ASEAN Secretary General Le Luong Minh and Japanese Minister for Internal Affairs and Communications Shindo Yoshitaka have discussed cooperation in information and communications technology (ICT) and disaster management.

Japan’s support for the implementation of ASEAN ICT Masterplan 2015 (AIM 2015) was also tabled at the ASEAN Secretariat in Jakarta on April 30.

Minh stressed that the role of telecommunication providers is to ensure the availability of high capacity infrastructure and quality services while the government’s role is to regulate the supply and demand in assuring an equal and affordable access and safety for the public and fair competition amongst providers.

Minister Shindo shared Japan ’s experience on the utilisation of ICT in disaster management.

He highlighted the importance to have a standardised protocol of network in the distribution of computing information of early warning to population for wider areas. He emphasised on the urgency to inform the evacuation scheme to the affected population.

The Minister expressed Japan ’s willingness and readiness to provide support to ASEAN and to strengthen ASEAN-Japan cooperation in this area.

While appreciating Japan’s support in the provision and establishment of ASEAN’s current ICT Disaster Management System, the ASEAN Chief expressed ASEAN’s interest in Japan’s experience in designing and implementing ICT systems in Telemedicine Practices in remote areas and Energy Consumption Monitoring for environmental improvement.

The two sides shared high confidence that the upcoming ASEAN-Japan Ministerial Policy Meeting on Cyber Security Cooperation scheduled for September in Japan will yield important outcomes to further enhance the bilateral cooperation in the field.-VNA