FORUM INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATIONS TECHNOLOGIES MINISTERIAL MEETING
30 March 2006
Wellington, New Zealand

WELLINGTON DECLARATION

We, the representatives of the Countries of the Pacific Islands Forum meeting in Wellington, New Zealand:

Noting that the Pacific Plan as endorsed by the Leaders' Meeting in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea in October 2005 provides a framework for strengthening regional cooperation and integration between Forum countries;

Recognising that the Leaders have requested that a regional Digital Strategy be developed as an essential component of the Pacific Plan, with a view to improving the uptake and use of information and communication technologies in the region;

Recalling that Pacific Islands Forum Communications Ministers 2002 meeting requested that a Pacific ICT survey 2002 be conducted; and

Noting that the survey identified a range of priorities including:

o Human resource development (including training, and the establishment of systems to assist HRD);

o Price reductions of telecommunications services;

o USOs/telecommunications services (telephone and Internet) to outer islands/outer lying areas;

o ICTs in education - ensuring school students have access to computers and the necessary teaching methods;

o Infrastructure development;

o Improved networked economies through e-government and e-commerce; and

o Development of policy and regulatory frameworks.


Declare that:

1. We are committed to the advancement of our countries through pursuing the four Forum goals of economic growth, sustainable development, good governance and security;

2. We recognise that information and communication technologies (ICTs), while not an end in themselves, have a key role as a basis for economic development, while also promoting and enhancing social cohesion, cultural enrichment and environmental conservation;


A) While the Pacific region faces a number of obstacles to the effective deployment of communications and other infrastructure, we acknowledge that the region also stands to benefit enormously from the effective use of ICTs;
B) Therefore we pledge to work together to support the advancement of Forum countries through improved deployment and use of ICTs in our societies.
C) Accordingly, we declare our intention that:

The Digital Strategy be further endorsed by the Communications Ministers. Ministers considered the proposed Digital Strategy Roadmap and agreed to form a taskforce to consider implementation of key roadmap components through using a stepladder approach to ICT development.

The focus in the first year be:

a. The taskforce should develop qualitative and quantitative indicators which will assist with establishing each country's progress towards agreed goals.
b. Countries are encouraged to provide data and to participate in a stock-take to determine the e-readiness of their country, which would include assessment of infrastructure, services, platforms and user capacity and costs.
c. Countries are encouraged to develop or refine their ICT Policies with particular emphasis on increasing stakeholder engagement and provide a copy of their ICT Policy to the Forum which will arrange them to be put up on the web for use by other countries.
d. Countries are encouraged also to provide at least e-mail capacity to Government agencies and a basic web site to gain experience in e-government.
e. The Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat approach the World Bank, Asian Development Bank and other agencies such as ICANN with a view to provision of regulatory and policy capacity development.
f. The taskforce investigate options and make recommendations to governments for a regional approach to the purchase of bulk lease or purchase arrangements for satellite capacity to increase affordability of access by remote communities.
g. Communication Ministers recognise that greater involvement in the global information society brings both economic and social benefits and also policy and regulatory challenges. Strong national ICT policy and legislative frameworks and effective enforcement regimes are crucial to protect our citizens, our networks and our reputation from spam and other e-security threats. We recognise that these are global concerns and that regional cooperation is also necessary to strengthen capacity to deal with spam and wider Internet security concerns. We agree to develop complementary anti-spam policies and legislation at the national level and cooperate regionally to combat the growing problem of spam.


That a meeting of ICT/Communications Ministers be convened in the first half of 2007 to review progress on the Digital Strategy and to guide further developments of the Roadmap and Ladder to meet short term goals and develop long terms goals for the region.


30 March 2006
Wellington, New Zealand

The Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase announced a fortnight ago that there were going to be reductions in the cost of telecommunication sevices to those living in the rural and outer lying/remote islands in Fiji. This, he meant was going to be a reduction in the VTSat services. VTSat services form the satellite telecommunication system for these rural areas in which tourist resorts are included.

VTsat post paid customers or in other words those that pay a bill at the end of every month will have their call rates reduced by 53%. This means that now to call from say an island in Lau to Suva would be just like calling from Suva to Lautoka for 23 cents a minute instead of 49 cents a minute.

With prepaid customers or in other words Telecard users - will now pay 43 cents a minute to call anywhere in Fiji instead of having to pay 80 cents a minute.

Okay with international calls - VTSat post paid customers and telecard users will now pay the same standard international rates that is charged to urban customers.

See the difference?? Rural customers have had to pay alot for telecommunications, but not this time...

HOWEVER, VTSat is not limited to telephones only - it also includes internet data. By this, I mean the outsourcing of internet to say a resort. Okay, the resort will access internet by using the broadband & bandwith provided by Telecom Fiji Limited. So, Internet service data has been reduced around 80%.

Okay for bandwith users of 64 kilo bits per second (this is considered slow) - they now pay $2,261.25 a month (VIP) compared to the $478.13 a month (VIP).

For those using internet data access speed of 128kbps, the price will drop by a major 81% from $2,576.25/mth (VIP) to $495.00/mth (VIP). There are 4 resorts that currently use VTSat for data access.

Also as part of assisting Government in its efforts to increase access to telecommunications nationally and develop ICT in the rural areas - Telecom Fiji has announced that is fully funding five pilot Telecentre projects this year in Nayavu, Vunidawa, Dreketi, Muanaweni and Ratu Latianara Secondary school.

These centres will offer telephone, fax, internet, photocopying, printing and scanning facilities for the people in these communities.

Government's intention this year too is to increase the normal 1 line per village to 4 lines per village. Like there used to be only one telephone telecard line operating from a village community hall - now there will be 4 per village. Government is contributing $500,000 this year to assist Telecom Fiji in this aspect.

And the combined target is get everyone connected by telephone by the end of this year, so far 75% are connected.

Just thought of informing everyone that Government is introducing its E-Government Project which will assist firstly Government, businesses and the community. In other words it looks at going E-Government, E-Commerce and E-Community!!

Great isn't it. Finally, thing are happening. This Government (the SDL-led Coaliation) is moving the ICT industry here in Fiji. So, yesterday (30/11) in Parliament the Finane Minister Ratu Jone Kubuabola tabled a motion seeking the approval of the Lower House that Government be allowed to borrow US$20million from the People's Republic of China through the China Exim Bank for the purpose of funding the Fiji/Chinese E-Govt Project.

The goal of this project, he said is to increase greater efficiency in Government through the use of information and communication technology. This will also ensure better policy outcomes, improved and more efficient delivery of services and greater interaction with citizens.

This proposal, in other words the Finance Minister said is to put Government business online and make some strategic links with the community empowering selected communities to access Government services provided on-line. It also encourages businesses to access directly Government services that are available on-line.

Ratu Jone went on to say that there are five components of this project which are :
1) E-Government Blueprint,
2) E-Government Applications,
3) Government Data Centres,
4) Government Info-Communication Infrastructure and
5) ICT Compentency Development and Training

I will explain later what these all mean...Gotta dash...moce mada!

Reama
Posted on Dec 1,2005 but the date shows Nov 30th i know...Fiji is always ahead! LOL!

i was privileged to attend with my Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase the 36th Pacific Islands Leaders forum in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea from October 24-29, 2005...the island member countries for those who might not know are Fiji, Tonga, Samoa, Cook Islands, Tuvalu, PNG, Vanuatu, Solomon Islands, Nauru, Kiribati, Niue, Palau, Marshall Islands, Federated States of Micronesia and Australia and New Zealand.

A major outcome of the meeting was the endorsement by the leaders of the draft Pacific Plan and its Kalibobo road map. This means the Plan will continue to undergo consultation and changes as it will be implemented say 10 years from now. Other highlights included the KULA Fund II signing by the Commonwealth to Pacific island countries (PICs) of USD 150,000 and the signing of the revised Melanesian Spearhead Agreement (MSG) by PM Qarase, PM of Vanuatu, Mr Lini, PM of PNG Sir Michael Somare and PM of Solomon Islands, Sir Alan Kamekaze. This means the MSG will now have its Secretariat based in Port Vila with new staff and also a lawyer will be tasked with drawing up a Constitution for the MSG group.

PM Qarase expressed disappointment and i suppose other PIC leaders too when Australia and NZ yet again disagreed to give temporary work schemes to PICs, when they easily can give work visas to those from Asia and Europe! Don't know what the difference is here...I suppose they raised the concern of people misusing the opportunity. But there's nothing like having tight, stringent measures or a framework that will ensure people will not misuse it if they are allowed temporary work.

Port Moresby is a big place i tell you and beautiful!! It has alot of potential to develop further. A country so rich in resources - gold mine, forests, marine, so much space for development etc. etc. It was the dry season though there so the place looked brown. But i was told that during the rainy season the place is so green!

I was fortunate to meet some of my kai's (people from my Province), ladies who are married to locals there and just one man who is there with his wife ministering to the raskals there...Raskals are termed to law breakers. Also fortunate to meet the Fijian students studying at the Pacific Adventist University (PAU) there for Education, Business etc...and of course they suddenly felt homesick!!!

Bula (hello in Fijian). I just came out of an interesting meeting here at the Sheraton resort in Nadi titled the Pacific Workshop on Access to Information. This meeting is a pre-lude for parliamentarians around the Pacific (Tonga, Samoa, Cook Islands, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu) who are here for the big Commonwealth meeting - 51st Commonwealth Parliamentarians meeting which will officially begin on September 6th. So there are also participants from Uganda, Canada, from the UK, Zimbabwe, Barbados and so forth - all the 52 countries in the commonwealth.

Anyway, I just wanted to share about the important of having access to information. This is indeed a global concept and we here in the Pacific have no laws or legislation on Freedom of Information (FOI) unlike Australia, New Zealand, India, Mexico and other countries around the world. However, this area is being considered by Pacific Island countries but nothing has to come pass.

FOI, allows not only the media to have acces to information about Parliaments and Government's work but also the ordinary person - the public.

What I learnt today was how important information is to the ordinary bloke in Australia, or to the poor who depend on rice rations in India.

Being informed about your rights is so important because that is what democracy is about. Bringing me to the point of even knowing who your elected members in Parliament or in Government or in a federal state or even your local councillors.

This entails an informed constituency and therefore informed voters.

Exercising your FOI legislation if you have it in your country is important in this case that your Government recognises that you have the right to know who exactly you are appointing in power - that means you can apply for information to be given to you about the person you want to elect because that is your right under your FOI system.

At the grassroots level however, local issues affecting these people can be raised under this FOI system. Like for instance, an example at this meeting given was how poor people in a region in India were receiving rice rations and this particular woman when she asked about an update to see how many rations are actually given to people and at what intervals, she was told they did not have that information. She was assisted by a particular NGO and got other people to start asking about their rice rations information. Apparently, those giving out the rice rations would tick the people's name on their list but not give them their due and would then sell the rice on the black market. And this woman exercised her right under the Freedom of Information Act in India and after two years was given this information and therefore these people handing out rice were also being scrutinised and made accountable for what they gave out.

Share your thoughts with me on this issue please.

Thank you .

Reama Naco