IT Cooperation in Asia with a Focus on ASEAN Countries

Information Technology offers some unique opportunities for regional cooperation in Asia for mutual benefit. Unlike earlier core technologies, in case of IT, Asia holds the commanding heights. With East Asian countries like Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Singapore and China known for their manufacturing capabilities in the wide range of ICT goods, and India has emerged as IT software and service superpower. RIS is exploring into the potential and prospects of regional cooperation in this key technology for Asian development. A paper that has been already completed examines India-ASEAN cooperation in IT during the recent past and highlights the prospects for the future. It has been argued that India-ASEAN cooperation could be instrumental in addressing the ASEAN divide - the development gap between old and new ASEAN countries. This paper was presented at the ASEAN-India Forum held in Singapore in February 2004 and has been issued as a Discussion Paper. Another paper has explored into the lessons that new members of ASEAN can take from Indian experiences in building capability in IT industry. This has also been issued as a Discussion Paper. Ongoing work covers a series of papers on specific CLMV countries in building production capabilities especially in the IT industry.

Research Team: Prof. K. J. Joseph