ICT AND NEW DEVELOPMENT PARADIGMS IN S.E.ASIA A BRIEF REVIEW OF THE ICT INDUSTRY DEVELOPMENT AND DIFFUSION IN S.E. ASIA HIGHLIGHTING SOME EMERGING ISSUES AND POLICY IMPLICATIONS

THE ROLE OF ICT IN AN ECONOMY- FOUR BUILDING BLOCKS ICT Goods Sectors Information Content Sectors Communication Network Sectors ‘Informatization’ Sectors

ICT Goods Sector Create, make and move physical hardware devices used in the processing and display of information ( e.g. computers, consumer electronics, telephones, and other information appliances)

The Information Content Sectors Create, make and move information (e.g. music, video, news and entertainment, software, etc.)

The Communication Network Sectors Provide the enabling network infrastructures ( wired and wireless) to support the transmission of information between ICT devices.

The Informatization Sectors (Diffusion of ICT) Consist of the economic activities of utilizing ICT devices and information contents either for consumption by household users or for production by enterprises in all sectors of the economy so as to increase productivity or quality

ICT Production in S.E.Asia ASEAN-5: Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Philippines 1985<US $9 billions 1998>US $92 billions ( a ten fold increase in 13 years! Or an average of > 20% per year) 19852% of World production share % of World production share

Summary S.E.ASIA has emerged as a major regional platform for the production of electronics goods in general and computer equipment in particular over the last 30 years

ICT Diffusion in S.E.Asia Singapore stands out as further away from the rest of Southeast Asia states. Singapore rank 10 th in the world in terms of ICT spending as % of GDP and 6 th as measured in terms of per capita spending

CONCLUSIONS Asean has made tremendous stride in Leveraging the ICT revolution for economic development primarily through engaging in ICT goods production Less so in creating information contents Less so in exploiting ICT goods and information content throughout all economic sectors to enhance productivity and competitiveness

….Conclusions With the exception of Singapore, the rest of ASEAN have fallen behind in the diffusion and adoption of ICT especially the Internet, e- commerce and wireless (i.e. less ‘e-readiness’) Manufacturing ICT goods for the world markets has become more competitive with entries from China, Mexico and India.

Reasons for ASEAN Lack of ICT Diffusion Language barriers Slow pace of deregulation of telecommunications and information content sectors Adverse impacts of recent financial crisis Slow pace of regulatory reforms and continued dominance of the ‘old’ economy Outdated industrial policies (e.g. export oriented manufacturing)