Tag Archives: Singapore
Applications now open for LIRNEasia Young Scholar Tutorials, hosted by NUS, Singapore. Click here for info on how to apply.
LIRNEasia Dissemination event and Tutorials Singapore: 21-22 June 2010
Fifteen Young Scholars from the Asia-Pacific region will be selected to participate in tutorials taught by recognized scholars and practitioners scheduled to be held before the 2010 International Communication Association conference in Singapore and a research dissemination event, both at the National University of Singapore Kent Ridge Campus. The selected Young Scholars will also attend the conference and have their travel and accommodation expenses covered. This is an exceptional opportunity to learn about doing policy-relevant research and to participate in a leading international scholarly conference.
Click here for more information on the event and how to apply.
Asian Journal of Public Affairs: Call for Submissions
The Asian Journal of Public Affairs (AJPA) would like to invite you to be a part of its forthcoming issue. Contributions from postgraduate students or above can be made through scholarly papers, case studies and/or book reviews. For this edition, submissions on the topic of food security are particularly encouraged.
AJPA is a peer-reviewed, academic publication concerned with public affairs issues in wider Asia – including the Middle East, Central and South Asia, and the Asia-Pacific. Spearheaded by graduate students of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore, and published on a biannual basis, AJPA was established to analyse and influence policymaking through an interdisciplinary lens, including but not limited to public policy, public management, international relations, international political economy, development studies and economics. Each edition features scholarly submissions, case studies, book reviews and commentaries.
Access AJPA’s current issue and the style guide at: www.ajpajournal.org. For submissions and further details, please contact: ajpa@nus.edu.sg. Submission deadline: Sunday the 31st of January 2010
KF Lai and Ashok Jhunjhunwala seed entrepreneurship in Colombo
When e Sri Lanka was designed, we thought that lots of jobs would be created, some through conventional firms in the IT and IT enabled service industries, but more in entrepreneurial startups. The first hope was realized more or less, but not the latter.
Since two people with direct experience, LIRNEasia international advisory board members Ashok Jhunjhunwala and KF Lai, were in town for the LIRNEasia@5 conference, I offered them as speakers to SLASSCOM. A well attended meeting that included local entrepreneurs such as Dinesh Saparamadu (hSenid) and Mifaan Careem (Respere) and a significant number of U of Moratuwa engineering students saw a fruitful exchange of views that has already led to the establishment of an entrepreneurs society at U of Moratuwa.
KF Lai talked about how he had been encouraged to start his own business while a government scientist, by the Government of Singapore. Ashok Jhunjhunwala, talked about how he has created a conducive environment for the incubation of start ups at IIT Madras. In the course of discussion we found that the Lanka Software Foundation had also created such an environment, albeit on a smaller scale in Sri Lanka. They ..read more
How broad is your broadband?
Based on LIRNEasia’s broadband QoSE research findings, we ran an advertisement in the Daily Mirror (Sri Lanka’s leading English daily) on 24 November 2009. The advertisement focused on four facts. The first three were on value for money, advertised download speed as opposed to actual download speed and bandwidth bottlenecks. The lack of regulation on contention ratios (how many users per “channel”) was highlighted as the fourth fact
We pointed out that LIRNEasia’s recommendation about imposing contention ratios of 1:20 (Business) and 1:50 (Residential) had been adopted by the Telecommunication Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), with minor changes. TRAI mandates contention ratios of 1:30 for Business and 1:50 for Residential.
The advertisement also presented “models to emulate”: India and Singapore. Even though the two countries have set different parameters, they exemplify good regulatory practice.
We also compared value for money in Sri Lankan broadband in relation to Canada and the USA. This clearly demonstrated that Sri Lankan users get less value for their money than the North American users, in contrast to the situation with regards to mobile telephony.
The advertisement also invited users to download the free AT tester software from www.broadbandasia.info.
The advertisement.
Recession in North, but emerging Asia is expanding – The Economist
Anybody could have guessed this. It is unimaginable that entire world will go through a recession simultaneously. Not everyone can be losers for too long. There should be winners somewhere. For example, what would the US firms that find their human resources costs, logically do? They outsource to Bangalore. So the BPO industry in India grows. Peter’s loss becomes Patel’s gain.
The Economist today presented the evidence.
MOODY’S Economy.com has mapped the geographic spread of the worst global downturn since the Depression. All of North America is in recession now. In Europe only Norway, Slovenia and Slovakia have avoided a similar fate, although Moody’s reckons these countries are on the brink of a downturn. Emerging Asia looks cheerier, although the small export-led economies of Singapore and Hong Kong are shrinking, as are Malaysia and Thailand. Even the BRICs are looking a bit diminished, with downturns in both Brazil and Russia. At least India and China are growing (the latter at a pace that is causing worries about overheating). Data for Africa are spotty but the continent’s biggest economy, South Africa, is in recession. The IMF expects global GDP to shrink by 1.4% this year, with rich countries’ economies contracting ..read more
Sri Lanka: Media assists illegal mobile phone trading?
Sakwithi ‘I-was-born-to-teach’ Ranasinghe knew the power of media. Few full page advertisements in Lankadeepa, the largest selling weekly in the island were all necessary to convert the virtually unknown English teacher to a national level businessman. That, with the endorsement from a self-proclaimed media guru was adequate to attract thousands of gullible individuals who deposited their hard earned money with him for attractive interest rates, way above the market. When Ranasinghe disappeared, media conveniently washed their hands. Content of paid advertisement, we were reminded, is not their responsibility. Buyers beware. Ironically Lankadeepa became the newspaper that hit their former client the hardest!
Moral of the story: Rely on media any time to promote your business – don’t worry it is legal or otherwise.
Others too have learnt. A full page advertisement (parts shown) on Hit-Ad – a supplement of The Sunday Times , a national weekly from the same group that published Lankadeepa invites the attention of mobile phone vendors who buy their stocks in Singapore. Among many things the advertiser promises are the visit arrangements and ‘facilities’ and ‘advices’ to hand carry these stocks to the island.
Why one hand carries the very brands sold in local market thru authorized agents?
LIRNEasia book reviewed in the Asian Economic Bulletin
A review of LIRNEasia’s maiden book entitled, ‘ICT Infrastructure in Emerging Asia: Policy and Regulatory Roadblocks’, edited by Rohan Samarajiva and Ayesha Zainudeen, appears in the Asian Economic Bulletin (August 2008), published by the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Singapore.
“…not withstanding the technical language, the question the book poses and the arguments it puts forward will be of interest not just to telecoms policymakers, regulators and policymakers, but also a wider readership that is interested in the policy-making process, the effects of technology, and the roles of institutions in shaping outcomes…this makes for an interesting reading, as it is not often that policymakers are given this type of “fresh” data.”
The full article can be purchased here.
What is the cheapest remittance mechanism of them all?
Last year as many as 190m migrant workers sent cash home, according to the World Bank. These remittances amounted to US$337 billion, of which US$251 billion went to developing countries. But the cost of sending hard-earned cash depends on both the source and destination. On average, sending US$500 from Spain to Brazil will incur a modest charge of US$7.68, or a 1.5% fee. Sending the same sum from the Netherlands to Indonesia costs a whopping US$86.41, a 17.3% charge. The Netherlands, Germany and Japan tend to be the priciest places to send money from. Costs are generally lowest in Russia, Saudi Arabia, Spain, Singapore, America and Britain. (economist.com)
With hard times at our doorsteps, all we can say is a remittance mechanism that employs mobile communications would be an excellent idea. By the way, that is one area our research on Mobile2.0@BoP will focus.
Asia-Pacific region leads high-speed Broadband connectivity, but wide divide prevails, says ITU
While some Asia-Pacific economies are world leaders in information and communication technologies (ICT) where broadband access is ultra-high speed, affordable and close to ubiquitous, in most of the region’s poorer countries Internet access remains limited and predominantly low-speed.
This is what ITU’s Telecommunication/ICT Indicators Report for the Asia-Pacific region 2008 says. It was released at ITU TELECOM ASIA 2008, Bangkok, Thailand yesterday (Sept 2, 2008).
The Report finds evidence that ICTs and broadband uptake foster growth and development, but the question remains as to the optimal speed that should be targeted in view of limited resources.
The area in which the region really stands out is the uptake of advanced Internet technologies, especially broadband Internet access. The Asia-Pacific region is the world’s largest broadband market with a 39 per cent share of the world’s total at the end of 2007. In terms of broadband access, Asia-Pacific has made remarkable progress in the past few years, with subscriber numbers growing almost five-fold in five years: from 27 million at the beginning of 2003 to 133 million at the start of 2008.
In the region’s high-income economies, ubiquitous access is progressing through a competitive race to provide ever faster fixed broadband access. Operators in Hong Kong ..read more
Internet traffic bypassing the US?
Ten years ago, pretty much all the traffic went through the US Internet backbone. Today, claims are being made that only 25 per cent of traffic is routed through the US system.
This may require changes in LIRNEasia’s (and Singapore’s) efforts to improve broadband quality of service experience through benchmark regulation or otherwise, using as one of the measures, Round Trip Time to the Internet cloud, defined as first point of landing in the US. An alternative will not be easy to come by, but we have faith in the wisdom of the many. Please contribute.
Sri Lanka: Udaya Gammanpila says Environmental Levy does not burden public
Responding to Rohan Samarajiva’s views on newly implemented Environmental levy in Lankadeepa last week, Central Environmental Authority Chairman Udaya Gammanpila calls it essential and the ‘first progressive tax’ in Sri Lanka. Assuring it does not burden public, he says any tax can be initially unpopular but the impact should be seen in long term. (Lankadeepa, August 19, 2008)
These are his points in brief:
1. If not for the Environmental levy, the government has to find money to address environmental issues by increasing either VAT or customs charges. That will raise prices in general. It is unfair. Why should villagers who have never seen a mobile phone contribute for its removal whenever they buy flour to make rotis? Instead we have introduced a tax only on pollutants. So only the culprits pay for remedial measures.
2. Mobile phone usage has drastically increased during the last few years. Now there are about 8 million mobile phones in Sri Lanka. (sic) The cost of a mobile phone was reduced from Rs. 75,000 in 1994 to Rs. 3,500. These have made the lifetime of a mobile phone shorter and more mobile phones are being released to the environment. (sic) Our intention is to ..read more
Another LIRNEasia researcher joins Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy
Upon being awarded a full scholarship, LIRNEasia researcher Tahani Iqbal has moved to Singapore to commence her graduate studies in public policy at the LKY School at the National University of Singapore. She joins Senior Researcher Sriganesh Lokanathan who is in his second year at the Lee Kuan Yew School. He was also awarded a full scholarship.
Sending our researchers to high-quality graduate programs is one way in which we operationalize our commitment to being a learning organization.
OFTA Hong Kong: The best telecom regulator website in Asia Pacific
Office of the Telecommunications Authority (OFTA) of Hong Kong was ranked as the most effective National Telecommunication Regulatory Authority site in the recently conducted LIRNEasia study ‘NRA Website survey: Asia Pacific 2008’ receiving 94%, followed by Infocomm Development Authority (IDA) of Singapore with 89% and Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) with 87%.
In South Asia Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) scored highest (80%) but Telecommunication Regulatory Commission of India (TRAI) was not too behind (75%). PTA site which scored highest marks in the previous survey in 2005 this time lost marks due to the lack of some features like the non availability of local language version.
More information in paper format and Presentation Slides
Expert Forum: ICT Sector Indicators and Benchmark Regulation
An Expert Forum on ICT Sector Indicators and Benchmark Regulation for SAARC Regulatory Authorities will be held in Changi Village Hotel, Singapore on 14 – 15 June 2008 following the 12th LIRNE.net course on Telecom Reform.
Photo by: olduvai
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