digital inclusion in laos

Digital Inclusion in Laos

Phonpasit PHISSAMAY Director General

e-Government Center Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications

Lao PDR

Asia-Pacific Regional Forum on Universal Access and Service and Broadband Development 2015, Bangkok, Thailand.

About Laos •  Area: 236.800 Km2

•  Population: 6.7 Millions –  Urban: 35% –  Rural: 65%

•  GDP : 1,600 USD

•  Poverty: 23%

•  Disability people: –  86,442 people (register) –  8% of households –  1.3% of total population –  (But WHO estimate up to 8%)

Laos ICT facts •  Telecom penetration: 80%

–  Fix line penetration: 13% –  Mobile penetration: 67%

•  Internet penetration: 25% –  Population of households with Internet: 6% –  Mobile internet user (SIM-Net registration) : 19%

•  PC penetration: 30% –  Population of households with computer: 12%

IDI values compared with the global, regional and developing/developed-country averages, Asia and the

pacific, 2012

62

Chapter 2. The ICT Development Index (IDI)

�ŚĂƌƚ�Ϯ͘ϭϮ͗�/ŶĚŝǀŝĚƵĂůƐ�ƵƐŝŶŐ�ƚŚĞ�/ŶƚĞƌŶĞƚ͕��ƌĂď�^ƚĂƚĞƐ͕�ϮϬϭϭ�ĂŶĚ�ϮϬϭϮ

^ŽƵƌĐĞ͗��/dh�tŽƌůĚ�dĞůĞĐŽŵŵƵŶŝĐĂƟŽŶͬ/�d�/ŶĚŝĐĂƚŽƌƐ�ĚĂƚĂďĂƐĞ͘

�ŚĂƌƚ�Ϯ͘ϭϯ͗�/�/�ǀĂůƵĞƐ�ĐŽŵƉĂƌĞĚ�ǁŝƚŚ�ƚŚĞ�ŐůŽďĂů͕�ƌĞŐŝŽŶĂů�ĂŶĚ�ĚĞǀĞůŽƉŝŶŐͬĚĞǀĞůŽƉĞĚͲĐŽƵŶƚƌǇ�ĂǀĞƌĂŐĞƐ͕��ƐŝĂ�ĂŶĚ�ƚŚĞ�WĂĐŝĮĐ͕�ϮϬϭϮ

^ŽƵƌĐĞ͗��/dh͘

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

2011

2012

Pe

r 1

00

inh

ab

ita

nts

penetration and international Internet connectivity. Nonetheless, Bangladesh still remains at the bottom of the regional ranking and in 135th position globally. Mongolia,

on the other hand, moved up five places in the global IDI between 2011 and 2012, overtaking both Viet Nam and the Islamic Republic of Iran.

IDI World

Developing

Asia & Pacific

Developed

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

Korea

(Rep.)

Hong Kong, C

hina

Austra

lia

Japan

Mac

ao, C

hina

Singa

pore

Brunei D

aruss

alam

Mal

aysia

Mal

dives

China

Fiji

New Z

ealan

d

Mongo

lia

Viet N

am

Iran (I

.R.)

Thaila

nd

Indonesia

Philippin

es

Tonga

Sri L

anka

Bhutan

Cambodia

India

Lao P.

D.R.

Solo

mon Is

lands

Pakist

an

Mya

nmar

Bangl

adesh

62






0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

2011

2012

Pe

r 1

00

in

ha

bit

an

ts



IDI

World

Developing

Asia & Pacific

Developed

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

Kore

a (R

ep.)

Hon

g Ko

ng, C

hina

Aus

tralia

Japa

n

Mac

ao, C

hina

Sing

apor

e

Brun

ei D

arus

salam

Malay

sia

Maldive

s

China

Fiji

New

Zea

land

Mon

golia

Viet

Nam

Iran

(I.R

.)

Thailand

Indo

nesia

Philipp

ines

Tong

a

Sri L

anka

Bhut

an

Cam

bodia

India

Lao P.D.R

.

Solom

on Is

land

s

Pakistan

Mya

nmar

Bang

lade

sh

62






0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

2011

2012

Pe

r 1

00

in

ha

bit

an

ts



IDI

World

Developing

Asia & Pacific

Developed

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

Kore

a (R

ep.)

Hon

g Ko

ng, C

hina

Aus

tralia

Japa

n

Mac

ao, C

hina

Sing

apor

e

Brun

ei D

arus

salam

Malay

sia

Maldive

s

China

Fiji

New

Zea

land

Mon

golia

Viet

Nam

Iran

(I.R

.)

Thailand

Indo

nesia

Philipp

ines

Tong

a

Sri L

anka

Bhut

an

Cam

bodia

India

Lao P.D.R

.

Solom

on Is

land

s

Pakistan

Mya

nmar

Bang

lade

sh

Index Value

2011 2012 2013

Global ranking

2011 2012 2013

IDI 1.84 1.99 2.10 120th 122nd 123rd

Access sub-index 2.18 2.36 2.53 124th 122nd 121st

Use sub-index 0.26 0.36 0.46 129th 129th 129th

Skills sub-index 4.35 4.50 4.50 121st 121st 121st

Infrastructure

•  Network infrastructure –  OFC: 61,373 Km –  2G: 7,000 BTS /10,000 BTS –  3G: 2,400 BTS /15,000 BTS –  International Bandwidth: 2.5 Gbps

•  Barrier

–  2/3 of country areas is mountain –  Low population density in rural areas

Affordability •  High price:

–  International bandwidth: 100 USD/Mbps –  Fix line Internet= 30 USD/Mb/Month –  Mobile Internet: 0.04USD per 1 MB. –  0.10 USD/minute for prepaid –  0.04 USD/minute of post paid. –  30% tax on ICT equipment

•  People expense –  27% of average households income –  Low people purchase power (11% of

total householders)

Consumer barrier •  Literacy: 73% •  ICT literacy: 20% •  English literacy: 30%

Local content •  Website:

–  Website in Lao language: 1,000 –  Only 20% of government office have website –  30 e-Content provider (newspaper and magazine)

•  Barrier:

–  Lack of Lao language support in most of ICT system –  Lack of content creator

To ensure that broadband services are accessible nationwide

•  Telecommunication development fund (Chapter VII of Telecommunication law 2011) :

–  government budget –  Foreign aid –  Individual contribution –  Some portion of penalty related to Telecommunication activities –  Some portion of telecommunication activities and resource.

•  In 2013: MPT assigned some number and location of the rural villages to each operator as obligation to provide the connectivity and also for those want to replace 4G into 2 G spectrum 1800 Band.

•  Satellite Project (Started in 2012 and expected to send the satellite into the 128.5 E in November 2015)

•  Consolidate the passive infrastructure (such as sharing tower), which MPT has assigned Malaysian company to conduct the FS and expected to see the report on April 2015.

To ensure the backbone is accessible and cost-effective

•  National Internet gateway project (2008)

•  National

Telecommunication transmission Network project (2011)

To ensure that broadband services are affordable to everyone

•  MPT is under restructure the spectrum fees: Such as capacity

band and coverage band.

•  Tax incentive for operator and user in rural areas, which are now under consideration of the custom and tax department.

•  As recommended by ITU expert: MPT will introduce an obligation on relevant licensees to offer a defined entry-level broadband product at a specified retail price that is widely affordable while still being profitable

(Need to elaborate and make clear understanding to the authority. Also need to identify the strategy for the

implementation)

To ensure that everyone has some ICT knowledge

•  E-Education project has established Computer Lab in 50 schools and provided free Internet access to more than 500 schools:

•  Lao localization project •  Rural community

Telecenter project: •  IDRC: 1 Center •  ADB: 5 Center •  India: 10: Center •  Japan: 2 Center •  MPT : 2 Center

To ensure that broadband services are useful and widely used

•  E-Government project •  Government cross- sectoral information sharing Project •  E-Health Project •  Development some application for disability people

•  Computer for handicap school

•  Text To Speech project

E-Government Infrastructure

Ø  E-Portal Ø  E-Applications (e-document, e-Archive,

e-Registration, e-Staff Ø  Domain Name (gov.la)

Ø  Computer network Ø  Video Conference Ø  E-Mail Ø  Web Hosting

Ø  E-Service Ø  Consultant, assistant Ø  Trend of E-Government Development Ø  Cloud computing Ø  Multimedia

Service of e-Government center

Health Service Improvement project

TTS project •  PAN Location project supported by

IDRC of Canada. NECTEC Thailand has help the Lao research to design the solution and technology for Lao TTS system.

•  US Embassy in Laos has granted

20,000 USD to the Laos Blind Association to collect the text and record the voice of 5,000 sentences.

•  MPT has proposed project on ICT

application for disability people to ITU, especially to complete the development of Lao TTS system. ITU has informed that US-AID wish to support for enhance the project

Thank you

digital inclusion in laos

Technology