ASEAN ministers meet on e-government, cyberlaws

ASEAN governments must work with the private sector while taking the lead to develop their information and communication technology sectors.

This was stressed by Lee Yock Suan, Singapore’s Second Minister for Foreign Affairs, during the opening of the e-ASEAN Executive Seminar on e-Government and the Initiative for ASEAN Integration Seminar-A Primer on Cyberlaws, held in Singapore last Nov. 18 to 21.

In his keynote address, Roberto Romulo, chairman of the e-ASEAN Task Force and the presidential senior adviser for international competitiveness, also spoke about the importance of public-private partnership in achieving the goals of the e-ASEAN initiative.

The e-Government Executive Seminar was a joint effort of the Singaporean government and the e-ASEAN Task Force. It focused on capacity-building in e-government, with the overall aim of narrowing the "digital divide" within ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations).

In conjunction with the seminar, Singapore also hosted "A Primer on Cyberlaws," the first in a series of seminars and workshops on e-ASEAN organized under the auspices of the Initiative for ASEAN Integration (IAI), aimed at narrowing the development gap within the regional grouping.

Senior government officials at the permanent secretary and deputy minister level attended both seminars, which provided valuable inputs to the relevant ASEAN bodies that are driving the e-ASEAN process forward.