eBario Wins AFACT’s eASIA Award

Taipei, 24 September 2004: eBario, the joint pilot project - by Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS) and the Bario community - won the eAsia Award in the Digital Divide Category at the recent 2004 eAsia Week. The eAsia Award is sanctioned by AFACT (Asia Pacific Council for Trade Facilitation and Electronic Business). On hand to receive the Award was Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Development) and eBario Project Leader, Professor Dr. Khairuddin Ab Hamid.

eBario was nominated by MAMPU to represent Malaysia in the “Bridging the Digital Divide” category of the award; eBario was the winner of the Anugerah Perdana Teknologi Maklumat 2003 (Socio-economic Sector). The purpose of the eASIA Award is to recognize the significance and great effort made within AFACT community and to encourage sharing of experiences. In addition to Bridging the Digital Divide, the other categories were Electronic Business in the Private Sector, Electronic Business in the Public Sector, and Trade Facilitation. In the Bridging the Digital Divide Category, there were 5 other finalists, selected from nominations of member countries of AFACT. The other finalists include: Rural Internet Program, Ministry of Energy, Water and Communication (Malaysia), Virtual Malaysia Project Creative Advances Technology Sdn Bhd (Malaysia), An e-ERA Institute for Information Industry (Chinese Taipei), The Project of Personnel Training of Electronic Business Department of Commerce, Ministry of Economic Affairs (Chinese Taipei), eSuvidha: National Informatics Centre, Department of Information Technology, Government of India (India). eBario, eSuvidha, and e-ERA were the winners of the eASIA Award in the Bridging the Digital Divide category.

eBario is a pilot research project involving the innovative application of ICTs (Information and Communication Technologies) with the goal of continually sustaining social and economic programs in a rural community which does not have the basic amenities such as electricity, water and telecommunications. This project has realised a computer laboratory and a community telecentre, both of which are heavily utilised. The computer laboratory at the school is equipped with computers as well as Internet access and is used by the students. Computers at the school are powered by diesel generators, while computers at the telecentre are solar-powered. This Internet access is provided through a satellite via solar-powered VSAT (very small aperture terminal), a telecommunication system.

An important finding of the research include the fact that the success of the eBario project has been largely due to the active participation of the Bario community. Also, the multi-disciplinary eBario research team allowed the project team to be flexible and was able to tackle the unique problems faced in the eBario project. In addition, partnerships with the Sarawak State Government, Ministry of Education and the then Ministry of Energy Communications and Multimedia, as well as funding bodies such as the National IT Council and the International Development Research Centre, are also essential in the success of the project. In sum, for such ICT projects for rural communities to succeed, there is a need to focus on people, organisation, contents and processes rather than just on the technologies. Since its operation in September 2001, the school computer lab and the telecentre have been run by the community; early in February 2004, the equipment was officially handed over to the Sarawak State Education Department, and the community of Bario respectively.

The “2004 eASIA Week” is hosted by the Ministry of Economic Affairs, Chinese Taipei, and co-organised by AFACT and the Institute for Information Industry. eASIA Week is the largest trade show for e-business applications in the Asia-Pacific region. The eAsia Week includes three activities of “eASIA Award”, “eASIA Forum” and “eASIA Expo”. It is an event to promote e-commerce activity and is participated by sixteen members including Australia, Chinese Taipei, India, Indonesia, Iran, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Mongolia, China, Pakistan, Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Vietnam.

In addition to the three Malaysian finalists in the Bridging Digital Divide Category, three other Malaysian nominations also made it into the final. They are Automate@hsbc HSBC Bank Malaysia Berhad, in the Electronic Business in Private Sector, Malaysia e-Management for Education (IMS Education) University College of Engineering & Technology Malaysia, in the Electronic Business in Public Sector category, and PTP Community Systems Port of Tanjung Pelepas, in the Trade Facilitation category. Automate@hsbc and PTP Community Systems also won the eAsia Award in their respective categories.