From: tai@starbird.WPI.EDU (Lisa Taikitsadaporn)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.thai
Subject: networking in ASEAN nations
Date: 10 Oct 1992 12:57:10 GMT
Organization: Worcester Polytechnic Institute
NNTP-Posting-Host: starbird.wpi.edu

Sorry if this is a bit old, but I just received a clipping of this news
via snailmail from Bangkok.  Enjoy.



"ASEAN TRADE, INVESTMENT COMPUTER LINK NEARLY READY"
Revolutionary system my eliminate paperwork

Peter Mytri Ungphakorn and Ratchapol Laovanitch
(Bangkok Post/Business Post, Sept. 24)


	The ASEAN Chambers of Commerce and Industry (ASEAN-CCI) are next
month to start operating one of the world's most advanced computer networks
designed to revolutionise trade and investment in the region.

	The project is known as ASEANET.  It has been set up with technical
assistance from the United Nation's Geneva-based International Trade Center
(ITC), the North-South trade promotion agency linked to the UN Conference on
Trade and Development and the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade.  It
will be run commercially by the six countries' private sector organizations
although the participation of Brunei will come later.

	The three Thai private sector bodies - the Thai Chamber of Commerce,
Board of Trade, and Thai Bankers' Association - have apointed International
Trade Information (Thailand) CO. Ltd, a joint venture 49% owned by the
Commerce Ministry and 51% by 30 leading companies and the 16 Thai commerical
banks, to handle the Thai end of the network.

	Similar arrangements have been made in the five other ASEAN members. 
Each country's private sector organizations are to e responsible for its
databases and local links.  Thai companies, for example, would gain access
to the network locally through the Thai link.

	Satellite or lease-line telecommunications links between the six
countries are being handled by GTNET, a multinational based in Asia,
Europe, and North and South America.

	The decentralized set up means that a headquarters is unnecessary. 
ASEANET will be administered under ASEAN-CCI's two-year rotating
chairmanship, now held by Thailand and due to be handed over to the
Philippines next year.

	The investment cost is put at around US$1 million.  Subscription
fees must still be worked out by each country's private sector body, and
they could be up to $100,000 per year.  Subscribers would also have to pay
each time they use the system, the cost depending on the duration and type
of job.

	Subscribers will be able to gain access with a standard personal
computer, a modem to connect the computer to a telephone line, a special
circuit "card" installed in the computer to handle the software's sound and
graphics, and an optional camera for creating digital pictures.

	ASEANET's potential is enormous.  Designers say it could greatly
enhance commerce among ASEAN countries as well as between ASEAN and the rest
of the world.

	"Why go all the way to Germany?  Perhpas the product is available
closer," said Carlos Moreira, computer and trade information networks
adviser with ITC.  ASEANET will allow local buyers to find out more easily
whether a product is available in the region, he said.

	It could withni a few years also lead to "paperless" trade with
standard forms, including customs documents, sent electronically from city
to city.

	Although similar networks are already in operation in Europe and
Norht America, ASEANET will be the first to be able to transmit graphics and
sound as well as text, a capability that would allow businesses to send
sophisticated catalogues internationally via computer.

	At a press conference to launch the network yesterday, a demostrator
showed a sample of a real estate catalogue - a colour photograph of a house
whose price was announced through a personal computer's loud-speaker.

	While data and communications within ASEAN will be set to a single
standard, ASEANET will also be linked to other networks, such as in Europe
and North America, where standards differ.

	Users outside ASEAN will therefore be able to gain access to
ASEANET's information and services.  Those within ASEAN will be able to hook
up with the other networks using ASEANET's software, reducing the need to
learn how to use the software of the other networks.

	Koonchorn Authachinda, managing director of International Trade
Information, said ASEANET would be able to hook up with networks in the
European Community, North America, Middle East, Africa, and Latin America.

	ASEANET's designers are preparing a demonstration in Jakarta in
December when technial representatives from the 15 members of the
Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation APEC) group meet to discuss their Trade
and Investment Data work programme.

	APEC is also planning to set up an eletronic information network and
could adopt the software and standards of ASEANET.  This would extend the
single-standard network beyond ASEAN to the United States, Canada, Japan,
Hond Kong, China, Taiwan, South Korea, Australia, and New Zealand.

	Ultimately , the value of the network will depend on the quality of
the information it can provide, the number of subscribers and the cost to
users.  As with directories, such as Yellow Pages, once a substantial and
useful body of information starts to be gathered, more and more businesses
and organizations will want to be listed.  This in turn will be an incentive
to subscribe.

	Initially, the network will offer electronic mail - communications
from computer to computer - and teletrade - various trading services. 
ASEAN's private sector organizations, with the exception of Brunei's, will
set up databases with profiles of exporters, importers and manufacturers.

	By January, information on trade opportunities in ASEAN should be
available.

	"Teleshopping" will be possible - users would be able to order
products by filling in forms on computer screens and including a credit card
number for payment.  An ASEANET credit card could be issued.

	"Any user of a PC (personal computer) and modem anywhere inthe world
will be able to access ASEANET for, initially, trade, but also for tourism,
news, regional conferences, sports, entertainment, and even shoppoing,"
according to a press statement released yesterday.

	The project's main purpose is not to create a new network but to
test a new product in an area of rapid economic growth, Mr. Moreira said. 
The idea is to develop software with an internatoinally accepted standard
that is backed by the United Nations.

	ASEAN was picked because telecommunications and other necessary
infrastructure  are already in place, with only minor modifications needed,
he said.  The cost of setting a network up in Africa under present
conditions would be much higher, he explained.

	More developed areas such as North America and Europe already have
several information networks, but without the graphics and sound capabilites
of ASEANET.  In Europe the creation of international networks is handicapped
by different telecommunications standards that prevent, for example,
France's tele-text network, Mintel, spreading to Germany.
Newsgroups: soc.culture.thai