 1 million in total, because healthcare
insurance didn't cover the cost. The ministry’s decision will also apply to
ultrasonic tests for premature babies and for patients with one of four major
diseases: cancer, cardiovascular diseases, cerebrovascular diseases and rare,
incurable diseases. In the case of regular ultrasonic tests of the brain for
premature babies, the test used to cost from KRW 180,000 up to 250,000. However,
starting this October, it will be down to KRW 15,000 thanks to the ministry’s
new decision.
Regarding the four major diseases, the national healthcare insurance plan
used to only cover ultrasonic tests if they were needed for a diagnosis.
Thanks to this new decision, however, patients can now benefit from the
national insurance plan if they receive an ultrasonic test as part of a
biopsy or other medical treatment. If a patient receives a radiofrequency
thermal ablation, they used to have to pay an additional KRW 200,000 or
400,000 for the ultrasonic test, as part of the treatment. Starting this
October, however, the medical cost will be significantly reduced to KRW
12,000, thanks to the new healthcare insurance plan. Finally, the proportion
of selected medical treatments in every hospital will be lowered to 33
percent, from the current level of 67 percent, starting this September. In
order to reduce medical costs and to offer more choices for general doctors,
the health ministry decided to reduce the number of doctors who receive
selective medical costs to 4,453 from 8,453, in 367 hospitals across the
country.
From
http://www.korea.net
08/11/2016
TOP↑
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CAMBODIA: To Get Korean Smart Cities
Korea is lending
a helping hand to Cambodia
with its urban development initiatives to help develop a series of
"smart cities." On Aug. 16, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure
and Transport penned a memorandum of understanding with the Cambodian
Ministry of Land Management, Urban Planning and Construction. As its first
joint project, the two countries will join forces to turn Sihanoukville into
a "smart city," combined with state-of-the-art infrastructure --
water management, transportation and energy -- infrastructure that runs on
advanced information technology from Korea. Sihanoukville, 230
kilometers from the capital Phnom
Penh, is the country's one and only port city and
has a population of about 200,000. Efforts had already been made to make the
coastal city one of the country’s top resort spots, but current
infrastructure there still remains undeveloped.
“Seoul’s experiences in dealing with urban issues, such as water management,
with the help of ‘smart’ IT, will surely provide a solution to Cambodia as it
has to cope with unsustainable urban development at the port city,” said an
official from the Korean ministry. The MOU also focuses on joint efforts
between the two governments in the establishment of public housing across Cambodia, modeling Korea’s similar housing
institutions. Also, the “Research Into the Implementation of Models for
Public Housing Construction in Phnom Penh” joint project agreed upon in the
MOU will allow the two nations to investigate the current status of housing
across the capital, so as to put in place a system to secure, develop and
supply land for construction, as well as to determine land supply standards.
A pilot construction project will begin in the capital starting in August
next year.
From
http://www.korea.net
08/16/2016
TOP↑
SINGAPORE: Internet Cutoff (And the Resounding Silence
from the Industry)
THE Singapore
blogosphere went wild last week after the Straits Times reported on a
government memo announcing it was cutting off Internet access from all public
servants’ computers beginning in May next year, citing security and data
confidentiality concerns. The Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore
(IDA) released an infographic to defuse some of the more alarmist reactions,
but the question still remains: Is cutting off the Internet a feasible
measure in today’s hyper-connected world? In response to Digital News Asia
(DNA) queries, the IDA issued the statement below. “There will be a one-year
transition for public agencies to adjust to the new workflow and co-create
alternative solutions,” said its managing director Jacqueline Poh. “During
the transition, IDA will collaborate with various agencies to conduct
workshops, elicit feedback, and share work experiences with public officers.
“Besides the currently available collaboration tools and alternatives such as
Internet computers provided by agencies and WiFi, IDA will also assist
agencies to facilitate discussions on additional resources that are required
for public officers to continue to work productively,” she added. Still, the
move seems counterproductive to the island-republic’s Smart Nation
initiative, in which connectivity is key.
From
https://www.digitalnewsasia.com/ 06/16/2016
TOP↑
THAILAND: More Options for Traffic Fine Payments
Motorists given tickets by traffic police will be allowed to pay
fines using credit cards, electronic banking or at convenience stores. The
National Legislative Assembly (NLA) yesterday approved the measure in its
third reading with 179 votes to support the Land Traffic Act, which increases
the available methods to pay traffic fines. The NLA's special committee
presented the proposed legislation to make it more convenient for motorists
to pay fines by allowing payments using credit cards and electronic banking,
at department store counter services or at convenience stores, instead of
having to go to a police station. The venues where fines can be paid will charge
a fee of no more than 3 per pent of the total fine if paid by credit card. If
the fine is paid in cash, the fee must not be more than Bt20 per ticket. The
special committee recommended that all payment venues be allowed to take part
in providing the service to prevent a monopoly. The committee suggested that
the Royal Thai Police implement the law within 60 days after it is announced
in the Royal Gazette.
From
http://www.nationmultimedia.com/
06/10/2016
TOP↑
Thailand Gets Closer to 'Cashless Society' Goal
The Bank of Thailand’s deputy governor for Financial
Institutions Stability and high-ranking executives from 19 financial
institutions hold a press conference yesterday on the PromptPay service. The
Bank of Thailand’s deputy governor for Financial Institutions Stability and
high-ranking executives from 19 financial institutions hold a press
conference yesterday on the PromptPay service. PromptPay, the first stage of
the national e-payment scheme, will be ready on July 15. Fifteen Thai
commercial banks and four state-run banks will allow people to register with
the PromptPay service - the first stage of the government's national
e-payment policy - from July 15, although some banks will open for
pre-registration on July 1. Initiated by the Thai Bankers' Association and
the Bank of Thailand, PromptPay is the first stage of the government's
national e-payment policy, which aims to transform Thailand into a cashless society.
Normally, interbank money transfers attract a charge of Bt25 for a
transaction of up to Bt10,000, while the fee for
making a transfer of between Bt10,001 and Bt50,000 is Bt35. The 15 commercial
banks and four state-run banks will allow people to register with the PromptPay
service from July 15, although some banks will open for pre-registration on
July 1.
PromptPay requires transferees to link their mobile-phone number
or National ID number to their bank deposit account, said Tongurai Limpiti,
deputy governor for Financial Institutions Stability at the Bank of Thailand.
The new money-transfer system includes payments made to merchants, with
recipients able to provide a mobile-phone number or ID number instead of
their bank-account details. Under the first phase of PromptPay, transferors
will not need transferees' bank details to send money from October 31
onwards. While the fee for payments will be waived for transactions of up to
Bt5,000, there will be a charge of Bt2 for transactions of Bt5,001 to
Bt30,000, Bt5 for those between Bt30,001 and Bt100,000, and Bt10 for anything
above Bt100,000. PromptPay's fees will be applied for bill payment and
request-to-pay services under the second phase of the project, which will be
implemented in December, said Anuchit Anuchitanukul, adviser to the Finance
Ministry's National e-Payment project. Meanwhile, Thai Bankers' Association
members are willing to restructure their interbank money-transfer fees to
encourage Thais to switch to national e-payments and turn the country into a
cashless society, said Predee Daochai, chairman of the association.
The banks have agreed to maintain fees for all cash transactions
until the end of 2019, after which they will be increased in line with the
actual cost to encourage consumers to migrate from cash to cashless in order
to benefit from a lower fee, he said. Moreover, as PromptPay is not a mobile
application because it does not link to the Internet, the system will not be
open to cyber-hacking, Anuchit said. The association and its bank members
have jointly invested in laying the infrastructure for PromptPay, along with
commitments from all of them to reduce their fees. When customers see that
all players have cut their fees, they will begin to migrate to the new system
and the Kingdom will be on the road to a cashless society, he said. The banks
will probably also offer promotions and packages to add value to PromptPay if
they want to secure their customer base, as users can move their ID or
mobile-phone number to another bank's deposit account if they are unhappy
with their original provider, he added. PromptPay, as one of the keystones of
the National e-Payment project, will in the long run also help prevent
corruption because individuals carrying huge cash amounts for deposit or
payment purposes will be questioned about the source of the money, the
project adviser suggested.
From
http://www.nationmultimedia.com/
06/16/2016
TOP↑
Regulator Suggests Setting a Limit on Community-Based
Digital TV Stations
THE broadcasting industry probably only needs three or four new
digital-TV channels for community-based service Some of the regulations for
the sector should therefore be amended, said Natee Sukonrat, chairman of the
broadcasting committee of the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications
Commission (NBTC). He said that after the change in the media landscape due
to the fierce competition among digital-TV players, the regulator believed
that launching of all 12 planned digital channels for community-based service
could be an unhealthy prospect for most of them. At the practical level,
running a community-based digital-TV operation would seem to be more
difficult than commercial and public TV broadcasting, because of some of the
conditions and limitations imposed on community-based operators under the
current broadcasting regulations, he said. For example, they must secure
their own financial support to run a digital-TV station without being able to
seek commercial benefits, Natee said, adding: "This seems to be contrary
to the fact that they have to be safe and sound enough to serve local
people's needs." He raised the issue during a public forum to
commemorate the 61st anniversary of the establishment of television service
in the Kingdom, organised by the Public Relations Department.
Law amendment floated
"Three or four [community-based] stations should be
sufficient for this purpose. Therefore, amendment of the law should be
considered by the relevant authorities," he suggested. In addition,
under Article 49 of the Act on Organisation to Assign Radio Frequency and to
Regulate the Broadcasting and Telecommunications Services, the people sector
shall be permitted to use frequencies for public interest and non-profit for
community service in a proportion of not less than 20 per cent of frequencies
allocated in each licensing area. If his idea were to be adopted, this part
of the act would also need to be amended, he said. Asked about overall
progress on the transition to digital-TV broadcasting, the NBTC chief said he
believed that by next year, 40 per cent of the country's households would be
able to access free-to-air programmes via digital receivers, compared with 30
per cent now, after the roll-out of digital-TV transmitters in other parts of
the nation.
From
http://www.nationmultimedia.com/ 06/25/2016
TOP↑
Advertisers Must Know How People Use
Smartphones
AS CHAT applications still dominate smartphones, companies and
marketers should ensure the visibility of their brands, products and service
on those communication platforms, according to Nielsen Thailand.
“Nowadays, smartphone users spend more time on mobile Internet. Our
‘Informate Mobile Insight’ survey in the second quarter of this year found
that they spend more than four hours a day on the smartphone, up from 3.5
hours a day in the first quarter,” Yuwadee Aiamsontisup, director for
consumer insight at the market research giant, said yesterday. Based on a
digital survey of 705 users of Android smartphones across the country,
Nielsen aims to help advertisers, agencies, brands and related businesses
understand how consumers engage with their devices and the opportunities this
presents to mobile advertising.
In terms of mobile usage, communications - such as calling, chatting,
e-mailing and messaging - took the lead with 78 minutes a day, followed by
using other phone features and utility apps to improve their efficiency at 66
minutes a day. They spend 42
minutes a day on entertainment such as playing games and watching multimedia.
Other mobile uses were managing devices and browsing for
information. When it came to the
daily peak period of smartphone engagement, chatting was heaviest from 9-11am
and 6-9pm. Social media peaked at noon and again at 8-9pm. "We believe that that the peak
hours both for mobile chatting and social networking might be related to the
working hours of the respondents. This insight could help guide advertisers
and brands to plan a successful media-buying strategy," she said. Line was the most used app on
smartphones at 60 minutes per day, followed by Facebook, Google Chrome,
YouTube and Facebook Messenger. Data consumption via smartphones also
continues to grow via both Wi-Fi and cellular networks. In the second
quarter, data consumption surged 20 per cent to 689 megabytes a day from
575MB in the previous quarter. This would be the right time for
mobile-commerce businesses, particularly banking, financial services and
insurance, payment services and shopping, Yuwadee said.
From
http://www.nationmultimedia.com/
08/04/2016
TOP↑
Thailand Post Embraces Digital Age with New Services
THAILAND Post plans
to introduce four new services this year that support its move to achieve
postal excellence as a digital organisation, with a revenue goal of Bt24
billion and a net-profit target of Bt3 billion in 2016. Samorn
Terdthampiboon, president of Thailand Post, said the new services were Prompt
Post, Messenger Post, the THP card and cross-border
delivery services. Prompt Post is a pre-registration application in which
people use a ready-to-send box before accessing post offices nationwide.
Prompt Post also has a pre-load application that will allow customers to
pre-register from their homes, automated post machines and automated deposit
machines - the first of which will soon be located at Suvarnabhumi Airport.
Samorn said Prompt Post would slash queuing times. As part of the overhaul,
she said Thailand Post would also renovate more than 1,300 of its counters by
the end of this year. Messenger Post is an express delivery messenger and
pick-up service for delivery nationwide. The service will allow postmen to collect
products at homes and organisations. The THP card is an e-money service
applicable for Thailand Post products and service fees. The company plans
soon to develop the service into an e-wallet card for Thailand Post fee
payments.
The company will team with Cambodia Post to provide a
cross-broader delivery service for Cambodian customers who order products
from Big C stores online. "Thailand Post will keep developing services
to meet Thais' satisfaction," Samorn said. "Also, the comprehensive
delivery networking and standardised service will be maintained along with
human-resource development in order to satisfy all users and e-commerce
[demands]. Thailand Post aims to be the leader in postal and logistic
services in Asean in the near future." Satit Pittarat, chairman of
Thailand Post, said the Kingdom needed to adapt to the changing times by
improving all its systems including services, marketing, finance and
investment, human resources and management. He said the enhancement would be
developed under three concepts - standardisation, modernisation and
satisfaction - to respond to the government's "Thailand
4.0" initiative and be a platform for helping to drive the economy
through innovative services. Thailand Post has targeted revenue growth of
22.6 per cent to Bt24 billion this year with a net profit of Bt3 billion. In
the first quarter the company booked revenue of Bt12 billion and net profit
of Bt1.6 billion on the back of business generated by the Euro 2016 soccer
tournament. The company plans to spend around Bt500 million this year on
improving its information infrastructure and renovating its counters.
From
http://www.nationmultimedia.com/
08/19/2016
TOP↑
Thais
Spend 45 Hours Per Week on the Net: Study
A SURVEY conducted this year by the Electronic Transactions
Development Agency (ETDA) shows that Thais spend an average of 6.4 hours a
day or 45 hours per week on the Internet. Surangkana Wayuparb, CEO of ETDA,
explained that the agency conducted the survey between March and May this
year on 16,661 respondents. The study found that 57.3 per cent of local users
were women, 41.1 per cent men and 1.3 per cent of the third gender. About
54.5 per cent come under the Gen Y category, followed by 36.3 per cent Gen X,
8.5 per cent baby boomers and 0.8 per cent from the Gen Z. Gen Y people spend
the |longest on the Net at 53.2 hours per week, followed by the third gender,
who are logged on to the Net for an average of 48.9 hours a week. Up to 85.5
per cent of the respondents prefer to use their smart phone to access the
Net, followed by 62 per cent opting for their desktop computer, around 4.7
per cent using their notebooks, 30 per cent preferring their tablet and the
rest logging on via smart |TV. Smartphone users have been found to spend up
to 6.2 hours daily on the Net. Surangkana said that up to 64.5 per cent of
Internet users go online via their desktop computer between 8am and 4pm,
while 68.4 per cent smartphone users log on between 4pm and 8am.
Bangkokians have been found to spend up to 48 hours per week on
the Net, while people upcountry spend 44.6 hours per week. Of the Bangkok respondents,
29.3 per cent use the Net |while commuting, while only 10.3 per cent of
people living |upcountry log on while |travelling. Smartphone users have been found to
log on to the Net mostly to visit social networks at 86.3 per cent, YouTube
at 66.6 per cent, reading an e-book at 55.7 per cent, searching for information
at 54.7 per cent and conducting e-transactions at 45.9 per cent. Those who go
online via their desktop computers search for information at 57.6 per cent,
followed by e-mail at 56.9 per cent, YouTube 47.2 per cent, download software
at 45.6 per cent and e-book at 44.2 per cent. On the whole, around 97.3 per
cent use the Net to watch clips on YouTube, followed by Facebook at 94.8 per
cent and LINE at 94.6 per cent.
YouTube is the most popular, with up to 98.8 per cent of the Gen Y
accessing it, followed by 98.6 per cent from Gen Z. LINE appears to be the
most popular social media among 96.2 per cent of Gen X people and 91.5 per
cent of baby boomers. Surangkana said the survey that the greatest concern
among users is loss of connection and delay instead of privacy, threats and
financial fraud.
From
http://www.nationmultimedia.com/
08/25/2016
TOP↑
Emergency
Patients ‘Will Be Treated for Free at the Nearest Hospital’
NIEM secretary-general Anuchar Sethasathien said the institute
would outline criteria to protect the rights of emergency and trauma patients
and set up an Emco Service Centre to offer 24-hour consultant services. He
said state agencies had met and mapped out guidelines for hospitals to protect
the rights of emergency and trauma patients so that they would receive
medical treatment unconditionally without charge. He said emergency and
trauma patients must be able to access medical treatment from the closest
hospital regardless of whether it is a private hospital. Anuchar added that
the Emco Service Centre could resolve issues if physicians diagnosed patients
differently or recommended different treatments. Hospitals that accept
emergency and trauma patients would receive compensation for the medical
treatment for the first 72 hours at rates stipulated by the NIEM. The three
national healthcare schemes - the National Health Security Fund, the Social
Security Fund and the Medical Benefits Fund - will all be required to pay the
compensation. "The patients will receive immediate treatment and if
disagreements in treatments arise, a meeting would be called to swiftly give
treatment. The patients will not be left unattended in the emergency room,''
he said. The pilot project will be evaluated after six months for possible
revision. The proposal will be forwarded to the three healthcare funds for
consideration before the NIEM seeks Cabinet approval. He said the proposal
was expected to be implemented by December. He said emergency and trauma
patients were defined as those who are unconscious, have stopped breathing,
experience irregular breathing, angina or weak limbs, or are having
difficulty speaking. A hotline has been set up for emergency patients at
1669.
From
http://www.nationmultimedia.com/
08/29/2016
TOP↑
VIETNAM: Improved Healthcare Services to Better
Satisfy Patients, Health Minister
Health Minister Nguyễn Thị Kim Tiến yesterday said that any
healthcare provider would be rejected from their work if they broke the code
of ethnics and damaged the image of Vietnamese doctors. The healthcare sector
is determined to improve service delivery quality and attitude to patients in
order to better satisfy patients and service users. From the middle of last
year, the Health Ministry launched a programme on improving healthcare
providers’ manners and attitude to better serve patients. Minister Tiến spoke
via an online meeting yesterday with health officials across the country, commenting
that patients’ satisfaction of healthcare services was a top goal for the
healthcare sector. According to reports released at the meeting yesterday,
five healthcare providers were fired, seven people were dismissed from their
duties, 50 people were assigned to other positions and more than 15,800
people were disciplined as they were found to have committed wrongdoings
against patients. The Health Ministry’s hotline – 19009095 – received over
4,000 calls in the last six months, about 40 per cent of which were patient
complaints on hospital infrastructure and poor facilities, 28 per cent
related to professional procedures and 14 per cent related to healthcare
providers’ attitude and performance. Hospitals and healthcare centres must
pay attention to both medical services and non-medical services like parking,
security, canteens and transportation in hospitals, Tiến said. She asked
hospital managers to review the operation of such services, particularly
those provided by companies which are not under the management of hospitals.
“Hospitals must ensure transparent biddings to select providers of such
hospital logistic services,” she said.
From
http://vietnamnews.vn/
07/20/2016
TOP↑
Website
Connects Farming Sector
The e-commerce website muahangviet.com.vn, which specialises in
selling clean and safe farm produce, debuted yesterday (July 19) in HCM City.
The launch of the portal was part of the project Buying Vietnamese Goods
initiated by Thanh Niên Newspaper Joint-Stock Company, which targets farmers,
enterprises and consumers. In the initial phase, muahangviet.com.vn will
supply more than 50 farm produce divided into two segments – safe products
and organic products having certificates of international safe food
authorities. Products will include organic rice, fruits and vegetables
produced by farms in Đà Lạt and Cần
Thơ. To be able to join the project, suppliers must apply Good Agricultural
Practices such as VietGap/GlobalGap in their farming, said Nguyễn Phương
Linh, the project director. All of the products have to pass strict testing
steps, including testing at farms in cooperation with local Plant Protection
Departments and the Đà Lạt
Nuclear Research Institute that will test heavy metals, plant protection
residue and others before harvest. Testing will also be done at distributors’
sites with nitrate-measuring devices and post-testing conducted by
independent laboratories. “Selling fruits and vegetables with clear origin
and safety is a top commitment to our consumers,” she said. After receiving
orders, products will be harvested and delivered to customers within 24
hours. Đào Hồng Hạnh, deputy
general director of Thanh Niên Newspaper Joint Stock Company, said the model
helped reduce time needed for distribution of farm produce and ensure the
quality and safety of products. In the second phase of the project, expected
earlier next year, other Vietnamese products that meet export standards will
be supplied via the portal.
From
http://vietnamnews.vn/
07/20/2016
TOP↑
HÀ
Nội’s Health Department Launches Hotlines
The city’s Health Department launched three hotlines this
morning to receive feedback from people and organisations. Hotline 0439985765
will receive feedback about general health issues, 0437343622 will explain
administrative procedures in the department’s one-stop section and 0439902390
will accept feedback about the performance of the one-stop section. Director
of the Health Department Nguyễn Khắc Hiền said the department expected to get
feedback via the hotlines so that they could improve their performance,
offering friendly services to users and for the benefit of the people. The
department plans to offer online public services of level three in the next
few months, in which administrative procedures can be publicised, and forms
submitted, received and processed online. With online public services of
level four, fees for services can be paid online. In the first half of this
year, the city’s health department granted more than 19,000 medical practice
licences and almost 3,000 business licences to private healthcare providers.
The department also granted more than 7,000 licences for pharmacy practice
and 6,400 business licences to drug stores.
From
http://vietnamnews.vn/
07/22/2016
TOP↑
City
to Use High-Tech Method to Trace Pork Origins
HCM City plans to launch a
pilot programme on using technology to control and trace the origin of pork
in an effort to ensure consumer health and benefits. The programme will help
pig breeders build brands and improve competitiveness, as well as provide
better oversight over hygiene and food safety, according to the city
Department of Industry and Trade (DoIT). It is part of the city’s pilot
project on creating safe food markets in the 2016-20 period implemented by
the DoIT, with technologies used to trace pork origin developed by the HCM City
High Technology Association. Under the programme, pigs at breeding farms will
wear two leg rings with an electronic stamp, which will record information
about feed and vaccinations and other data. This will aid in individual
identification of pigs as well. Before slaughtering, quarantine staff will
check and grant electronic quarantine certificates for pigs that meet hygiene
and food safety standards. When pork is transported to markets, market
management boards and quarantine staff will use specialised machines to check
the pork origins and allow the meat with clear origin to enter markets.
Traders at traditional markets who take part in distribution of
meat under the project will be provided with an “electronic stamp"
(integrated with the stamp attached on leg rings) to put on pork products. Đào Hà Trung, chairman of the HCM City High
Technology Association, said consumers could check product information with
their smartphones and scan the stamp, or use devices set up at markets. They
could also access the programme’s portal at www.te-food.com. “Consumers can check the
product origin anytime and anywhere. The information will be automatically
transferred to relevant agencies for easy inspection and control,” he said.
Trần Vĩnh Tuyến, deputy chairman of the HCM City People’s Committee, said
this was one of several important measures to reduce the amount of unsafe
meat as well as create conditions for consumers to use more safe products.
Initially, the programme will be carried out on a trial basis at 12
slaughterhouses; Hóc Môn and Bình Điền
wholesales markets; Bến Thành, Hòa Bình, Bàu Cát, Thái Bình and An Đông markets; and Co.opmart, Co.opFood,
Satramart, Satrafood, Vissan and Sagrifood stores. The department has worked
with provinces that supply meat to the city market, as well as
slaughterhouses. It will work with traders to disseminate the programme and
mobilise more participants to expand the scale of the programme.
Huỳnh Tấn Phát, deputy head of the HCM City Animal Health
Department, supports the programme but said agencies should pay more
attention to the practical situation of food trading and adopt proper
technical solutions. The city consumes 10,000-10,500 pigs per day, but
supplies meet only 18-20 per cent of demand. The rest is supplied by other
provinces, including Đồng Nai,
Bình Dương, Long An, Bến Tre, Bà Rịa-Vũng Tàu and Bình Thuận. About
7,300-7,500 pigs are slaughtered at slaughterhouses in the city each night,
and the rest in other provinces. They are then transported to Bình Điền Wholesales Market. To ensure the
efficiency of the programme, provinces supplying pork to the city should
offer their consent. At wholesales markets, in addition to selling half sides
of pork (that still have an ID ring), traders also sell pork cuts
(tenderloin, ribs and others) that are hard to manage since the ID sign no
longer exists. Văn Đức Mười, general director of Vissan, said the
implementation of the programme would help control the safety of meat
sources, but would only become feasible when it was implemented at most
breeding farms, slaughterhouses and retail places.
From
http://vietnamnews.vn/
07/29/2016
TOP↑
IT
Helps Healthcare Sector
At least 13,000 of a total of 14,000 medical clinics nationwide
have installed a healthcare insurance IT system since June. “The healthcare
insurance IT system has been very effective and created a breakthrough in
healthcare, insurance management and administrative reform,” Nguyễn Thị Minh,
general director of Việt Nam Healthcare Insurance, said. “It has also created
transparency and favourable conditions to ensure rights for healthcare
insurance patients, and it has significantly saved expenditures,” she added.
Thanks to the system, unregulated expenditures can be detected, and patients’
waiting time has been reduced by half for check-ups and for making insurance
payments. Patients can also receive information about the costs of insurance
and their rights and benefits. In addition, when travelling to clinics,
patients now receive electronic waiting numbers. At the Central Endocrine
Hospital, checkups and
other procedures have gone smoothly since IT networks have been installed.
The software provides codes for each patient and all information
can be collected within minutes rather than hours. Also, patients do not need
to go to many places within the hospital to get testing results. In April,
the hospital connected its two facilities in one system. “In the future, the
hospital will provide electronic healthcare cards which can be integrated
with ATMs, allowing patients to pay all expenses with one click,” Dr Trần Ngọc
Lương, director of the hospital, said. At Ninh Bình’s Obstetrics and Pediatrics Hospital’s healthcare examining
department, about 300 – 400 patients are seen each day. In the past,
procedures took a long time, with all information written by hand. Doctors’
treatment decisions were made and then insurance information had to be
checked. Now everything is done on computers, and the time for check-ups has
been reduced. “In the past I had to wait at least one hour for a checkup and
one more hour for administrative procedures. Now I need to wait only 15
minutes for checkups and go through all procedures,” patient Nguyễn Thanh Hằng
said.
Doctors’ benefits
The head of the hospital’s examining department, Dr Đinh Thị Yến, confirmed that IT applications in
clinics had created favourable conditions not only for patients and their
relatives but also for doctors and medical staff. “When all information is
connected, we have more time to check for patients, and we can then give them
better advice and treatment. Our nurses have freed them from paperwork and
they can support us in guiding patients,” Đinh Thị Yến said. With the IT system, doctors can easily
recognise the name of drugs, the amount, and the names of pharmacists. “We
have used IT applications in management since 2006, and every year, we plan
to invest more and use new software to update our system,” Dr Phạm Văn Dậu, deputy director of the hospital, said.
The investments for the IT system follows the Ministry of Healthcare’s Plan
1418 on applying IT for healthcare insurance payments and an integrated
healthcare database. “IT applications for healthcare checkups and treatment
as well as insurance payments have helped the hospital reduce time for
paperwork, increase all resource management efficiency, limit losses of
hospital fees, provide financial transparency, and control drug usage at a
proper and safe level,” he added.
Dậu also said that IT applications still had a few problems,
including limited capacity of human resources for IT, different software
programmes at clinics, and an incomplete drug list suggested by the health
ministry. To promote IT application, many hospitals have spent funds to set
up electronic hospital systems. The Bạch Mai Hospital’s emergency department chose
to set up an electronic hospital system (e-Hospital). Under the system,
doctors in emergency departments can update testing results as well as image
analysis in the fastest way possible. With the e-Hospital system, patients at
the hospital have their own files provided within minutes. “With full electronic
information of each patient, doctors now have more information in the
database and more time to give better care,” a doctor at the hospital
said. During the first quarter of
the year, 70 million people took part in healthcare insurance and 44 million
people had health checkups, an increase of 5 per cent in comparison with the
same period last year. For the first three months, Việt Nam Social Insurance
paid nearly US$1 billion in healthcare benefits.
From
http://vietnamnews.vn/
08/24/2016
TOP↑
|
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INDIA: Delhi Govt’s App-based Bus Service Under
Probe by ACB
The app-based bus service of Delhi government has come under the scanner
before its launch with the Anti Corruption Branch (ACB) initiating a probe
into the service which was scheduled to start from June 1. This investigation
comes in the wake of a complaint that was filed over a notification that
said that the Lieutenant Governor has given his nod to start the app-based
bus service, whereas it is not the case. The LG had apparently turned down
the project as it was found to be benefiting a particular company. The
Lieutenant Governor’s office has called for an explanation from the Transport
Commissioner citing that under what authority the notification was
issued in the name of LG. As per the new policy, the bus aggregators
will determine the routes on which premium buses will ply from
time-to-time and specify such routes along with the time schedule of each
trip on its web-based application. As per security
compliance, the bus aggregators have to install two CCTV
cameras, wi-fi and GPS in each bus to be plied under the new service.
Keeping in mind the safety of women, they should also have a panic button on
the app. These allegations have been rubbished by the AAP
government.
From
http://egov.eletsonline.com 06/01/2016
TOP↑
India Likely to Generate 52 Lakh MT of E-Waste
MUMBAI: India,
the fifth largest producer of e-waste, is likely to generate 5.2 million
metric tonnes of electronic waste by 2020 from the current level of 1.8
million metric tonnes, according to a study. India's e-waste is
growing at 30 per cent per annum, an Assocham-cKinetics study said. The
global volume of e-waste generated is expected to reach 130 million tonnes
(MT) in 2018 from 93.5 MT in 2016 at a compound annual growth rate of 17.6
per cent from 2016 to 2018, it said. "As Indians become richer and spend
more on electronic items and appliances, computer
equipment accounts for almost 70 per cent of e-waste material followed
by telecommunication equipment (12 per cent), electrical equipment
(8per cent) and medical equipment (7 per cent)," the study
said. Other equipment, including household e-waste account for the remaining
4 per cent, it added. It noted that only 1.5 per cent of country's total
e-waste gets recycled due to poor infrastructure, legislation and framework.
"Over 95 per cent of e-waste generated is managed by the unorganised
sector and scrap dealers in this market," the study said. E-waste
typically includes discarded computer monitors, motherboards, cathode
ray tubes (CRT), printed circuit board (PCB), mobile
phones and chargers, compact discs, headphones, white goods such as
liquid crystal displays/plasma televisions, air conditioners, refrigerators
and so on. It observed that computers, televisions and mobile phones are most
dangerous because they have high levels of lead, mercury and cadmium and are
discarded more since they have short life-spans. The study revealed that the
main sources of electronic waste in India are the government, public
and private (industrial) sectors, which account for almost 75 per cent of
total waste generation.
The contribution of individual households is relatively small at about 16 per
cent, the rest being contributed by manufacturers. Though individual
households are not large contributors to waste generated by computers, they
consume large quantities of consumer durables and are, therefore, potential
creators of waste, it said. "E-waste accounts for approximately 40 per
cent of the lead and 70 per cent of heavy metals found in landfills. These
pollutants lead to ground water and air pollution and soil
acidification." High and prolonged exposure to these chemicals or
pollutants emitted during unsafe e-waste recycling leads to damage of nervous
systems, blood systems, kidneys and brain development, respiratory disorders,
skin disorders, lung cancer, bronchitis, heart, liver, and spleen damage, it
said. It noted that about two-thirds of e-waste workers in India are
suffering from respiratory ailments like breathing difficulties, irritation,
coughing and choking.
From
http://www.siliconindia.com
06/05/2016
TOP↑
Facebook Launches Suicide Prevention Tools in India
NEW DELHI: Social networking
giant Facebook has introduced tools and educational resources to
help people in India
who may be struggling with self-injury or experiencing suicidal thoughts.
These tools are already available in countries like the US, Australia,
New Zealand and the UK. First
launched in the US
with the help of Forefront, Lifeline and Save.Org, the tools were developed
in collaboration with mental health organisations and with inputs from people
who have personal experience with self-injury and suicide. "We are
rolling them out in India
in collaboration with local partners (AASRA and The Live Love Laugh
Foundation) in English and Hindi," Facebook said in a statement. With
the help of these new tools, if someone posts something on Facebook that
makes a user concerned about the person's well-being, they can reach out to
the person directly and can also report the post to the US-based firm.
"We have teams working around the world, 24/7, who review reports that
come in. They prioritise the most serious reports like self-injury and send
help and resources to those in distress," it said. Vulnerable users will
then be encouraged to connect to the AASRA India helpline or the Live Love
Laugh Foundation or a friend or seek self-help advice from resources and tips
provided on how they can work through these feelings.
Facebook has also introduced 'Help a Friend in Need' guide to help people
identify when someone is distressed and what steps to take to get help. The
guide also offers suggestions on how to approach their friend, what to say,
how to react and what to avoid. It gives people the skills to reach out
without fear of making the situation worse. The guide will be available in
English, Hindi, Bengali, Kannada, Malayalam, Punjabi, Sinhalese, Tamil,
Telugu, Urdu and Marathi. "Often, friends and family who are the
observers in these types of situations don't know what to do. They are
concerned, but they are worried about saying the wrong thing or somehow
making it worse. "Socially, mental illness and thoughts about suicide
are just not something we talk about," Facebook India, South
and Central Asia Public Policy Director Ankhi Das said. Facebook is a place
where people connect and share, and one of the things the company has learnt
from the mental health partners and academics is that being connected is a
protective factor in suicide prevention, she added. "We care deeply
about the safety and well-being of the 148 million people in India who use
Facebook to connect with the people who matter to them and recognise there is
an opportunity with these tools and resources to connect someone who is struggling
with a person they already have a relationship with," she said.
From
http://news.siliconindia.com 06/16/2016
TOP↑
India's Biggest Data Centre
to Come Up in Hyderabad
India's biggest data centre
will come up in Hyderabad,
Telangana Information Technology Minister K. T. Rama Rao announced
on Wednesday. He told reporters that the state government is trying to find
an anchor for the data centre campus. The state will also unveil in next
three months four supportive sectoral policies - cyber security, data
analytics, data centre and open data. KTR, as the minister is popularly
known, said the centre was planned in view of the global trend of countries
keeping data generated in their respective territories with themselves. The
minister said he already held talks with few companies in the US. A meeting
will be held soon in Delhi.
"We are hopeful of finding an anchor soon," he added. He said if
the data centre comes up, vertical and horizontal integration will throw up
many opportunities. "The centre will require hardware manufacturing like
servers. It will also contribute to sectors cyber security and data
analytics," he said. KTR also announced that VLSI design centre would
also be set up in Hyderabad this
year. This will be first such facility in the country. AMD has agreed to be a
partner in VLSI design centre. He said they were holding talks with various
companies. All major companies are expected to be part of this unique centre.
From
http://news.siliconindia.com 06/16/2016
TOP↑
Paying Utility Bills
Becomes Easy for Rural Population
Now the rural population in India can ease their way of
living by being able to pay their bills such as electricity, water and
telephone at common service centers (CSC) through debit or credit cards and
in cash as well. The will be possible with the Reserve Bank of India granting
Bharat Bill Payment Operating Unit (BBPOU) licence to CSC e-Governance
Services India, which manages around 1.66 lakh common service centres across
the country. The CSCs have been opened in villages for the delivery of
various electronic services like online ticket booking, Aadhaar enrolment,
etc. Through Bharat Bill Payment Operating Units, bill payments can be
made online and through a network of agents on the ground well.
One can also use prepaid payment instruments including wallets, and other
electronic payment options such as net banking, IMPS, etc. The service can
also helpful in collection of university fee, mutual funds and insurance
premium, thus also acting as a payment gateway.
From
http://egov.eletsonline.com/ 06/19/2016
TOP↑
New Digital Literacy Mission Soon for 60mn in Rural India
NEW DELHI: India will soon launch a Rs 1,800 crore ($265 million) Digital Literacy Mission
for 60 million people in rural areas as another initiative to bridge the gulf
between those who have access to and can use computers and the Internet and
those who don't, a top official has said. "The government will spend Rs
300 each on training 60 million people, which would
total around Rs 1,800 crore," said Dinesh Kumar Tyagi, chief executive
officer, of CSC e-Governance Service India,
a holding company to fund and monitor India's common services centres
scheme. "These 60 million people form almost 40 per cent of our rural
population. The government target is to make each of these 60 million rural
people digitally literate in three years. An approval from the cabinet is
expected by end-July," Tyagi told IANS in an interview. CSC e-Governance
Service India
has been promoted by the Department of Electronics and Information Technology
to also implement the National Digital Literacy Mission that is tasked with
IT training for 52.5 million people -- or one person in every family.
The National Sample Survey Organisation found in 2014 that 94 per
cent people in rural India
do not own a computer. Accordingly, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had
proposed steps to address the issue once again during his budget speech in
February. "We need to derive greater benefit from our demographic
advantage. We need to spread digital literacy in rural India. Out of
168 million rural households, as many as 120 million households do not have
computers and are unlikely to have digitally literate persons," Jaitley
had said. "We now plan to launch a new Digital Literacy Mission Scheme
for rural India
to cover around 60 million additional households within the next three
years," the finance minister had said. Tyagi said that the new scheme
will be separate from the National Digital Literacy Mission towards which the
CSC e-Governance Service India
has already trained three million people across the country till date. "This
year, with the help of village level entrepreneurs, another 2.25 million
people will get training. These common services centres are delivering
government-to-citizen and business-to-citizen services to the semi-urban and
rural people," he said. A key component of the Digital India initiative,
common services centres are access points for the delivery of various
electronic services to villages, thereby contributing to a digitally and
financially inclusive society.
"The objective of these centres is to provide
non-discriminatory access to e-services for rural citizens, utilising the
backend infrastructure already created in terms of other mission mode projects,"
Tyagi said. "Till June, we have already set up 170,000 centres across
the country. The target is to reach out to 250,000 gram panchayats by the end
of this year," Tyagi said. "Every gram panchayat gets one
centre." He said the reach of the Digital India mission has seen 30,000
banking correspondents working under the business-to-citizens initiative,
going a long way in facilitating financial inclusion. "In fact they have
also collected Rs 200 crore worth of insurance premia so far." This
apart, these centres generated over a tenth of the one billion Aadhar
enrollments. Explaining some other projects, Tyagi said some centres are
already providing tele-medicines. "In about a month's time we are
thinking of digital ayurvedic and homeopathic treatments wherever there is
demand. It is better than going to quacks."
From
http://www.siliconindia.com 06/26/2016
TOP↑
Delhi Govt’s App-based Bus Service Under Probe by ACB
The app-based bus service of Delhi government has come under the scanner
before its launch with the Anti Corruption Branch (ACB) initiating a probe
into the service which was scheduled to start from June 1. This investigation
comes in the wake of a complaint that was filed over a notification that
said that the Lieutenant Governor has given his nod to start the app-based
bus service, whereas it is not the case. The LG had apparently turned down
the project as it was found to be benefiting a particular company. The
Lieutenant Governor’s office has called for an explanation from the Transport
Commissioner citing that under what authority the notification was
issued in the name of LG. As per the new policy, the bus aggregators
will determine the routes on which premium buses will ply from
time-to-time and specify such routes along with the time schedule of each
trip on its web-based application. As per security
compliance, the bus aggregators have to install two CCTV
cameras, wi-fi and GPS in each bus to be plied under the new
service. Keeping in mind the safety of women, they should also have a panic
button on the app. These allegations have been rubbished by the AAP
government.
From
http://egov.eletsonline.com 07/11/2016
TOP↑
Smart Cities Are Also About Services,
Not Just Technology
The development of a smart city is an idea driven by many factors, not
just technology. The facilitation of good municipal services, including pedestrian-friendly
roads and affordable housing, also form a major part of it, says E
Ravendiran, Commissioner, Kalyan Dombivli Municipal Corporation (KDMC),
in an interview with Kartik Sharma & Poulami Chakraborty of Elets News
Network (ENN). According to him, a smart city should be self-sustainable and
improve the quality of life of its citizens. Excerpts: Being the KDMC Commissioner, how do you
visualise a “Smart KalyanDombivli”? My perception of a smart
KalyanDombivli is “an attitude of individual towards city.” Smart city is not
merely smart infrastructure but smart behaviour as well. It means ease of
living, ease of doing business, free mobility from home to stations, less
pollution, more greenery, 24×7 water supply, etc. There should be transformation
in the lives of citizens after implementation of smart city projects. In such
a city, citizens should get municipal services at his/her fingertips.
The city should also be pedestrian-friendly and pollution-free along with
public transport, e-parking, employability and affordable housing as its key
attributes. I can see these potentials in KDMC. The literacy rate of KDMC is
very high, almost close to 90 per cent and this will help KDMC to become
smart much faster than other cities. At last, a smart city also entails
transforming a dormitory city into a “self-sustaining” city.
Apart from central and state funds, how else would you procure funds
for raising the smart city?
Financial
planning is very crucial in urban planning. There are limited sources of revenue
as far as Municipal Corporation is concerned. Financial self-sustainability
can be achieved by managing revenue in a most efficient manner. Leasing of
Municipal properties which are lying idle will generate enormous
revenue. It is true that there is a mismatch between demand and supply of
various services; to provide effective services, the organisation needs an
investment in manpower and technology. To overcome the aforesaid problems,
involvement of private parties in the development process is important.
Leveraging their experience will help the Municipal Corporation to develop
the infrastructure in and around the city. The Municipal Corporation may
borrow a soft loan from HUDCO, MMRDA and other lending institutions. The
leading private banks are interested to lend money to the corporation in the
backdrop of the smart city project.
From
http://egov.eletsonline.com 07/24/2016
TOP↑
Over 7 Lakh
School Teachers Equipped with IT
Skills in India
Microsoft has so far equipped more than 7.7 lakh
government school teachers with IT skills across 12
states in India under
its Project Shiksha programme launched in 2003, the tech giant said
on Friday. The Microsoft India Citizenship Report 2015-16 highlights
the achievements of Microsoft's citizenship initiatives that include Project
Shiksha, Project Saksham, Project Jyotiand
YouthSpark programme. "Project Saksham has reached out to 81
state/central universities across 24 states training over 3,800 faculty
members, since its launch in 2011," the report said. Aimed at developing
skills among youth from under-privileged communities to drive employability
and entrepreneurship, Project Jyoti helped establish over 1,700 enterprises
run by youth in the country. "In 2015-16, over 30,000 young adults
received training, 70 per cent of who got gainful employment or are
self-employed and over 900 youth enterprises were established," the
report added. Microsoft is also running digital literacy initiatives under
the YouthSpark programme for marginalised communities, with a
special focus on girls and young women. The company also partnered with
several institutions of higher education in the country towards skilling
youth for employment. "Programmes like BizSpark, DreamSpark and Imagine
Cup have been immensely successful in driving entrepreneurship and innovation
among the youth," Microsoft said.
From
http://www.siliconindia.com 07/29/2016
TOP↑
192 More Villages in India Electrified Last Week
NEW DELHI: A
total of 192 villages in 10 states were electrified last week under the Deen
Dayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojna, the government said on Monday.
"Of the total electrified villages, 10 are in Assam, 123 in Meghalaya, 24 in Jharkhand, 15 in Odisha, seven in Rajasthan, five in Uttar
Pradesh, three in Nagaland, two each in Madhya Pradesh and Bihar, and one in
Uttarakhand," said a statement issued here by the Union Power Ministry.
A total of 9,326 villages across the country have been electrified till date,
it said. Of the remaining 9,126 villages, 5,860 are to be electrified through
grid, 2,645 through off-grid solutions necessitated by geographical barriers,
316 by the state governments, while 501 villages are uninhabited, the
statement added. At a power ministers' meeting held in Goa
in June, the central government and the states resolved to meet the target of
taking electricity to all villages by the end of 2016, ahead of the original
deadline of May 1, 2018. In this connection, at an event here last week,
Union Power Minister Piyush Goyal lauded the role of the Grameen Vidyut
Abhiyantas (rural electrical engineers) who have helped to expedite the
process of electrification.
From
http://www.siliconindia.com 08/01/2016
TOP↑
Agri App to Get Farmers Rented
Farm Equipments in Karnataka
Farmers in Karnataka will soon be able to rent farm equipment such
as tillers, harvesters and tractors with the help of Agri App which
will be launched by the state government keeping in mind the
e-governance agenda of the Centre. The functioning of the app will be similar
to that of an Ola or Uber, using which the equipments will be given for rent
on an hourly or daily basis. The idea is to deliver technology to the farmers
at their doorstep and also reduce the cost they bear. Apart from facilitating
door-step services to the farmers, the app will also benefit them by
providing the equipment at 20-25 per cent lesser cost in comparison to the
prices prevailing in the market. For example, a tractor which usually bears
an average rent of Rs 500 per hour, can be availed
at a cost of t Rs 300-350 once the app is launched. Keeping in mind the lack
of tech-knowledge of the farmers, the government may also launch a toll-free
number for facilitating similar services. The Karnataka Government has
roped in some of the leading tractor manufacturers to help farmers. It has
also tied up with a few non-profit entities to set up 175 custom hire service
centres, in each taluk of the state, where farm machinery will be available
on rent. These centres are expected to come up in the next three months.
From http://egov.eletsonline.com
08/07/2016
TOP↑
Embracing Cloud Can Help India Master
Digital Era
NEW DELHI: India is
poised to become the world's leading market for Cloud, and for US software
major Oracle, Cloud is a force-multiplier that the country must embrace to
leapfrog into the digital era, a top company executive has said. India is
uniquely positioned to benefit from Cloud-based solutions for three reasons.
First, there are more than 200 million connected mobile users -- with 100
million on social media -- in the country; this is an essential building
block for a shift to Cloud. "Secondly, the e-commerce willingness in
this market. Lastly, India has the largest IT service businesses in the world
across SIs (systems integrators) and they are now looking at adjacent revenue
streams like the Cloud to take cost out," Shailender Kumar, Managing
Director, Oracle India, told IANS. "The government's 'Digital India'
initiative can only be successful if Cloud plays a key role. This makes the
opportunity huge," Kumar added. Cloud computing accounted for about 33
percent of the total IT expenditure in 2015 across the world. In India, the
overall Cloud computing market reached $1.08 billion by the end of last year
and IT/ITeS, telecom, manufacturing and government sectors accounted for a
bulk of this. Among one of the first MNCs to invest in the country nearly 25
years back, Oracle is bullish on Cloud.
"We are witnessing a strong demand for our Cloud solutions here.
Oracle's Software as a Service (SaaS) business is witnessing the fastest
adoption rate with three segments that have the highest growth -- Human
Capital Management (HCM), Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and Customer
Experience led by marketing cloud, service cloud, etc. Platform as a Service
(Paas) and Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) are fast catching up,"
Kumar noted. In April, Oracle CEO Safra Catz announced $400 million of
investment in a technology hub Bengaluru, with the opening of the first
"Oracle Startup Cloud Accelerator" in India's
Silicon Valley. Several more such centres
are slated to be launched later in Chennai, Gurgaon, Hyderabad,
Mumbai, Noida, Pune, Thiruvananthapuram and Vijayawada. "Oracle is witnessing a
huge appetite for its SaaS, PaaS and IaaS offerings in India even
without a physical data centre here. Banks, telecom companies and government
agencies are working with us and owing to the strong security infrastructure
Oracle provides, we have been able to dispel security concerns," Kumar
told IANS. While there are a few regulated industries that require data
centres in India,
there are also customers who are more focused on choosing the right
applications and platforms as opposed to where the data centre lies.
To alleviate data security fears, the company recently announced
the "Oracle Cloud at Customer" solution. "The announcement
strengthens our play in the market because companies (including those bound
by regulatory pressures), can now leverage the Cloud and speed up their business
transformation with complete control over their data," Kumar said. "Oracle
Cloud at Customer" equips organisations to reap all of the benefits of
the Cloud -- agility, simplicity and subscription pricing -- at their data
centres and behind their firewall, providing access to the latest Cloud
innovations. "While there are concerns around data security in the
country, a lot of the technologists in the country are quite skilled and are
aware of what needs to be done. By following practices such as segregation of
duties, on-disk encryption, data redaction and robust identity management, India can
tackle security constraints," Kumar pointed out. The real security issue
is when customers take older products that were not built for the internet,
rack them and put them on the Internet. This makes those products vulnerable.
"But sometimes, security is also used as a reason to avoid change
because shifting to the Cloud involves change. Though worrying, companies
that adopt the Cloud can emerge as winners," Kumar added.
From
http://news.siliconindia.com 08/22/2016
TOP↑
UP Police to Increase Online Connect
with Public via Twitter in All Districts
Registering a complaint
with Uttar Pradesh Police is just a click away. One needs not to visit a
police station! In view of strengthening the police-public connect, the
Uttar Pradesh Police has decided to become active in microblogging site
Twitter to increase its social media footprint and to ramp up its engagement
with the public. Director General of Police (DGP) Javeed Ahmed has
issued an order making it mandatory for every district police department to
have a dedicated twitter handle to interact with people through digital
platform. DGP has directed the Superintendent of Police (SPs) of all 75
districts in the State to create accounts on microblogging site Twitter for
police units in each district in order to establish direct online contact
with the public. In a circular to all district police chiefs, range Deputy
Inspector Generals (DIGs) and zonal IGs, the DGP has directed SPs not only to
create Twitter handles with the name of particular district followed by
‘police’ to maintain uniformity, but also depute dedicated staff to check
messages and information addressed to the particular district police
department, initiate appropriate action and update complainants about it too.
He added that the SPs could also have individual accounts with their
designation mentioned in the handle. SPs, DIGs and IGs have been asked to get
Twitter configured in their official mobile phones, so they could take note
of the complaints forwarded by the DGP headquarters’s Twitter handle. The SPs
have also been directed to form a social media cell under their Public
Relations Officers, like the one established at DGP headquarters, in which
two employees will work in two shifts from 8 am to 10 pm. “When a complaint
about an incident is on twitter, police will not be able to say they were not
aware of it. It will ensure accountability at every
level,” DGP said, adding that a special cell had been set up at the
DGP headquarters to keep a tab on the manner in which twitter handles of
different districts were being handled. The officers have also been asked to
publicise good work in their districts on Twitter handles.
From http://egov.eletsonline.com 08/22/2016
TOP↑
MCI Undertakes Digitisation of Doctor’s Records
In a bid to take forward the implementation of Digital Mission
Mode Project (DMMP), it has been decided that some 45,000-odd allopathy
doctors practising in Telangana, including about 18,000 medical practitioners
in Hyderabad
will be provided with a unique identity card. The project undertaken by the
Medical Council of India (MCI), involves the creation of a unified database
of all doctors in India. The
governing body had issued a notice to all medical colleges to get
started with the process but the modalities of the same haven’t been
finalized yet. The digitisation programme will let the attendance of the
faculty of private medical colleges getting monitored through a Radio
Frequency Identification (RFID) card, thus help in detecting the practice of
ghost medical faculty. The colleges often adopt to
this practice to increase their seat intake. Besides this, the programme will
provide a channel to improve complaint and grievance redressal concerning
doctors, provide repository of their certificates and an online channel for
them to access all MCI’s services. The Union Health Ministry has sanctioned
Rs 45 crore towards implementation cost for the digitisation project.
From
http://egov.eletsonline.com 08/23/2016
TOP↑
PAKISTAN: WhatsApp, Viber and Skype - PTA May Regulate Mobile
Apps and OTT Services
Pakistan
Telecommunication Authority is considering regulating the mobile apps and
Over the Top (OTT) services such as WhatsApp, Viber and Skype, etc, official
sources told Business Recorder Monday. Sources said the
model for delivery of Internet-based VoIP and other OTT services is
fundamentally different from the earlier model in which services were
embedded in the network. Therefore, most regulatory regimes designed in
accordance with the earlier model are not satisfactory when applied in this
context. The proposed revision to the licensing framework will address this
issue in the long term. PTA is working on a framework through which it hopes
to be able to regulate mobile apps and OTT services. PTA has constituted a
committee which is working on the said framework to be shared with
stakeholders including telecom operators as soon as it is ready. The
committee was tasked to formulate recommendations through which OTT services,
mainly the mobile apps, will be brought under regulation in Pakistan. PTA
said that all efforts for getting a framework for regulating OTT are driven
by the Telecom Policy 2015 that the Ministry of Information Technology
approved and issued.
Telecom Policy 2015 said the framework will enable the government to make
sure that such mobile apps are in line with national interests and do not
hurt telecom sector's (operators) interests. Officials said there is an
immediate requirement to regulate services such as VoIP and other voice
services that are partial or full substitutes for the traditional Public
Switched Telephone Network, particularly when the services are provided by
unlicensed service providers either in Pakistan or in other countries.
PTA, in consultation with federal government and stakeholders, will develop
appropriate regulatory framework to treat VoIP and other OTT services. The
framework will take account of the possibility that service providers
offering such services may preferably install equipment in Pakistan where
possible, the rapidity of development of such services, the extensive range
of such services, the potential requirements for scarce resources (eg
numbers), requirements for access to emergency services, requirements for
lawful interception, cooperation with Law Enforcement Agencies, data
retention obligations on operators, impact on operator networks, and where
appropriate, the requirement for interconnection with the equivalent embedded
or OTT. Taking into account the globally emerging revenue sharing
arrangements between local licensees and OTT players, for offering better
than normal best-effort or differentiated version of the services, licensed
access providers will be free to enter into mutual agreements with the
service providers enabling them to monetize OTT service delivery on mutually
agreed terms. New regulatory framework may also incorporate revenue sharing
arrangements between local licensees (telcos for instance) and OTT players
(WhatsApp, Skype, Viber, etc), for offering differentiated version of the
services (free and paid) so that licensed businesses could enter into mutual
agreements with OTT service providers to monetize OTT service delivery on
mutually agreed terms. According to the sources, US and India also
framed such regulations and are in implementation phases.
http://www.brecorder.com 08/16/2016
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AZERBAIJAN: PCA System to Appear
Azerbaijan is
currently engaged in application of a system of Post Clearance Audit (PCA) at
the customs checkpoints. PCA stands for checks that are undertaken after the
clearance of the goods and is aimed at the verification of the accuracy and
authenticity of declarations through the examination of the relevant books,
records, business systems and commercial data held by persons concerned.
State Customs Committee head Aydin Aliyev, talking to the official press,
mentioned that PCA will be implemented in relation to the goods passing
through the ‘yellow’ and ‘blue’ corridors at the customs checkpoints. He
underlined that the system can also be used in relation to the goods passing
through the ‘green’ corridor. “PCA may be applied in relation to 10 percent
of the goods passing through the ‘green’ corridor in accordance with the
rules, while the figure amounts to 50 percent in relation to the goods
submitted to ‘yellow’ and ‘blue’ corridors,” Aliyev explained.
The head of
the committee mentioned that the introduction of four types of corridor at
the customs checkpoints is based on the world practice. “The system is widely
used in most of the countries. The ‘green’ corridor provides for the check of
all necessary documentation. The difference of the ‘blue’ corridor from the
‘green’ one is the implementation of post-customs audit. The ‘yellow’ one implements
partial customs control while the ‘red’ one stipulates a thorough
examination,” he added. The ‘green’ corridors are mainly introduced with a
view to ensure more rapid and transparent implementation of the customs
clearance of goods and means of transport to facilitate a number of
procedures. Aliyev went on to say that the Customs Committee works to combat
unauthorized use of the benefits offered by the state. He said that the
Committee has already submitted a proposal on the illegal use of customs
benefits by physical entities to the Cabinet of Ministers, mentioning that
the Cabinet will take a respective decision in a due course. Under the rules
in effect, each physical entity is eligible for the import of goods, which
are not envisaged for the commercial or manufacturing purposes with the total
cost amounting to $1,500. The head of committee also mentioned that the
exemption of freight vehicles from the highway-user tax will not influence
the amount of revenues to the state budget. He explained this with the low
number of annual multimodal transportation in Azerbaijan and poor revenues from
the taxation of this sphere in the previous years. “We expect that the
exemption from the highway-user tax will not influence the revenues to the
state budget and instead lead to the growth in cargo transportation. The main
objective of the decision is making the country more attractive for the
freight transportation,” he added. Under the recent amendments to the Tax
Code, load carriers and vehicles with trailer or semi-trailer registered in
the foreign countries are free of highway-user tax for the 3 year period.
From http://www.azernews.az/ 06/01/2016
TOP↑
Azercell
Expands 4G
Coverage
Aimed to provide its subscribers with the best quality and
user-friendly communication services, Azerbaijani leading mobile operator
Azercell Telecom is actively developing its 4G network in response to meet increasing demand for
high-speed mobile internet. The company has installed 177 new LTE stations in
Baku and
Absheron peninsula during the first five months in 2016. It is planned to
increase the number of 4G
base stations up to 220 by June. Currently, the number of 4G base stations has reached 480 in this area. As a result, the
level of 4G
coverage in Baku and Absheron, the area showing the highest demand for mobile
internet, has reached as much as 79 percent, allowing the subscribers access
to internet with speed up to 100Mb/s. Intending to expand 4G network in the regions in the
nearest future, Azercell has taken other important actions in order to make
fast mobile internet available and affordable for everyone. It goes without
saying that one must have a device which supports 4G in order to take the advantage of this
technology. Focused on increasing smartphone penetration in the local market,
Azercell has launched two discounted smartphone campaigns since the beginning
of this year.
The campaigns provided an opportunity for Azercell subscribers
to obtain Iphone S6 and Samsung S6 devices on favorable terms by subscribing
to tariff pack Hedsiz. The campaigns were welcomed by the subscribers with
great interest. Providing its customers with a range of favorable internet
packs, Azercell made a discount up to 55 percent to its mobile internet
tariffs in the past year. In addition, starting from May all Azercell
subscribers can obtain free sim cards that support 4G network by applying to any Azercell Customer
Service Centers
or Azercell Express offices. We would like to remind that Azercell owns the
first and the largest LTE (4G)
network in the country. According to the mobile network quality survey
conducted by Global Wireless Solutions on the initiative of the Ministry of
Communications and High Technologies of Azerbaijan Republic, Azercell’s
network demonstrated the best results among the mobile operators of the
country. In addition, according to the assessment of international companies
such as the "Opensignal" and "Testmy.net" specialized in
wireless coverage mapping and crowdsourcing data on radio signal quality from
users, Azercell provides the most reliable mobile network and the fastest
Mobile Internet in Azerbaijan.
Azercell Telecom LLC was founded in 1996 and since the first
years sustains a leading position in the market. Azercell introduced number
of technological innovations in Azerbaijan: GSM technology,
advance payment mobile services, M2M,MobilBank, GPRS/EDGE (mobile internet), 24/7 Customer
Care, full-time operating Azercell Express offices, mobile e-service “ASAN
imza” (ASAN signature) and others. With 48,2% share
of Azerbaijan’s
mobile market Azercell’s network covers 99,8% of the country’s population. In
2015, the number of Azercell’s subscribers reached 4,5
million people. In 2011 Azercell deployed 3G and in 2012 the fourth generation network – LTE
in Azerbaijan.
The Company is the leader of Azerbaijan’s
mobile communication industry and the biggest investor in the non-oil sector.
Azercell is a part of Telia Company Group of Companies serving 186 million
subscribers in 17 countries worldwide with 27,000 employees.
From http://www.azernews.az/ 06/17/2016
TOP↑
Azerbaijan Engaged in
Transition to Environmentally- Friendly Vehicles
Baku citizens
will be able to make use of electric busses soon. The first model of the bus
will be delivered to Baku
within 40-45 days, Day.az reported. Earlier, Khanlar Fatiyev, head of the
Ganja automobile plant production unit said that the memorandum on the
delivery of the bus was signed with the representatives of the German Eurabus
GmbH in Berlin.
The busses which will initially be subjected to the approbation process will
be tested in Baku, Sumgait and Ganja. Citizens of Sumgait and Ganja are
also expected to make use of the bus services in the nearest future.
Meanwhile, GreenCar electric vehicle sales and service center has recently
launched a large-scale ecologically innovative project with the assistance of
the country’s Automobile Federation and IDEA (International Dialogue for
Environmental Action). One of the main objectives of the project is to bring
the latest technological innovations to Azerbaijan. Electric vehicles
produced in different countries are being demonstrated at the center within
the project.
Azerbaijan possesses
favorable and necessary prerequisites for the development of the sphere of
alternative energy. Geographic location and climatic conditions of the
country allows power generation from the sun and wind. The sphere is developing
steadily in the country. The development of different means of energy
generation is becoming more and more relevant in most countries. Despite the
fact that energy resources such as oil and gas are considered to be one of
the crucial features for the economy and policy, majority of countries are
highly interested in alternative methods of energy acquisition as hydrocarbon
resources are exhaustible. Development and introduction of non-fuel
technologies are expected to lead to the formation of a new field in the
world market of energy resources as well as to the decrease of environmental
pollution. The technologies are successfully implemented in the sphere of
automobile production. Regardless the fact that electric cars has not yet
been widely introduced in the country the vehicles are used in Baku
boulevard, Icheri Sheher reserve and some other parts of the city. Electric
buses are powered solely by batteries. The vehicles are considered to be more
economic than a classic diesel busses and drive with zero emission.
From www.azernews.az
07/08/2016
TOP↑
Azercell Once Again Preserves its Leading
Position in Social Networks with 100% Response Rate
It is generally acknowledged that social networks have
penetrated to the lives of people utilizing a variety of products and
services so much that international practice shows that we have stepped into
a period of time when consumer needs are met through social media channels.
Azercell Telecom was the first mobile operator in Azerbaijan to discover the
opportunities in social networks and developed its official page on Facebook
in 2008, and a year later on Twitter. Starting from the launch of these
pages, Azercell considered social media platform not only as a means to
deliver information, but also as a means to communicate with customers and to
support them. Since its introduction to the social networks, Azercell began
to offer high quality customer services via social media along with
conventional service channels. Thus, a number of customers prefer Facebook or
Twitter pages to gain information about a service and product, or a minor
issue rather than customer services. Azercell’s active operation in social network,
particularly Facebook, which is still the most popular media, cannot be
underestimated. Inquiries addressed to Azercell’s official page on Facebook
during April-June of 2016 exceed the number of inquiries received by other
mobile operators. None of the inquiries were left unanswered. For its 100%
response rate, Azercell was again awarded with “Socially Devoted” certificate
by the international research agency of Socialbakers.
We are proud to state that apart from Facebook, Azercell
proceeds customer inquiries with a special care in all social networks and
provides high quality services to its customers on Twitter, Instagram,
Disput.az, Youtube, Google+. Azercell is the only
mobile operator in the country to have received “Socially Devoted” certificate
with 83% response rate on Twitter. In general, Azercell has received
certificates from this agency many times for the high quality level of
performance in social networks. On the whole, any customer of Azercell can be
sure that he or she will receive professional support to his or her inquiry
promptly in any social network. For more information, please contact
news@mcs.az. Azercell Telecom LLC was founded in 1996 and since the first
years sustains a leading position in the market. Azercell introduced number
of technological innovations in Azerbaijan: GSM technology,
advance payment mobile services, M2M,
MobilBank, GPRS/EDGE (mobile internet), 24/7 Customer Care, full-time
operating Azercell Express offices, mobile e-service “ASAN imza” (ASAN
signature) and others. With 48.2% share of Azerbaijan’s mobile market
Azercell’s network covers 99.8% of the country’s population. In 2015, the
number of Azercell’s subscribers reached 4.5 million people. In 2011 Azercell
deployed 3G and
in 2012 the fourth generation network – LTE in Azerbaijan. The company is the
leader of Azerbaijan’s
mobile communication industry and the biggest investor in the non-oil sector.
Azercell is a part of Telia Company Group of Companies serving 186 million
subscribers in 17 countries worldwide with 27,000 employees.
From http://en.trend.az/
08/04/2016
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AUSTRALIA: Next
Government Must Ensure Coding in Schools Is a Priority
Computer
programming in schools is a key national issue that needs to be addressed if
we have any hope of becoming a hub of innovation and technology. The
Australian Workforce Productivity Agency predicts that in 2025 there could be
an undersupply of qualifications for key ICT occupations, with employment projected
to grow between 64 and 72 per cent faster than overall employment growth, and
account for around 5 per cent of all employment in 2025. Australia is already lagging behind 12
European countries which have computer programing and coding as part of their
curriculum, including Singapore,
New Zealand and England.
Digital proficiency will soon be a foundation skill, as important as reading
and numeracy. It will increasingly be the determinant of job opportunity and
security.
Preparing
our children for the digital jobs of tomorrow
The
workplace of the future that current students will enter will include job
roles that don’t even exist yet. As technology enables new business models
that disrupt age-old industries, we need to prepare students to be ready to
face this new digital landscape. Automation technology extends across
business units and disciplines, a grounded understanding of the building
blocks of the Web – what we know as code – will be just as important as
literacy and numeracy standards. Knowledge of programming, paired with
computational thinking and an understanding of how computers and networks
operate will be a powerful combination of skills to equip Aussie kids with
the right tools needed to grasp the huge opportunities available in the digital
age.
Teachers
must be at the heart of new coding initiatives
If coding is
going to be successfully integrated into the primary curriculum, it has to be
taught, in the main, by generalist teachers who don't have degrees or any
background in Computer Science. Coding doesn’t have to be taught solely on a
computer - computational thinking, problem solving and designing algorithms
are basic elements that can be taught by general teachers. One successful
initiative from the U.K.
is ‘unplugged’ lessons. Children use skipping ropes to make a grid on the
floor of their basketball and are told to place photos of landmarks from
their suburb in some of the spaces. They then draw arrows on each space to
design a step by step route to solve a problem such as getting to the
supermarket, via the primary school, from a start position. What they're
effectively doing is designing an algorithm.
Get with the
program
Australian
business leaders, industry, demographers and the Chief Scientist are urging
for speedy action to prepare for this future demand. Central to this, is to
improve digital literacy in schools, and embed coding in the Australian
Curriculum from primary school. The Australian Computer Society clearly
identifies the challenge; in ten years’ computer programming will be the most
common language in the world. Whoever is the next government must ensure
every young Australian can read and write the global language of the digital
age through coding in schools initiatives and investing in teacher’s
training.
From http://www.computerworld.com.au 07/13/2016
TOP↑
NEW ZEALAND: Telco
Report Highlights Growth of Mobile
and Video Streaming Services
The Commerce
Commission has released its latest annual telecommunications monitoring
report analysing the state of New
Zealand’s telecommunications markets.
Telecommunications Commissioner Dr Stephen Gale says the industry continues
to change rapidly, with data consumption accelerating and mobile calling set
to overtake that on fixed lines. “New Zealand is well served, when
we compare ourselves internationally, with regard to the ability for people
to participate in the digital world - that is, to access government services,
internet banking, news and social networking,” he says. “The World Internet
Project reports 91 percent of New Zealanders consider themselves active
internet users. “Our cheapest broadband services, at $75 per month, are five
percent below OECD averages and fixed wireless broadband is available at $55
per month in 4G
areas. We are also world leaders in affordable, low-user pay-as-you-go mobile
plans. Contributing to economic growth, we now have numerous retail service
providers marketing ultra-fast broadband on fibre. The prices for our
higher-speed higher-data fibre services are close to OECD averages and well
below those in Australia.”
As of 31
March 2016, ultra-fast fibre was available to 922,000 premises with 197,000
connected while in the copper broadband retail market, prices are more
dispersed. Wholesale broadband prices are $4 less now than 18 months ago, but
the most popular voice and broadband retail bundles are generally more
expensive than at that time, albeit with higher data caps. “The trend,
globally and in New
Zealand, has been for consumers to get
increasingly more data for their dollar whether via mobile or broadband
plans,” Dr Gale adds. “We wouldn’t have expected copper broadband retail
bundles to be more expensive now than they were in 2014, given the drop in
wholesale costs. We are keen to better understand the drivers behind this
price rise and will keep an eye on competition in this particular market. It
will pay for consumers to shop around.”
According to
Dr Gale, new paid video streaming services took off in popularity from March
2015, with various retailers and Chorus reporting significant increases in
data traffic to these sites. “The increased traffic noticeably slowed some broadband
services at peak times, which led to extra investment in capacity to resolve
the issue,” Dr Gale adds. In New
Zealand, mobile pricing also continues to
be competitive. For example, a bundle with unlimited calls and 2GB of data
could be purchased in February 2016 for $59 per month, compared to $69 in August 2014 while the average
broadband data consumed per connection jumped 50 percent in 2015, from 32GB
per month to 48GB. In addition, mobile data use increased 70 percent to reach
390MB per month over the same period with industry investment up to a new
record of $1.77 billion in 2015. Going forward, Dr Gale says
,obile revenue is set to exceed fixed line this year, increasing to
$2.54 billion and dropping to $2.57 billion respectively in 2015. Meanwhile,
total telecommunications retail revenue reduced for the third consecutive
year to $5.11 billion in 2015, down from $5.17 billion the previous year.
From http://www.computerworld.co.nz 05/30/2016
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Going
Digital… The Quiet Revolution in the Kiwi Classroom
Imagine
classes of keen and engaged students who are learning at twice the average
rate of their peers. This is the Manaiakalani group, a cluster of 13 decile
one primary and secondary schools in the Auckland suburbs of Glen Innes, Panmure and
Point England who are doing almost all their class work on digital devices.
The idea is to give all students equal access to information regardless of
their socio-economic background, raise their expectations of success and
prepare them for a digital future. Every student from Year 5 onwards at a
Manaiakalani school gets a ChromeBook to do their work on, with the teacher
running the class from a central control panel. And new this year, Google
Class on Air sees five teachers being filmed teaching a digital class which
then gets put up online, alongside their lesson plans and students’ work.
With so much on the net, parents can see what their children are learning and
teachers can learn from each other, says Dr Rebecca Jesson, a senior lecturer
in the School of Curriculum and Pedagogy in the Faculty of Education
and Social Work at the University
of Auckland. Based at
the University’s Woolf Fisher Research Centre, Dr Jesson and her team have
been both evaluating the programme and running the Manaiakalani Digital
Teaching Academy, where first year teachers and their mentors upskill on
digital teaching techniques. Dr Jesson is excited about the students’
improved results since the programme’s introduction in 2010.
“It’s about
acknowledging that these kids are living in a digital world, most of them
were born since the invention of Facebook, so let’s make these tools [that
they like and use anyway] smart and make them work for them,” Dr Jesson says.
Dr Jesson and her team are evaluating the roll-out of the programme to five
more groups of low decile schools in New
Zealand including Kaikohe in Northland, Papakura and Mt
Roskill in Auckland, Hornby in Christchurch and the West Coast of the South
Island - it will involve almost 11,000 students. Manaiakalani
schools have partnered with the University
of Auckland, the
Manaiakalani Education Trust, the Next and Spark foundations, Google and many
others to drive and fund the project.
From http://www.computerworld.co.nz
06/13/2016
TOP↑
Rural
Broadband Needs to Change
Laura Morris
is a copywriter from Morris & Smith. She gained a bit of attention for
her open letter to Fonterra which did the rounds on Facebook a while back.
Laura caught up with The Country Early Edition's Dom George to talk about
poor internet connections and how it affects the rural community. Morris
recounts one of her own horror stories of how a shoddy internet connection
has completely hampered her small business. It also limits rural school
children who have no access to internet technology like their urban counterparts.
Rural people are told that there are options to get around the problem but
these solutions are often not practical. Going to a bank or a café and using
their free hotspots is a poor substitute when you're paying top dollar for
broadband at home. Morris is appalled by the price difference for rural
broadband. Urban dwellers pay far less and have much stronger connections.
Something needs to change and soon. Perhaps the most worrying aspect of the
whole situation is that bad phone and internet connections are putting rural
people's lives at risk.
From http://www.nzherald.co.nz
07/28/2016
TOP↑
Mobile
Broadband Growing in New
Zealand
New Zealand is one of
nine countries in the OECD where there are more mobile connections than
people, and connections that access only data are growing. In December 2015 New Zealand
had 118 mobile broadband connections per 100 people, according to research by
the OECD released today. Wireless mobile broadband subscriptions are defined
by the OECD as mobile plans with data speeds of 256 kbit/s
or greater. The OECD only records plans that have been used to connect to the
internet in the previous three months. The December 2015 record comes after
94.6 connections per 100 people were recorded in December 2014. New Zealand
joins eight other OECD countries that have previously had penetration above
100 per cent. The total 4.99 million mobile broadband connections were made
up 28.4 per cent by data and and voice plans, and 79.6 per cent data-only
subscriptions. Japan has
overtaken Finland as
mobile broadband leader, with a penetration rate of 138.8 per cent versus
135.4 per cent in Finland.
From http://www.nzherald.co.nz
08/03/2016
TOP↑
VANUATU: Village
Taking Full Advantage of New Internet Service
Sharks, apples, football results and YouTube are
popular searches for the Vanuatu Lambubu community using its first internet
connection. A pilot programme by the satellite operator Kacific and the Vanuatu government set up the free service at Lambubu Primary School
on Malekula Island earlier this month. About 20GB
per day is being used at the Lambubu site whereas the average New Zealand
household used 45GB in the month of June last year. The CEO of Kacific,
Christian Patouraux, told Daniela Maoate-Cox the community
are taking full advantage of the connection.
CHRISTIAN PATOURAUX: YouTube is extremely popular,
there was a huge surge of the football federation for the Euro 2016
competition, so there was a lot of followers on that, general browsing is
probably what comes second, a lot of Wikipedia, you can see that they're
really trying to learn to see all those things that they haven't seen before.
It was common things, you wouldn't imagine what people would search, the
variety of sharks in the waters of Vanuatu, pictures of sharks,
pictures of apples even, of fruits. It was quite funny to see what people
were browsing. It's just a general learning, general curiosity of a human
discovering knowledge, discovering the world really.
DANIELA MAOATE-COX: The computer lab at Lambubu School will be developed into a
government service centre, what does that mean?
CP: The government interest is of course,
to help the Ministry of Education and connect those schools in order to
provide them with better education materials, up-to-date education materials.
It's been extremely difficult for those schools to get updated material,
believe it or not, many of those schools are running their curriculum on
outdated material and just in general, they feel that they want to balance
the load for the education system and keep the kids in their community. Many
of those islands, not only Vanuatu,
but many islands of the Pacific uproot their kids quite early because of the
education system. They have to go down to the main city to get an education
that is worth something otherwise they would not get the right level of
education in their community, so this is a great opportunity for the
government to actually use the infrastructure that they have in the
communities, the schools, the teachers, and keep the kids in their
communities, keep the kids with their families, because they're being
provided the right level of service in their communities.
DM-C: So what's the plan now?
CP: The plan now is, of course, to continue learning
with this and prepare the ramp up of our service. Kacific of course, has
plans beyond that. Kacific is an internet infrastructure company,
it's a large private venture that is preparing the construction and launch of
a satellite that is purpose-built for the Pacific and South
East Asia. Our satellite will be launched at the end of 2018, so
it's quite a few years away still, and needs to be built and this satellite
will provide what we provide in Vanuatu
now everywhere in the Pacific, including New Zealand. Christian Patouraux
says the service will eventually be charged for and it is up to the Vanuatu
government to decide how that cost is covered.
From http://www.radionz.co.nz 07/21/2016
TOP↑
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AFRICA:
How Israel’s Cyber Spy
Network Is Helping Improve Enterprise
Security
The vaunted Unit 8200 represents the Israeli Defense Forces
(IDF) exclusive IT spy agency responsible for collecting signal intelligence
(SIGINT) and code decryption. The decades-old unit — considered by
intelligence analysts to be the strongest of its kind in the world — has also
produced some of the most sought after cybersecurity startup companies.
Indeed, former IDF 8200 alumni have developed leading Israeli IT companies —
Check Point, CyberReason, Palo Alto Networks, Singular, and CyberArk among
them. Case in point: last week, San Francisco-based Preempt Security — a firm
comprised of ex-IDF 8200 members — unveiled a cybersecurity approach that
marries user and entity behaviour analysis (UEBA) with adaptive response
tools to develop a product for both detecting and responding to security
threats. The Preempt Behavioral Firewall is designed to quickly and
proactively identify and develop a response to malware in the network, with
minimal involvement of the IT security team, to enable stronger business
continuity. According to Preempt co-founders Ajit Sancheti and Roman
Blachman, the company’s Israeli military pedigree reflects a security
approach that works to effectively infiltrate the heads of the hackers they
protect against.
Figuratively speaking, of course.
Earlier this year, the company announced its latest funding
round brought in US$8 million in new financing. Sancheti, an IT security vet
who has founded companies such as Mu Dynamics (doing security testing for
Canadian and U.S. firms), has worked for the Juniper Networks and also
developed what was one of the first intrusion detection and prevention
systems at OneSecure, notes the product effectively develops responses to
match suspicious incoming and evolving threats. The enterprise security
perimeter is increasingly becoming obsolete, Sancheti argued, and it’s now
more about securing people instead of infrastructure. This is particularly
true when considering that credential theft is what’s driving the majority of
data server breaches, he added. User entity behavior analytics: the next
phase in security visibility?
At the recent Gartner Security & Risk Management Summit in National Harbor, MD,
tech analysts touted UEBA as one of the top security tools of 2016, and
predicted the UEBA market to grow to almost $200 million by the end of 2017,
compared to less than $50 million today. UEBA tools use proprietary
algorithms to quickly detect individualized insider threats based on user
behavior across the network. The security solution offered by Preempt, includes
features such as adaptive response and enforcement (including as block,
notify, allow, re-authenticate or multi-factor authentication), and can be
installed in either in-line proxy or span port (sniffer) mode. “The focus has
been on using Active Directory as a data source,” he said. Traditional
firewalls are static, but by scanning and developing a response to user
behaviour, roles and access — along with things like two-factor
authentication — any successful security solution needs to effectively to learn
along the way and avoid false positives, said Sancheti. He states the obvious
that breaches are getting more and more common but offers that automatic
enforcement and user behaviour analysis is the key to preventing security
attacks, regardless of the organization size: “As a threat occurs, you should
be able to respond to it,” he said, adding the business process should always
be considered primary.
The need for solutions that actively respond to threats will be key — organizations just don’t have the time to manually
respond to growing security threats, he argued. Many of the team’s engineers
were previously members of the IDF 8200 group, the squad responsible for
upholding Israel’s
reputation for an airtight cybersecurity network. Sancheti offers that these
principles are baked into the solutions the company develops. The thought of
a future world where malware is eradicated completely from the network might
never arrive — but global security teams are working on it, whether it is a
platform or best-of-breed solution. “One of the challenge
for security teams is visibility — they don’t often know what’s wrong until
it happens and have to investigate,” he said. Analyzing credentials on the
network can be the key to mitigating risk, he added.
From
http://www.itworldcanada.com/
06/20/2016
TOP↑
EUROPE: Parliament Approves Cybersecurity Directive
The European Parliament has approved the Network and Information
Security directive, which sets out a common EU approach on cyber security. It
lists critical sectors such as energy, transport and banking where companies
must ensure they are able to resist a cyber attack.
Under the new rules, they will be obliged to report serious
security incidents to national authorities, as will digital service providers
such as Amazon and Google if they experience major security threats. In
addition the directive aims to boost cooperation on cyber security between EU
countries. Following publication, the NIS
directive is expected to enter into force in August. EU member states will
have 21 months to implement the directive into their national laws and six
months more to identify operators of essential services.
From
http://www.telecompaper.com/
07/07/2016
TOP↑
RUSSIA: Is Hacking Hillary Clinton Russian Payback
for the “Freedom to Connect”?
Allegations the Russian government hacked the Democratic
National Committee (DNC), Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC),
and the Hillary Clinton campaign have generated intense attention, especially
concerning the implications of possible Russian efforts to use the fruits of
cyber espionage to influence the U.S. election. Although Russia rejects the allegations, these hacks
might constitute payback for Clinton and
Democrats, who championed direct U.S. cyber support for opponents
of authoritarian regimes during the Obama administration. China and Russia
have long complained the United
States manipulates cyberspace to interfere
in their domestic political affairs, and, under this perspective, airing the
DNC’s digital dirty laundry through Wikileaks courtesy of Russian
intelligence perhaps means turnabout is fair play. One of Clinton’s most well known speeches as
Secretary of State was her remarks on internet freedom in January 2010. In
this speech, Clinton
described how cyberspace supported the “four freedoms” articulated by
President Roosevelt in 1941. But she also asserted the emergence of a fifth
freedom: “the freedom to connect—the idea that governments should not prevent
people from connecting to the internet, to websites, or to each other.” Clinton placed the
freedom to connect at the heart of the Obama administration’s conception of
internet freedom.
In policy terms, Clinton explained, the freedom to connect
animated the administration’s efforts “to help individuals silenced by
oppressive governments” in over forty countries, provide “new tools that
enable citizens to exercise their rights of free expression by circumventing
politically motivated censorship,” fund and train local political groups to
use the internet effectively and safely, and making it clear to “nations that
censor the internet . . . that our government is committed to helping promote
internet freedom.” Clinton
argued the internet provided the means for digital samizdat to overcome the
“new information curtain . . . descending across much of the world” in the
same way clandestine leaflets during the Cold War contributed to the fall of
the Berlin Wall and Iron Curtain. For China,
Russia, and other
authoritarian governments, this rhetoric and agenda constituted a U.S. strategy
to intervene in their domestic politics through cyber means. Such governments
doubled down domestically and internationally on “internet sovereignty,”
which has included efforts to increase government control over the internet
and over the activities of foreign-supported organizations in cyberspace. As
a result, the “internet freedom” versus “internet sovereignty” conflict has
become ubiquitous in international cyber politics.
The exquisitely timed release of DNC emails by Wikileaks, and
the promise by Julian Assange of more DNC disclosures to come, has possibly
added a new twist to this overarching conflict. Whether or not Russia is behind the leaks, it is not hard to
imagine amusement in the Kremlin over U.S. politicians, especially
Hillary Clinton, fretting over a foreign government’s exploitation of
cyberspace to influence domestic politics in another country. Isn’t that what
Clinton claimed the United States had a right to do in her speech on internet
freedom, and what the Democrat-led Obama administration pursued? Is the DNC leak, and the hacking of the DCCC and the Clinton campaign, perhaps
a message that other governments can also engage in cyber intervention into
the domestic politics of foreign countries? And a message particularly for
Clinton, the champion of US
cyber meddling in the domestic politics of other nations?
Clinton and others associated with the internet freedom agenda
would reject any equivalence between U.S. support to help political
dissidents circumvent internet censorship and protect their communications
from the surveillance of oppressive regimes and efforts by foreign
governments to intervene in American democratic politics. But, the internet
sovereignty position rejects American perspectives on the relationship
between cyberspace, human rights, and the principle of non-intervention in
the domestic affairs of other countries. The legal and ideological
differences among countries concerning cyberspace expand incentives for
adversary states to exercise material power to shape the geopolitical agenda.
These speculations, like others offered by experts, frame these hacks and the
release of DNC emails in ways that reinforce the increasing political dangers
countries face and the lack of global norms regulating cyberspace. The
escalating risks and paucity of agreed norms helps explain the growing
prominence of coercion, retaliation, and deterrence in cybersecurity
policies. Frequent calls for retaliation against Russia, if Russian involvement in
the DNC leaks is sufficiently established, highlight these rising dangers,
the entrenched disagreements about appropriate state behavior in cyberspace,
and the growing desire to address cybersecurity threats through power
politics.
From
http://blogs.cfr.org/
08/18/2016
TOP↑
U.K.: Brexit Effects on Technology, Security and
More
The people of the United Kingdom (UK) have voted to leave the
European Union (EU). But what does Brexit mean for technology and security
professionals around the world in the public and private sectors? In a
historic vote that stunned the world, the people of the United Kingdom (UK)
opted to leave the European Union (EU) in a referendum held this past
Thursday. The Brexit vote shocked political and economic experts who just
earlier in the week expected the UK to remain in the EU in a close
vote. “June 23rd will go down in history as our independence day,” said Nigel
Farage, the leader of the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP). The Daily
Telegraph (UK) reported this post-Brexit news:
"Britain
has a "glorious opportunity" to re-establish itself on the world
stage, Boris Johnson said, in his first comments hours after Britain voted
to leave the European Union. "The former London mayor and favourite to succeed David Cameron as
Tory leader and Prime Minister said the UK “can find our voice in the
world again. ...” The huge ramifications of the vote became immediately
apparent, as Prime Minister David Cameron announced his intent to step down
by October, and global stock markets sank dramatically. And yet, despite some
signs of economic unrest and financial upheaval, the world digested the news
in an orderly fashion. "Many people throughout the UK and the world cheered the new freedoms and
liberty that could now be restored to the United Kingdom as a result of
Brexit. I watched dozens of interviews with men and women who were delighted
with the result and felt any short-term pain (such as a drop in currency
value) was well worth it to “make Great Britain great again!”
"And yet, there are many others in the UK that feel
devastated by this vote. This CNBC article describes the viral feelings of
the majority of young people (many of whom are in tech industries around London) that had hoped
to stay in the EU and not feel betrayed. “Firstly, it was the working classes
who voted for us to leave because they were economically disregarded, and it
is they who will suffer the most in the short term. They have merely swapped
one distant and unreachable elite for another. "Secondly, the younger
generation has lost the right to live and work in 27 other countries. We will
never know the full extent of the lost opportunities, friendships, marriages
and experiences we will be denied. Freedom of movement was taken away by our
parents, uncles, and grandparents in a parting blow to a generation that was
already drowning in the debts of our predecessors.
"Thirdly and perhaps most significantly, we now live in a
post-factual democracy. When the facts met the myths they were as useless as
bullets bouncing off the bodies of aliens in an HG Wells novel. When Michael
Gove said, 'The British people are sick of experts,' he was right. But can
anybody tell me the last time a prevailing culture of anti-intellectualism
has led to anything other than bigotry?” The U.S.
news media immediately focused on Donald Trump’s words during his visit to Scotland, as
well as President Obama’s and Hillary Clinton’s reactions to Brexit. The
Huffington Post focused on how Brexit Will Fundamentally Change the Future of
Europe. “After Thursday’s vote, the UK will become the first-ever
country to leave the EU, and its absence will be noticeable.” On Friday,
Bloomberg reported that Brexit Pounds Some Technology Companies.
National Public Radio (NPR) reported this story about new
nationalist reactions to globalization that contributed to the UK vote
result. The author sees similar trends in the U.S.
and rising around the world: "This is not a unique phenomenon to the United States, and 2016 is not a short moment
that will pass," says Yascha Mounk, who teaches political theory at Harvard University and has studied the rise of
nationalist movements. "This is a real populist turn that has been
happening for the last 15 or 20 years. ..." "People feel, quite
rightly, that they have no real control over political systems — that the
political class does what it wants and it sort of ignores ordinary
people," Mounk says. "And to a large extent, that's because of the
necessities of globalization." It is also clear that many of the same
issues surrounding immigration and borders are surfacing around the world,
including the U.S.
After Brexit: Predictions and Next Steps
Before we discuss likely impacts to the tech industry around the
world, we must acknowledge that the predictions about what’s next for the United Kingdom
are all over the map. This CNBC piece described the basics of what formally
happens next after the Brexit vote, such as invoking article 50 of the Lisbon
Treaty. Some commentators believe that this vote will eventually lead to the
end of the EU. Indeed other countries will likely have their own vote, if
right-wing politicians have their way. Marine Le Pen, the leader of France's
anti-immigrant National Front party, wrote this on her Twitter account:
“Victory for Freedom! As I have been asking for years, we must now have the
same referendum in France and EU countries.” But while some predicted the
eventual end of the euro, others EU leaders called for the UK to leave
the EU as soon as possible for a speedy divorce. The EU political leaders
want to get the exit over quickly. Martin Schulz, the president of the
European parliament, told the Guardian that EU lawyers were studying whether
it was possible to speed up the triggering of article 50 of the Lisbon treaty
— the untested procedure for leaving the union. As the EU’s institutions
scrambled to respond to the bodyblow of Britain’s exit, Schulz said
uncertainty was “the opposite of what we need,” adding that it was difficult
to accept that “a whole continent is taken hostage because of an internal
fight in the Tory party.”
Technology and Cybersecurity Implications
So what impacts should technology and cybersecurity
professionals expect from the Brexit vote? Remember that even though the vote
has occurred, most legal changes could take two years or more to implement.
Wired Magazine in the UK
described how Brexit will impact the science and technology industries. I
like these points:
- Whether the UK
is able to stay in the single market will be a key point that will impact
businesses. London Mayor Sadiq Khan has said he will push for the country to
stay within the trading agreement as part of the forthcoming negotiations
between EU and the UK.
- Following the referendum result, Dame Julia Goodfellow, the
president of Universities UK — a collection 133 universities — said the body
would look to "secure opportunities" for students and researchers
to be able to access "vital pan-European programs."
- Data protection is another EU-prescribed area. A new European
Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) was passed in April after more than four
years of negotiation. The regulations, which will outline how citizens' data
is processed, is set to be implemented across the EU
in 2018.
International Business Times (IBT) reported on the potential
cyberimpacts to the workforce talent crunch, escalating cost of operations,
data sharing and privacy laws, and even the threat of a cyberattack growing.
However, I find several of these items to be overblown. For example, I think
the UK has the best
cybersecurity workforce and capabilities in the EU currently,
and it will be a larger loss for the EU cybersecurity than for the UK. The UK has the most cybersecurity companies in Europe, and their ability to assist other EU countries
may be impacted. SC Magazine UK
reported on how Tripwire conducted a poll of information security
professionals at InfoSecurity Europe 2016. Of 278 people questioned, 64
percent said that there would basically be no change as a result of an exit
vote. ABI research wrote this summary regarding Brexit and cybersecurity —
focusing mainly on the skills shortages in cybersecurity being impacted.
Information Age asked the question: Will Brexit Cause a Texit?
They listed 10 ways the vote will affect technology. BankInfoSecurity.com
offered these 5 Cybersecurity Implications to Brexit. I certainly agree that
these are the right areas to focus on in the coming months and years ahead.
However, I am not as sure as this author seems to be that the UK will
struggle in these areas as described. For example, I have a hard time
believing that cybersecurity intelligence will be significantly derailed. The
EU will also miss the UK
in cyber, so I expect close cooperation to continue on cybercrime.
Computerweekly UK
warned that Brexit will not save you from the EU data protection rules. “UK businesses
offering services to EU citizens — regardless of whether they hold any data
in the EU — will have to adopt more stringent rules than the ones currently
imposed by the UK Data Protection Act. Otherwise trade — via personal data flows
— with Europe is off the table.”
My Thoughts on Brexit and Technology Security
Back in May, I wrote this blog with seven reasons you should
care about Brexit, describing why this topic is important to Americans —
including our tech and security implications. This Brexit focus from Norton
Rose Fulbright offers more details on several of my seven points. I think it
is very important to watch the developments throughout the EU and the UK
negotiations over the next two years in order to grasp what will truly happen
regarding technology and security. As the dust and hysteria settle on both
sides, some of the basic questions will be answered, such as:
- Will the UK
remain in the free-trading bloc?
- What EU regulations (including data and privacy) will still apply
in the UK?
- What actions will tech companies in the UK need to
take to placate EY customers?
- What other EU member states will leave (such as Nexit, Frexit
or Italeave)?
For more immediate computer impacts, I urge end users around the
world to be on the lookout for scams, phishing attempts and websites that
take advantage of the Brexit confusion to trick people into taking foolish
actions related to Brexit and surrounding issues. My advice: reread this pieces on phishing, spear-phishing and whaling — with
a special attention given to anything related to Brexit, EU, UK
and related content. The bad guys always thrive with tricky phish in times of
confusion, when people will break out of normal patters and click on new
content, so know who you trust online. Remember that these scams can come via
phone, email, fax, text or social media message. Finally, I am excited for my
friends in the UK
as they start down this new road to the future. As I mentioned in May, my
family lived in the UK
for almost seven years in the 1990s, and we love that country in so many
ways. The UK people have
spoken, and I have high hopes for my many friends in the UK. I leave
you with this quote from Abraham Lincoln:
“The best thing about the future is that it comes one day at a
time.”
From
http://www.govtech.com/
06/26/2016
TOP↑
Cybercrime
Now Surpasses Traditional Crime in UK
The US
could be on an even worse trajectory, according to one security expert.
Cybercrime is currently outpacing traditional crime in the United Kingdom in terms of impact spurred on
by the rapid pace of technology and criminal cyber-capability, according to the
UK’s
National Crime Agency. The trend suggests the need for a more collective
response from government, law enforcement, and industry to reduce
vulnerabilities and prevent crime, the NCA report says. “The NCA estimates
that the cost of cybercrime to the UK economy is billions of pounds
per annum – and growing,” according to the report, Cyber Crime Assessment
2016. Although estimates of the cost of cybercrime vary considerably, NCA’s
view is consistent with that of other industry analysis. “In any calculation
we must consider that there are millions of individual victims, many
thousands of corporate victims and correspondingly substantial losses,”
according to the report, which was jointly produced by the NCA and the
Strategic Cyber Industry Group (SCIG).
The UK’s
Office of National Statistics included cybercrime for the first time in its
2015 annual Crime Survey of England and Wales. The survey estimated that
there are 2.46 million cyber incidents and 2.11 million victims of cybercrime
in the UK last year,
"Computer misuse and computer enabled crime accounted for 53% of all
crime in the UK
in 2015, making it larger than all other kinds of crime," wrote Trend
Micro in a blog post this week. The assessment shows that cybercrime activity
is growing fast and evolving, with the threats from Distributed Denial of
Service (DDoS) and ransomware attacks increasing significantly in 2015. The
threats from DDoS and ransomware attacks have increased, driven by ready
access to easy to-use tools and by wider criminal understanding of its
potential for profit through extortion. Ransomware attacks have also
increased in frequency and complexity, and now include threats to publish
victim data online, as well as the permanent encryption of valuable data, the
assessment states.
The most advanced and serious cybercrime threat to the UK is the direct or indirect result of a few
hundred international cybercriminals who target UK businesses to commit highly
profitable, malware-facilitated fraud, the NCA says. Under-reporting continues
to obscure the full impact of cybercrime in the UK. This shortfall in reporting
hampers the ability of law enforcement to understand the operating methods of
cyber criminals and most effectively respond to the threat. As a result, the
NCA is urging businesses to view cybercrime not only as a technical issue but
as a board-level responsibility, and to make use of the reporting paths
available to them, sharing intelligence with law enforcement and each other.
Worse For US
One security expert notes that the cybercrime situation here in
the US
is even more dire. “I think it is more dramatic in
the US
and I do think cybercrime is a larger industry than narcotics trafficking
because of intellectual property theft and secondary infection,” says Tom
Kellermann, co-founder and CEO of Strategic Cyber Ventures, which invests in
next-generation security technology. In the past, cybercriminals had to be
able to build “a gun and the bullets,” metaphorically speaking, Kellermann
says. Now with a proliferation of online forums and arms bazaars, anybody can
download and utilize tools to launch attacks from anywhere in the world.
Additionally, the US
law enforcement prosecution rate for cybercrime is less than 2%, Kellermann
notes.
To realistically combat cybercrime, law enforcement must
destabilize the web forums that provide the hacking tools and anonymous
payment systems that facilitate the service model and economy of scale of the
Dark Web, Kellermann says. The money-laundering systems of the adversary have
to be disrupted to foment distrust among thieves. Currently, there are no
international norms of cybercrime so non-state actors such as Russian
cybercriminals are protected by their government. Technologically, most
security tools have been reversed-engineered and bypassed by cybercriminal
crews. So the emphasis should be on intrusion suppression, where security
professionals decrease the dwell time the adversaries have to freely roam
their organizations networks, he says.
From
http://www.darkreading.com/
07/08/2016
TOP↑
NORTH
AMERICA: Canada
- Should Be Prepared for “Unprecedented” Levels of Cyber Risk, Warns Ex-CSIS
Official
If you think that $500 billion in worldwide cyber crime is a
problem now, brace yourself. It’s about to get even more intense, said
speakers Tuesday at a panel discussion at the Tech Day on Parliament Hill,
organized by TechConnex and Northof41. “I’ve never seen it at this velocity
and level of complexity in my 30 years in security,” said Ray Boisvert, the
president and CEO of I-Sec Integrated Strategies and a senior associate at
communications firm Hill & Knowlton Strategies. Boisvert should know.
He’s also the former assistant director for intelligence at the Canadian Security
Intelligence Service (CSIS). He noted that technology trends are a
contributing factor in the escalating level of cyber threats. The
proliferation of devices, the Internet of Things (IoT), virtualization and
the growth in data are overwhelming our defences, he said. As well, there are
increasing opportunities for email cyber fraud based on information collected
from social media.
Cyber Crime — By the Numbers
Boisvert presented a current snapshot of the impact of cyber
crime. He said that 600 million people have been affected, often through the
theft of personal identity or a blackmail computer lockdown scheme. “It’s a
traumatic event that you never want to go through,” he said. For businesses,
74 per cent have been compromised by cyber events. The health care sector is
heavily targeted, Boisvert said, with 81 cent of its executives admitting to
a network breach. The tech industry should pay attention to the fact that 90
per cent of executives say they can’t read a cyber security report, he added.
This needs to be addressed given that it can take an average of $1 million
and five days to recover from a cyber event. At its root, Boisvert said, “the
advantage is in the hands of the attacker.” Insider facilitation is a big
problem, sometimes deliberate, but also by the unwitting employee who clicks
on a suspicious link. However, the most significant threats are by organized
crime groups. “It’s a low-risk,
high-yield approach. The Internet
has been bountiful for them,” he said.
Playbook Priorities
Prevention is the first priority to combat cyber threats, said
Boisvert, given that about 80 per cent of malware is low level and can be
prevented from entering your network. It’s also important to focus on early
detection because the average dwell time is over 200 days, a long time for
someone to be sitting on your network, he warned. Panel members outlined
three priority areas. The skills shortage is an important issue, said Tyson
Macaulay, chief security strategist and vice president of security Services
at Fortinet. He pointed to the recent attacks reported by the global bank
transfer co-operative, SWIFT, where hackers targeted banks in countries with
acute skills shortages. Automated solutions could help fill that void, he
noted.
We need to use data analytics to identify serious threats inside
a network, said Patrick Patterson, President and CEO of Carillon Information
Security. “If you look back at well known hacks,” he said, “People were
drowning in alerts. The question
is to determine what’s important.” Analytics can be used, in real time, to
sort through massive amounts of data to identify abnormal behaviour in the
network. Raising the bar in the use of credentials has to be a priority, said
Grant Woodward, Public Safety and Defence Specialist at SAS. “We can make social engineering harder
by eliminating the use of usernames and passwords in Canada,” he
said. Woodward suggested other
approaches should be adopted, such as two-factor authentication, the U.S. standard
(FIPS 201), and attribute-based access controls.
The Role of Government
The federal government has been responding in a coordinated way,
according to Erin O’Toole, the Conservative Member of Parliament for Durham. But, he
stressed that “vital partnerships” will be a critical area for the new
government. “For Canadians, there is more impact on our lives if there are
disruptions in our financial services or critical infrastructure,” O’Toole
said. The government also needs to examine recent regulatory changes in
Europe and the U.S.,
said Patterson. Canada
needs to ensure that it is keeping pace so that businesses are not put in a
disadvantaged position. While the rapid growth in cyber attacks is a serious
threat, the panelists also noted that there are significant business opportunities
for innovative approaches to deal with the problem. “All of us would agree
that it will affect our future prosperity as a nation,” said Boisvert.
From
http://www.itworldcanada.com/
06/01/2016
TOP↑
Reducing
the Cost and Complexity of Network Security
A recent story in the Washington Post said that the Federal
Bureau of Investigation (FBI) received 2,453 complaints about ransomware
alone last year. The practice has extracted US$24.1 million in ransom from
victims. The FBI claims an increasing number of victims are paying to get
their files back, despite advice to the contrary, which only encourages the
criminals to continue these activities. In an ironic twist, even Verizon,
which produces a well-regarded annual security report, was recently hacked
because of a flaw in its enterprise client portal. According to eWeek, an
online media outlet, information on an estimated 1.5 million enterprise
customers was stolen; the hack was first reported on in March 2016, but
Verizon did not provide specifics on the incident.
Bottom line: no one is safe
In this landscape, corporate IT staff frantically struggle to
keep their heads above water. Not only do they need to focus on the multitude
of technical issues and events that occur in keeping IT infrastructures and
systems up and running, they also face the additional challenge of securing
the network and systems, and supporting users who are increasingly bombarded
by phishing emails and other malware. The cost of doing nothing is
significant. According to research firm Ponemon Institute’s 2015 State of Cyber Crime Report, the average company cost of
cybercrime is more than $7 million (US) worldwide, with U.S.
companies taking a US$15 million hit on average. And criminals are getting
more inventive, often breaching a network and then waiting for months before
initiating an attack to ensure that their malware is firmly entrenched, and
that it will create a breach in the most valuable targets.
Canadian companies may be throwing money at the problem, but,
according to IDC Canada, they are not investing in the right things that
would mitigate risk and minimize the impact of breaches. In its 2016 ITC
predictions, IDC said, “Security spending will surpass $2 billion in 2016,
but Canadian businesses will still not be investing in all the right places.
Organizations must take a holistic approach to designing a security strategy,
and ensure that end-user security training is prioritized and implemented.”
This means examining all facets from the technology to the human factor, not
simply concentrating on the tech. Furthermore, said Lars Goransson, general
manager and group vice president at IDC Canada, “CIOs need to recalibrate IT
organizations’ fundamental priorities (e.g., critical skills, strategic
technologies, insource/outsource decisions) as IT infiltrates more of the
enterprises’ products and services, instead of simply supporting the delivery
of those offerings.”
Given the shortage of qualified security professionals, one of
those critical decisions could be to engage a managed security services
provider (MSSP). “Managed security services continue to gain momentum in Canada and is
expected to be the strongest performing security market over the next five
years,” writes Kevin Lonergan, research analyst for infrastructure solutions
at IDC Canada, and co-author of the IDC MarketScape research report Canadian
Managed Security Services 2015 Vendor Assessment. “The MSSPs operating in Canada can
all provide managed security services, but what differentiates them is their
value-add services and investments in next-generation technologies such as
big data threat analytics and cloud identity management. The diverse MSSP
landscape spanning telcos, consulting firms, and pure play providers ensure
that Canadian organizations can find a provider that meets their specific
needs and budgetary requirements,” Lonergan said.
So what can a MSSP do for you?
One huge benefit comes from the 24×7 monitoring, something many
companies can’t afford to do for themselves. But for time-constrained IT
departments, passing off day-to-day activities like proper firewall
configuration and updating is also worth its weight in gold, as is patch
management. It frees IT staff from the mundane, so they can innovate for the
business. MSSPs make sense of the security landscape, helping design,
implement, and maintain an architecture that will protect their customers. A
good MSSP understands compliance requirements, and can tailor its services to
suit. And since the cost of acquiring that knowledge and training its staff
can be amortized across many customers, it keeps the price of the service
reasonable for all.
When something goes wrong – and it inevitably will – the MSSP
has the advantage of both expertise and scale. The solution for, or
prevention of, issues affecting one customer will be available for all. And
while the MSSP, with its specialized personnel, sorts out the mess, customer
IT can focus on other tasks. IDC’s report validates this, saying its research
shows that the number one reason customers engage an MSSP is because they
themselves don’t have the in-house skills or resources to effectively manage,
or even monitor the security threat environment across their own infrastructure.
That can mean one less headache for the CIO.
From
http://www.itworldcanada.com/
06/09/2016
TOP↑
The
Top Ten IT Security Tools for 2016 — And Why the CSO Should Care
At its Security & Risk Management Summit this week, analyst
firm Gartner Inc. outlined the top ten information security tools it feels
will most affect enterprises this year. These technologies include cloud
access security brokers, endpoint detection and response tools, security
testing for DevOps (DevSecOps), and pervasive trust services. In an opening
keynote, Toronto-based Gartner Research vice president Peter Firstbrook noted
that, from a security professional and chief security officer (CSO)
perspective, it’s more than just keeping up with the latest security trends,
it’s also about successfully developing a digital risk strategy — a “high
level business plan and smart risk assessment” — that the executive team and
board of directors can understand and sign off on.
As SaaS adoption is becoming pervasive in enterprises, security
teams are looking for greater visibility and control; tools such as cloud
access security brokers (CASBs) provide information security professionals
with a critical control point for the secure and compliant use of cloud
services across multiple cloud providers, according to Gartner. In addition,
the analyst firm noted emerging DevSecOps tools — models that incorporate
scripts, “recipes,” blueprints and templates to drive the underlying
configuration of security infrastructure — can be helpful in delivering an
automated and compliant configuration of the underlying security
infrastructure based on policy reflecting the currently deployed state of the
workloads.
Today’s world is about the digital business — new business
designs that incorporate the physical and digital worlds. “In previous
business models, including e-commerce, people were the primary drivers to
transactions. But in the future, things will be transaction drivers: sensors
and actuators will interact with people and things, creating a meshed
relationship,” he said. The question is when, not if, a security threat
affects the organization, he offered. It’s about placing an emphasis on
resilience and adaptive models. It’s not about 100 per cent enterprise
protection — it’s more about being able to quickly respond to threats when
they occur, Firstbrook added. “By applying the principles of resilience to
your digital scenario,
you can enable new business opportunities and you’ll earn a
place at the strategy table,” he said.
“Security and risk leaders need to keep up with current IT
trends if they are to define, achieve and maintain effective security and
risk management programs that simultaneously enable digital business opportunities
and manage risk,” noted Gartner vice-president Neil MacDonald.
The top 10 technologies for information security are:
Cloud Access Security Brokers
Endpoint Detection and Response
Nonsignature Approaches for Endpoint Prevention
User and Entity Behavioural Analytics
Microsegmentation and Flow Visibility
Security Testing for DevOps (DevSecOps)
Intelligence-Driven Security Operations
Center
Orchestration Solutions
Remote Browser
Deception
Pervasive Trust Services
From
http://www.itworldcanada.com/
06/17/2016
TOP↑
U.S.: Can Federal IT Lead the Way in Secure Cloud?
As private companies race each other to replace outmoded IT
systems with cloud services, the federal government falls further and further
behind in cloud adoption. The usual culprits are easy to find: byzantine
procurement and cloud certification requirements, government CIOs stuck in
the past, and a dysfunctional culture that rewards outsourcing IT strategy --
and responsibility -- to the lowest bidder. It sounds terrible – but is it
reality? Lost in all this noise are the unique
challenges of federal IT. The first is scale – with a forecasted 2017 budget
of $89.9 billion, the sheer number of programs, systems and data centers dwarfs not just private companies, but even some private
markets. A second obvious challenge is accountability – every purchase
decision made is subject to audit, protest and the political process.
Security and compliance pose a third vital challenge, also shared by the
private sector, but uniquely burdensome for federal CIOs. We cannot afford to
ignore the higher stakes involved in protecting federal government data from
hackers motivated by more than just financial gain and backed by the
resources of nation-state adversaries. We may count the cost of a corporate
data breach in pennies per share but losing federal data -- as in the recent
OPM hack -- will likely cost lives and even compromise national security.
The federal government's 2017 budget request notes that it
currently spends about 8 percent of its IT budget on cloud – not much less
than the largest banks did just a year or two ago. IDC Research projects this
to rise to an astounding 50 percent in just two years. New federal CIOs
recruited from the private sector often fail to appreciate the complexity of
executing a cloud transformation strategy within the confines of federal
procurement rules. To make this incredible growth possible, you need consolidated
standards to accelerate procurement and unleash the creativity of your
workforce. The Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP) is
a standardized approach to security created to increase the adoption of cloud
services by the federal government while increasing the overall security of
federal IT. By mapping and reusing several hundred security controls common
to any agency, FedRAMP makes it easier for companies to offer compliant cloud
services to the federal government, and easier for federal CIOs to rapidly
procure cloud services.
FedRAMP is different from past federal certification efforts --
which often felt like mere paperwork exercises or, worse, offered an entirely
false sense of security by allowing companies to merely document that their
insecure products were operating as designed. FedRAMP sets clear and robust
baseline standards and best practices like penetration testing and continuous
monitoring. Security is an arms race against hackers that we cannot win, but
properly implemented, FedRAMP is speeding cloud
adoption and helping Federal IT keep security losses smaller and less
destructive. FedRAMP is delivering this -- it has already certified 60 cloud
service providers for federal purchase and recent program changes will greatly
accelerate the review and approval of hundreds more by reducing the up-front
paperwork required from new, innovative cloud service providers. While the
upfront cost of FedRAMP compliance is not trivial, this is by design. We
should be careful not to focus on lowering the bar for compliance too far at
the expense of better security.
Cloud is no magic bullet, however, and the consolidation of
federal data into a smaller number of data centers and cloud services raises
the potential consequences of a single data breach. As a result, it is vital
that this historic migration of IT assets from federally owned and managed
data centers into private-sector hands be used as an opportunity to increase
security and "cyber hygiene" both inside and outside the federal
government. We all understand that cloud services offer better innovation at
lower cost than traditional IT. Better security is another obvious gain. Put
simply, letting private-sector experts patch one cloud data center is easier,
cheaper and more reliable than leaving the patching of hundreds of government
data centers to the lowest bidders.
In fact, the U.S. Department of Agriculture Risk Management
Agency, which operates and manages the Federal Crop Insurance Corporation,
successfully transformed its FCIC Escrow and the agency's roadmap via a
cloud-based solution that delivered 110 percent of planned functionality for
90 percent of planned cost. Utilizing a secure FedRAMP-compliant application
platform, the solution resulted in the first agency application delivered in
a PaaS cloud environment and was the first re-engineered RMA financial
application. Because of the size and scope of the federal IT market, FedRAMP
has the real potential to elevate the security posture of U.S. cloud
service providers. This will be of at least indirect benefit to everyone, but
a greater potential exists for building a more robust commercial IT
infrastructure on the shoulders of FedRAMP standards. This could become a
market-driven reality as more banks, health care providers, and private
companies are educated on the value of demanding FedRAMP compliant cloud
services and even young, innovative start-ups have access to the expertise
required to deliver it.
From
https://fcw.com/
06/08/2016
TOP↑
When Should
DoD Respond to a Cyber Attack? No One Really Knows
The Obama administration is still struggling on how it would
respond to a cyber attack on U.S.
water systems, financial structure or electrical grid. Defense Department
Acting Assistant Secretary for Homeland Defense and Global Security Thomas
Atkin was unable to provide specifics to the House Armed Services Committee
this week on when exactly DoD would get involved if there was a cyber attack
to critical U.S. infrastructure. “When DOD gets involved is an attack of
significant consequence, we have the responsibility to defend against an
attack of significant consequence,” Atkin said during the June 22 hearing.
“How do you define significant consequence?” Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii)
asked Atkin. Atkin responded loss of life, physical damage,
economic impact or foreign policy are all factors.
But Gabbard pushed harder.
“As you define loss of life, if there was an attack on an
electrical grid, caused a major power outage, hospitals no longer able to
care for people and loss of life in that respect. Would that fall under that
definition?” Gabbard said. Atkin was unwilling to hypothesize on scenarios,
but said different factors would have to be evaluated for an attack to be
considered one of significant consequence. Atkin added DoD would assist the
Department of Homeland Security, which has jurisdiction over attacks on the
homeland, if asked. The interaction comes as Congress is considering
elevating U.S. Cyber Command to a full combatant command. The exchange
between Gabbard and Atkin highlights a larger debate that has been brewing
between Congress and the White House.
Congress has repeatedly asked the administration for a cyber
deterrence policy, which would outline how the United States would respond to a
cyber attack. Congress pushed the White House for a cyber deterrence strategy
to warn enemies there are repercussions for cyber attacks on the United States.
“Suppose there is an attack like the one on [the Office of Personnel
Management]. Do you respond by counterattacking? Do you respond by trying to
enact other measures? What do we do in case of a cyber attack?” Senate Armed
Services Committee Chairman John McCain (R-Arizona) said last September. The
White House issued a policy in December that outlined some areas where the United States
might retaliate after a cyber attack. But, after Wednesday’s hearing, it’s
clear all of the kinks have not been worked out.
McCain called the December cyber strategy “thin” and
“wholly-lacking any new information about the administration’s plan to
integrate ends, ways, and means to meaningfully deter attacks in cyber space.
It mostly reiterates steps taken and pronouncements made over the past few
years, all of which we know have failed to deter our adversaries or decrease
the vulnerability of our nation in cyber space.” House Armed Services
Chairman Mac Thornberry was concerned by Atkin’s testimony on Wednesday as
well. “My concern is we know where it’s coming from. Country XYZ that has
tremendous cyber capability is preparing to do something and the question is
whether we wait and let them do it or try to at least take defensive action
to manage the consequence of it,” Thornberry said.
CYBERCOM
While officials and lawmakers are debating how to respond to a
cyber attack, Congress is close to giving the military’s combined cyber force
a higher spot in the pecking order. The 2017 defense authorization bill
elevates CYBERCOM to a full combatant command. Atkin told the House Armed
Services Committee the biggest challenge to elevating CYBERCOM would be the
resources. “Our biggest challenges are going to be resources, making sure
that CYBERCOM has all the right resources as they build out the cyber mission
force… it’s just a matter of making sure that we’re doing it in a sequenced
way to make sure that we don’t hamper or hurt any operations that we have
ongoing, and that we continue to gain advantages and do better when we’re
conducting these operations,” Atkin said. Atkin said the challenges can best
be solved internally within the department.
From
http://federalnewsradio.com/
06/23/2016
TOP↑
Congressman
Wants Answers on State's Security Culture
FBI Director Jim Comey may have closed his case on presidential
candidate Hillary Clinton and her private email server, but many in Congress
still have questions. In a letter addressed to Secretary of State John Kerry,
Attorney General Loretta Lynch and Director of National Intelligence James
Clapper, Rep. Mike Pompeo (R-Kan.) wants more information on what Comey
characterized as a "lax security culture" at the State Department,
and stated that an immediate review of Clinton and other top State officials
was "critical." Pompeo asked if any of these officials will face
sanctions for their mishandling of classified information, and asked Kerry
what steps he has taken and plans to take to tighten the security at the
department. He requested answers to these questions by July 22.
Pompeo added that he believed Clinton should be excluded from the
upcoming classified briefings of the presidential nominees. Other members
have made similar requests, including House Speaker Paul Ryan. Comey endured
a four-hour hearing before the House Oversight and Government Reform
Committee on July 8. In that appearance, committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz
(R-Utah) indicated that Congress would submit a referral to the FBI for a
perjury probe. Chaffetz and others want Clinton's
congressional testimony on her private email server cross-checked against her
statements to the FBI. Additionally, Clinton's
previous statement affirming State's authorization of her use of a private
e-mail server for government activities was refuted by the State Department
watchdogs at a second panel of the July 8 hearing.
In March 2015, Clinton
publicly stated, "I opted for convenience to use my personal e-mail
account, which was allowed by the State Department… The laws and regulations
in effect when I was Secretary of State allowed me to use my e-mail for work.
That is undisputed." However, State Department Inspector General Steve
Linick and assistant IG for Evaluations and Special Projects Jennifer
Costello testified that this use is, in fact, disputed by State officials interview by OIG. Linick said, "Our report
said she did not have approval from senior officials in the department, and
we don't believe it was permitted both under the rules, and none of the
senior officials who were there at the time gave her approval or were even
aware that she had a server." Costello echoed the sentiment that Clinton never received
approval to exclusively use personal e-mail for official business. "The
reason we know this is because the officials we interviewed at the
department, both in the office of diplomatic security and in the office of
information resource management, told us that," she said. "And in
telling us that, they were relying on a department policy that was put in
place in 2005, which says that day-to-day operations must be conducted – I'm
paraphrasing -- on authorized information systems. And so the implication
there is any exclusive use would be a day-to-day operation, and shouldn't
occur without approval." Additionally, Costello confirmed that, in order
to fully comply with federal regulations, Clinton would have needed to turn over
printed copies of e-mails.
"During her tenure, folks in the office of the secretary,
in order to comply with email records preservation and management policies of
the department, needed to print and file those e-mails," said Costello.
However, Costello said because Clinton
never provided those printed e-mail copies, they would be available only
"to the extent that other folks who Secretary Clinton emailed" did
print and file them. As a result, Costello continued, of the tens of
thousands of e-mails in question, only "few here and there" exist
in the department, though she could not provide a specific estimate as to
precisely how many.
From
https://fcw.com/
07/08/2016
TOP↑
Training the
Next Generation of Cyber Specialists
Nearly 30 of the country's premier cyber specialists converged
at Southern Utah University to take part in the Western Regional U.S. Cyber
Challenge competition. After four days of intensive instruction interspersed
with hands-on sessions, the specialists were divided into teams to test their
skills against fellow whizzes. The competition was a cyber version of capture
the flag. The four-hour endurance test, which entails penetrating computer
systems and answering esoteric questions about cybersecurity, resembles a
sort of hacker trivia challenge, said Josh Chin, lead teaching assistant for
the Western Regional competition. "Solid capture-the-flag teams
illustrate beyond just technical skills," Chin told FCW. "They
excel in critical thinking, being able to create and devise solutions under
high pressure and stress, communicating with team members and the ability to
solve complex problems." Capture the flag is the capstone event of each
camp, Chin added, but the real substance takes place during the preceding
four days.
This year, three regional cyber challenges were held at colleges
in Delaware, Illinois
and Utah.
Would-be participants qualified for invitation by excelling on graded
entrance exams. "The overall goal [of the challenges] is to identify the
individuals who already have a certain level of skills and to streamline them
into these gaps in the workforce," said Katie Hanson, USCC's
communications coordinator. Those interested in technology careers "can
go through the more formalized education route, and we're excited about
universities building" robust educational programs, she added. "But
we also realize there are a lot of people teaching themselves this stuff, and
we don't want them to feel discouraged because they didn't go to these
[cyber-specific] schools."
Each day, the participants, who range from 18-year-old
undergraduate students to middle-aged adults with families and established
careers, attend lectures on various topics from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. The sessions touch on
everything from the technical minutia of penetration testing to packet
crafting and hacking decorum. In lab sessions throughout the week,
participants test their newly acquired knowledge. The hands-on exercises
pertain to each day's lectures and give participants real-world testing that
they might not receive in a traditional classroom setting. The labs go
"one step further than formal education," Hanson said. "That's
the feedback we get [from participants]: 'We like the hands-on stuff. We like
testing our skill sets. We like learning things we haven't done
before.'" The camps receive subsidies from public- and private-sector
organizations, and participants have access to representatives from the
government and industry, who can recruit these cyber professionals to join
their organizations.
The more casual, job fair-like setting allows participants to
ask questions that might not be acceptable in a traditional interview
setting, Hanson said. Representatives from the FBI and Secret Service also
spent time with the campers in a closed-door ethics discussion about
real-world situations they might encounter. However, the camps offer more
than instruction, technical testing and professional exposure. The Utah camp -- this
year's only overnight camp -- immersed participants in a cyber-intensive
setting for the full week. All meals were eaten as a group, and downtime was
spent getting to know other campers and talking about a range of topics,
including the day's lectures, personal projects and ways to boost their
status in the hit mobile phone app Pokemon Go.
"After the day's boot camp sessions are done, there is an
opportunity to have community beyond the classroom," Chin said.
"For those who enjoy social learning, it is an amazing opportunity to
gain insight and perspectives on...special cyber defense projects individuals
may be investing time and money into, and discussing concepts and ideas
toward crafting new cybersecurity solutions to address cybersecurity
challenges in businesses and governments." A stated goal of the U.S.
Cyber Challenge is to expose top talent to the idea of government service and
help create a pool of future agency hires. But whether the campers' ultimate
interests are in the public or private sector, "programs like this are
important," Hanson said. "Campers can come in and prove what their
skill sets are, so when they apply for these positions...they can have an
extra edge on their resumes."
From
https://fcw.com/articles/
08/05/2016
TOP↑
Interior
Department Cybersecurity Is 3 Years Out of Date
Parts of the Interior Department’s computer system security
measures are three years out of date. A DoI Inspector General investigation
found that access to privileged functions are not properly restricted, mobile
devices are not encrypted, and DoI lacks the ability to inspect encrypted
data altogether. “These deficiencies occurred because DoI has not adopted
[the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s] current standards and
instead is following outdated standards,” the August 9 report said. NIST released
special publication 800-53 revision 4, a document that specifies required
standards for these and more security measures governmentwide, in April of
2013. Agencies have one year from the date of release to be in compliance
with the directive. The OIG report stated that the logical access controls,
which restrict access to privileged functions, did not meet NIST’s standards
on eight out of nine systems tested. The OIG noted that general users were
not restricted from these functions, which were not audited and included
access to security measures, increasing risk from insider and advanced
persistent threats.
In addition, the OIG found that independent audits of DoI’s
systems in 2014 and 2015 discovered not only these deficiencies, but that DoI
has no process to grant or remove access, did not disable inactive accounts,
and did not perform account reviews to determine how many of these accounts
existed. When KPMG, the auditor, recommended DoI implement these policies,
DoI concurred. Finally, smartphones and tablets were not encrypted, which
endangered the “confidentiality and integrity of sensitive data,” the report
said. According to a June audit of the department’s mobile devices, thousands
of these unsecured phones and tablets exist without proper security
configurations. In fact, the OIG determined that DoI lacks the ability to
analyze encrypted traffic altogether, as it has no decryption device,
although it has plans to install one.
“Capabilities to analyze encrypted traffic are essential to
detect malicious content or data exfiltration that often occurs over
encrypted channels,” the report said. “This capability is especially critical
because 40 percent of DoI’s Internet-bound network traffic is encrypted.” It
wasn’t all bad news, however. The OIG report said that DoI was in compliance
of standards for multifactor authentication and software inventory. The
agency currently has no digital rights management standards because it’s not
required to under federal regulations, the report said. DoI did request funding
for DRM in its 2017 budget, but was denied. DoI said it would be in in
compliance with current NIST standards by December 2016. A pre-draft for a
new batch of NIST standards was published in February 2016 and was open to
comment until April. They are expected to be released in April of 2017.
From
http://federalnewsradio.com/
08/11/2016
TOP↑
The Top Ten
IT Security Tools for 2016 — And Why the CSO Should Care
At its Security & Risk Management Summit this week, analyst
firm Gartner Inc. outlined the top ten information security tools it feels
will most affect enterprises this year. These technologies include cloud
access security brokers, endpoint detection and response tools, security
testing for DevOps (DevSecOps), and pervasive trust services. In an opening
keynote, Toronto-based Gartner Research vice president Peter Firstbrook noted
that, from a security professional and chief security officer (CSO)
perspective, it’s more than just keeping up with the latest security trends,
it’s also about successfully developing a digital risk strategy — a “high
level business plan and smart risk assessment” — that the executive team and
board of directors can understand and sign off on.
As SaaS adoption is becoming pervasive in enterprises, security
teams are looking for greater visibility and control; tools such as cloud
access security brokers (CASBs) provide information security professionals
with a critical control point for the secure and compliant use of cloud
services across multiple cloud providers, according to Gartner. In addition,
the analyst firm noted emerging DevSecOps tools — models that incorporate
scripts, “recipes,” blueprints and templates to drive the underlying configuration
of security infrastructure — can be helpful in delivering an automated and
compliant configuration of the underlying security infrastructure based on
policy reflecting the currently deployed state of the workloads. Today’s
world is about the digital business — new business designs that incorporate
the physical and digital worlds. “In previous business models, including
e-commerce, people were the primary drivers to transactions. But in the
future, things will be transaction drivers: sensors and actuators will
interact with people and things, creating a meshed relationship,” he said.
The question is when, not if, a security threat affects the
organization, he offered. It’s about placing an emphasis on resilience and
adaptive models. It’s not about 100 per cent enterprise protection — it’s
more about being able to quickly respond to threats when they occur,
Firstbrook added. “By applying the principles of resilience to your digital
scenario, you
can enable new business opportunities and you’ll earn a place at the strategy
table,” he said. “Security and risk leaders need to keep up with current IT
trends if they are to define, achieve and maintain effective security and
risk management programs that simultaneously enable digital business
opportunities and manage risk,” noted Gartner vice-president Neil MacDonald.
The top 10 technologies for information security are:
Cloud Access Security Brokers
Endpoint Detection and Response
Nonsignature Approaches for Endpoint Prevention
User and Entity Behavioural Analytics
Microsegmentation and Flow Visibility
Security Testing for DevOps (DevSecOps)
Intelligence-Driven Security Operations
Center
Orchestration Solutions
Remote Browser
Deception
Pervasive Trust Services
From
http://www.itworldcanada.com/
06/17/2016
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Brexit Effects on Technology, Security and More
The people of the United Kingdom (UK) have voted to leave the
European Union (EU). But what does Brexit mean for technology and security
professionals around the world in the public and private sectors? In a
historic vote that stunned the world, the people of the United Kingdom (UK)
opted to leave the European Union (EU) in a referendum held this past
Thursday. The Brexit vote shocked political and economic experts who just
earlier in the week expected the UK to remain in the EU in a close
vote. “June 23rd will go down in history as our independence day,” said Nigel
Farage, the leader of the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP).
The Daily Telegraph (UK) reported this post-Brexit news:
"Britain
has a "glorious opportunity" to re-establish itself on the world
stage, Boris Johnson said, in his first comments hours after Britain voted
to leave the European Union. "The former London mayor and favourite to succeed David Cameron as
Tory leader and Prime Minister said the UK “can find our voice in the
world again. ...” The huge ramifications of the vote became immediately
apparent, as Prime Minister David Cameron announced his intent to step down
by October, and global stock markets sank dramatically. And yet, despite some
signs of economic unrest and financial upheaval, the world digested the news
in an orderly fashion. "Many people throughout the UK and the world cheered the new freedoms and
liberty that could now be restored to the United Kingdom as a result of
Brexit. I watched dozens of interviews with men and women who were delighted
with the result and felt any short-term pain (such as a drop in currency
value) was well worth it to “make Great Britain great again!”
"And yet, there are many others in the UK that feel
devastated by this vote. This CNBC article describes the viral feelings of
the majority of young people (many of whom are in tech industries around London) that had hoped
to stay in the EU and not feel betrayed. “Firstly, it was the working classes
who voted for us to leave because they were economically disregarded, and it
is they who will suffer the most in the short term. They have merely swapped
one distant and unreachable elite for another. "Secondly, the younger
generation has lost the right to live and work in 27 other countries. We will
never know the full extent of the lost opportunities, friendships, marriages
and experiences we will be denied. Freedom of movement was taken away by our
parents, uncles, and grandparents in a parting blow to a generation that was
already drowning in the debts of our predecessors.
"Thirdly and perhaps most significantly, we now live in a
post-factual democracy. When the facts met the myths they were as useless as
bullets bouncing off the bodies of aliens in an HG Wells novel. When Michael
Gove said, 'The British people are sick of experts,' he was right. But can
anybody tell me the last time a prevailing culture of anti-intellectualism
has led to anything other than bigotry?” The U.S.
news media immediately focused on Donald Trump’s words during his visit to Scotland, as
well as President Obama’s and Hillary Clinton’s reactions to Brexit. The
Huffington Post focused on how Brexit Will Fundamentally Change the Future of
Europe. “After Thursday’s vote, the UK will become the first-ever
country to leave the EU, and its absence will be noticeable.” On Friday,
Bloomberg reported that Brexit Pounds Some Technology Companies.
National Public Radio (NPR) reported this story about new
nationalist reactions to globalization that contributed to the UK vote
result. The author sees similar trends in the U.S. and rising around the world:
"This is not a unique phenomenon to the United States, and 2016 is not a short moment
that will pass," says Yascha Mounk, who teaches political theory at Harvard University and has studied the rise of
nationalist movements. "This is a real populist turn that has been
happening for the last 15 or 20 years. ..." "People feel, quite
rightly, that they have no real control over political systems — that the
political class does what it wants and it sort of ignores ordinary
people," Mounk says. "And to a large extent, that's because of the
necessities of globalization." It is also clear that many of the same
issues surrounding immigration and borders are surfacing around the world,
including the U.S.
After Brexit: Predictions and Next Steps
Before we discuss likely impacts to the tech industry around the
world, we must acknowledge that the predictions about what’s next for the United Kingdom
are all over the map. This CNBC piece described the basics of what formally
happens next after the Brexit vote, such as invoking article 50 of the Lisbon
Treaty. Some commentators believe that this vote will eventually lead to the
end of the EU. Indeed other countries will likely have their own vote, if
right-wing politicians have their way. Marine Le Pen, the leader of France's
anti-immigrant National Front party, wrote this on her Twitter account:
“Victory for Freedom! As I have been asking for years, we must now have the
same referendum in France and EU countries.” But while some predicted the
eventual end of the euro, others EU leaders called for the UK to leave
the EU as soon as possible for a speedy divorce. The EU political leaders
want to get the exit over quickly. Martin Schulz, the president of the
European parliament, told the Guardian that EU lawyers were studying whether
it was possible to speed up the triggering of article 50 of the Lisbon treaty
— the untested procedure for leaving the union. As the EU’s institutions
scrambled to respond to the bodyblow of Britain’s exit, Schulz said
uncertainty was “the opposite of what we need,” adding that it was difficult
to accept that “a whole continent is taken hostage because of an internal
fight in the Tory party.”
Technology and Cybersecurity Implications
So what impacts should technology and cybersecurity
professionals expect from the Brexit vote? Remember that even though the vote
has occurred, most legal changes could take two years or more to implement.
Wired Magazine in the UK
described how Brexit will impact the science and technology industries. I
like these points:
- Whether the UK
is able to stay in the single market will be a key point that will impact
businesses. London Mayor Sadiq Khan has said he will push for the country to
stay within the trading agreement as part of the forthcoming negotiations
between EU and the UK.
- Following the referendum result, Dame Julia Goodfellow, the
president of Universities UK — a collection 133 universities — said the body
would look to "secure opportunities" for students and researchers
to be able to access "vital pan-European programs."
- Data protection is another EU-prescribed area. A new European
Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) was passed in April after more than four
years of negotiation. The regulations, which will outline how citizens' data
is processed, is set to be implemented across the EU
in 2018.
International Business Times (IBT) reported on the potential
cyberimpacts to the workforce talent crunch, escalating cost of operations,
data sharing and privacy laws, and even the threat of a cyberattack growing.
However, I find several of these items to be overblown. For example, I think
the UK has the best
cybersecurity workforce and capabilities in the EU currently,
and it will be a larger loss for the EU cybersecurity than for the UK. The UK has the most cybersecurity companies in Europe, and their ability to assist other EU countries
may be impacted. SC Magazine UK
reported on how Tripwire conducted a poll of information security
professionals at InfoSecurity Europe 2016. Of 278 people questioned, 64
percent said that there would basically be no change as a result of an exit
vote.
ABI research wrote this summary regarding Brexit and
cybersecurity — focusing mainly on the skills shortages in cybersecurity
being impacted. Information Age asked the question: Will Brexit Cause a
Texit? They listed 10 ways the vote will affect technology.
BankInfoSecurity.com offered these 5 Cybersecurity Implications to Brexit. I
certainly agree that these are the right areas to focus on in the coming
months and years ahead. However, I am not as sure as this author seems to be
that the UK
will struggle in these areas as described. For example, I have a hard time
believing that cybersecurity intelligence will be significantly derailed. The
EU will also miss the UK
in cyber, so I expect close cooperation to continue on cybercrime. Computerweekly
UK
warned that Brexit will not save you from the EU data protection rules. “UK businesses
offering services to EU citizens — regardless of whether they hold any data
in the EU — will have to adopt more stringent rules than the ones currently
imposed by the UK Data Protection Act. Otherwise trade — via personal data
flows — with Europe is off the table.”
My Thoughts on Brexit and Technology Security
Back in May, I wrote this blog with seven reasons you should
care about Brexit, describing why this topic is important to Americans —
including our tech and security implications. This Brexit focus from Norton
Rose Fulbright offers more details on several of my seven points. I think it
is very important to watch the developments throughout the EU and the UK
negotiations over the next two years in order to grasp what will truly happen
regarding technology and security. As the dust and hysteria settle on both
sides, some of the basic questions will be answered, such as:
- Will the UK
remain in the free-trading bloc?
- What EU regulations (including data and privacy) will still
apply in the UK?
- What actions will tech companies in the UK need to
take to placate EY customers?
- What other EU member states will leave (such as Nexit, Frexit
or Italeave)?
For more immediate computer impacts, I urge end users around the
world to be on the lookout for scams, phishing attempts and websites that
take advantage of the Brexit confusion to trick people into taking foolish
actions related to Brexit and surrounding issues. My advice: reread this pieces on phishing, spear-phishing and whaling — with
a special attention given to anything related to Brexit, EU, UK
and related content. The bad guys always thrive with tricky phish in times of
confusion, when people will break out of normal patters and click on new
content, so know who you trust online. Remember that these scams can come via
phone, email, fax, text or social media message. Finally, I am excited for my
friends in the UK
as they start down this new road to the future. As I mentioned in May, my
family lived in the UK
for almost seven years in the 1990s, and we love that country in so many
ways. The UK people have
spoken, and I have high hopes for my many friends in the UK. I leave
you with this quote from Abraham Lincoln: “The best thing about the future is
that it comes one day at a time.”
From
http://www.govtech.com/
06/26/2016
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CHINA:
World-class Cyber-tech Multinationals Eyed
China aims to
develop a number of cyber-tech multinationals by 2025, according to an
official statement on Wednesday. The "Outline of National IT Development
Strategy" will steer IT development in China for the next decade. By
2020, key technologies should be up to world standards, competitiveness of
the industry must increase substantially and IT development will be a driving
force for modernization. By 2025, a leading global mobile communication
network will be in place, ridding the country of reliance on overseas
technology. Cyber security must be vastly improved, and a number of globally
competitive multinational companies will be established. The plan makes
strengthening IT development capacity, promoting wider use of IT and
optimizing the IT development environment the three basic strategic missions.
The plan emphasizes unified control of Internet security and informatization
under a leading group which will approve major policy decisions.
From http://www.news.cn/
07/27/2016
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Chinese Team Shows Strength in Int'l Network Security
Competition
A Chinese team showed strength in the first ultimate showdown of
man vs machine in network security, which was held here this weekend at the
world's biggest top-level hacking conference DEF CON. At this year's DEF
CON's Capture the Flag (CTF) competition, widely considered as the
"World Series of Hacking," top human hacker teams challenged not
only each other, but the supercomputer system dubbed "Mayhem,"
which defeated all other machine opponents at the world's first all-machine
hacking tournament, the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
(DARPA)'s Cyber Grand Challenge (CGC), just days earlier. During the
"historic event," China's
only qualified team b1o0ps, a combination of Blue Lotus and o0ps, defeated
the defending champion, the South Korea-based DEFKOR and ultimately ranked
second place in all teams with a slight score gap behind the U.S.-based PPP,
which won its third title in four years. This is the highest ever placing of
a Chinese cyber security team at the competition. "The first computer
engineering capture the flag," DEF CON announced at the closing ceremony
on Sunday night. "At any point this weekend an autonomous computer
system was beating our teams. The raw scores will be coming in the coming
weeks and the exploit rules and catches that our team created."
According to DARPA, the engagement of autonomous systems in such
a tournament aims to revolutionize software vulnerability detection and
patching. It is "the first-ever inclusion of a mechanical contestant in
that event, and could presage the day when, as eventually happened with chess
and Jeopardy!, a computer proves to be the Grand
Master of cyber defense," the research wing of the U.S. military
said in a statement. CTF is one of the most popular hacking competitions in
the world. The head-to-head, networked competition is a race to find,
diagnose and fix software flaws in real time in an adversarial environment.
At the end of the game, the competitor with the most points wins. Among all
such competitions worldwide, DEF CON's hallmark CTF brings together teams of
some of the best hackers in the world to compete. Fifteen teams representing
at least 10 countries qualified for this year's contest. "Just in the
past few years, we have seen an exponential increase in both quality and
quantity in cyber security research from China at both top academic and industrial
conferences," Kang Li, the founder of Disket, one of the seven DARPA CGC
finalist teams and professor of Computer Science at the University of
Georgia, told Xinhua.
Li has played CTF and attended DEF CON for about 15 years.
"As a senior DEF CON goer and a pioneer of CTF players, I am happy to
see the hacking spirit spreading to the world," he said. The number of
Chinese netizens has now soared to 668 million. With the largest group of
Internet users in the world, China
is facing an increasing amount of cyber security challenges as well. The
fast-growing mobile app market has seen a boom in malicious cyber attacks,
online malware and security breaches. Over the past couple of years, China's cyber security experts have been
frequent speakers at the annual world hacking conventions BlackHat and DEF
CON, which attract prominent cyber security experts and hackers from all over
the world and even officials from the U.S. government. Before this
year's DEF CON CTF competition, Chinese search engine giant Baidu even
brought a drones formation performance to show
respect for the two top-level world hacking conventions, held in Las Vegas from July 30
to Aug. 7.
From http://www.news.cn/ 08/10/2016
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JAPAN: Cyberthreats at Institutions Hit Record 6.13
Million in Fiscal 2015
The number of cyberthreats including cyberattacks and suspicious
log-ins at government agencies and affiliated institutions reached a record
high of 6.13 million in fiscal 2015, a report by a government panel showed
Monday. The figure for the year that ended in March was up 50 percent from a
year earlier when about 3.99 million cyberthreat incidents took place,
according to the annual report on cybersecurity, which was finalized at a
meeting of the Cyber Security Strategy Headquarters in the Prime Minister’s
Office. Cyberthreats aimed at Japan
are growing in severity, the report said. In the meeting, the panel, headed
by Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, also adopted its annual
cybersecurity plan for fiscal 2016. Through the setting up of a Group of
Seven working group on cybersecurity, as agreed at the G-7 summit in Mie Prefecture
last month, Japan
will strengthen practical cooperation with other G-7 countries, the plan
said. Also, effective cybersecurity drills will be conducted, it said. “We
will especially work on creating new industries, improving the business
environment to nurture human resources, strengthening measures to protect key
infrastructure, and deepening international cooperation,” Suga told the
meeting.
From
http://www.japantimes.co.jp
06/13/2016
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JTB
Hack Underscores Need for Revamp of Cybersecurity in Japan
A massive data breach at Japan’s largest travel agency has
underscored the risks companies face when they keep sensitive data on
networks connected to the internet, experts say. Some warn government systems
are especially vulnerable to state-sponsored attack, including by China and North Korea. JTB Corp. said
Tuesday hackers may have obtained the passport details and other records of
7.93 million customers after a subsidiary’s server was hacked in April. On
Wednesday, the government-backed Japan Tourism Agency faulted JTB for keeping
personal information on a machine reachable from the global internet.
Japanese firms and government agencies should consider isolating their
networks, said Vitaly Kamluk, Principal Security Researcher at Kaspersky Lab
in Singapore.
“We have reported many cyberattacks against Japan, including those which
targeted defense contractors and government,” Kamluk said.
“One approach to tighten up defense is to segregate networks and
to isolate state computers from the rest of the world.” Singapore
will cut internet access to the computers of all government employees from
May next year, the nation’s prime minister said last week. The extent of Singapore’s
switching off is unclear but an extreme version is banning people from using
memory sticks as well as removing the internet connection. Outside attackers
need considerable effort to extract data from such computers, although they
are less usable for daily tasks. Investigative sources in the JTB case told
Kyodo News on Thursday the breach began when a worker opened a virus-infected
email attachment that purported to be a booking request sent by All Nippon
Airways Co. Cybersecurity experts in Japan have praised efforts by the
Information-technology Promotion Agency to tighten safeguards. It has
recently issued guidelines on password security and begun to issue
regulations that companies must adhere to.
“These are great steps,” said Paul S. Ziegler, CEO of
Tokyo-based cybersecurity firm Reflare. “Most of it is happening in the
context of the 2020 Olympics, where Japan wants to be prepared, so companies
are picking up on that. “While most of them still don’t understand what
security is, and they cannot be blamed for that because security is a very
complex field, what they do understand is compliance and regulations.” While
regulatory restrictions cannot ensure total security, some analysts say
stronger rules could reduce flat-footedness by companies when they fall
victim. Education services company Benesse Corp. failed to notice when an
insider began copying millions of customer records to his smartphone. The
2014 incident, which affected almost 29 million people, was Japan’s
largest reported data breach. And in the JTB case, the travel agency
discovered the break-in on April 1 but waited two months to announce it.
“Reporting guidelines are weak. They’re vague. We now have some in Japan, but
it’s an evolving concept,” Ziegler said.
Meanwhile, a cyberintrusion into the computers of the U.S.
Democratic National Convention, announced Tuesday, has thrown a new focus on
the threat from state-sponsored attacks. Two apparently rival hacking teams
were identified in the breach, both believed to be based in Russia. “The
fact that two known, Russian-speaking cyberespionage groups were found in the
network of one organization is particularly intriguing,” said Costin Raiu,
director of Kaspersky Lab’s global research team in Moscow. “The CozyDuke and Sofacy groups are
both considered to be nation-state sponsored, and the fact that they’re both
hunting for data in the same network may indicate that there is an element of
competition between them.” Ziegler said Japan should be especially alert
to attacks of this kind because of animosity from its neighbors. “Japan faces unique threats coming from North Korea and China,
which usually would only target Europe for industrial espionage, but which
have cultural or historical reasons to target Japan for more complex attacks,”
he said.
From
http://www.japantimes.co.jp
06/16/2016
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Hacking
of Students’ Data Calls for Review of Info Management System
It appears risk awareness about the possibility of cyber-attacks
was insufficient. The Metropolitan Police Department has arrested a
17-year-old unemployed boy suspected of accessing personal data, including
that of students, by hacking into the education information system of Saga Prefecture.
The boy is suspected of violating the Law on Prohibition of Unauthorized
Computer Access. About 210,000 files obtained from this system have been
found on the boy’s computer. The files contain personal data on more than
10,000 students from several prefectural high schools, such as their report
cards, family structure and contact details. This represents the extraction
of a massive amount of information that should have been strictly managed.
People close to this incident must face the situation head-on and take every
step possible to prevent a recurrence.
Since the 2013 academic year, Saga Prefecture
has been using a system that connects the prefectural board of education,
public schools and students. The suspect apparently used a hacking program he
developed himself and acquired information that ordinarily could only be
browsed by teachers.
While the boy possessed a high level of knowledge about
information technology, it is a serious fact that a public system had weak
points leaving it vulnerable to a cyber-attack. The prefectural government
and system developers cannot evade their responsibility for this. There were
also problems regarding system management. The boy logged into the system
using IDs of real students. He also broke into in-house networks of several
schools. Files containing IDs for system administrators were kept here so
users can browse through them. He is suspected of misusing these IDs. How
this system is run should be reviewed to ensure information contained within
it is properly secured. With the Education, Culture, Sports, Science and
Technology Ministry and others as chief advocates, efforts are being made to
spread information and communications technology at education facilities
across the nation. By the end of the last school year, the majority of public
primary, middle and high schools, and schools for special-needs education,
had completed installing their own wireless LAN (local area network) systems
inside the schools. The “school administration support system” that was
targeted in this case was adopted along this process.
Consolidating information such as students’ grades on a server
instead of compiling hand-written reports reduces the burden on teachers. It
can also prevent information leakage from carrying around recording media and
writing errors when handed over to another teacher. More than 80 percent of
public schools across Japan
have introduced similar systems. However, each system is established through
an individual contract between the local government and the system operator,
so the education ministry and other authorities have not yet grasped the full
picture of the situation on the ground. Because expert knowledge is required
for measures to combat cyber-attacks, local governments cannot take the
initiative in implementing such measures but instead have no option but to
leave this to the operators. Being careless with security due to the hasty
introduction of such a system will do more harm than good. The education
ministry must quickly gauge the actual situation and once again present
guidelines for the appropriate running of such systems.
From
http://the-japan-news.com
07/01/2016
TOP↑
Govt
to Protect Source Code in Economic Deals
The government has decided to include stipulations on protecting
the confidential data of software in future economic deals it signs, aiming
to curb China
and other countries that have requested such data from companies, sources
say. The government intends to address the issue in economic partnership
agreements and investment agreements when it signs them with other countries
and regions, as advanced technologies such as the internet of things (IoT)
and artificial intelligence play an ever-growing role. At Monday’s meeting of
World Trade Organization member countries in Geneva, Japan
was to propose that rules be established to prohibit WTO countries from
making requests to divulge source code. The government ultimately aims to
create a pact among countries and regions in favor of the idea. The
Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade agreement — which was officially signed
in February by Japan, the United States
and 10 other countries — prohibits signatories in principle from requesting
private companies to disclose source code.
Revealing source code may leak a software creator’s critical
development know-how, which could not only threaten the intellectual property
of developers, but also make it possible to remotely control devices
connected to the internet. Japan
aims to include similar stipulations to those under the TPP in economic deals
with other countries and regions. The government has been discussing the
issue in talks with Colombia
and the European Union over economic partnership agreements, and also plans
to deal with it during negotiations on investment agreements with Ghana, Morocco
and Tanzania.
The move has been driven by China,
which has made requests that foreign countries operating in the country
disclose source code for information-related and other products, citing
security checks among other reasons. It has been reported that Russia and
some developing countries have made similar requests.
From
http://the-japan-news.com
07/25/2016
TOP↑
SOUTH
KOREA:
Hacking Attack Paralyzes Air Force Homepage
The Web site for the South Korean Air Force has been paralyzed
for the 13th day on Wednesday due to a hacking attack. An Air Force official
told reporters on Wednesday that malicious codes have been detected from its
homepage on May 12th, and a temporary Web site is now in place for
recruitment and other services. While officials are analyzing the
malicious code, the military blocked access to the main site to prevent
further damage. Seoul
military officials suspect the hackers sought information on air force
officials or tried to make the air force computers as hosts for the malware,
otherwise known as "Zombie PCs." The South Korean Air Force
said that its internet server is separate from its intranet where classified
information can be accessed. A military official told reporters that it is
unlikely North Korea
is behind the current attack.
From
http://world.kbs.co.kr/
05/25/2016
TOP↑
Korean
Cyber Networks Vulnerable to Ransomware Attacks
South
Korea has become a main
target of various types of ransomware attacks but it is struggling to find
effective countermeasures, industry officials here said Wednesday. Local
computer users are increasingly susceptible to such malware, some even using
the Korean language. The Korean-language cryptXXX file, which seeks bitcoin,
was reported last week and is a more sophisticated scam than the Korean
versions of CryptoLocker and Radamant ransomware that infected a number of
PCs in 2015. Ransomware, if installed, restricts access to computer systems
and demands a computer user pay a ransom in return for removing it. That's
why ransomware is often called a "cyber hostage-taker." "It's
believed that ransomeware attackers, operating across the world, have begun
to recognize South Korea
as a target," Choi Sang-myong, a senior official at Hauri Inc., said.
"Chances are high that Korean versions of ransomware will further
spread." According to another local cybersecurity firm, Symantec Corp.,
the number of ransomware cases reported in South Korea last year reached
4,400. FireEye Inc. also said that ransomware attacks on South Korean firms
jumped around 22 times in March from October last year. The sharp increase is
apparently attributed to the spread of bitcoin use in cyberspace. Born in
2009, transactions using bitcoin is hard to trace. The problem is that there
is no solution yet to the elaborate and sophisticated ransomware assaults.
Cybersecurity companies point out that it's best to prevent the infection of
ransomware. "The best way is to back up data frequently," an
industry official said, advising computer users not to open suspicious files.
From
http://www.koreaherald.com
06/01/2016
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KT
Unveils Self-Developed ICT Solutions for Maritime Safety
Korea’s
second-largest network operator KT unveiled a range of new ICT-based solutions
and technologies Tuesday geared at improving maritime security. The telecom
firm’s standout technologies include a Long-Term Evolution network able to
cover remote locations, as far as 200 kilometers away from land, a life
jacket that can be tracked via Internet of Things technology and the creation
of a new network designed for IoT devices. The company decided to develop the
solutions to protect people from accidents at sea, as Korea has
been subject to a growing number of maritime accidents for the past few
years, according to Oh Sung-mok, vice president of KT’s network division.
“Last year, Korea, a country surrounded by sea on three sides, saw around 900
maritime accidents during which some 2,000 people died,“ Oh said during a
ceremony held Tuesday in Seoul to introduce KT’s new technologies. “In light
of the growing importance of maritime safety, KT has developed a number of
ICT solutions to protect people from such accidents at sea,” he said. KT’s
most notable technology is its patented LTE Time Advance network, which
depends on a set of horizontally distributed antennas to quadruple the
network coverage distance from a given base station to a mobile device to 200
kilometers, compared to 50 kilometers for conventional LTE networks.
The new network technology grants those far from land, such as ocean research
stations, access to fast and stable internet via KT’s LTE network, the firm
said. “We believe 200km
is the farthest network coverage ever reached by a telecom company. We plan
to export this technology in the future as it may be useful in other
countries,” Oh told reporters. The Korean network operator has also teamed up
with materials and fashion firm Kolon Industries to develop an IoT-based life
jacket that can help track down people and aid rescue missions in the case of
maritime accidents. When a jacket wearer falls into the water, a water
pressure sensor detects the change and inflates a rescue tube. The IoT module
inside the jacket also sends key information about the wearer’s physical
condition to the rescue center, KT said. “We will cooperate with the Ministry
of Oceans and Fisheries to distribute our jackets to local fishermen in the
near future,” Oh said. Looking ahead, KT is planning to commercialize a
specialized network designed for IoT as well — the Narrow-Band IoT that
transmits data from devices to its existing LTE networks at low speeds and
low power.
From
http://www.koreaherald.com/
07/05/2016
TOP↑
Pres.
Park Calls for Strengthened Information Protection Capability
President Park Geun-hye says the task of building a country safe
from cybercrimes is becoming increasingly important amid a continued surge in
such offenses that infringe on personal and corporate interests. The
president made the remark on Wednesday through a video message sent to a
ceremony in Seoul
marking the nation’s fifth Information Security Day. She said various
risk factors that had existed only within cyberspace are now spreading to
industrial fields and affecting the daily lives of citizens. Park
stressed the need to strengthen society’s overall cyber response system and
information protection capability. She added that through active investment and
fostering of experts, a new security market must be created to nurture
information security industries and turn them into next-generation growth
engines.
From
http://world.kbs.co.kr
07/13/2016
TOP↑
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THAILAND: PromptPay Has Its Pluses, but People Must
Have a Choice
PromptPay, formerly known as “ANY ID”, which is part of Thailand’s
planned e-Payment system, has raised concerns among Thais about security and
privacy since it was announced two weeks ago. PromptPay is a system for money
transfer that ties ID numbers or/and mobile phone numbers with bank accounts
so that transferees can use any of their numbers instead of bank account
numbers to transfer money. There
will also be no transaction fee it the amount does not exceed Bt5,000. The fee is capped at a maximum of Bt10 per
transaction if the amount transferred exceeds Bt100,000,
even if the transactions are executed between different banks or different
zones. Currently, customers are charged Bt25 per transaction for transfer of
money to accounts in a different bank or in different zones irrespective of
the amount. Even transferring Bt100 would entail a transaction fee of Bt25.
The new plan looks good. So why are so many people sceptical even if the
authorities have explained that the system is safe as it was developed as an
extension of the current money transfer system we are using in daily life?
Some experts in the IT and computer technology field pointed out
that the kind of risks we could face when using "PromptPay" should
be the same as in the current system, where money transfers can be done via
bank branches, ATM, mobile banking or Internet banking. There is no denying the government's
good intention in creating a central financial transferring system that will
possibly be connected to other things in the future, making people's living
more convenient at a lower cost. In additional, the government can manage its
tax collection more effectively. Authorities and banks argue that the ID
number is already commonly used when people want to open a new bank account or
make any transactions at banks. PromptPay, which is now being opened for
registration and will take effect in October, at the first stage will only
facilitate money transfer from others, and cannot be used for transferring or
paying money to the others. Another argument is that PromptPay users do not
need to worry about security. But the key area of vulnerability is the
13-digit "ID" number, which will be tied with the bank account
under the PromptPay system.
How can one be sure there will be no abuse of information by any
government official? At many press conferences addressed made by the
authorities, it has been revealed that PromptPay would be used by the
government to pay for social welfare and money assistance and the number will
tie the bank account with the ID number. Why should the ID number not be just
a choice? Moreover, any banks that jointly provide the PromptPay service
should make clear about the dispute process and disclaimers. The banks must
be required to ask clients every time they offer them additional services
relating to PromptPay. For example, those clients who accept the PromptPay
service at the first stage, where they are recipients of money transferred
does not mean they accept all PromptPay services. If the banks, in the next
step, offer "request to pay" or "RPP" service by which
the users can transfer money out of their bank accounts to others, they
should be required to ask their clients first. What we saw perhaps is not
what we got. A larger number of e-money transactions does not necessarily
mean it's okay for all Thai people to embrace the
PromptPay system. Given that the government's public relations effort on this
issue is weak, many people with lower levels of digital literacy are usually
gullible. And this might be an impediment to move the country towards a
digital economy.
From
http://www.nationmultimedia.com/
07/15/2016
TOP↑
Fingerprint
Scanning to Curb Mobile-Banking Fraud
FINGERPRINT scanning will be introduced by the end of this year
to provide more protection for consumers using mobile phones to conduct money
transactions, the National Broadcasting and Telecommunica-tions Commission
(NBTC) said yesterday. NBTC secretary-general Thakorn Tantasith said a team
would be set up to look into the case involving True Corp, which has been
asked to compensate a customer who lost nearly Bt1 million from |his bank
account due to a mix-up |by the cellular operator. Thakorn said his office
would have an urgent letter sent to warn all mobile phone operators to
strictly check the identity of customers who asked for new SIM cards for
their current numbers. He said fingerprint scanning software would be used
soon to protect consumers who use their mobile phones to do bank
transactions. "We will have a public forum about this idea soon so it
could be implemented by the end of this year." Shop-owner Phansutee
Meeleukij found out on July 31 that soon after his cellphone service was cut
off, someone used Internet banking to withdraw Bt986,700
from his Kasikornbank account.
An investigation revealed that the person had modified a copy of
Phansutee's ID card to get another SIM card from a True branch to receive the
one-time password needed for an online transaction. Phansutee complained and
eventually received all of his money back from Kasikornbank. True Corporation
executive Chakkrit Urairat said that there were cases of people losing their
SIM cards and asking for new ones on a daily basis. But the process required the
applicants to present original ID cards. He said the case of Phansutee would
be used as cautionary tale for the company to be stricter. Atchariya
Rungrattanapong, president of the Club for Justice Under Investigation, said
the request for a new SIM card for mobile phone numbers in current-use should
require an original copy of a person's ID card - not just a photocopy that
the culprit in this case used.
"I also want to warn people that the barcodes on people's ID
cards could be scanned by a smartphone application for the 13-digit numbers,
so people should be careful," he said.
From
http://www.nationmultimedia.com/
08/23/2016
TOP↑
Six
Charged Over Alleged Bt986,700 Online Theft
AYUTTHAYA police
yesterday paraded six Ratchaburi-based suspects arrested for allegedly luring
a car accessory shop owner to supply information that they used to steal
Bt986,700 from his Kasikornbank account in online
transactions. Suspects Ekkapoj Rattanakorn, 29, Pattanarossapong Kansit, 33,
three 18-year-old accomplices and one 17-year-old youth were presented at a
press conference in the province by Ayutthaya
police chief Pol Maj-General Sutthi Poungpikul. Police said the six used
information provided by shop owner Phansutee Meeleukij, 28, to get another
SIM card for his cellphone to make the transactions. Five cellphones seized
as evidence were also displayed yesterday. The six initially faced charges of
conspiring to commit theft and document forgery in relation to Phansutee's
case, in which the suspects allegedly split the money.
Plan for fingerprinting
Police also said the gang allegedly had carried out similar
scams on eight previous occasions in various provinces. The case came to
light after Phansutee filed a police complaint at the Phra Nakhon Sri
Ayutthaya Police Station on July 31, claiming that someone had used his
Internet banking logon to steal money from his account after his mobile
service was cut off. An
investigation found that a suspect had modified a copy of Phansutee's ID
card, which was then used at a True branch office to apply for a replacement
SIM card using Pansuthee's current phone number. The SIM then enabled him to
receive a one-time password needed for an online transaction. Phansutee's
complaint led to Kasikornbank returning his money, a demand that True Corp
compensate him over the mix-up about the SIM card and a National Broadcasting
and Telecommunications Commission plan to introduce fingerprint scanning
software by the end of the year to protect consumers who use mobile phones to
carry out bank transactions. Phansutee, who attended the press conference to
identify the suspects yesterday, also presented a flower basket to police
thanking them for their swift action in arresting the gang.
From
http://www.nationmultimedia.com/
08/26/2016
TOP↑
Thai
State-Run Bank to Install Anti-Malware Program After ATM Hack
Thai Government Savings Bank (GSB) Sunday disclosed its teller
machines will be equipped with an anti-malware program and back to normal
operation in September after the bank suffered an ATM hack. GSB chief
executive officer Chatchai Payuhanaveechai said the Scottish company NCR, the
bank's ATM vendor, has upgraded a program to protect ATMs from malware virus,
which is also the first in Asia-Pacific, will be installed at the existing
ATMs manufactured by NCR. He added that 60 teams of computer programmers are
to be despatched to install the program at a rate of 200 ATMs a day. The
state-owned GSB shut down approximately 3,000 of their ATMs following an
ongoing police investigation into the recent hack in which hackers,
identified as an eastern European gang, were able to infect many its cash
machines with malware. GSB found that millions of Thailand Baht were stolen
between Aug. 1 and 8 from 21 ATMs across the six provinces including Bangkok and Phuket. The
hackers made over 12.29 Million Thailand Baht (US$346,000) by inserting cards
installed with malware into multiple ATMs to spew out cash, up to 40,000 Baht
each transaction. The bank plans to install an addition of 1,000 new ATMs of
different brands namely Omron and Wincor to serve the needs of customers in
places where the services are not available.
From
http://news.xinhuanet.com/
08/22/2016
TOP↑
VIETNAM: SBV Warns of Online Fraud
The State Bank of Việt Nam has warned people using
online banking services to be vigilant since many frauds have occurred
recently. Customers should follow banks’guidance and regulations and pay more
attention to certain security measures, it said. Firstly, they must keep
information about online banking services like username, password and
one-time-password secure, not revealing them to anyone, even bank staff,
through telephone, email or social network. Secondly, they should protect
their mobile phone and other devices used for online banking by installing
anti-malware software and using password or fingerprint authentication.
Thirdly, the passwords should not be easy to guess or saved for the next
transaction and should be changed often. Fourthly, customers should not use
public computers or wifi to access online banking services. Fifthly,
customers should directly type the bank’s URL instead of choosing links.
“Criminals often take advantage of customers’ credulity and carelessness to
steal individual information and then take money from their banking account,”
an SBV spokesperson said.
There are three common methods of fraud. The first is a phishing
attack. Criminals set up a fake website that looks like a bank or e-commerce
website and send an email to people asking them to log into the fake website
for some normal transaction like checking the account balance or changing the
password. If a customer does it, their private information is stolen. The
second is social engineering. Criminals make a phone call or send a message
to people claiming to have won a big prize or pretending to be their relatives
or friends and asking them to provide information about their bank account,
card or OTP. The third is malware attack by persuading people to enter into
fake websites or email messages that include malware. The malware will then
worm into that person’s computer or smart phone and send all private and
secured information to criminals. Earlier this month a Vietcombank customer
in Hà Nội lost VNĐ500 million
(US$22,500) from her banking account. The bank managed to retrieve VNĐ300 million ($13,550), but the woman lost the
remaining VNĐ200 million ($8,950).
Soon afterwards banks informed customers about the fraud and reminded them to
keep information secure and not provide any information through telephone,
email, social networks or unknown links. Yet, another person in HCM City
was duped into providing OTP information and lost money.
Vietcombank tightens OTP service security
The Joint Stock Commercial Bank for Foreign Trade of Việt Nam
(Vietcombank) on August 16 announced on its official website changes to activation
methods of smart OTP services. The changes to smart OTP services are aimed at
improving security. Accordingly, customers who have already used smart OTP
and wish to continue using the services on their existing devices must
re-activate the service via Vietcombank’s Internet banking service. Those who
have not registered for smart OTP services or those wanting to change their
devices, will have to go to Vietcombank branches to register and get the
service activated. OTP subscribers are encouraged to download the latest
smart OTP application from Google Play Store and Apple Store. Further
investigations are ongoing. Banks also urged customers to be alert against
cyber-attacks.
From
http://vietnamnews.vn/
08/20/2016
TOP↑
Việt Nam Network
Security Up for Review
Many international technology corporations are offering to
review businesses’ network security after Vietnam Airlines was hacked
recently. CMC Telecom, a distributor for many multinational technology
corporations like IBM, Cisco, Dell, Microsoft, Oracle, EMC, Diebold, VmWare,
will soon help companies review security gaps in their information technology
administration and suggest ways to protect themselves from network attacks.
“We will provide professional information about network security for
businesses and comprehensive methods to protect their database, applications
and information technology infrastructure,” Đặng Tùng Sơn, deputy director of CMC Telecom, told Đầu tư (Việt Nam Investment Review) newspaper.
He revealed that free software on the internet not from prestigious companies
often contain viruses and malware, and is the best place for hackers to enter
businesses’ systems. A recent survey found that businesses using such software
lose 73 per cent of their database and recover less than half, he claimed.
Besides, the possibility of affected companies spreading the
viruses to their partners and customers is big, he said. “Using software
without copyright quickly spreads viruses and malware to the community.” Vũ
Minh Trí, general director of Microsoft Việt Nam, said businesses should
improve their awareness of copyright-protected software. “Only by using
copyright-protected software can business’ database and information get the
best protection against viruses and malware.” Security experts said spending
on IT systems should be considered a long-term investment that can increase
businesses’ technological strength and raise their prestige and partners and
customers’ trust in them. Many Vietnamese businesses, like many others in the
world, cannot build a comprehensive IT protection system by themselves
because of limited technology and lack of skilled human resources. “It is
time for the Vietnamese business community to think about how to properly
invest in IT systems,” Trí said. “The most important task right now is
ensuring safety for IT systems, improving protection before more
sophisticated network attacks occur.” According to a recent report by Russia’s Kaspersky Lab, Việt Nam ranks
third in the world in terms of threats when accessing the internet, with 35
per cent of users having been attacked. According to statistics from the Việt
Nam Computer Emergency Response Teams, Việt Nam suffered 31,500 network
attacks last year.
From
http://vietnamnews.vn/
08/26/2016
TOP↑
Growing
Demand for IT Security Experts
Demand for IT security experts is increasing while there is
already a short supply, resulting in increasing cyber attacks around the
world. According to a recent report by Russian cyber security company
Kaspersky Lab, large businesses that struggle to find sufficiently skilled IT
security experts end up paying up to three times more to recover from a cyber
security incident. Citing the complexity of IT infrastructure, compliance
requirements and the overall desire to protect business assets, it said
companies are highly motivated to grow their security intelligence. For a
third of businesses, the improvement of security expertise is one of the top
three drivers for additional investment in IT security. The growing demand is
not easy to meet due to a shortage of specialists and increasingly complex
requirements. The report quotes Kaspersky Lab’s security experts as saying
that the need for security managers is even more substantial. On top of deep
technical knowledge, managers’duties include
communication with top management and overseeing the overall strategy –
qualities that are especially important, and in fact, more appropriate, for
large companies.
The report adds a final touch to the bigger picture of talent
shortage with education challenges. Higher education institutions recognise
the need to revise their programmes, and at the same time acknowledge the
challenge of embedding security-oriented thinking into a wide variety of IT
courses. Overall, 68.5 per cent of companies expect an increase in the number
of full-time security experts, with 18.9 per cent expecting a significant
increase in headcount. Higher education is an important part of fulfilling
such a demand, but this is also a call for a change within the security
industry itself. Another solution is to adapt R&D efforts towards the
effective sharing of intelligence with corporate customers in the form of
threat data feeds, security training and services. Businesses and
organisations need to quickly build a long-term strategy for IT security
manpower if they do not want to be hacked easily as has been happening in
recent times, experts said.
From
http://vietnamnews.vn/
08/26/2016
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INDIA: Emerging Digital
Landscape Pushing Data Privacy Quest
As the global IT hub involving data processing from countries
with stricter data privacy regime, and with increasingly digitally connected
citizens, India needs to have well- defined privacy laws, says Srinivas Poosarla, VP & Head
(Global), Privacy & Data Protection, Infosys Ltd, in an interaction
with Arpit Gupta of Elets News Network (ENN). In India, data
privacy becomes important from two broad perspectives. Firstly, it is
reasonable to assume that every Indian, particularly those part of the
rapidly growing digital ecosystem, would expect some degree of privacy to
avoid being victims of identity theft, nuisance calls, profiling, and other
harm caused by improper handling of their personal information.Secondly, data
privacy is a key enabler for growth of the Indian IT industry, much of which
caters to clients from those parts of the world having stricter data privacy
regime. Today, while privacy obligations are imposed on Indian IT
organisations indirectly through contractual means, the new GDPR (General
Data Protection Regulation) adopted by EU (European Union) is expected to
make data processors handling EU citizens’ personal data directly liable,
even for entities outside the EU. Moreover, most opera- Indian IT and other
industry, which have global operations, are headquartered in India where
bulk of the enterprise data processing , such as
payroll, HR and marketing operations, happens.
This requires that such data acquired from clients, employees, vendors etc.,
from various parts of the world are processed in regulaIndia according to
data privacy regulations of the applicable countries. Yes, Privacy is
different from security – it is about giving choice or information to
individuals on data being collected about them, how it will be used and
protected, with whom it will be shared, etc. Security, on the other hand, is
about CIA (confidentiality, integrity and availability) for not only personal
data but any type of information that an organisation may process. But, both
are equally important. With emerging
technologies, such as IoT and Big Data, and the proportionate rise in the
threat landscape, what are the challenges and solutions to meet the security
and privacy needs? In traditional IT systems and Internet
applications, personal data is exchanged between a user and a service
provider, such as a bank, e-commerce store, etc., and data processing is
based on an agreement called privacy notice or consent. Depending on the
exact choice exercised by a user, data processing must be restricted to only agreed purposes. However, for applications, such as Big
Data solutions and Smart Cities, with data sharing across entities, newer
threats will get introduced for various use cases, which need to be mitigated
by appropriate methods, and tools such as differential privacy, data
obfuscation, etc. But we also need regulations and industry standards to
ensure adoption of such measures by the industry.
How are you contributing to shaping up
standards on data privacy?
For data privacy, regulations are essential to bring accountability on
organizations, but they cannot specify how organizations can design,
develop and manage their. products and processes on
personal data. Moreover, it is difficult for regulations to keep pace with
emerging technologies, such as IoT, Big Data, etc. which have significant
impact on data privacy. This is where standards play a key role. IoT is one
of the focus areas and is expected to immensely benefit the consumers
and society at large. It also has a high potential to introduce newer privacy
and security threats, if adequate safeguards are not deployed. Some of the
key privacy considerations identified in IoT are aspects such as: The need to
uniquely attribute a “thing” to an individual, particularly in multi-user
applications such as a home thermostat or connected cars. Capture and
management of privacy choices where multiple stakeholders are involved such
as device manufacturer, util- ity service providers, ISP, and other actors.
Authentication of a data subject when a device is not in physical proximity
to the user. De-identifying a “thing” when its ownership changes or it is lost/damaged. Data sharing without consent for
intrusive purposes that offer business benefits to one or more of stakeholders
in IoT ecosystem.
Following deliberations at the SC27 meeting in Tampa in April 2016, it was decided to
grant a one-year study period to examine this in-depth and come out with
findings, including the need for standards. As a designated expert in ISO
Committee on Security & Privacy, I was assigned the task to study
this, along with a senior expert from South Korea, and obtain inputs
from other international bodies and groups. Is there a scope for more organisations other than DSCI and Nasscom to support
initiatives on strengthening data privacy environment in India?
Today the only privacy regulation we have, apart from few provisions in some
sectoral laws, is the IT Rules 2011 from Section 43A of the IT Act, which is also not as
comprehensive, and hence this gap needs to be filled on priority. Needless to
mention, such privacy regulation must be drafted keeping in view the unique
cultural and demographic needs of India, while emulating best
practices from other countries’ experiences. This will not only alleviate the
privacy concerns of citizens, but also help Indian industry use it as a
market differentiator. This cannot be achieved without contribution from
stakeholders from all sections of the community – industry and public bodies,
civil society organisations and individual experts. Today DSCI is one
organisation which pro- motes data protection among the Indian industry and
works closely with the relevant government departments to bridge the gap. But
we need greater participation from law schools, human rights and consumer
organisations. Data privacy should no longer be the focus area for only IT
and outsourcing industry, but for all kinds of organ- isations, government
bodies and citizens.
From
http://egov.eletsonline.com/ 05/25/2016
TOP↑
India, U.S. to
Enhance Cooperation in Cybersecurity
WASHINGTON: India and
the U.S.
stressed on cooperation on cyber issues, including to
promote closer cooperation between their law enforcement
agencies to combat cybercrime and also to share information on a real time on
malicious cybersecurity threats and establish appropriate mechanisms to
improve such information sharing. A fact sheet on the framework for the
U.S.-India Cyber Relationship, issued during the visit of Prime Minister
Narendra Modi here on Tuesday, says that cooperation on cyber issues is a key
component of the bilateral relationship between India
and the U.S.
Both sides recognise the value of enhancing and further institutionalizing
their broad-based cooperation on cyber issues, and in that respect, intend to
complete a framework based on the following shared principles and intended
forms of cooperation. Sharing information on a real time or near real time
basis, when practical and consistent with existing bilateral arrangements,
about malicious cybersecurity threats, attacks and activities, and
establishing appropriate mechanisms to improve such information sharing;
Developing joint mechanisms for practical cooperation to mitigate cyber
threats to the security of ICT infrastructure and information contained
therein consistent with their respective obligations under domestic and
international law;
Promoting cooperation in the fields of cybersecurity-related
research and development, cybersecurity standards and security testing
including accreditation process, and cybersecurity product development,
including further consultations on such issues; Elaborating and implementing
practical measures that contribute to the security of ICT infrastructure on a
voluntary and mutual basis; Continuing to promote cooperation between law
enforcement agencies to combat cybercrime including through training
workshops, enhancing dialogue and processes and procedures, and setting up
consultations as needed; Improving the capacity of law enforcement agencies
through joint training programs, including equipping them to draft
appropriate requests for electronic evidence in accordance with the
respective laws and regulations of the United States and India; Undertaking
skill development and capacity building programs jointly in the fields of
cybersecurity, efforts to combat cybercrime, digital forensics, and legal
frameworks; Promoting the applicability of international law to state conduct
in cyberspace and further exploring how it applies to state conduct in
cyberspace. Promoting voluntary norms of responsible state behavior in
peacetime, including the norms identified by the UN Group of Governmental
Experts in the Field of Information and Telecommunications in the Context of
International Security;
A state should not conduct or knowingly support online activity
that intentionally damages critical infrastructure or otherwise impairs the
use of critical infrastructure to provide services to the public, A state
should not conduct or knowingly support activity intended to prevent national
CSIRTs from responding to cyber incidents. States should also not use CSIRTs
to enable online activity that is intended to do harm, A state should
cooperate, in a manner consistent with its domestic law and international
obligations, with requests for assistance from other States in investigating
cyber crimes, collecting electronic evidence and mitigating malicious cyber
activity emanating from its territory. A state should not conduct or
knowingly support ICT-enabled theft of intellectual property, including trade
secrets or other confidential business information, with the intent of
providing competitive advantages to companies or commercial sectors; Cooperating
mutually on telecom security related issues such as telecom equipment
security standards and testing, including accreditation of entities; Developing
a common and shared understanding of international cyber stability, and
destabilizing cyber activity;
Discussing and sharing strategies to promote the integrity of the supply
chain to enhance user's confidence in the security of ICT products and
services. Continuing to promote dialogue on incident response best practices;
Facilitating joint tabletop exercises covering priority cybersecurity
scenarios to advance specific cooperation. Supporting the multistakeholder
model of Internet governance; Continuing our dialogue and engagement in
Internet governance fora, including ICANN, IGF and other venues, and to
support active participation by all stakeholders of the two countries in
these fora; Holding consultations and taking steps towards improving the
effectiveness of transnational cybercrime cooperation; Strengthening critical
Internet infrastructure in India; Working to ensure shared understanding of
technology access policy, including dual use technologies sought to be
controlled by either country, including through such mechanisms as the
bilateral High Technology Cooperation Group. The complete Framework for the
U.S.-India Cyber Relationship, is expected to be
signed within 60 days.
From
http://www.siliconindia.com 06/08/2016
TOP↑
5 Easy Steps to
Exterminate Hackers Attack
Do you know? A loss of 100 Bn US
Dollars is estimated annually due to cyber crime which is committed globally,
of which social media is the hacker’s favorite target. A user might be
subjected to hacker’s attack only when the device is connected to the internet.
Today most of the accounts need internet access, and here the chances of
cyber attacks are more. As cloud technology is galloping the whole IT sector,
personal and corporate data are stored which may also be vulnerable to
hacker’s attack. It is said that “Prevention is better than cure”, so here
are some of the easy steps that you can follow to keep your account safe and
secured.
From
http://news.siliconindia.com 06/17/2016
TOP↑
Hackers Sell Access to
Over 3,400 Servers in India
Russian-speaking cyber criminals are selling access, password
and other details of about 3,488 compromised servers in India for
as low as USD 6, a report by cyber security firm Kaspersky said
today. "Kaspersky Lab researchers have investigated a global forum
where cyber criminals can buy and sell access to compromised servers for as
little as USD 6 each," the report said. The hackers trading
platform, xDedic marketplace, said to to be run by a Russian-speaking group
and currently lists 70,624 hacked Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) servers for
sale, it added. "India
ranks fourth in hacked servers with 3,488 compromised servers listed on
xDedic as of May 2016. Many of the servers host or provide access to popular
consumer websites and services and some have software installed for direct
mail, financial accounting and Point-of-Sale (PoS) processing," the
report said. The report said that the access by cyber criminals can be
used to target the owners' infrastructures or as a launch-pad for wider
attacks, while the owners, including government entities, corporations and
universities, with the entities left in the lurch. A European internet
service provider (ISP) alerted Kaspersky Lab to the existence of xDedic and the
companies worked together to investigate how the forum operates. The
hackers on xDedic are offering access to wide range of servers including that
of government networks, corporations and universities, servers tagged for
gaming, betting, dating, online shopping, online banking and payment, cell
phone networks and browsers, it said.
From
http://news.siliconindia.com 06/17/2016
TOP↑
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AZERBAIJAN: Live Safe Internet with Azercell!
Azercell has started cooperation with Kaspersky Lab in the
field of internet security, which is aimed to draw a special attention to the
protection of children fro cyber treats. Three new products by Azercell will
allow the users of all ages to feel safer on the Internet. «Children are our
future and their healthy growth is the cornerstone of the further development
of the society».This statement was made at the presentation ceremony of“Live
Safe Internet with Azercell” project сarried out by Azercell in partnership
with Kaspersky Lab. In the event held on June 1, The International Day of
Protection of Children, Vahid Mursaliyev, the company CEO, noted the
necessity of constant care and attention towards children. He underlined that
as a leading mobile operator of Azerbaijan, Azercell couldn’t
ignore the importance of information security of the society, especially that
of children. He also thanked KasperskyLab - the leading company in the sphere
of cybersecurity for coopertion and added that the user security products to
be downloaded via Azercell will ensure safe Internet for both children and
adults. The event also provided brief information on the history of marking
June 1, International Day for Protection of Children. Later, Ruhana Ahmadova,
project manager at youth organization “Reliable Future”, Jamaladdin Hasanov,
head of Projects and Partnership Management unit at Azercell Telecom LLC, and
Mushfig Mammadov, regional representative of Kaspersky Lab, spoke about the
project “Live safe internet with Azercell”. 3 new products designed to ensure
Internet security werelaunched under the project.
The first product named Universal
Security ensures the protection of any device with Kaspersky Internet
Security. It secures files, applications and webpages, prevents identity
theft through fake Web pages and open WiFi network, prevents blocking of
malware files, and protects against hidden surveillance via a computer
camera. Trusted Applications Mode in the service allows using only reliable
applications and limits the operation of all suspicious programmes. Second
product called Kaspersky Internet Security for Android is generally used for
Android operating system and operates in any Android device ensuring its
protection. The product includes remote management tools for Android device
in the event of loss or theft, for example, find a lost device, or delete
data. It is also possible to filter unwanted calls and SMS, and to ensure the
confidentiality of personal contacts from prying eyes. The third product is
called Parental control - this Kaspersky Safe programme blocks access to
unwanted webpages, monitors applications and restricts the time spent on
mobile devices and computers. It will be achieved by means of a protective
application of Kaspersky Safe Kids, compatible with all popular operating
systems. Product restricts access of young users to unwanted web pages,
enables parents to control what the child is doing online and how much time
he/she spends there, also provides the opportunity to track calls and SMS on
the child's phone, to locate him through the geolocation feature.
“We are
pleased to have Azercell- the leading telecom company in Azerbaijan,
as our partner. Now, a wide range of its customers will receive instant and
easy access to reliable protection against cyber threats. Our products to
protect home PC users and owners of mobile devices on Android platform and
will help many families in Azerbaijan
to protect valuable data in order to create a comfortable and safe
environment for all activities on the Internet. Particular attention will be
paid to the safety of children, who are all actively surfing on the Internet,
and there may face a variety of threats", commented Mushfig Mammadov,
official representative of the Kaspersky Lab in Azerbaijan. Another interesting
aspect of the event was that mass media representatives were invited to the
press conference together with their children. The parents of Active Moms
Club society, who were participants and communication partner of the event,
also joined the presentation with their children. After the official part, adults
and children watched the spectacle “Catastrophe and man” performed by
Pantomime theatre with great interest. At the end of the event all guests
received valuable gifts including codes to benefit from 6-month free use of
security products.
From http://www.azernews.az/ 06/01/2016
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Azerbaijan Concerned over Cybersecurity
Cybersecurity which stands for information technology
security and focuses on protecting computers, networks, programs and data
from unintended or unauthorized access, change or destruction is becoming
more and more relevant in Azerbaijan.
With the growing volume and sophistication of cyber attacks, ongoing
attention is required to protect sensitive business and personal information,
as well as safeguard national security. Member of Milli Mejlis [Azerbaijan
parliament] Tair Mirkishili, talking to reporters mentioned that the country
should tighten cybersecurity measures alongside with the implementation of
strategically important projects. He underlined that energy sector as well as
energy infrastructure is one of the main targets of criminals. The issue
raises concern as Azerbaijan
is currently engaged in the realization of different large-scale projects in
the sphere. “Azerbaijan
which is headed for building sustainable economy will undoubtedly become a
target for criminals. The provision of cybersecurity of all important spheres
of economy is of great importance, the country should take certain measures
to suppress cyber-espionage.
The country has already taken several steps for providing
security in the sphere but the strategic importance of the projects triggers
the provision of highest level of security,” he said. Mirkishili noted that
the use of information technologies in the management is inevitable taking
into consideration the provision of efficiency and operability. The tendency
is currently observed in all spheres including production and provision of
services. MP stated that the main objective is application of IT technologies
for providing network security as unauthorized access may disrupt activity of
information network. “Cyberattack is one of the means of confrontation
between the countries. States implement large-scale cyberattacks in order to
get an access to security data and examination of the situation. The aim of
cyberattacks is to create chaos. The activities on preventing cyberattacts
are taken in the majority of European countries. Cyberattacks are becoming
special-purposed and directed with the aim of bringing the activities of
state departments, banking industry, transport and aviation to a stop, the
parliamentarian said. In accordance with the information provided by the
Computer Emergency Readiness Team under the state agency on the information
security, the number of inquires connected with the computer security in May
2016 amounted to 171. The quantity of inquiries has decreased by 31.3 percent
as against the rate shown in April. As much as 90.6 percent of the total
number of inquiries made to CERT in May have been considered and solved. CERT
has already submitted 12 reports on the audit conducted in the sphere of
information technologies. As many as 15 domains and 22 sub-domains which are
usually used by enterprises with the view of creating unique website names
for their subdivisions have been registered in the internet segment of the
country.
From http://www.azernews.az/ 06/09/2016
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Cyber-security
Measures Tightened
Cyber Security Center under the
Ministry of Communication and Information Technologies (CERT) has tightened
security measures in its effort to protect the state agencies’ information
systems from hacker attacks. The Center does not rule out that hackers may
launch a special-purpose attack during the run of European Grand Prix Formula
1(Baku City Circuit) which is scheduled for June 17-19, 2016. In this regard,
the Centre has switched to intensified mode of operations to provide high
level of security. Previously, MP Tair Mirkishili mentioned that the country
should tighten cyber security measures alongside with the implementation of
strategically important projects. Cyber security raises concern as Azerbaijan is
currently engaged in the realization of different large-scale projects. The
issue of cyber security provision is also on the highest agenda of the 28th
Annual Conference of the Forum of Incident Response and Security Teams
(FIRST) which kicked off in Seoul
on June 12. Among the issues to be discussed within the framework of the
forum are cooperation in the sphere of cyber
security, cybercrime gangs, the dark side of online advertisements,
development of security policy as well as security strategies applied in the
incident management. CERT.gov.az specialists are expected to participate in
the general meeting of CERTs which is scheduled for June 18-19. CERT.gov.az
became a partner of FIRST in 2011.
This partnership plays an important role in the
facilitation of access to global means of fight against cyber crime. Cyber
crime, which stands for the deliberate exploitation of computer systems,
technology-dependent enterprises and networks have become an actual reality
in Azerbaijan
and the country takes steps to contend with this threat. The number of inquires
connected with the computer security in May 2016 amounted to 171 while 90.6
percent of the total number of inquiries made to CERT in May have been
considered and solved. CERT Azerbaijan
which was established in 2013 continuously works in the search for greater
security. Being a state coordinating body the centre deal with coordinating
the action of information infrastructure subjects, reporting about existing
and potential risks at country level, educating public, private and other
institutions in the field of cyber security and providing methodological
assistance to them. The centre uses brand-new security systems in its effort
to repulse cyber attacks and examines practical experience and operation of
analogous foreign companies.
From http://www.azernews.az/ 06/13/2016
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KAZAKHSTAN: And the
Cyber-Snitch
It's no secret that social-network sites on the Internet are
being abused and used for foul purposes. No country is immune to this
problem. Kazakhstan
has been having its own problems, particularly with sites authorities in the
country say are carrying extremist messages and content. Hundreds of websites
have been blocked by the Kazakh authorities but the efforts of the government
are apparently not enough. So, the Kazakh government is calling on citizens
to get involved. Reports from Kazakh media on August 12 noted that the
Information and Communications Ministry has launched a new website.
"Dear friends, literally in the last few days on the website of our
ministry a complaints section has been launched, where any citizen can inform
about information on the Internet that violates the laws of Kazakhstan,"
a statement from the ministry read.
Reports on the launch of the new section on the ministry's
website say it is mainly intended to help the authorities locate "sites
and groups on social networks that carry propaganda on suicides, narcotics,
terrorism, extremism, acts of cruelty, interethnic strife, etc...."
Those accessing the site can choose from a list of categories that could be
relevant to their "complaint." The website promises the ministry
will check complaints from citizens to see if there are indeed violations of
the country's laws on the websites and social networks in question. The
ministry also promises to explain to the people of Kazakhstan the reasons for
official decisions to block particular websites. The idea of the new
complaints page seems to have some merit. Based on reporting from RFE/RL's
Kazakh Service, known locally as Azattyq, it is clear the number of suicides
has been increasing lately amid Kazakhstan's drastic economic
downturn.
There have been instances of websites available in Kazakhstan
that have been promoting extremist ideas or disseminating radical content. On
the other hand, absent from the statement of the Information and
Communications Ministry is mention of a vetting process for the complainer.
It is unclear whether those filing a complaint could be found and held
accountable for providing false information to the ministry's website if
their complaints turn out to be false. That raises the question of possible
abuse of the website of the Information and Communications Ministry. In 2015
there were several cases of bloggers being arrested and convicted for
violating Article 174 of the Criminal Code, which deals with the fomentation
of social, national, tribal, racial, class, or
religious hatred, and actions that insult national honor or dignity or the religious
beliefs of citizens. It was not always clear if those convicted intended to
incite or insult, and if their writings genuinely represented a violation of
the law. Some felt the government used the law to silence government critics.
The new site launched by the Information and Communications Ministry could be
used toward similar ends if not properly managed.
Could it be used for personal vendettas? That is also unclear.
There have been numerous examples worldwide of people creating dummy accounts
to disseminate information in someone else's name. Another aspect worth
mentioning: Can this move by the Information and Communications Ministry
really help prevent violence such as that seen in Kazakhstan this year? In early
June, a group of young men in the western city of Aqtobe robbed a gun store and staged an
armed attack that left several civilians and police dead, and ended with a
shoot-out outside a military facility where most of the attackers were
killed. Their motives are still not clear. In July, a former convict killed
several people in Almaty in revenge at having been imprisoned. Kazakh
authorities have ascribed both these incidents to terrorism, a designation
some people question. But if they were indeed terrorist acts, in both cases a
website such as that just launched by the Information and Communications
Ministry would not have helped. There was no cyber-trail.
From http://www.eurasianet.org/
08/17/2016
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AUSTRALIA: Government Must Take Cyber Security More
Seriously
Most of us
can relate to the government’s plan to build 12 new submarines for A$50
billion, at least in principle. But you might be alarmed to hear the
government is investing only a fraction of that amount on protecting us from
cyberattacks. Our research suggests that now may be the time to think more
deeply about having fewer submarines so that we can afford to pay for the
cyber defence of the civil sector. This is because we are not spending
anywhere near as much as our allies on cyber defence, especially in the civil
sector. In April 2016, having declared cyberattacks to be a national
emergency, US President Barack Obama announced a spending plan of A$26
billion in one year for urgent remedial policies largely to protect the
non-defence sector. In December 2015, describing the cyber threat as “one of
the great challenges of our lifetime”, the UK Chancellor George Osborne
announced a broadly similar remedial plan to spend almost A$800
million per year over five years.
By
comparison, the latest federal budget allocated around A$100 million for one
year based on its new Cyber Security Strategy released a month earlier. Yet
the threats these three countries face are not different by the orders of
magnitude suggested by budget comparisons. In 2015, the Australian government
said that the country had never suffered a cyberattack seriously compromising
national security, stability or prosperity. Obama said at the same time that
cyberattacks posed an “extraordinary threat to the national security, foreign
policy and economy of the United
States”. He repeated this in March 2016
when extending the national emergency declaration for another year.
Security gap
There are
two important areas where Australia
is doing less than our allies, and less than we need to: protecting critical
cyber infrastructure; and fighting cybercrime. Both these areas of cyber
policy have separate strategy documents. And there are no strong linkages
between them and with the April 2016 Cyber Security Strategy action plan. In
2015, the government issued two documents on critical infrastructure, a
Policy Statement and a Plan, one of which has a single page on cyberattack.
But these documents use anodyne statements, such as ensuring the continuity
of “service delivery”, rather than using the concept of an extreme cyber
emergency that underpins planning assumptions, exercises, research and
operational preparation of the US
and the UK.
In terms of research, the Idaho National Laboratory and others like it
conduct research on national resilience in the face of “catastrophic and
potentially cascading events that will likely require substantial time to
assess, respond to, and recover from.”
In the UK, the
responsible agency “supports three exercises per month to test cyber
resilience and response”. The US
and UK
work together to prepare for a terrorist cyber-enabled attack on nuclear
power stations. In his preface to the Cyber Security Strategy, Prime Minister
Malcolm Turnbull said Australia
needed to prepare for a “significant cyber event”, with an unspecified scale
of effect. This exemplifies the laid-back tone of most Australian policy
documents on this subject. In strong contrast, in May 2016, ASIO offered a
rather gloomy assessment: The gap is likely widening between the scale and
scope of harm experienced to Australia’s
sovereignty, government systems, and commercial and intellectual property,
and the ability of ASIO and partner agencies to successfully mitigate that
harm.
Getting
serious
On
cybercrime, the gap between need and and policy is even more starkly visible.
In the Cyber Security Strategy, the government did not see cybercrime as an
important focus. It did say that the country doesn’t have a good handle on
how much such crime was costing the economy, citing one estimate of A$1 billion
and another of A$17 billion. While collection of data on the cost of
cybercrime is notoriously difficult, the wide range for this “estimate” is
strong evidence of how low a priority this area of policy has been. The Cyber
Security Strategy does make a commitment to develop and implement a training
plan for specialists in the field of countering cybercrime, with no further
detail. It also commits in the broadest terms to increasing the capacity of
the AFP and the Australian Crime Commission (ACC) to counter cybercrime.
Forward estimates for the latest budget revealed a commitment of almost A$15
million over four years to the ACC to support stronger capability to combat
cybercrime.
But in this
area, the cyber strategy basically passed the buck. It suggested that the
main source of policy was the National Plan to Combat Cyber Crime released in
2013 by the previous government. This is not much consolation, as that
document lacks detail and certainly does not reveal a commitment of funding
on a level likely to contain or reduce a cost to the economy estimated in the
billions of dollars. The government needs a more open and candid conversation
in public with key stakeholders about the sort of threat scenarios we face,
but especially for cybercrime and “significant cyber attack”. It also needs
to develop policies and agencies, funded appropriately, that can begin to
perform on a level that matches the threats.
From http://www.computerworld.com.au
07/01/2016
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Govt Prepares for Quantum Computing Threat to
Encryption
The latest
version of the key document offering security guidance to government agencies
— the Information Security Manual — has been updated to take into account the
impending threat to encryption posed by quantum computing. A key change to
the 2016 edition of ISM is based on advice issued last year by the US
Committee on National Security Systems (CNSS) — a group chaired by US
Department of Defense CIO Terry Halvorsen. The CNSS's Advisory Memorandum on
Information Assurance 02-15 (CNSSAM 02-15), released in July 2015, drew on
updated National Security Agency guidance and outlined approved encryption
algorithms and key lengths to protect National Security Systems (NSS). The advisory
expanded on the CNSS’s National Information Assurance Policy on the Use of
Public Standards for the Secure Sharing of Information Among National
Security Systems (CNSSP 15).
“Based on
analysis of the effect of quantum computing on Information Assurance (IA) and
IA-enabled Information Technology (IT) products, the policy’s set of
authorized algorithms is expanded to provide vendors and IT users more
near-term flexibility in meeting their IA interoperability requirements,” the
advisory states. “The purpose behind this additional flexibility is to avoid
vendors and customers making two major transitions in a relatively short
timeframe, as we anticipate a need to shift to quantum-resistant cryptography
in the near future.” The ‘Suite B’ algorithms approved for use with NSS in
CNSSP 15 were AES encryption, SHA-2 hashing, ECDSA digital signatures, and
ECDH for key exchange. The updated advice in CNSSAM 02-15 was to employ
AES-256 encryption; SHA-384 hashing; ECDSA (P-384) or RSA (3072-bit or
larger) digital signatures; and for key exchange Diffie-Hellman (3072-bit or
larger), ECDH (P-384) or RSA (3072-bit or larger). “The most significant
change [to the ISM] involves giving preference to newer Suite B cryptographic
algorithms with increased key lengths to provide greater resistance to
quantum computing,” a Department of Defence spokesperson told Computerworld Australia.
A new
security control added to the new edition of the ISM states: “Where possible,
agencies should give preference to algorithms which meet the standards
described in CNSSAM 02-15 to appropriately protect CONFIDENTIAL, SECRET
and/or TOP SECRET information.” The ISM is maintained by the Australian
Signals Directorate. Last year’s update to the document included major
changes focused on ensuring security in a cloud-first policy environment.
Quantum computing is expected to have a massive impact on cyber security,
rendering useless many current approaches to encryption. “Many of our most
crucial communication protocols rely principally on three core cryptographic
functionalities: public key encryption, digital signatures, and key
exchange,” states a document — Report on Post-Quantum Cryptography —
published in April by US National Institute of Standards and Technology
“Currently,
these functionalities are primarily implemented using Diffie-Hellman key
exchange, the RSA (RivestShamir-Adleman) cryptosystem, and elliptic curve
cryptosystems. The security of these depends on the difficulty of certain
number theoretic problems such as Integer Factorization or the Discrete Log
Problem over various groups. In 1994, Peter Shor of Bell Laboratories showed
that quantum computers, a new technology leveraging the physical properties
of matter and energy to perform calculations, can efficiently solve each of these
problems, thereby rendering all public key cryptosystems based on such
assumptions impotent. Thus a sufficiently powerful quantum computer will put
many forms of modern communication—from key exchange to encryption to digital
authentication—in peril.” Australia
is home to significant quantum computing research efforts, with the
Commonwealth Bank of Australia
and Telstra both interested in the potential of the technology.
From http://www.computerworld.com.au 06/08/2016
TOP↑
Australia Fourth Most
Vulnerable Nation to Hacking: Study
Australia ranks
fourth among the countries most vulnerable to hacking attacks, according to a
study by penetration testing and information security form Rapid7. Belgium tops the list, followed by Tajikistan and Samoa.
The company compiled what it calls a "heat map" of the Internet,
looking for servers that had exposed ports that could be compromised. Rapid7
used its Project Sonar tool to carry out a scan of every public-facing IP
address and examine the services being offered to the wider Internet. Many
ports on a server offer services that they should be offering; the most
common example is port 80 on which http services, or normal web pages, are
offered. It is better if the encrypted version, https, is offered. But there
are a number of services which are unencrypted and open to compromise. For
example, on port 110 one can find POP3 servers being offered. And port 21 is
used for FTP, an insecure method of transferring files over the Internet.
"Today's
Internet touches virtually everyone’s lives and is a critical component of
economic security," the study noted. "Counter-intuitively, the
adoption of fully encrypted protocols for core Internet services has not
scaled with our personal, national, and global dependence on the
Internet." While the countries with greater GDP, like China and the US, had a much greater number of
Internet users and hence many more net-connected devices, they were not the
most exposed. In the case of Belgium,
though it had many less Internet servers, a greater percentage were offering
services that were insecure. While Australia was the fourth most
vulnerable overall, it also had the same rank among countries that had ports
for database protocols exposed. "We counted 7.8 million MySQL databases
and 3.4 million Microsoft SQL Server systems. Six countries, the United States, China,
Hong Kong, Belgium,
Australia and Poland expose
75% of discovered Microsoft SQL nodes. Those same countries expose 67% of
MySQL nodes," the study noted.
Among the
findings of the study were:
# Millions
of systems offer services that should not be exposed to the public network.
The survey found 15 million nodes appearing to offer telnet, 11.2 million
appearing to offer direct access to relational databases, and 4.5 million
apparent printer services. (The scans counted 7.8 million MySQL databases and
3.4 million Microsoft SQL Server systems. The study did not include ports for
other popular database systems, notably, PostgreSQL and OracleDB.)
# A total of
4.7 million systems expose one of the most commonly attacked ports used by
Microsoft systems, 445/TCP.
# SSH
(secure shell) adoption over telnet (clear-text shell) is gaining ground,
with over 50% of regions offering more ssh servers than telnet servers.
#
Non-web-based access to email (via clear text POP or IMAP protocols) is still
the norm versus the exception in virtually every country.
# There is a
correlation between the GDP of a nation, overall Internet “presence” in terms
of services offered, and the exposure of insecure, clear-text services.
# The most
exposed nations include countries with the largest GDPs, such as the United States, China,
France, and Russia.
From http://www.itwire.com 06/09/2016
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Call for Government,
Industry to Share More on Cybersecurity Threats
The federal
government and industry have been urged to work together to share information
on cyber security threats and attacks to counter the increasing
sophistication of cyber adversaries. According to security vendor Palo Alto
Networks’ APAC chief security officer, Sean Duca, the threat landscape in
Australia, and around the world, is not abating and those looking to
penetrate security are becoming more sophisticated, sharing tools, exploits
and attack methods, and automating their processes. “In doing so, they have
achieved a clear competitive advantage in cyberspace and are eroding trust in
today’s digital age.” Duca urged the federal government, with industry, to
quickly put into action the recommendations for greater cyberthreat
information sharing laid out in the government’s new Cyber Security Strategy
announced in April. “Cybersecurity threat information sharing within and
across industries and with the public sector must be embraced by everyone.
The faster organisations can share information, the better we can serve to
protect each other and push the cost back to the adversary. Until the public
and private sectors truly collaborate to build systemic information sharing
partnerships, it’s like we’re combatting our adversaries with technological
weapons that have no ammunition.”
According to
Duca, cybersecurity provides longevity to a business and can help
differentiate the business from its competitors – “for both good and not so
good reasons”. “Organisations, both in the public and private sector, need to
have strong cybersecurity fundamentals to provide trust and confidence to
citizens, businesses and customers alike.” Duca says Australian industry can
play a valuable role in combatting cybersecurity threats by participating in
voluntary cyberthreat information sharing. He says “operationalising” threat
information sharing, both within and across
industries, and between the private and public sectors, will dramatically
shift the balance of power, close the competitive gap, “and realise
exponential leverage against cyber adversaries by driving up the cost of
successful attacks”.
Here’s what
information Duca says should be shared between the private and public
sectors:
• Threat
Indicators: forensic artefacts that describe the attacker’s methodology;
•
Adversary’s campaign plan: a collection of threat indicators for each link in
the cyberattack lifecycle attributed to a specific adversary group;
• Context:
additional non-campaign plan intelligence about an adversary group that is
helpful for organisations to understand the adversary. This includes things
like motivation, country of origin, and typical targets;
• Adversary
dossier: campaign plans + context – a collection of threat indicators
attributed to a specific adversary campaign or playbook (campaign plans),
plus any additional context about the adversary group.
“Our mission
should be to share all of the above but, most importantly, an adversary group
dossier. Doing so will enhance the assessment of the adversary group’s
potential, material impact to the targeted organisation, giving a better
opportunity for that organisation to detect and prevent the attack, as well
as deter an adversary,” Duca observes. He cautions that the information (to
be shared) itself is important – but it must be actionable, and must arrive
in as close to real time as possible. “As we have observed in some of the
largest breaches, the best resourced security teams cannot scale manual
responses to automated threats – only through automating prevention and
detection can organisations be fast enough to adequately secure networks.”
According to Duca, government and industry must collaboratively build a
“robust, automated information sharing architecture”, capable of turning
threat indicators into widely distributed security protections in near-real time.
He
acknowledges that there is apprehension amongst some Australian organisations
that information sharing could negatively impact them and that many feel that
that by sharing information that could be classified as sensitive and
privileged, “they would be giving the upper hand to their competitors”. “This
sentiment from the business community is valid and should be acknowledged.
But, as noted above, we should focus on sharing attack information – not
information on who has been breached.” Some of the other challenges and
“perceived barriers” to greater cyberthreat information sharing that Duca
maintains should be addressed:
• Privacy:
Laws should not unduly prohibit the sharing of personal information that is
necessary to identify and prevent attacks. At the same time, the Australian
government should ensure that there are responsible privacy protections in
place related to cyberthreat information sharing.
• Trust
among private sector competitors: Some organisations consider cyberthreat
information to be their own proprietary intellectual property (IP) and do not
want to share it. We need to reverse this notion. The more one continues to
treat this information as IP, and the more it is kept in silos within our own
organisations, the greater opportunity the adversary has to strike again.
Adversaries share tools, exploits and attack methods – so should we. Everyone
should have access to the same body of threat information and collaborate to
quickly translate it into security controls to use within their own organisations
and their collective customer base.
• Antitrust
concerns: There is a fear among some companies that sharing threat
information between organisations makes them vulnerable to antitrust
violations. The Australian government should clarify that cybersecurity
threat information voluntarily shared, or received, by a private entity with
another private entity is exempt from antitrust laws.
•
Over-classification: The government, in some instances, may “over-classify”
cyberthreat information it receives from both internal and external sources.
It takes a significant effort — and valuable time — to declassify that same
information to share with private companies and the public at large.
From http://www.itwire.com
07/18/2016
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NEW
ZEALAND: Will $22 Million
Cybersecurity Provide a Platform for Kiwi Business Growth and Innovation?
Budget 2016
has allocated $22.2 million to establish a national Computer Emergency
Response Team (CERT) to help business understand and respond to cyber
threats. But more than just a response to risk, cybersecurity should be seen
as a platform for business growth and innovation in New Zealand,
according to Deloitte. Deloitte partner and national cybersecurity leader Anu
Nayar says the funding to establish the CERT represents a “major development”
for New Zealand
because it delivers a strong message by government on the importance of cyber
resilience for our country. “We welcome this commitment as it provides the
much needed investment to build a platform for collaboration, intelligence
sharing and effective response to the cyber-attacks that affect our nation -
all of which are crucial to helping Kiwis and our businesses be secure, vigilant and resilient,” Nayar says. “However,
the CERT and government can only do so much. As our lives become increasingly
digital, many of the major priorities for New
Zealanders are reliant on a healthy, safe and secure cyberspace.”
Nayar says
statistics from Connect Smart show that 96 percent of Kiwi businesses rely on
the internet and technology for day to day activities, with estimates
claiming New Zealand
could add a further $34 billion to its economy through more effective
internet usage. “As a nation, we need to build off of the foundations we
already have,” he says. “We need to continue to develop a diverse and
sustainable pool of cyber talent; blending policy, law, business, psychology
and technical skills. We need to harness our creativity to incubate and
develop innovative solutions. And most importantly, we need to embed a
lasting shift to the way we think about cyber so that we move beyond the
traditional modes of only viewing it as a risk, or a problem that we can
finitely solve. Instead, we should recognise cyber as a required ongoing
capability of the world we now live in and embrace it as a platform for
growth.” For Nayar, the Budget 2016 allocation represents more than the
establishment of the CERT. “It echoes our perspective that as a nation we
recognise and are investing in cyber resilience as being at the heart of
powering our future economic growth and the ongoing wellbeing of our people,”
he adds.
From http://www.computerworld.co.nz 05/30/2016
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New
Zealand Ranked 18th in the
World for Cyber Attacks
Microsoft's
leading man in the fight against cyber criminals in Asia Pacific says New Zealand's
rate of attacks is low compared to other countries in the region, but attacks
are still happening constantly. Over the last week of April, Keshav Dhakad,
head of Digital Crimes Unit, recorded one and a half million New Zealand
devices infected with malware, or malicious software. "This whole notion
of 'who would target New Zealanders?' is wrong. The internet has no
boundaries," Dhakad said. Microsoft revealed the top countries under
malware threats in its Malware Infection Index 2016 and New Zealand
ranked 18th out of 19 Asia Pacific markets. The places most affected by cyber
threats were developing markets, with Pakistan,
Indonesia, Bangladesh and Nepal topping the table. Dhakad
says despite the positive ranking for New Zealand, businesses and
individuals need to remain vigilant against cyber threats.
"Despite
New Zealand being a developed market and [cybersecurity] systems are much
better placed than in developing markets, cyber crime finds its way in.
"Malware strains are rising and so are the attack vectors."
Microsoft monitored the presence of malware in New Zealand ahead of Dhakad
visiting the country to discuss cybersecurity with government agencies and
corporations. The report looked at the breakdown of infected devices by city
and showed the highest concentration of malware existing in Auckland,
followed by Tauranga and Wellington.
The picture can change very quickly, Dhakad said, as devices are cleaned of
the harmful software or upgraded to be more secure and as new malware
appears. "Everyone is under attack, it's a case
of whether they've discovered it. I think if everyone was to live with that
mentality then they'd be a lot more proactive about investing the right
resources and taking the right steps to protect, detect and respond to the
attacks."
Dhakad said
every person could ensure they are taking steps to be safe on the internet,
but enterprises still need to invest in IT infrastructure that could address
a cyber attack. In the case of small to medium enterprises that don't have
dedicated IT teams, Dhakad said it was smarter to use secure cloud services.
"Small to medium businesses... don't have the kind of money needed for
[cybersecurity], they might as well focus on business growth. So for them
it's a no-brainer." While banks and financial services are most commonly
targeted by cyberattacks, telcos, media companies, healthcare and insurance
companies have all suffered high profile attacks around the world.
Six tips for
cybersecurity:
1. Use only
genuine and updated software
2. Use
robust and trusted anti-malware solutions
3. Focus on
cyber hygiene like managing passwords, how people open links and attachments
in emails.
4. Be
comprehensive on cybersecurity and business processes.
5. Have a
data culture where people manage encryption and multi-factor authentication.
6. Use a
cloud provider.
From http://www.nzherald.co.nz 07/08/2016
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TONGA: CERT Team Aims to Protect from Cybercrime
A four-man
technical team known as CERT (or the Tonga National Computer Emergency
Response Team) was launched by government on 15 July as a step toward
enforcing the new Communications Act 2015 and the Communications Commission
Act 2015 that were passed by Parliament last year, to guard Tonga from the
dark side of the internet. The bills were passed in October 2015, and
assented by the King in February this year. Paula Ma’u the CEO for the
Ministry of Meteorology, Energy, Information, Disaster Management,
Environment, Communication and Climate Change (MEIDECC) said that the new
CERT team is made up of four very technical young men, based at the MEIDECC
office, and working closely with Tonga Cable Ltd.
The team as
guardians of Tonga’s
internet, will advise government on cybersecurity and internet content, and
are expected to detect and manage cyber threats and issues that affect
government, businesses and individuals in Tonga. “They will handle cases
such as data leakage, computer viruses, hacking, and the vulnerabilities of
applications and hardware,” Paula said. The members of the CERT team are
Taniela Seluini, Paula Latapu, Manager Saia Vaipuna and the Director of
Information, Andrew To'imoana
International
gateway
Since
Tonga’s telecommunications network was connected to the Southern Cross Cable
network in Fiji and onwards to the Equinix data centre in Australia in August
2013, Tonga has not make any definite move to protect its telecommunications
users from users with criminal intentions. The Equinix data centre in Australia is an international hub and Tonga’s
gateway to the rest of the world. In 2015, the Tonga government made a move to
amend the 2000 Communications Act and to introduce a new Communications
Commission Act. However, the new Acts have not been enforced and according to
Paula “the members of the Commission are yet to be appointed.” He agreed that
the formation of the CERT team was a definitive move in that direction.
Controversy
These are a
few clauses of the new Communications Act that have sparked some fierce
public debate, particularly over the powers given to the Minister of MEIDECC,
Hon. Siaosi Sovaleni. The Minister, along with CERT and the Communications
Commission are empowered to make decisions over what people in Tonga may or
may not be allowed to see and read. Another clause that raised questions is
Clause 106 – Take-down Notices. Under this clause, the Minister may either in
response to a complaint or on his own initiative, investigate
whether a hosting service provider is hosting prohibited content. If after
investigation it is concluded that the content hosted by a hosting service
provider is either “Offending Content” or “Prohibited Content”, then the
Ministry may give the hosting service provider a written take-down notice.
Filtering
Under Clause
107 – Opt-out filtering, customers may request to a hosting service provider
for a Family Friendly Filter. The customers may also request for the
disabling of the Family Friendly Filter.
Clause 108 –
Mandatory Filtering
The Ministry
may, by declaration, determine a scheme to prevent access to child
pornography otherwise accessible on the internet. In addition to these latest
efforts to protect Tonga
from cybercrime, Tonga
back in November 2013 submitted its intention to accede to the Council of
Europe’s Budapest Convention on Cybercrime. Tonga was officially invited by
the Council of Europe in 2014 to accede to the Budapest Convention of
Cybercrime. As a result of this invitation, Tonga has been considered a
priority country under this project to prepare before its accession to the
convention. Paula said that Tonga
has made it known to the Council of Europe it needs at least four more years
of preparation before it could become a signature to the Budapest Convention
of Cybercrime.
From http://matangitonga.to
07/22/2016
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EUROPE: Slow Growth Expected on ICT Market
ICT revenues in countries of the European Union are expected to
grow slower by 0.7 percent to EUR 686 billion compared to a 2.9 percent
growth in 2015, according to German IT association Bitkom citing a recent
study by the European Information Technology Observatory (EITO). Business
with IT products is developing much better than with telecommunications.
Revenue with IT hardware and IT services as well as software increased by 2.7
percent to EUR 388 billion, while TC revenues went up by 1.8 percent to EUR
298 billion. ICT markets in Italy,
Portugal and Spain grow slightly, while a decrease of 1.1
percent is expected in Greece
and of 0.5 percent in the UK.
From
http://www.telecompaper.com/
07/18/2016
TOP↑
ITALY: Public Sector ICT Spending Returns to Growth
in 2015
ICT spending by Italian public authorities rose by 0.5 percent
in 2015 to EUR 5.57 billion, reversing several years of decline, according to
industry group Assinform. The return to growth was driven by investment in IT
equipment, up 1.6 percent in 2015, reversing a 1.5 percent decline in 2014
while the decline in telecoms spending narrowed to 1.2 percent from 1.9
percent a year earlier. Overall ICT spending by the public sector had fallen
by 1.7 percent in 2014, after declines of 2.7 percent in 2013 and 3.6 percent
in 2012. In March Assinform reported a return to growth in 2015 of the
overall Italian ICT market, which was worth EUR 64.9 billion over the period,
up 1.0 percent year on year, and forecast growth of 1.5 percent in 2016.
From
http://www.telecompaper.com/
07/14/2016
TOP↑
NETHERLANDS: Communication Prices Down by 26% in 20 Years
The cost of communication services in the Netherlands
has fallen by a quarter in the past 20 years, according to the state
statistics agency CBS. In contrast to most other services, telephony and
internet prices are down by 25.7 percent over the period. This also includes
the phones provided with voice services. On average, prices in the Netherlands
increased 45 percent in the period 1996 to 2016, and the cost of services
rose twice as fast as goods. However, the price index for technology
products, such as TVs, cameras and computers, fell over the same period.
From
http://www.telecompaper.com/
06/02/2016
TOP↑
Dutch
Govt to Give EUR 40 mln to Research Projects
The Dutch government will, together with the business sector and
research institutions, invest in ten research projects. The government will
contribute EUR 40 million to the projects via the Future Fund Credit for
Research Facilities, or TOF (Toekomstfondskrediet voor
Onderzoeksfaciliteiten) out of the total EUR 134 million to be invested. The
interest-free loans will have a term of fifteen years and serve to strengthen
knowledge institutions and companies. The Ministries of Education and
Economic Affairs will give another EUR 20 million later this year. The
projects set to receive an investment from the TOF will come from research
institutes TNO and Deltares, breeder PeetAplant, ICT organization SURF, the Erasmus Medical
Center and three educational
institutions, including the University
of Technology in Delft,
the University of Technology in Twente and the University
of Technology in Eindhoven. The projects will include ones
at TNO focused on 3D printing and EUV beam technology at TNO.
From
http://www.telecompaper.com/
06/11/2016
TOP↑
U.K.: What Comes Next: How the Outcome of the EU
Referendum Will Shape Britain's
Future
What next if Britain
votes to Leave? At 7am on Friday, within seconds of the announcement of the
result, economists expect the value of the pound to take a hit on the currency
markets around the world. David Cameron is likely to make a statement on the
steps of Downing Street setting out how the
government will respond to the country’s decision to leave the European
Union. In his statement, he will try to reassure traders before the London
Stock Exchange opens for business at 8am. However, the Treasury and the Bank
of England will be watching the markets closely. The Bank governor, Mark
Carney, could be forced to step in to prop up the pound if the value of
sterling falls dramatically. This has not happened since “Black Wednesday” in
1992 and the Bank would be deeply reluctant to act in this way. In the days
that follow, the Bank’s Monetary Policy Committee could also meet to review
interest rates in response to turmoil in the markets.
The Prime Minister has said he will immediately inform Brussels that he is
triggering Article 50 of the EU Treaties – the formal legal mechanism by
which a member state leaves the European Union. From the moment that Article
50 is triggered, a move that can only be made by the government, there is a
period of up to two years for negotiations of a new contract between Britain and
the EU – the terms of Brexit. Negotiators will have to piece together new
trade deals, new border security arrangements, the legal status of migrants
who are living in the UK, and of the British expatriates who are resident elsewhere in Europe. Downing Street will have to choose members of the team
to negotiate the new trade deals. The government is likely to bring in
business figures as well as top officials from across Whitehall, perhaps forming a Brexit
Department under the leadership of a senior Cabinet minister.
Leave campaign leaders will put Mr Cameron under pressure to
deliver their plan for an immediate repatriation of key powers from Brussels to Britain. They have set out the
new government emergency laws which they say will be required after a Brexit
vote to curtail the influence of the European Court of Justice, return
billions of pounds to the UK
to be spent on the NHS, and place new controls on immigration from Europe. Politically, Mr Cameron’s own position will be
in peril. He may be urged by some of his Cabinet ministers to stay in his
post in order to provide stability and to lead the negotiations in Brussels. However, many
Westminster
observers and MPs on both sides of the referendum debate believe it would be
impossible for him to continue as Prime Minister after campaigning so hard
for Remain and that he would quit voluntarily.
If he does not resign, he could face a leadership challenge from
Tories who believe his position will be untenable, although several rebel
Eurosceptics are privately suggesting that Mr Cameron’s best hope of keeping
his job is if Britain
votes to leave the EU. If he quits, a leadership election will be held, with
as many as 10 potential candidates already said to be “on manoeuvres”. Boris
Johnson urges lively Norwich
crowd to vote LeavePlay! The front-runners will almost certainly be the Leave
campaign leader, Boris Johnson, while his Brexit-supporting colleague,
Michael Gove, the Justice Secretary, is also certain to be urged to run,
despite previously insisting he does not want the top job. The leadership
contest could take place over the summer, with the new leader announced at
the Conservative Party Conference in the first week of October.
After a period of time to establish himself or herself in Downing Street, the new leader could seek a new mandate
from the country, and call a general election for the spring or autumn of
2017. For this to happen, the Fixed Term Parliaments Act would need to be
repealed, as under this law the next election is not due until 2020. If the
Tories were leading in the polls by early next year, there would potentially
be a majority in the Commons for scrapping the Act and calling a General
Election. However, if the Remain campaign’s warnings of recession and job
losses prove correct, the new Prime Minister may be reluctant to go to the
country. What next if Britain
votes to Remain in the EU? On the face of it, David Cameron will be in a far
stronger position if he wins the referendum, after campaigning vigorously for
keeping Britain
in the EU.
But victory could come at a high price. If Remain wins by a
narrow margin – under 10 percentage points, for example – he is almost
certain to face a leadership challenge within days. More than 50 Tory MPs are
rumoured to be so angry at the Prime Minister’s “scare tactics” and use of
the government machine to help the Remain campaign that they will trigger a
vote of no confidence in his leadership immediately after the result. If he
loses this vote, Mr Cameron’s career as PM will be over. The Tories will then
choose a new leader in an election in which he will be unable to stand. To be
safe, the Prime Minister must win by an overwhelming margin – such as 60 per
cent for Remain to 40 per cent for Leave. But with polls pointing towards a
close result, Downing Street has already
begun working on a plan to save Mr Cameron’s leadership. He is likely to try
to seize the political agenda with a policy blitz, focusing on social
mobility with a new life chances strategy. Key decisions will also be taken
on Heathrow airport, with possible votes on a replacement for Trident.
In a statement outside Number 10 after the result is declared,
Mr Cameron may offer new concessions with fresh plans to crack down on
migration in an attempt to appease his Brexit-supporting colleagues and
reunite the party and the country. If Remain win by a tiny margin, Mr Cameron
could also be forced to carry out an immediate “rescue reshuffle” in an
attempt to reassert his authority. If Remain wins emphatically, the PM will
have more time and may delay his reshuffle until the autumn. Either way,
leading Brexit campaigners will need to be nurtured and promoted within
government in order to heal the deep divisions within the Tory party. Boris
Johnson is expected to be offered a role in a mid-level Cabinet job, possibly
as Transport Secretary. This would put the former Mayor of London in a
difficult position as he would be forced potentially to oversee the expansion
of Heathrow Airport, a policy which he has
promised vigorously to oppose. Figures close to Downing
Street have hinted that Liam Fox, the pro-Brexit former defence
secretary, could be brought back, while Chris Grayling, the Leave campaigner,
is said to be safe in his Cabinet job as Leader of the Commons.
However, pro-Brexit Tories are warning that MPs will be “on
strike” whatever the result, and will refuse to back Mr Cameron and George
Osborne in key Commons votes. If the Prime Minister cannot get any of his
reforms past his own MPs in the Commons, government will become impossible
and another election may be needed. Sarah Wollaston warns of 'Brexit penalty
instead of NHS brexit bonanza'Play! Many economists expect that the markets
will respond with relief to a vote for Remain, while for the majority of
companies and their staff in Britain,
business will continue as usual. In Europe,
Mr Cameron’s success will be welcomed. But relations with other EU countries
will also change. His renegotiation deal will need to be enforced and passed
by politicians in Brussels
to deliver key reforms such as the “emergency brake” on paying benefits to EU
migrants. The European Parliament effectively has the power to veto Mr
Cameron’s deal and he will need to win their backing in the weeks after the
referendum to deliver the reforms he has promised.
From
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/
06/18/2016
TOP↑
Experts
Weigh in on Brexit’s IT Impact
Last week’s announcement that the United Kingdom would be leaving
the European Union continues to send shockwaves throughout the world economy,
and across many industries — including IT. And while the predictions vary,
the experts agree on one fact: Good or bad, nothing is certain. “Our guidance
right now to our tech provider clients is simple,” John Lovelock, chief
forecaster with consulting firm Gartner Inc.’s technology and service
provider research division, says. “Don’t panic. Nothing is known right now,
and nothing can be known right now. What we have to deal with is the
uncertainty, and watch for overreactions from our client base.” In general,
Lovelock says, the so-called “Brexit” won’t affect spending in the tech
industry at all: in its current forecasts, Gartner is projecting $3.5
trillion in IT spending worldwide, and with the U.K. representing between
five and six per cent of the total, a drop in growth of between two and five
per cent will hardly bring the industry to its knees.
“Canada and
the U.K.
have always had a very good trading relationship for IT, and that’s not at
all impacted by Brexit,” Lovelock says. “The organizations that we buy IT
from in the U.K. aren’t
going to change, and the organizations in Canada
that have had a good relationship with and sell IT to the U.K. won’t be
changing either.” That said, he admits that for U.K. firms, staffing could become
an issue. “Certainly the U.K.
can consider its status as a bright spot for IT professionals coming into
question,” Lovelock says. “You now have people who are in the U.K.
questioning how long they can stay, so long-term business plans there are
certainly going to be disrupted.” Canadian firms, on the other hand, could
use Brexit as an opportunity to create closer ties with the U.K., Tuna
Baskoy, an associate professor with Ryerson University’s Politics and Public
Administration department, says; after all, the U.K. did not want to join the
former European Economic Community (EEC) in the 1950s in order to maintain
relations with its former colonies, which were more lucrative trading
partners at the time.
“The Canadian IT industry should see the referendum result as a
double-edged sword,” Baskoy says. “There may be adverse effects in the
shorter term, but the industry may also take advantage of the absence of the
E.U. in the U.K.
to build closer ties.” However, Baskoy doesn’t deny that Brexit’s impact on
world financial markets is only “the tip of the iceberg,” noting that, for
example Canadian telecommunication companies – both manufacturers and service
providers – could lose a useful stepping stone in their relationship with the
E.U., one that has proven especially fruitful in boosting technology
standards and competition among services. “The U.K. was a major player in the
E.U. in putting forward new European standards, many of which eventually
became global standards,” Baskoy says. “Now, Canada may not have that stepping
stone anymore.”
Canadian companies also collaborated with British firms such as
British Telecom in the past to reach continental European markets, where the
E.U. has agreed to abolish roaming charges by next July, Baskoy says. Without
the U.K., Canadian service
providers might require new partners in continental Europe.
Finally, he notes the crucial role of high-tech industries in the
Canada-European Union: Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA),
which both parties signed last year. “Now, Canada
has to develop a two-pronged trade policy: one geared toward the U.K., and one
toward the E.U.,” Baskoy says. “This may create some conflict, confusion, and
uncertainty for the Canadian IT industry down the road.” Tony Bailetti,
director of Carleton University’s technology innovation management
program, is more pessimistic than his contemporaries about Brexit’s impact on
Canada’s
tech industry.
“Brexit has disrupted the ecosystems firms use to advance and
adopt technology globally,” he says. “Even if Brexit could somehow be
reversed, you could not repair the disruptions caused in many product and
market sectors.” For example: cybersecurity, in which several British firms
serve as anchor companies for two or three Canadian startups. “So the British
companies provide the Canadian startups with distribution channels, funding,
and a pre-set customer base, so that it’s easy for Canadian firms to develop
something and the Brits to integrate with it,” he says. “The value of that
relationship on the Canadian side will go down, given what we saw last week.”
Demand for Canadian products and services in the U.K. will also decrease, he says.
“Canadians are known for building small stuff that goes into big platforms,”
Bailetti says. “Defense for example. So many platforms in the defense
industry are being built by the U.K., and Canadian firms build
the applications on top.”
An example from the enterprise world is BlackBerry Ltd., which
of late has positioned itself as a solutions provider, offering its
top-of-the-line security and productivity software for other manufacturers’
smartphones and other devices. “So the moment one of those smartphones is no
longer wanted in a market as large as the E.U., it becomes very difficult for
Canadian firms to continue building the applications that go on top of these
platforms that the Brits sell,” Bailetti says. Constellation Research, Inc.
principal analyst and founder R. “Ray” Wang says that if any country is
likely to benefit from Brexit, it will be the U.K.’s
closest neighbour in the E.U.: Ireland. “We see R&D there,
we see testing, we see good infrastructure with the right talent, the right
mix of start-up companies, funding thanks to tax breaks, multinationals – and
now it’s also going to be a hedge against what’s happening with Brexit,” Wang
says. “There’s a lot of expertise already in Ireland, and I think the Irish
are going to benefit a lot from it.”
With their headquarters and datacentres in Dublin, Wang says,
several multinationals will have the ability to reach the E.U. while also
remaining close enough to the U.K. border, both for business purposes and to
serve as the logical beneficiary of the U.K.’s likely exodus of talent.
“You’ve got about two million people with E.U. passports in the U.K., and so it’s logical on the talent side
for people to hop to Ireland
instead of remaining in the U.K.
if they have to make the move,” he says. “One challenge is financing –
there’s a lot more money in London – but given
the way VCs are operating on a global basis, almost
every Silicon Valley VC has an office in Ireland anyway.” Like Gartner’s
Lovelock, however, Wang cautions that none of Brexit’s projected impacts are
set in stone. “Nothing has happened until article 50 is put to a vote, and
even when that is put to a vote, it’s going to take up to two years or longer
to actually conduct the separation,” he says. “So a lot of this is
speculation – but if you want to hedge, hedge to Ireland.”
From
http://www.itworldcanada.com/
06/28/2016
TOP↑
LATIN
AMERICA: Argentina
to Host ITU's WTDC in 2017
Argentina's
communications regulator Enacom announced that the country has been chosen to
host the ITU's World Telecommunication Development Conference (WTDC) next
year. The seventh edition of WTDC will be held in October 2017 and will
promote the development of ICT in the world and define the industry's various
tasks and objectives over the period 2018 to 2021, said Enacom.
From
http://www.telecompaper.com/
06/23/2016
TOP↑
BRAZIL: TIM Sees More 4G Than 3G
Customers in Rio by Year-end
TIM Brasil expects that 70 percent of its connections will use 4G technology during the Rio Summer
Olympic Games, reports Exame. By the end of 2016, Rio de
Janeiro should be the first city with more 4G than 3G
connections, with a percentage above 50 percent, to be followed by Sao Paulo. The operator
is planning to expand 4G technology to 1,000 cities by the end of the year,
compared to the current 520. Currently, 40 percent of connections in Rio de Janeiro are 4G,
while in Sao Paulo
this percentage is 39 percent.
From
http://www.telecompaper.com/
07/22/2016
TOP↑
NICARAGUA: World Bank Supports Improved Broadband and
New ICT Industries
The World Bank (WB) and the Government of Nicaragua signed today
an agreement to implement a project aimed at increasing broadband access and
make further progress in the development of Information and Communications
Technologies (ICTs), especially in the Caribbean region of Nicaragua. The
Caribbean Regional Communications Infrastructure Program (CARCIP) was
approved by the WB Board of Executive Directors earlier this month. The
US$20.1 million credit will bring overall economic benefits to the region
thanks to the development of interconnected broadband infrastructure, as well
as the human talent to deliver services according to market requirements,
such as technical English training. The agreement was signed today by Ivan
Acosta, Minister of the Treasury and Public Credit, and Luis Constantino,
World Bank representative in Nicaragua.
Orlando Castillo, managing director of the Nicaraguan Telecommunications and Mail
Institute (TELCOR, in Spanish) also took part in the signing ceremony.
“Starting in 2007, the Government, via TELCOR, has successfully
implemented World Bank-financed programs to expand access and reduce the cost
of telecommunications services in rural areas of Nicaragua. In this new phase, and
taking advantage of the infrastructure deployed in the past decade, we are
convinced that we will make significant progress in closing the
telecommunications infrastructure gap of the Caribbean Coast, as well as
increasing human talent to create jobs in the ICT industry, which will
promote innovation and attract investments into the country,” said Orlando
Castillo, managing director at TELCOR. The broadband network financed by CARCIP
in Nicaragua
will provide broadband connectivity to some 48 locations, including schools,
health care centers, universities, as well as micro, small and medium sized
enterprises. By way of public-private partnerships, the idea is to expand
coverage to close to 180,000 people in Nicaragua’s
Caribbean region, including indigenous and
Afro-descendent populations. The network will also link interconnection
points with backbone lines, which will strengthen those networks connecting Nicaragua with other Caribbean
countries, facilitating disaster prevention in those countries, highly
vulnerable to natural disasters.
“This project goes far beyond the installation of
infrastructure, it also intends to build human capacities so that
Nicaraguans, especially younger workers, are able to use this infrastructure
in productive ways,” explained Luis Constantino, World Bank Representative in
Nicaragua.
“The idea is to contribute to the development of high value added ICT-based
industry that creates jobs for youth, allows improved services for the
private sector, and contributes to overall economic growth in the country.”
As a result of this Program, the population will gain improved access to
higher quality and less expensive ICT services. It envisages an expansion in
the coverage of conventional phone, cell phone and Internet services in
communities located in the Alto Coco Bocay of the Wangki
River, as well as other
municipalities in the Northern Caribbean Coast,
up to municipalities in the Southern Caribbean Coast Autonomous Region and
municipalities in the Rio San Juan and Managua
departments. The US$20.1 million credit from the International Development
Association (IDA) —the WB arm for the poorest countries— has a 25-year
maturity period and includes a 5-year grace period. Project duration is
scheduled for a period of six years.
From
http://www.worldbank.org/
08/17/2016
TOP↑
NORTH AMERICA: US - Internet Speeds Improve, Still Lag
Behind Other Countries
Internet speed in the US has accelerated, and is poised
to continue to do so, reports a new study by Speedtest. Internet speeds in
the US
have gotten faster in the first six months of 2016, but not quick enough to
surpass speeds in other nations, according to a new report from Speedtest.
Speedtest.net is a global broadband speed test by Ookla, which specializes in
speed testing and web-based network diagnostic apps. The site recently
released its Speedtest Market Report, which sheds light on internet speed
growth and top service providers. Internet speeds in the US have
accelerated during the first half of 2016, according to the company's data.
The information came from Speedtest, which has hundreds of millions of users
and hosts more than 8 million tests each day on both broadband and mobile.
Users with fixed broadband internet experienced the biggest
increase as download speeds reached an average of more than 50 Mbps for the
first time. The performance boost among fixed broadband customers marks an
improvement of more than 40% since July 2015. "Overall, the fixed
broadband industry has seen consolidation, speed upgrades and, thankfully,
growth in fiber optic deployments from upstarts like Google Fiber to industry
titans like Xfinity and AT&T to other regional internet service
providers," according to the Aug. 3 report. According to the study, the
50 Mbps mark is more than enough for typical activity like web browsing and
video streaming. However, 50 Mbps is only a small fraction of the speed that gigabit
fiber optic internet offers.
The growth in fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) connectivity continued to
grow throughout the US
in 2015. Google Fiber began to offer service in Kansas City in September 2012. Service
locations have expanded since then. Among Internet Service Providers (ISPs),
Xfinity was fastest in the US,
boasting a top-tier download speed of 125.53 Mbps. While Xfinity has
consistently had the fastest download speed over the past year, its upload
speed is among the slowest of top providers at 15.26 Mbps. Verizon Fios has
the fastest upload speed among US ISPs. Despite the overall acceleration for
average consumers, not all internet customers in the US have
experienced the speed boost. Speedtest cited a recent Broadband Progress
Report from the US Federal Communications Commission, which discovered 10% of
Americans do not have access to 25 Mbps download and 3 Mbps upload. This
percentage grows to 39% for rural populations.
The report noted that internet speeds vary depending on users'
location in the US.
Only 4% of Americans in urban areas lack access to these speeds, which the
FCC considers "target speeds," and the largest concentration of the
US
population lives in urban areas. Mobile customers have seen improvement as
speed has increased more than 30% since last year. The average download speed
reached 19.27 Mbps in the first six months of 2016. Speeds accelerated as
major mobile carriers Verizon, T-Mobile, AT&T, and Sprint competed to
attract new customers with faster download speeds and lower prices. T-Mobile
is the fastest mobile carrier in the US, the report stated. Going
forward, Speedtest anticipates optimists can expect to see an annual 40%
growth in fixed broadband performance and 30% increase mobile internet
performance. However, skeptics can note current speeds in the US are still
slower than those in other countries. The US ranks 20th in fixed broadband
and 42nd in mobile internet performance, around the world, as noted by
GeekWire.
From
http://www.informationweek.com/
08/04/2016
TOP↑
Global
LTE Subs Grow by 645m
in One Year
LTE connections increased at a rate of 2 million per day
globally in Q1, according to the GSA. The number of LTE subscriptions reached
1.29 billion in the first quarter of this year, thanks to net additions of
more than 645 million over a 12-month period, the Global mobile Suppliers
Association (GSA) revealed this week. The figures, which include LTE-Advanced
connections, were supplied by analyst firm Ovum, the GSA said. LTE
connections increased by 182 million in Q1 alone, a growth rate that older
technologies failed to match; 3G/HSPA
customers increased by 48 million, while GSM subscriptions fell by 120
million, the GSA said. It predicts that LTE/LTE-A subscriptions will exceed 3G connections in 2020, if not sooner.
"LTE subscriptions were signed up during Q1 2016 at an average of 2
million per day and the rate is accelerating," said Alan Hadden, vice
president of the GSA, in a statement. "LTE is now connecting over one in
six mobile subscribers worldwide," or 17.4%, Hadden said.
Asia is
naturally the biggest LTE market in the world and its share is growing, its
734 million connections giving it 56.9% of the total in Q1. Its growth is in
no small part fuelled by China,
which claimed 511 million LTE subscriptions at the same date, having added a
staggering 96.3 million in the first quarter, more than half of the world's
net adds. India
has yet to emerge as an Asian powerhouse; its LTE customers numbered 4
million at the same date. North America is
the second largest LTE market with 253 million connections but its share is
declining, coming in at 19.6% in Q1. Europe
claims a 14% share. The GSA noted strong growth in Latin America and the
Caribbean, which now has 67 million subscriptions, while the Middle East has
46.6 million and Africa 9 million. There are
503 million commercial LTE networks in the world, the GSA announced recently,
the 500th having launched in May.
From
http://www.totaltele.com/
06/09/2016
TOP↑
IoT
Connections to Hit 27bn in 2025, Revenues to Grow Fourfold
Telecoms operators with a strong enterprise IT presence will be
able to compete for revenues in IoT space, according to Machina Research. The
number of Internet of Things (IoT) connections in the world – and associated
revenues – will grow fourfold between 2015 and 2025, providing a money-making
opportunity for telcos, particularly those with experience in enterprise IT
services, according to new figures published on Wednesday. Global IoT
connections will reach 27 billion in 2025, up from 6 billion last year,
according to Machina Research's latest figures. Over the same period, the IoT
revenue opportunity will grow to US$3 trillion from $750 billion, with $1.3
trillion of the total coming directly from end users via devices,
connectivity and application revenue, the analyst firm said. The remainder
will come from upstream and downstream sources including application
development, systems integration, hosting and data
monetisation.
Despite the fact that revenues from pure connectivity are
relatively small – $50 billion in 2025, Machina Research CEO Matt Hatton told
Total Telecom – telcos could be better placed than many industry watchers
believe to capture a chunk of the market. That $50 billion is "a
significant chunk of change," Hatton said, but noted that telcos will
still focus on the wider opportunity, such as providing actual IoT applications.
"Some, such as Vodafone, are pursuing applications aggressively, while
others like Tele2 are focusing more on the horizontal connectivity
part," he said, adding that adjacent services like data monetisation and
systems integration also represent a big opportunity. "Inevitably people
will trot out the assertion that telcos aren't great at end services, but
that's too broad," Hatton said. "While they may not be good at
developing their own pet tracker, for example, most of the interesting stuff
in IoT has a heavy enterprise skew and telcos have done a pretty good job of
diversifying into enterprise IT services." Hatton referred to MK:Smart as a good example, a citywide data capture
programme in Milton Keynes that includes BT
amongst its partners. "[BT is] involved in some cutting edge IoT
developments [there]," he said.
Making connections
By 2025, 72% of all IoT connections will use short-range
technologies like WiFi, Zigbee, and in-building powerline, up slightly from
71% at present. Cellular connections will reach 2.2 billion by 2025, up from
334 million at end-2015, most of which will be LTE-based, Machina Research
predicts. The connected car space will be key here;
45% of cellular IoT connections in 2025 will be in that sector. Low-power
wide area options, such as Sigfox, LoRa and LTE-NB1, will make up 11% of
connections in 2025, Machina believes. China
will lead the IoT market in 2025, but only just, with 21% of IoT connections
compared with the U.S.'s
20%; the U.S. will capture
a larger revenue share though, at 22% to China's 19%. Third-largest market
Japan
will be home to 7% of connections and 6% of revenues. By 2025 IoT will
generate over 2 zettabytes of data, mostly from consumer electronics devices,
according to Machina's figures.
From
http://www.totaltele.com/
08/04/2016
TOP↑
Global
Public Cloud Spending to Hit $195bn in 2020
IDC predicts IaaS, PaaS revenues to grow faster than SaaS in
five years to 2020. Global spending on public cloud services will reach
US$195 billion by 2020, compared to nearly $70 billion in 2015 and an
estimated $96.5 billion this year, predicted IDC this week. According to the
research firm, that represents a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 20.4%
between 2015 and 2020. "Cloud software will significantly outpace
traditional software product delivery over the next five years, growing
nearly three times faster than the software market as a whole and becoming
the significant growth driver to all functional software markets," said
Benjamin McGrath, a senior research analyst covering software-as-a-service
(SaaS) and business models at IDC. IDC said SaaS and platform-as-a-service
(PaaS) together accounted for 83.7% of all public cloud revenue in 2015,
while infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) accounted for the remaining 16.3%.
However, growth in IaaS and PaaS spending is expected to outpace SaaS
spending growth over the forecast period, expanding their share of overall
revenues.
Discrete manufacturing, banking and professional services are
the leading industry verticals when it comes to public cloud spending; IDC
expects them to account for a third of worldwide revenues in 2016. "By
2020, about half of all new business software purchases will be of service-enabled
software, and cloud software will constitute more than a quarter of all
software sold," McGrath predicted. "Organisations across all
industries are now free to adapt to market changes quicker and take more
risks, as they are no longer bound by legacy IT constraints," added
Eileen Smith, programme director, customer insights and analysis, at IDC. On
a geographic basis, the U.S.
is expected to represent the largest market for public cloud services,
generating two thirds of global revenues during the forecast period, followed
by Western Europe and Asia Pacific, excluding Japan.
From
http://www.totaltele.com/
08/12/2016
TOP↑
UN
Survey Shows Mixed Results for ‘World-Leading’ D5
Two of the Digital 5 nations fell in the UN e-government
rankings this year, showing mixed performance for a group that has called
itself a group of “world-leading digital nations.” Korea fell to third place, after
coming in first in 2014. Israel,
meanwhile, dropped from 17th to the 20th place. The United Kingdom
performed best out of the D5, coming in first in the UN rankings. New Zealand moved up one spot to take eight
place, and Estonia
moved from 15th to 13th place. Countries that performed better than the lowest-ranked
D5 nation include Australia,
Singapore, Finland, Sweden,
the Netherlands, Denmark, France,
Japan, the United States, Canada,
Germany, Austria, Spain,
Norway and Belgium.
From
https://govinsider.asia/
08/18/2016
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CHINA: Great Leap
for Chinese-made Supercomputers, but Challenges Remain
It's no longer big news that a Chinese supercomputer dominates a
list of the world's fastest machines these days, but a No. 1 system built
using entirely made-in-China chips instead of U.S. technology is no doubt a
milestone. China's
Sunway TaihuLight, which is capable of performing 93 quadrillion calculations
per second (petaflop/s), was on Monday declared having replaced Tianhe-2 as
the world's most powerful supercomputer on the so-called Top500 list.
Tianhe-2, also a Chinese system, had previously topped the list for the past
three years with a performance of 33.86 petaflop/s,
but it's built with U.S.-made Intel chips. Monday's announcement marked a
great leap forward in China's
ambitions to develop its homegrown computing and chipmaking industry. It's no secret
China has a deep worry
over foreign reliance, especially after the U.S.
government announced an export ban on all high-performance computing chips to
China
last year. Now, China's
persistent supercomputing investment seems to be paying off. "The Sunway
TaihuLight system, based on a homegrown processor, demonstrates the
significant progress that China
has made in the domain of designing and manufacturing large-scale computation
systems," said Jack Dongarra, professor of the University of Tennessee
and editor of the list, in a report about the new supercomputer. He said
Sunway TaihuLight is running "sizeable applications," a fact that
caused him to believe the system "is capable of running real
applications and not just a stunt machine."
Depei Qian, a professor at Beihang
University and the chief scientist
of China's
863 project on high productivity computer and grid
service environment, called the new system a "landmark event."
"This is the first time we use domestic processors to take the top spot
on the Top500 list, marking a big step in China's development of
self-controllable supercomputers," Qian told Xinhua. "This system
is not only leading in computing performance, but also has technological
breakthroughs in areas including energy efficiency and size. It's very
impressive." Zizhong Chen, a supercomputer expert at the University of California, Riverside (UCR), said
Chinese should be proud of the Sunway TaihuLight system. "It shows that
with long-term efforts of Chinese computer experts, China's IT
technology is developing rapidly," said Chen. "It also means that China has mastered the main core technologies
for building supercomputers and therefore China's ability to compete in the
supercomputing domain is getting stronger and stronger." What is equally
surprising for the latest list is that China
also has more supercomputers than the United States, with 167 compared to 165. This
is the first time the United
States has lost the lead. "It's a
trend with China,"
Dongarra told Xinhua. "They had zero systems in 2001 and today they
surpass the United States.
No other nation has seen such rapid growth."
Dongarra noted that supercomputers are "more important than
ever" as they provide capability benefiting a broad range of industries,
including energy, pharmaceutics, aircraft, automobile and entertainment.
Experts, however, were quick to point out that China
is still far from being a real challenger or threat to U.S.
supercomputing dominance. "Overall, the United
States is still in the lead, and Japan is also a strong contender," Qian
said. "The U.S., Japan and Europe have an advantage over us in
supercomputing applications, so China cannot be blindly
optimistic." Qian also said some Chinese systems on the latest list are
not strictly supercomputers, but only systems such as data centers, which
usually are not accounted for in the U.S.
and Japan.
"So, the numbers aren't everything," he said. The United States
is now ready to regain lost ground. Last July, U.S. President Barack Obama signed an executive order to
announce the National Strategic Computing Initiative, which aims to build
supercomputer about 10 times faster than the Sunway TaihuLight system.
The U.S. Department of Energy has already allocated 525 million
dollars to build three supercomputers with performances greater than 100 petaflop/s, which are expected to come into
service around 2018. Japan
also is trying to stage a comeback with a new supercomputer project called
Flagship 2020. "We could see lead changes on the Top500's top position
in the next few years, so we should treat that calmly," Qian said. In
order to enhance China's competitiveness in high performance computing, Chen
of the UCR advised China to further strengthen development of supercomputer
software and applications and training of computing talents, which he said
still lagged behind when compared with the U.S., Japan and Europe. Qian
echoed similar problems, including lack of some kernel technologies, relying
on imported commercial software and shortage of talents. "China has
made some progress," he said, "but the weakness is also
obvious."
From http://www.news.cn/
06/20/2016
TOP↑
World's Largest Radio
Telescope Completes Installation
The world's largest-ever radio
telescope completed installation as the last piece of 4,450 panels was fitted
in the center of the big dish on Sunday morning, a landmark step for its
planned operation in September. The hoisting of the last triangular-shaped
panel to the reflector, as large as 30 football
pitches, began at 10:47 a.m.
and lasted about an hour. About 300 people, including constructors, experts,
science fiction enthusiasts and reporters, witnessed the installation in a
karst valley in Pingtang County of the southwestern province of Guizhou.
From http://www.news.cn/
07/03/2016
TOP↑
Visitors Try on VR
Equipments at Experience Center in SE China
A technician adjusts a panorama Virtual Reality (VR) camera at
the VR experience center in Changle, southeast China's
Fujian Province, July
12, 2016. Located in Changle, China Fujian
VR Experience Center is the largest of its kind in China as to explore the advanced
VR technology.
From http://www.news.cn/
07/12/2016
TOP↑
China Starts
Developing New-era Exascale Supercomputer
Scientists have started to develop a sample machine that will
play a part in the development of a new era supercomputer capable of a
billion-billion calculations per second, researchers said Tuesday. The National Supercomputer
Center in Tianjin is developing the exascale
supercomputer with the National University of Defense Technology (NUDT), said
Meng Xiangfei, assistant director of the center. The aim is to make the
computer, which will be capable of a quintillion
calculations per second, by 2020. It will be 200 times faster than China's
Tianhe-1 supercomputer, and even faster than the most powerful supercomputers
in the world, he said. China's
Sunway TaihuLight is the world's fastest system, capable of 93 quadrillion
calculations per second, according to an announcement at the 2016
International Supercomputing Conference,
Germany. This
new project will expend on existing theories and applications of the exascale
system's hardware and software. The sample machine will hopefully be ready by
early 2018, Meng said. The new era computing system will mark a huge
advancement in terms of intensity of calculation, capacity of single chips
and the rate of data transmission, he said. In 2010, the country's first
petaflop supercomputer, Tianhe-1, which is capable of at least a million
billion calculations per second, was unveiled to the world. At present,
Tianhe-1 supports various tasks including oil exploration, high-end equipment
manufacturing, biological medicine and animation design, and serves nearly
1,000 customers.
From http://www.news.cn/
07/26/2016
TOP↑
Chinese Researchers to Develop 3D Skin Printing Technology
Chinese researchers and companies are developing the technology
and processes to make 3D-printed skin a reality, and they expect to achieve
this within two to three years. Wu Jun, director of the Burns Institute at
the Southwest Hospital
in Chongqing,
said he has been testing the process with pig skin. "In printing skin,
the biggest challenge is the 'ink.' We need to find the right material that
can be made into a certain form while not damaging its activity," he
said. The ink he refers to is the skin tissue, at the current time, 3D
printing in the medical industry mostly produces hard items, the flexibility
of skin makes this process more difficult. "I expect the process to be
finalized within two to three years," he said. "Many other
researchers are at the same stage as us, so we are moving fast to be the
first to make this breakthrough," he said. The aim is to make
custom-made skin for burns patients that will be printed according to their
wounds. 3D printing has been used in many operations, but there are still a
few more years to go until we can successfully print live tissue or organs,
Wu said. Some researchers across the globe have printed small tissue samples
in a lab environment, but the challenge is to keep it alive, functional and
fit for clinical use, he said.
There is a 3D printing factory for medical products under
construction in Chongqing, said Yang Chen,
manager of Hkable Biological 3D (China) Co. Ltd. The factory, a
joint venture between U.S.-based Hkable and Chinese biotechnology company
Jintai in Chongqing, is the first 3D medical
printing factory in China.
"We will use 3D printers to make splints and artificial limbs in the
beginning, then we will develop more advanced stem
cell-printed products," Yang said. Across China, there have been a number
of successes using 3D printing for surgical purposes. In June, doctors in Peking University Third
Hospital replaced five
vertebrae with 3D-printed replicas in a cancer patient. The 3D-printed
vertebrae measured 19 centimeters, the longest ever in a successful
operation. "3D printing is changing medicine," said Dai Kerong, an
academic with the Chinese
Academy of Engineering.
"Mass-produced joints do not fit every patient, there is a need for
custom-made 3D printed joints," he said. "This is only the
beginning, however, we must make sure 3D medical applications are properly
supervised," said Dai.
From http://www.news.cn/ 08/04/2016
TOP↑
China Leads World in Mobile Tech:
Media
Silicon Valley has long enjoyed a reputation for technological
innovation, while times may have changed as industry insiders are currently
seeing China as further ahead, especially in mobile tech, the New York Times
recently reported. The Times article took WeChat, Alipay, and YY.com -- all
native Chinese social media giants -- as outstanding examples that first
popularized barcodes-scanning payment and money transfer, mobile order
services and video-streaming, among other hits, that some U.S. tech giants,
such as Facebook and Snapchat, are following suit. In 2015, China has surpassed the United States
in mobile payment. Also, more people in China, than anywhere else, are
using mobile devices to order services, make friends and watch videos,
according to the article. Some business insiders interviewed by the Times
shared the view that China
has become the leader on many fronts in the mobile world. Ben Thompson, the
founder of the tech research company Stratechery, told the Times that
"the trope that China
copies the U.S. hasn't
been true for years," and in today's mobile world, "the U.S. often copies China." The article also
pointed out that in comparison with the idea among their U.S. peers of making
apps simple, Chinese tech firms often stuff several functions into one app --
you can chat, order food and car rides, do shopping, book trips and hotels
all through a single platform. They also allow other companies to grow within
them to directly offer services, which have created many successful business
stories, the article said. Meanwhile, Chinese tech giants are also exploring
overseas markets themselves. On Thursday, WeChat, the most widely used mobile
messaging app in China,
announced it was entering the New
Zealand payments market with its automatic
payment app WePay. WePay has 400 million active users in China,
processing over 500 million payment transactions a day.
From http://www.news.cn/ 08/05/2016
TOP↑
China Launches First Mobile Telecom
Satellite
China on early
Saturday successfully launched the first satellite for mobile
telecommunication. The Tiantong-01 satellite was launched at 00:22 a.m. Beijing Time, at southwestern China's Xichang Satellite
Launch Center,
with the Long March-3B carrier rocket. It is the first satellite of China's
home-made satellite mobile telecom system, and a key part of the country's
space information infrastructure. More geostationary satellites will be sent
into orbit for the system. Tiantong-01 was designed by China Academy of Space
Technology and its ground service will be operated by China Telecom. It will
establish a mobile network with ground facilities, providing services for China, the Middle East, Africa
and other areas. The Long March-3B carrier rocket was produced by China
Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology. It was the 232nd flight of the Long
March series carrier rockets, and the 36th launch of the Long March-3B.
From http://www.news.cn/ 08/06/2016
TOP↑
JAPAN: Ministry to Tackle 5G Research
Government research to develop services using the
fifth-generation (5G)
communications system will start in fiscal 2017, with an aim to putting such
services on the market in fiscal 2020, it has been learned. The 5G super-fast mobile network will be
two generations past the current 3.9 generation Long Term Evolution, or LTE,
technology, and will offer communications speeds up to about 100 times
faster. As one of its major advantages, 5G
will be able to maintain transmissions even when a much larger number of
people are using the Internet. The Internal Affairs and Communications
Ministry will work with private-sector companies to beef up its efforts to
develop services featuring 5G
technology, as it believes the types of services available will be key to promoting the network. The ministry will include
related expenses in its budget request for fiscal 2017. It hopes to work with
not only communications and electronics companies, but also automakers,
image-related and other firms in developing services featuring 5G.
The super-fast network will be available following the
fourth-generation system, whose services will fully begin this year. Mobile
phone carriers are now developing 5G
communications technologies, and the ministry will develop related services
in tandem with their efforts. Envisioned applications include a service in
which tens of thousands of stadium spectators can watch a game while
simultaneously streaming videos focused on their favorite players with their
smartphones. This would not only create a sense of unity at the venue, but
also let users see close-up the expressions and techniques of their favorite
players at the same time. The ministry also aims to develop technologies that
will enable users to view high-resolution images on the Internet while
traveling aboard Shinkansen bullet trains. It further aims to apply the 5G system to so-called
remote-controlled operations, in which doctors conduct surgeries from distant
places while watching screens. Surgeons would be able to perform operations
while watching live images in 8K ultra-high definition even while patients
were being treated at places without access to fixed phone lines, such as
ambulances.
Featuring 8K images — whose images are 16 times as detailed and
sharp as current full high-definition TVs — the remote-controlled operations
service would allow doctors to see blood vessels and other small details,
making it easier for them to avoid mistakes. The ministry also plans to
install functions capable of handling the 5G network not only in smartphones and tablets, but
in many other products as well, to help create new types of services. It will
consider, for example, a service to connect many vehicles to 5G, thus making it easier for road
operators to obtain traffic information — such as vehicles’ positioning and
locations of accidents — at any time to help drivers travel safely and escape
traffic congestion. The ministry believes that once business models can be
established for companies to charge fees for providing 5G services in entertainment, safety and other
fields, mobile phone carriers will make more capital investment and more
companies will offer new services, thereby boosting promotion of the network.
From
http://the-japan-news.com
06/06/2016
TOP↑
S. Korea, Ethiopia to
Expand ICT Cooperation
South Korea and Ethiopia have signed an accord to promote
partnerships in information, communication and technology (ICT) in Addis Ababa, the
information technology ministry said Thursday, as President Park Geun-hye was
on a visit there. The memorandum of understanding (MOU) would pave the way
for South Korea
to transfer more of its advanced technologies to the African nation, said the
Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning. It is also expected to expedite
the launch of businesses there by South Korean tech firms. Ethiopia is the fourth-largest economy in Africa and its more than 90 million people comprise the
second-biggest population on the continent. It is home to the African Union
(AU) as well. In 2011, the two countries inked a deal on science and
technology cooperation. Many South Korean scientists have since worked at
local colleges there. "In particular, Ethiopia
is pursuing economic development through ICT and science technology and it's
seeking to emulate South
Korea," the ministry said. "It
is requesting cooperation in various fields, including the aerospace industry
and the operation of science and technology colleges." The ministry
added it also plans to sign an MOU with the AU on science and technology
cooperation. The two sides will push for joint research on solutions to
pending problems including disease control, it said.
From
http://www.korea.net
05/27/2016
TOP↑
Korea, France to Expand Cooperation on
Tech, Media
Korea and France will
expand cooperation on cutting-edge new industries, such as biotechnology, IT
and on combining technologies. Based on agreements made during summit talks
between President Park Geun-hye and French President Francois Hollande on
June 3 in Paris, the two
governments singed 27 memorandums of understanding (MOUs), including 23 that
covered economic cooperation.The two governments agreed to technological
partnerships in cutting-edge new industries. Including a letter of intent
signed between Europe's biggest biotech and biotherapy cluster, Genopole, and
Korea's Osong and the
governments of Daegu City and Gyeongsangbuk-do
Province, nine
agreements were made concerning partnerships in these cutting-edge new
industries.
The Korean and French governments signed MOUs concerning cooperation on the
creative economy and on media and broadcasting, as well, and agreed to
partnerships in the creative industries, specifically through partnerships in
startups and content-making for entertainment and arts. The two signed an MOU
concerning Korea-France joint investments and agreed to hold ministerial
talks on a regular basis in the future in order to exchange information and
to expand investment between the two countries. The same day, President Park displayed her government's
intention to join the Paris Club, an informal group of officials from
creditor countries. As a member, Korea would be able to expand its
cooperation on major issues concerning the global financial system, the
president said.
From
http://www.korea.net
06/05/2016
TOP↑
Korea Ranks 14th in Mobile
Internet Connectivity: Report
Korea ranked 14th
among 134 countries in terms of mobile internet connectivity, a global
association of mobile operators said on Tuesday. According to the Global System
for Mobile Communications, Korea
scored 80.7 out of 100 in
four key areas of mobile internet connectivity --infrastructure,
affordability, consumer readiness and content. Australia
topped the list, followed by the Netherlands,
Denmark, Sweden, Norway,
New Zealand, Finland, the United
States, Iceland
and the U.K.,
the association said. Noticeably, Korea scored the best in the
country's mobile infrastructure as 99 percent of its population are provided
with 3G coverage, it said.
More than 3 billion people around the world are connected to the internet,
but that still leaves more than 4 billion people offline, excluded from the
powerful opportunities for social and economic development that the internet
enables, it added. The GSMA is a global association of nearly 800 mobile
operators in more than 220 countries. The report said the index measures the
performance of 134 countries, accounting for more than 95 percent of the
world's population.
From
http://www.koreaherald.com
06/28/2016
TOP↑
Mobile
Shopping Hits Record 2.7 Tln Won in May
South
Korea's mobile shopping
soared 41.7 percent to a record high of 2.697 trillion won ($2.4 billion) in
May from a year earlier, a government report showed Monday. "Purchases
on mobile devices jumped last month due to convenience, competitive prices
and a bigger range of products. And the trend is set to strengthen over
time," an official from Statistics Korea said, citing a data report the
agency compiled. Mobile shopping accounted for 52.1 percent of the country's
overall online shopping sales worth 5.178 trillion won last month, up 22.3
percent from 4.233 trillion won a year ago, the agency said in the report.
Cosmetics and food products were the most popular items on online shopping
malls last month, it said. The number of high-speed internet subscribers
surpassed 20 million last year, with 43.7 million
people using smartphones in a country with a population of 50 million. In
2015, mobile shopping totaled 24.5 trillion won, more than tripling from 6.6
trillion won in 2013 when the agency started to collect such data.
From
http://www.koreaherald.com/
07/04/2016
TOP↑
Korea's ICT Exports Dip 5.1% in June
South
Korea's exports of
information and communication technology products fell 5.1 percent in June
due mainly to a slump in sales of mobile phones and displays, government data
showed Thursday ICT exports reached $13.48 billion last month, down from
$14.21 billion a year ago, according to the data compiled by the Ministry of
Trade, Industry and Energy. Exports of ICT goods accounted for 29.8 percent
of the country's $45.3 billion in overall shipments abroad over the cited
period. South Korea's
exports fell 2.7 percent in June, marking the 18th consecutive drop since the
first month of last year due to a global slowdown and low oil prices. Imports
of foreign ICT products edged down 1.1 percent on-year to $7.29 billion last
month, with the country logging a trade surplus of $6.19 billion in the
sector. The trade ministry said weak exports of display panels and mobile
phones led the decline due to oversupply and flaccid demand in the sectors.
Shipments of flat screens plunged 24.4 percent on-year to $2.12 billion and
those of mobile gadgets slid 8.3 percent on-year to $2.06 billion over the
period. Overseas sales of semiconductors also contracted 0.5 percent to $5.28
billion, narrowing from a 4.4-percent fall and 11.9
percent drop in May and April, respectively. By region, shipments to China and the European Union dipped 6.7
percent and 9.1 percent on-year, respectively, while those to Vietnam
jumped 20.1 percent, the data showed.
From
http://www.koreaherald.com
07/14/2016
TOP↑
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INDONESIA: Technology Startups for Farm Sector
INDONESIA’S
Communications and Information Ministry recently launched the 1,000 Digital
Startup Movement initiative in cooperation with
KIBAR, the country’s technology star-up ecosystem builder in Indonesia. Through
this programme , the government wants to realise Indonesia's
potential for the Digital Energy of Asia by 2020 through the creation of
1,000 tech start-ups, which are expected to help overcome problems by
utilizing digital technology. This initiative should be appreciated, given
the global digitalization trend in all aspects of life. Nonetheless, most of
these start-ups have not touched traditional sectors, such as agriculture.
According to the start-up ranking issued by TechInAsia, the top 15 start-ups
in Indonesia
are still dominated by e-commerce. This indicates that Indonesian private
consumption is very high. But if we look at the national agricultural sector,
the condition is inversely proportional to feed its population. In the midst
of growing food demand, it is unlikely that the Indonesian agricultural
sector will be able to provide sufficient food. Although such start-ups would
be identical to those in information technology and digitalisation, this does
not mean they only dwell in the two realms. Many lines of business could be
developed by start-ups, including agriculture.
The effort to synthesise digital start-ups in agriculture has
been made in several countries. In 2010, some Silicon Valley-based
programmers initiated a meeting with investors to discuss how a start-up and
investors could benefit agriculture, which later gave birth to the term
Agriculture 2.0. Another country that has continued to develop its
agricultural start-ups is India.
Narendra Modi's government is currently trying to increase investment in the
agricultural sector, which is able to employ half of India's
workforce. For Indonesia,
based on the purpose of the movement and definition of a start-up itself, the
role of an agricultural start-up could be crucial. Based on the 2013
Agriculture Census, the national agricultural industry is still dominated by
the home industry, with a total of about 26.14 million households, while the
number of agricultural companies totalled only 4,165. This means that the
majority of Indonesian farmers are working on a small scale with undeveloped
technology and limited access to education and information. If start-ups can
work well in agriculture, they will not only grow new companies but also
strengthen millions of small farmers in Indonesia.
Furthermore, the census also showed a decreasing number of
industrial farming households compared to the 2003 census. Indonesia has
lost about 5 million farmers due a lack of support and low profits.
Nonetheless, the current hype to reinforce agriculture has been taken by some
start-ups, such as I-Grow and Limakilo, which empower local farmers to
eliminate the role of brokers while providing professional management. In
software development, names like Matadaun, PEKA and Duty Plant have been
established to assist farmers with planting, financial management and
agricultural knowledge. This could be a new hope since they bring science,
digital technology, as well as access to information and global networks for
the local farmers to utilize and compete globally. A few things need to be
undertaken, starting with building awareness and providing knowledge about
the needs of start-up farming. It is important for founders, investors and
public officials to understand the necessities of agricultural start-ups. This
is essential given the current start-up trend, which is dominated by the
service sector and sales.
Second, comprehensive policy support, ranging from licensing
issues, access to capital and incentives, is needed. Licensing facilities are
in line with the government's goal to improve its ranking in ease of doing
business. Access to capital is not just about access to banks but also the
ease of investment. A government-established incubator is a good starting
point because it facilitates access to capital and advocates for policy
support. Last but not least is the approach to farmers and local
administrations. Literacy technology, particularly in IT for farmers, is very
important. Without it, they cannot use the services and software provided by
start-ups. Local government support is also crucial since they are dealing
with farmers and the locus of agriculture. For example, cooperation between
start-ups and local administrations to arrange village funds to develop
agricultural products and empower farmers. Without involving farmers and
local governments, agricultural start-ups will only be a discourse at the
urban level.
From
http://www.nationmultimedia.com/
08/27/2016
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THAILAND: Bangkok Third
‘Most Searched’ City in Asia
WITH ONLINE travel booking playing an increasingly crucial role
in the tourism industry, the good news for Thailand
is that Bangkok
is still among most searched cities in the world, according to Sojern, a
performance marketing platform for travel-related business. In an exclusive
interview with The Nation, Russell Young, Sojern's managing director for
Asia-Pacific, said the Thai travel and hospitality sectors should leverage
the country's online reputation to cash in on this trend. "The first
step is to focus on speaking to tourists that are actively looking to visit Thailand,
which will result in higher levels of engagement and better results. Work
with marketing solutions that can enable them to reach travellers as they are
starting to consider and compare hotel and flight options," Young said.
Another option is to target travellers who were headed to neighbouring
countries and tempt them with relevant messaging regarding the allure of Thailand as a
destination before they finalise their plans. "This is a key way ahead
[for] alternative holiday destinations like Vietnam
and the Philippines,
whilst [helping] the current tourism industry [to] flourish," he said.
Sojern's "Global Travel Insights" survey found that Bangkok was among the
five most commonly searched destinations for short-haul travel in the
Asia-Pacific region for the current quarter. This report was based on search
and booking behaviour provided by major airlines, online travel agents,
meta-search engines and other sources.
Bangkok was ranked
No 3 after Singapore and Tokyo but ahead of Taipei
and Osaka for online travellers from Europe,
the Middle East, Africa and the Asia-Pacific
region. "For all-around value and variety of holiday experience, Thailand is
still unbeatable," he said as an explanation for the high ranking. Also
critical is "the brand of the 'Land of the smiles', where the beaches,
weather, food, people and culture are well established as a place where you
relax, have fun and experience something new". Improvements in
infrastructure and connectivity are also key factors. For instance, direct
flights to Phuket from the Middle East and Europe
have increased. Meanwhile, Don Mueang International
Airport's second terminal is now
catering to an increasing pool of budget carriers from China and across the region as Suvarnabhumi Airport is running at over capacity,
enabling the country to continue to grow visitor numbers in an organised and
efficient manner. He said the military-installed regime had re-established
the reputation of Thailand
as a place of relative stability and peace, while the Erawan Shrine bombing
was fading from most tourists' memories.
From
http://www.nationmultimedia.com/
08/01/2016
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Technology
Driving Rise of Medical Tourism
MEDICAL TOURISM is a fast-growing industry, with an increasing
number of patients seeking affordable or specialised treatment outside their
home countries. Asia is one of the leading regions in the world for medical
tourism and has developed a niche for affordable and high quality healthcare,
particularly in markets such as Thailand,
India and Singapore, which account for 90 per cent of
medical tourism in Asia. This region is also
a popular wellness tourism destination for travellers seeking a holiday that
combines yoga, meditation, spa treatments or other wellness-related pursuits.
According to a study by the Global Wellness Summit, wellness tourism is
projected to grow 9.1 per cent annually through 2017, nearly 50 per cent
higher than overall tourism growth. The medical-tourism market in Asia is anticipated to post a compounded annual growth
rate (CAGR) of around 22 per cent during the 2014-18 period, according to a
report by RNCOS. Healthcare providers in the region are actively moving
towards digitisation of clinical data to ensure patient safety and care, and
to streamline workflow systems for international patients. Thailand has
always been a popular holiday destination and tourism accounts for about 10
per cent of gross domestic product. Revenue from health and wellness tourism
in Thailand
is expected to reach US$3.11 billion (Bt107 billion) by 2017. The thriving
medical-tourism sector means that visitors expect high-quality healthcare,
and Thailand
is rapidly adopting high-tech solutions in both medical equipment and
information-technology systems.
Technology has proved to be a catalyst for the growth of medical
tourism. For a patient considering overseas healthcare, there are three main
considerations - first, quality of medical professionals; second, healthcare
infrastructure; and third, the ability to access timely, accurate and
relevant information. Technology solutions facilitate the third factor -
helping medical professionals and patients access relevant and timely
information to ensure the best outcomes. The volume of information handled by
healthcare providers has grown enormously, and technology solutions become
critical to ensure that information is accurate, organised and protected. At
Hyland, we are at the forefront of technology solutions that help to improve
patient care. OnBase, our Enterprise Content Management (ECM) platform,
enables organisations to digitise their workplaces and fundamentally
transform their operations. Software solutions such as Vendor Neutral
Archives (VNA) and mobile technology are helping medical tourism reach its
full potential. ECM technology can now also manage clinical content like lab
results, radiographs, wound-care photos, electrocardiograms and more. By
integrating this content into the clinical content repository system,
clinicians can quickly and easily access it without switching between
applications. The information is presented in context to help clinicians have
not just the data, but the relevant data. ECM also helps a healthcare
provider to easily transfer patient information to another medical
professional anywhere in the world, ensuring continuity of care and avoid
medical errors. Eugene Chng is director of regional sales for Asia-Pacific at
Hyland, |a US-based software company.
From
http://www.nationmultimedia.com/
08/27/2016
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4G Partners to Provide 20m Users, Says TOT
TOT EXPECTS its proposed 4G
service on the 2.3GHz spectrum to have 20 million subscribers in total within
five years, most of which would be provided by prospective wholesale partners
for the project, according to the state telecom agency’s revised 2.3GHz
business plan. Under the plan, TOT aims to wholesale between 70 and 80 per
cent of its 60MHz bandwidth in the spectrum to private telecom operators
wishing to provide 4G
service, said Rungsun Channarukul, senior executive vice president for
wireless business. "The total number of subscribers in the first year
will be between 5 million and 6 million, rising to 20 million users within
five years," he said. TOT will soon submit the revised plan for consideration
by the telecom committee of the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications
Commission, as it seeks to defend its right to use all of its 2.3GHz-spectrum
bandwidth to offer the 4G
service. The regulator's telecom committee last week asked the state agency to
submit an improved 2.3GHz business plan after concluding that the existing
plan failed to maximise the use of such a valuable spectrum.
The committee has also threatened to reclaim a large chunk of
TOT's 2.3GHz bandwidth for reallocation if the state agency fails to come up
with a better business plan. The telecom panel gave TOT the opportunity to
defend its right to use the spectrum by asking it to submit a new plan within
three months. Rungsun explained that TOT had not provided details of
potential business on the wholesale basis in the existing business plan that
was submitted to the telecom committee, but only details concerning its own
planned retail operation, which targets just 100,000 users in the first year.
He said TOT would provide fixed wireless broadband services on the 2.3GHz
spectrum by focusing on households nationwide that could not be accessed by
fibre-optic network coverage. TOT currently has 1.3 million
fixed-broadband-service household subscribers. The state agency won approval
from the telecom committee in July last year to use 60MHz of a 64MHz band of
the spectrum for fourth-generation wireless service.
TOT is conducting technical tests for the proposed 4G-2.3GHz service along certain
Skytrain routes and in Ratchaburi. The TOT board recently approved a plan to
seek a partner for new investment on the 60MHz bandwidth by sending
invitations to international telecom-equipment suppliers and local telecom
operators to propose business plans. There are two parts to this plan. The
first is to invite Huawei, Ericsson and Nokia to submit investment plans and
financial terms. The second part is to survey potential demand for 2.3GHz
network capacity by the three Thai telecom-service providers: Advanced Info
Service (AIS), Total Access Communication (DTAC) and True Group. TOT is
expected to decide on a strategic partner for its 4G-2.3GHz plan by the end of the year. It is in the
process of selecting an adviser to seek a suitable partner for the project.
It forecasts a profit of around Bt3 billion a year from the 2.3GHz
wholesale-resale business project, starting next year.
From
http://www.nationmultimedia.com/
08/29/2016
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VIETNAM: PM Urges HÀ Nam to Use Hi-Tech Agriculture
Prime Minister Nguyễn Xuân Phúc has urged the northern
province of Hà Nam
to promote hi-tech agriculture and accelerate the building of new-style rural
areas. At a meeting with Hà Nam’s
key leaders on Saturday, the Government leader commended the province for
recording one of the highest growth rates among localities in the Red River
Delta and for effective investment attraction. Hà Nam should optimise its
geographical location as a gateway to the capital city to spur its development,
he said, asking the provincial leaders to pay more heed to local planning.
The PM reminded the province that sustainable development should be paired
with environmental protection, suggesting Hà Nam increase its investments in
tourism services to conserve the ecological system. For their part, the
provincial leaders proposed the Government and the PM create mechanisms to
help universities and central-level hospitals in Hanoi
relocate to or build branches in Hà Nam. They asked the Government to
support Hà Nam
in attracting projects in processing, manufacturing and high-tech and create
optimal conditions for the locality to access financial resources of the
State budget, Government bonds and ODA loans. Earlier, PM Phúc visited a 20ha farm run by An Phú Hưng Company,
one of the typical high-tech farming models in Hà Nam that produces organic
vegetables using Japanese technologies. He also toured construction sites of
branches of the Bạch Mai Hospital
and the Việt Đức Friendship Hospital,
which have been built to ease overloading at their existing facilities in the
capital city. The leaders suggested Hà Nam encourage
private investment in the satellite hospitals and service supply to big
hospitals in the province.
From http://vietnamnews.vn/
08/08/2016
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Ministry to
Transform VN Logistics
The industry and trade ministry is drafting an action plan for
lowering logistics costs to touch 18 per cent of the country’s gross domestic
product (GDP) by 2020. The costs for logistics currently are about 20 to 25
per cent of the GDP, compared with the average rates of seven to 10 per cent
in developed countries. Reducing logistics costs would help prevent wastage
of resources and enhance the competitiveness of the Vietnamese economy amid
the rapid international integration, the ministry said. Under the prime
minister’s draft action plan for enhancing competitiveness and developing
logistics services, which was being discussed for more ideas, the ministry
said logistics would be developed as a key service industry of Việt Nam that
could meet domestic demand and extend its reach to the regional and global
markets. The logistics services industry will contribute five per cent of the
GDP and have a growth rate of 15 to 20 per cent per year by 2020, according
to the draft. Improving logistics infrastructure and the capacity of
logistics firms was essential, the ministry said.
The action plan has been developed even as local logistics firms
are struggling to compete with foreign rivals. Multinational logistics firms
hold a significant market share in providing logistics services in Việt Nam. Đỗ Xuân Quang, president of the Việt Nam
Logistics Association, said at a recent conference that foreign marine
transport firms accounted for just three to four per cent of the logistics
firms operating in Việt Nam,
but handled more than 80 per cent of the country’s import and export volumes.
Foreign firms are dominant in routes leading to the American and European
markets. Meanwhile, more than 70 per cent of the existing 1,300 domestic
firms are of small and medium size, with average capital of about VNĐ7 billion (US$320,000), making it hard for
them to compete with multinational companies. They mainly provide services in
the local or nearby markets. However, Quang said the logistics services
industry of Việt Nam
had significant room for growth, especially with the formation of the Asean
Economic Community as well as participation in free trade agreements, which
would promote trade and boost demand for logistics services. In order to
promote the development of the logistics industry, the ministry proposed in
the draft that the legal framework should be improved, coupled with enhanced
infrastructure connectivity to transform Việt Nam into a logistics hub of the
region. In addition, firms must improve their capacity and competitiveness,
while paying attention to developing human resources for the logistics sector
and applying technologies in operation.
From
http://vietnamnews.vn/
08/27/2016
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BANGLADESH: Planning to Earn $1 Billion from ICT Exports by 2018
The government has plans to earn $1 billion by 2018 from information
and communication technology exports, State Minister for ICT Zunaid Ahmed
Palak says. He also hoped that tech tsars like Microsoft Corp founder Bill
Gates and Facebook Inc CEO Mark Zukerberg will emerge from Bangladesh if
the right facilities were available. Palak was addressing the maiden high
school level computer programming competition in Dhaka
on Friday. The government’s ICT Division organised the national contest to
make the students interested in programming. “Only a few days ago, foreigners
used to call Bangladesh
a ‘bottomless basket’. We have not only moved on from there but are now
exporting in ICT sector as well,” he said. “We plan to earn one billion
dollars from exports in this sector.” Nearly a thousand students competed in
the final round. One hundred of them won awards in different categories.
Referring to ‘one student one laptop’ project, Palak said the students would
not look behind if his government could provide every student with the ‘dream
device’. “The government will establish thirteen high-tech parks in Gazipur
and elsewhere in the country. “We will need 70,000 technology experts.
The young students of the day will become those experts,” Palak hoped. He
said IT clubs would be set up in all the districts and at 128 universities in
the country. “We will appoint two trained moderators in every club in the
district level,” he said.
From
http://bdnews24.com 06/26/2016
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INDIA: IT-Enabled Power Supply in 4,041 Urban Towns in Next 3 Yrs
NEW DELHI:
Government is aiming at information technology-driven power distribution in
the next 3 years that will allow users to get a supply status at 4,041 urban
towns on a real-time basis. Once this project is up and running, the
consumers can get the information through the URJA mobile application.
"All 4,041 urban towns in the country will be IT-enabled in the next
three years. The government has already approved the expenditure for covering
an additional 2,636 urban towns. The tenders will be floated soon," a
senior official said. "Under the old Accelerated Power Development
and Reforms Programme, as many as 1,405 urban towns were to be covered for
making those IT enabled. The work has already been completed in 1,222 urban
towns." As part of the project, as many as 48 engineers designated
as Urban Vidyut Abhiyantas (UVAs) have been roped in to assist the power
discoms, facilitating better consumer connect and monitoring of Integrated
Power Development Scheme (IPDS). The UVAs with an experience of 3-15
years in project management, distribution franchisee and infrastructure sector
shall be positioned at every discom. As many as 50 discoms will be covered
under the programme. The current model follows the success of Grameen
Vidyut Abhiyantas (GVAs) in expediting rural electrification across the
country. At the inauguration of the induction programme of the UAVs here
today, Power Minister Piyush Goyal invoked Mahatma Gandhi, terming consumer
as the king. Goyal went further, "We have to focus on the consumer.
Whatever we do will ultimately affect us as we are also consumers of same
services." Stressing on the need for transparency and
accountability, the minister urged everyone to monitor data monthly on Urja
mobile app (www.Urjaindia.Co.In) and seek better services from their
discoms. State-run Power Finance Corporation is the nodal
agency for operationalisation of the IPDS Programme. While these UVAs will
report to state discoms executive heads, they will be paid remuneration by
the central government.
From
http://www.siliconindia.com 07/29/2016
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Trust Sterlite Tech to Deliver Smarter Networks
Broadband infrastructure is the backbone of the Government’s 100
Smart Cities, BharatNet and Digital India
missions. The thrust of the government towards the successful completion of
these projects has opened up various opportunities for companies operating in
the domain. Sterlite Tech is one such leading player that has bagged Smart City development projects for
Gandhinagar and Jaipur. K S Rao, COO – Telecom Products &
Solutions, Sterlite Technologies, in discussion withManishika Miglani of
Elets News Network (ENN) delves into the technological details of the
projects. Excerpts: Can you give brief us about the Gandhinagar and Jaipur
smart city projects undertaken by Government of India? Our Jaipur project is
currently under implementation, wherein we are deploying smart city
applications in the second phase of the project. We will deploy this project
in around six months.We are setting up Wi-Fi hotspots and information kiosks
to provide connectivity within the city. The project will also include
setting up video surveillance for the public sector and will entail building
multiple smart city attributes into one. We
are also taking care of the command control set-up that will upgrade the
existing smart city functions. We are nearing the completion of the
Gandhinagar project where we have built security surveillance through cameras
and information kiosks. We have also facilitated smart parking and smart
lighting system for both Jaipur and Gandhinagar.
What is the cost of these two projects?
Gandhinagar and Jaipur municipal corporations have primarily
initiated these projects. Both these corporations have invested close to
quarter crore in the projects. With this investment, the initial setup for
the smart city applications will be set up, before the funds start coming
from the Government of India. How much does the government contribute in
Sterlite Tech’s overall revenue? Nearly 35 per cent revenue comes from the
government in both product and services businesses.It is a growth opportunity
for the company in the telecom space with many investments happening in India. Can
you explain the smart city concept from a network point of view? The smart
city concept is not understood correctly. Coming up with services such
as camera surveillance and information kiosks are the basic needs of any
city.However, a smart city means changing the overall life experience of the
citizens. That can happen only by focusing on the primary backbone of the
smart city – broadband network for smart systems. This backbone should
be capable of working effectively around essential utilities such as water,
power, clean air, and traffic management. Smart city as a concept requires good
planning from an infrastructure perspective. Smart city needs to be built in
a sustainable manner that can serve the needs of the future – technologically
as well as capacity-wise. That is why we are strongly advocating the need for
a smart city having its own optical fibre network. It should be smart
enough to communicate with all the elements in the system, be it smart street
light, sensors, and provide digital information to the common command centre.
This data can be ultimately analysed and used for planning and infrastructure
creation for a smart city.
We are currently focusing on the fact that planning and
infrastructure creation for a smart city is done in a manner that provides
long lasting benefits to its citizens. Can you brief us about your partnerships
for smart city deployments? We are currently working with various large
solution providers and strategic partners that help us in creating smart
communication network and application layers. We work with all the global
vendors depending on the kind of projects we take up. What do you have to say
about the government’s BharatNet project, which you are a part of? It is a
very ambitious project with a vision to create a national broadband network.
It has moved into a different format in the last couple of years, and brings
last-mile connectivity between gram panchayat and block levels. It is very
important for any country to have a full-fledged end-to-end broadband
network. The competency for developing such a large network is huge and once
the network is available, it can be used by various service providers.
Service monetisation and network implementation should be kept separate.
Currently, the government is contemplating various sides of engagements with
states to speed up this programme. We have participated both at the state and
central level, to see what inputs can be provided from our side to support
overall project deployment.
What can the government do to speed up this project?
The definition of this project has been shifted from its original
context to what meaning it currently holds. Originally, it was supposed to
connect the block to gram panchayat with last-mile connectivity. Later, the
government realised the need to bring this connectivity to the state level.
Today, the speed of this project can be increased by involvement of the
states because that helps in deploying the networks a little faster with the
kind of support and control the states can provide. Implementing a
mammoth project like this cannot happen without active support of the
state governments. The participation of private players who have the
requisite expertise is also important to shape this up. With so many
technology-driven initiatives undertaken by the government, what all
opportunities do you see for Sterlite Tech on a larger scale? Currently, the
government is looking at digitising their entire operations. Their vision is
not just to deploy a few hotspots but also,to ensure
a well-structured smart city with smart applications leading to a sustainable
change in the life experience of its people. The government is talking about
modernising their existing networks. Therefore, we, being a leader in smarter
network delivery are enabling the government through our expertise in
designing high-speed broadband networks, and customising it. We are working
with public telcos, defence, and the private sector players as well to
provide the most apt technologies for their projects. As a company, we
believe that data traffic is important for the government, private telcos, and
to bring about a positive transformation in our everyday lives. Only with the
right data bandwidth can the urban-rural digital divide be bridged. India’s data
networks need to be capable of transferring good amount of data. Both the
state and the private players are presently modernising their infrastructures
in this direction. This is precisely our core competency in terms of
delivering smarter networks in all the layers.
What has been your contribution to the “Make in India”
mission?
The concept of “Make in India” is to make a country
self-sufficient on the technology and research side and our government is
making corresponding investments on this front. We have brought fibre
technology to India
through our high-end and research focused manufacturing capabilities. We
continue to invest in India
and have enough capabilities and capacities to meet the country’s demands of
fibre rollout for 4G,
Digital India, Smart
Cities and BharatNet.
On the manufacturing capability side, we are investing hugely in research and
engineering capabilities. Our research centre in Aurangabad
is India’s
only broadband research centre focusing on various network applications and
brings improved efficiencies and innovations in our products and smarter
network services. We are building another Smarter Network Centre in Delhi and all these investments aim towards building the
research capabilities for “Make in India”.
From http://egov.eletsonline.com
08/14/2016
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AZERBAIJAN: Engaged in
Further Development of ICT
The sustainable development of the sphere of information
communication technologies is an integral part of the economic and political
reforms which are currently implemented in Azerbaijan, Minister of
Communications and High Technologies Ramin Guluzade told Trend. “State
programs which are aimed at the comprehensive development of the non-oil
sector are currently underway in the country. The programs necessitate the
switch of the ICT sector to the new level. Azerbaijan
is the first and the only country that adopted the strategy of switch to the
information-oriented society in the South Caucasus
region,” he said. He also underlined that the country is the only in the
region with space industry, mentioning that the project is considered to be
one of the greatest achievements of the country in ICT sector. Azerbaijan’s
first telecommunication satellite which has already took its place on the
global market of satellite systems was designed to offer digital broadcasting
services, Internet access, data transmission, to create multiservice networks
and provide for governmental communication. A number of countries use its
resources and their number is expected to increase in the future.
Among the other major achievement of Azerbaijan in the sphere are the system of e-government, the application of
e-signature which gives a stimulus to the further development of the sphere.
The country has also started the use of 4G
service which is considered to be a brand-new technology in the system of
mobile telephone network and creates an opportunity for the access to the
high-speed Internet all over the country. The signal of the digital
broadcasting covers approximately 99 percent of the country. “The sphere of
ICT may be deemed as the most dynamically developed sphere of the country,”
he said. The minister also said that the works which are currently
implemented in the sphere of ICT are aimed at improving the quantity and
quality of the services rendered to the population. “Electronization and
maximal accessibility of services for the citizens is one of the crucial
issues for us,” he said. Commenting on the formation of e-government Guluzade
said that the project is considered to be one of the priority areas and the
head of state pays attention to the issue. “Main objective of the project is
to provide qualitative online-services by the state structures as well as
move the “citizen-government” and “citizen - official” relations to a
qualitatively new modern format,” he said.
The e-government portal was launched in Azerbaijan in
2013. Since then state institutions in Azerbaijan have been establishing
e-service sections on their websites. The portal offers approximately 400
e-services through 45 government agencies. Over one million citizens are
active users of e-services of the state agencies. Moreover, the e-government
portal also allows for providing e-services to citizens of foreign countries.
All services provided by Azerbaijani government agencies are expected to be
online by 2020. Speaking about the internet access as well as the level of
penetration the minister said that over 75 percent of the country’s population have an access to the Internet. One of the main
issues in this sphere is the quality of provided services. Currently we are
engaged in the construction of the optic-fiber network in all regions of the
country which will provide for qualitative internat and communication
services. Main objective of the project is offering the Internet with the
speed of 100 Mb/s, the services of IP TV (Internet television) and telephone
communication. The project has already launched in Baku. One of the other important issues is
turning the country into a transit informative hub of the region. “The
creation of the Data-centre allows us approaching to the realization of the
target”
The center which is considered to be the largest in the region
was already constructed. Currently, the work is underway for its
commissioning. The centre is the first licensed centre in Azerbaijan and the Caucasus
region. The DATA
Center was tested for
resilience by American Uptime Institute in order to obtain a certificate of
Tier3 level. The certificate is an official confirmation of reliability and
security. Tier 3 is considered to be one of the highest levels in this sphere
which offers 99.98 percent availability. The minister added that the centre
will also operate as an alternative supplier of the foreign traffic which has
a huge role from the strategic point of view. Touching upon the issue of
reforms in the sphere of postal services in the context of rendering
financial services including issuance of credits and reception of deposits,
the minister said that the sphere is in need of further improvement. The
minister expressed his confidence in the creation of the postal service which
will be eligible to provide a postal service meeting all modern requirements.
“We are considering the prospects of turning the country’s postal service
into international transit hub.” Azerpoct launched the process of financial
services rendering in April 2012. The entity which is eligible to implement
all types of banking services except credit issuance and attraction of bank
deposits. Commenting on the issue of consideration of customer’s appeals
Guluzade said that the ministry is considering the possibility of creating Customer Service Center
in the future. “The appeals of the customers assist us in defining future
steps in the sphere” ICT is considered to be one of the crucial spheres for
the further development of the country.
From www.azernews.az
07/05/2016
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Azerbaijan in Top Ten
for Internet Penetration Level
ESCAP, Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific
ranked Azerbaijan
the 9th among the regional countries for the level of broadband internet
penetration. The figure stands at 19.8 percent in Azerbaijan,
according to the State of ICT in Asia and the Pacific 2016: Uncovering the Widening
Broadband Divide report of the ESCAP. The country ranks the first among the
countries of Post-Soviet region, thus Azerbaijan
left behind Russia (where
the level of penetration is 18.8 percent), Georgia
(14.6 percent), Kazakhstan
(13 percent), Armenia (9.6
percent), Kyrgyzstan (3.7
percent), Uzbekistan (3.6
percent), Tajikistan (0.1
percent) and Turkmenistan
(0.1 percent). Monthly subscription for fixed broadband in the region ranges
from $5.83 (in Kyrgyzstan)
to $171.4 (in Turkmenistan).
The figure
is $9.50 in Azerbaijan.
The cost of fixed broadband connection in Azerbaijan is 1.5 percent from
the nominal GDP rate per capita.
The analogous index stands at 2.1 percent in Kazakhstan, 2.8 percent in Armenia, 2.9 percent in Georgia, 5.6 percent in Kyrgyzstan, 21.5 percent in Uzbekistan and 25.6 and 64.9 percent in Turkmenistan and Tajikistan respectively.
Azerbaijan became the 58th country in the world over number of
its Internet users according to Statistical project Internet Live Stats,
while the number of Internet users has exceeded the rate of 6 million in the
country. The figure increased by 1.2 percent or approximately 72,000 people
compared to the 2015 figures. Deputy Minister of Communications and High
Technologies Elmir Valizade, earlier commenting on the level of internet
access in the country, said that
one of the main issues in this sphere is the quality of provided services. He
mentioned that the country is engaged in the construction of the optic-fiber
network in all regions of the country which will provide for qualitative
internet and communication services. Main objective of the project is
offering the Internet with the speed of 100 Mb/s, the services of IP TV
(Internet television) and telephone communication. The country has recently
started the use of 4G
Internet service which is considered to be a brand-new technology in the
system of mobile telephone network and creates an opportunity for the access
to the high-speed Internet all over the country. The signal of the digital
broadcasting covers approximately 99 percent of Azerbaijan. Over 75 percent of
the country’s population have an access to the
Internet.
The sustainable development of the ICT sector is an integral
part of the economic and political reforms which are currently implemented in
Azerbaijan.
The creation of the Data-centre in the country is considered to be one of the
most important steps in this direction. The centre, construction of which has
already been completed, is the first licensed centre in Azerbaijan and the Caucasus
region. The DATA
Center was tested for
resilience by American Uptime Institute in order to obtain a certificate of
Tier3 level. The certificate is an official confirmation of reliability and
security. Tier 3 is considered to be one of the highest levels in this sphere
which offers 99.98 percent availability.
From http://www.azernews.az/
08/19/2016
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UZBEKISTAN: Scientific
and Technical Center to Be Established under “Uzbekenergo”
The Decree of the President of Uzbekistan dated 13 July 2016
"On measures on further improvement of scientific and technological
activities in the electricity sector" made a decision to establish
Scientific and technical center in the form of a limited liability company
under JSC "Uzbekenergo" on the basis of the abolished Institute of
energy and automation of the Academy of Sciences of the Republic of
Uzbekistan. The document was adopted in order to dramatically increase the
level of scientific and technological development and introduction of modern
highly efficient technologies in the electricity sector, ensuring the
implementation of the strategic programs for modernization, technical and
technological re-equipment of enterprises of the power industry, as well as
creating the necessary modern research and laboratory facilities.
The main objectives of the Scientific-technical center of JSC
"Uzbekenergo" are: - conducting applied research and development
aimed at solving urgent scientific-technological problems in the development of
power industry; - conducting testing and introduction of promising domestic
developments and foreign advanced technology and equipment in the electricity
sector; - develop a strategy for the further sustainable development of
electric power in the country and preparing on this basis draft programmes
for modernization and development of electricity in the medium and long term,
including through accelerating the expansion of renewable energy; - deep
learning and the development of new proposals to improve energy efficiency
and reduce the energy intensity of the economy, primarily due to the
reduction of losses at the consumer level, improvement of technologies of
transmission and distribution of electricity. The decree has instructed to
provide in the prescribed manner the transfer of the building with the
adjacent territory, located at the address: Tashkent, Durmon Yuli street, 29,
in the authorized capital of the Scientific-technical center, with the
subsequent transfer of the state share in the authorized capital of the
Centre in the authorized capital of JSC "Uzbekenergo" at face
value.
From http://news.uzreport.uz/
07/26/2016
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AUSTRALIA: Broadband
Speeds Set to Lag World by 2020
Australian
web traffic will grow at a rate of 21 per cent a year for the next five
years, according to Cisco’s latest annual Virtual Networking Index (VNI). By
2020, IP traffic will reach 1.9 exabytes per month, running at an average six
terabits per second. The VNI forecasts that, four years from now, the digital
equivalent of all movies ever made will cross Australia’s IP networks every
three hours. “This year we’re going to cross the zettabyte,” said Kevin
Bloch, Cisco CTO, at a VNI briefing in Sydney.
“1.1 zettabytes in the world [annual global IP traffic]. Most of our brains
can’t even comprehend how big that is. By 2020 alone, nearly as much traffic
will traverse the network as in all the Internet years up until 2013. That is
a huge amount of traffic, in terms of what it means to society and what it
means to build and support the infrastructure.”
Using NBN
Co’s published plans as a guide, the VNI predicts
that fixed broadband speeds in 2020 will reach an average of 44.3 Mbps in Australia –
slower than the 47.7 Mbps forecast globally and 51.3 Mbps forecast in APAC.
“We’re ahead today and will be lagging in the future,” said Bloch. Australian
mobile network speeds, however, are predicted to reach 16 Mpbs, nearly double
the 8.6 Mbps predicted globally.
Video
The majority
of this traffic (82 per cent) will consist of video, a three-fold growth from
2015. Driving this rise in traffic will be the demand for 4K video and 360
degree videos, which Bloch predicted would become the norm. Video
surveillance was also “going ballistic”, he said. “People misunderstand what
happened with 3D televisions, which was a bit of a fizzer, to what’s
happening with 4K. It takes six times the bandwidth when playing 360 degree
videos. Kids are playing that without thinking about it. Think about the
telcos who’ve got to support this stuff.” Greater adoption of on-demand TV
would also drive up video traffic, the index predicted.
Mobile and Wi-Fi
Mobile data
traffic will grow five-fold from 2015 to 2020, twice as fast as fixed IP
traffic, according to the VNI. This growth will come at the cost of the
desktop – traffic from PCs will continue in a downward trend to 51 per cent
in 2020 from 71 per cent last year. “Smartphones are set to eliminate the
PC’s dominance,” said Bloch. By 2020 two-thirds of Australia’s total IP traffic will
be through fixed Wi-Fi, and the APAC region will
lead the world in the number of home and public hotspots. As consumers
continue to ‘cut the cord’, Wi-Fi hotspots will grow globally by a factor of
seven. “A telco’s infrastructure has to support this kind of demand,” said
Bloch. “It’s massive. I don’t know any industry that has to support these kind of numbers. The demand is inextricable and it’s
huge.”
Peak hour
The VNI,
which is its tenth year, predicted that the average internet traffic would
increase by 2.7 times to 5Tbps in 2020. 'Busy hour' traffic, however, would
increase by 4.3 times to 28 Tbps. “This is a big issue because – how do you
build for peak?” asked Bloch. “If you don’t build for peak you get dissatisfaction.
For the telcos it’s only getting worse. For the user it’s only getting better
– as long as telcos fill that demand.”
From https://www.computerworld.com.au
06/20/2016
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State
Governments Crucial to Our Future as an ‘Innovation Nation': Internet Australia
Internet Australia has given a tick of approval to the
NSW government for its decision to allocate significant funding to foster
innovation, saying state governments are crucial to Australia
becoming an "innovation nation". Laurie Patton, the chief of IA, —
the body representing Internet users — applauded the move, while noting that
“Australia
is well placed to become an innovation nation, and the support of state governments
will be crucial if we are to achieve our full potential to become a
significant player in our region”. But, despite his endorsement of the role
of state governments, Patton cautioned that moves to increase the use of
online platforms by people dealing with government agencies need to be
matched with programs to ensure that everyone has access to the Internet and
the skills to use it.
“The year
2016 is the National Year of Digital Inclusion. A time to ensure that we do
not exacerbate the existing 'digital divide’. Overseas experience, especially
in the UK,
has found that increased online provision of government services benefits the
digitally literate but also disadvantages people without digital skills,”
Patton cautioned. The IA boss also highlighted the need for fast broadband
“to be rolled out ASAP” in order to ensure that NSW benefits from the
emerging digitally enabled global economy. And, Patton repeated IA’s recent
call for a review of the NBN, once again banging the drum about the use of ageing
copper and what he has described as a “decrepit HFC network” built 25 years
ago for Pay TV placing Australia’s
economic future at risk. “We've fallen to 60th on global speed rankings, from
30th just a few years ago. This slide relative to our overseas peers will
continue even as the NBN is being built so long as we rely on the current
technology mix. New Zealand
out-performs us and Singapore,
arguably our biggest regional competitor, already delivers broadband speeds
100 times faster than ours”.
IA has
repeatedly maintained that the Internet is an essential service that will
underpin Australia's
social and economic progress and that all Australians must have reliable,
affordable access to a high-quality, high-bandwidth broadband service for
both upstream and downstream traffic “wherever they live and work”. “If the
Internet is to reach its potential for good it is essential that we make it
available to everyone. The ability to participate in our digitally enabled
future is becoming a basic right of all Australians. Gaining employment,
dealing with government, and engaging in a wide range of community activities
will increasingly require digital skills."
From http://www.itwire.com
06/21/2016
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Australia Slips to 18th on Global Digital Rankings: WEF
Australia has slipped
two spots — from 16th to 18th — in the global digital rankings, according to
the Global Information Technology Report 2016 from the World Economy Forum
(WEF). Poor broadband affordability, little evidence of emerging information
and communication technology (ICT) business models, and tepid venture capital
investment all contributed to the result. The report makes it clear that Australia
could and should be doing more to leverage advances in technology. So, why is
Australia
falling behind the rest of the developed world? WEF uses the Networked
Readiness Index (NRI) as a tool to: “… assess countries’ preparedness to reap
the benefits of emerging technologies and capitalise on the opportunities
presented by the digital transformation and beyond.”
There are
four categories in the assessment process:
#
Environment for technology development and use;
# Network
readiness, taking into account ICT infrastructure, affordability and skills;
# Technology
adoption/use by government, private sector and individuals; and
# Social and
economic Impact of new technology.
The report
identified four key findings that emerged from the last five years of NRI
data. First, the nature of innovation is changing. There has been a clear
increase in the capacity to innovate globally; however, companies are zeroing
in on innovation of a different kind — one based on new technologies and the
new business models that these technologies bring. Speed of innovation and
bringing new inventions to market have become clear indicators of a company’s
ability to stay at the top. At the core of success is specialised talent,
driving digital innovation. Talent competitiveness and investing in educating
and retaining innovators are therefore crucial to success in the Digital Age.
A number of missed opportunities are identified by the Report. Demand for
digital products and services are being met by a relatively small number of
companies.
“A widening
and worrying gap is also emerging between growth in individual ICT usage and
public-sector engagement in the digital economy, as government usage is
increasingly falling short of expectations.” There is also a gap between
individual expectations and the public sector’s use and promotion of digital
technologies. Governments also seem to be falling behind in the use of
digital technologies for effective social impact. Another issue that is
emerging during the digital transformation of business and economies is
resilience. Developing a supporting framework for the new economic and social
dynamics brought on by digital technologies is key
to delivering sustainable and wide-reaching benefits. The Report points to
two dynamics emerging from new digital technologies that
need to be at the forefront of policy development: competition in
product markets and the labour market.
Flexible and
supportive policy that includes speedy procedures for opening new businesses
and bringing products to market, promoting ICT adoption and enforcing a
competition regime will allow businesses to prosper and react quickly to
changing markets. Income distributions are increasingly polarised, with new
technologies aiding automation of processes, resulting in income and job
losses across a number of industries. There is a real need to invest in
educating workers and create a more evenly distributed spectrum of skills.
Leaderboard
The top
seven leading digital economies in the world are:
# Singapore
# Finland
# Sweden
# Norway
# United States
# Netherlands
# Switzerland
So where
does Australia
stand? As the 18th digital economy in the world, Australia is doing well in a
number of categories. The government and public sector are among the leaders
in the world when it comes to providing online services. The country has also
made improvements in terms of environment and individual usage, especially
mobile broadband subscriptions — ranked at 10th in the world. Australia’s
shortcomings are in affordability, in particular in fixed broadband subscriptions
— we come in at 100 out of 139 countries. Business adoption of ICTs and
venture capital availability also present opportunities for improvement. The
report suggests that the National Innovation and Science Agenda, introduced
at the end of 2015 by the government, might help bridge some of these gaps.
As most Australians with an Internet connection might suspect, we have a long
way to go if we want to be one of the leading digital economies in the world.
It’s encouraging to note that our government and public system offer
world-leading online services and that the environment for the development of
new technologies is improving.
From http://which-50.com
08/25/2016
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FIJI: Digital Transformation
FIJI is at the
forefront of the digital revolution that is transforming the banking world,
with their customers now transacting more via electronic channels than in
commercial bank branches. This was agreed by one of Fiji's commercial banks, Westpac Fiji. Westpac
Fiji general manager Brett Hooker says electronic channels such as mobile
banking, ATMs, EFTPOS, internet banking and in-store banking are taking over
as the preferred options for customers, with branch visits now largely only
for transactions that need specialist advice from personal or business
bankers. "Gone are the days when our customers travelled to town, or
stood in queues to bank — now they just log in to internet banking or mobile
banking and can have transactions done in seconds," Mr Hooker said.
"And people running businesses have benefited immensely from the influx
of electronic banking, having more time to spend in the business as well as
better payment options for customers." The bank's customers also shared
their experiences.
Andrew and
Lisi Lal of Kadavu Shopping Centre said in-store banking facility had
provided their business with convenient and faster way of doing business
without paying any extra fees. The couple said this also saved time and money
for people who no longer needed to travel to branches to perform their
banking. Avinesh Prasad, group financial controller of Jack's Group of
Companies said since they started using the electronic funds transfer at
point of sale (EFTPOS) terminals in their shops Fiji wide they had better cash
handling. Since payment was received straight in their bank, he said, there
was less chance of theft because no cash was involved. Mr Prasad said it also
increased productivity because Jack's staff members no longer needed to
line-up in branches to cash their paychecks and pay was received directly
into their account. He said it also provided their customers with a better
shopping experience, as their customers wanted to pay for the goods in the
most convenient way via credit or debit card instead of cash. Mr Prasad said
this had led to an increase in transactions and customer satisfaction.
From http://www.fijitimes.com
08/27/2016
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NEW ZEALAND: Ranked
Sixth for Mobile Connectivity
New Zealand has been
ranked sixth in a 134 country index of mobile connectivity compiled by mobile
network operators association, the GSA, which represents almost 800 mobile
network operators. The top five countries were Australia,
Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden
and Norway.
The GSA measures connectivity on four parameters: infrastructure,
affordability, consumer readiness, content. New Zealand came in 12th on
infrastructure, 18th on affordability, fifth on consumer readiness and fourth
on content. Affordability is measured on more than simply prices and incomes.
GSA says it is also affected by the level of taxation as well as inequality:
“If income distribution is skewed towards a small proportion of the
population, the mobile internet will remain unaffordable for many people.”
Consumer readiness is a ranking of “Citizens with the awareness and skills
needed to value and use the internet and a cultural environment that promotes
gender equality.” GSA says the index, its first, has been developed to
support the efforts of the mobile industry to deliver on the ambition of
universal access to the internet, and to “help focus the efforts and
resources of the mobile industry and wider international community on the
right projects in the right markets at the right time, so progress towards
universal access can be as swift and economically sustainable as possible.”
From http://www.computerworld.co.nz 07/15/2016
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