Friday October 15 2004, 5.30pm, SLIDA premises, Colombo 7
1. WDR Expert Forum 2004
- September’s WDR Expert Forum at Mount Lavinia was a success
- Next expert forum in Sri Lanka: Sept. 30 , Oct 1 and 2 [half day], 2005
- Sector and Regulatory Performance Indicators: may be WDR theme for
2005/6; proposed workshop for this in early 2005 ? Pondicherry.
2. Funding
- We don’t have institutional funding, only project-based.
- This will be a challenge, but I’m (Rohan) confident we’ll pull it off. We spent under budget for the forum.
3. Projects
- IDRC wants us to study ‘diversity of participation in networks.’ Currently, demand side info/knowledge is lacking.
- Supply side: Nepal, India, Indonesia, Bangladesh
i. Assessment of Asia’s first least-cost subsidy auction in Eastern Nepal, and comparison with the Sri Lanka least-cost subsidy auction design. Team: Rohan Samarajiva, Harsha de Silva (B.R. Pandey)
ii. Assessment of the design and implementation of India’s universal service levies, fund and associated policy and regulatory instruments including the Access Deficit Charge (ADC). Team: Harsha de Silva,Payal Malik
iii. Evaluation of the replicability of the WiFi based access innovations in Indonesia, looking at both the scalability of the WiFi based expansion of access at the margins and the impact of the availability and pricing of broadband capacity to link to the Internet backbone. Team: Sabina Fernando, Onno Purbo
iv. Study of the conditions for replicating the Grameen Telecom of Bangladesh, approach of extending access to telephone services through microfinance mechanisms. Team: Malathy Knight-John, Abu Saeed Khan, Ayesha Zainudeen
Projects are complementary, got a good ‘variety’ of case-studies. Getting started in November (i.e., be ready to start)
Project team must come up with outline; every project will be discussed entire LIRNEasia team ? use of technology to the full extent to facilitate virtual presence of team members. Regular meetings ? Divakar will organize. Most advanced (draft) case studies may go to WDR Africa to present and get feedback. Team (not yet decided) needs experience in large multi-country studies AND know telecom. A common methodology will be used across countries (case studies)
4. Website
is going well. Let?s keep it irreverent, interactive and fun. Need to keep producing content so it will get googled. Website will be overhauled. Uploading will be via email to website. Interactive web calendar will be up soon
5. General
- next colloquium: November
- Possibility: SLIDA becoming Sri Lankan partner of SAFIR.
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