Pirongrong Ramasoota, Senior Research Fellow who served on the Board of Communication Policy Research south for many years including a term as Vice Chair, has been confirmed by the Senate of Thailand to serve as a member of the seven-member Board of the Thai regulatory body responsible for spectrum, telecom and electronic broadcasting. A scholar who has given weight both to the conduct of well-designed research and to taking research findings to the policy process, Pirongrong exemplifies the kind of policy intellectual LIRNEasia was seeking to develop through CPRsouth.
There is little debate about Asia’s increasing economic and political significance. The COVID-19 pandemic that originated in the Asian land mass has retarded, but not reversed, the progress made in taking millions out of poverty and in moving the centre of gravity of the world economy back to Asia, where it was until the 16th century.
"Data protection is considered an esoteric subject, but it can have powerful effects in the emerging digital economy. Depending on the success of digitalisation efforts, pretty much every organization may fall within the scope of data protection regulation. Few developing countries have enacted data protection legislation. There may be lessons to be drawn from the Sri Lankan effort."
“Sri Lanka has wellcrafted laws but rarely are they implemented satisfactorily. If the regulator is underresourced, little more than ticking the boxes so that Sri Lanka will pass the EU’s adequacy test is likely to be achieved, and even that is uncertain. The best law is not one that is optimal in a technical sense, but one which is most appropriate for the local conditions”
A detailed report on drinking water and sanitation services, containing recommendations for 18 state agencies, developed on the basis of countrywide consultations.
A detailed report on drinking water and sanitation services, containing recommendations for 18 state agencies, developed on the basis of countrywide consultations.
An Expert Round Table discussion on “Data Protection in an Interconnected World” was held on the 28th of June 2021, as the first of a series of discussions under the theme of “Frontiers of Digital Economy”
The 2nd International Conference on ICT for Rural Development (IC-ICT RuDev) by the Centre of Research and Development on Informatics Applications and Public Communication, Ministry of Communication and Informatics of the Republic of Indonesia will be held in Jakarta during 27th -28th October 2021.
On 19-20 October 2021, LIRNEasia Chair Rohan Samarajiva led the discussion on how digitalization and regulation can contribute to the provision of better bus services to the citizens of the Central Province of Sri Lanka.
Successful reform of telecom (or information and communication technology (ICT) infrastructure) sectors requires ex-ante, sector-specific regulation under present market and technological conditions. Theories and concepts relevant to regulatory agency design and the practice are not nation-specific.
LIRNEasia Chair, Rohan Samarajiva and I attended the first drafting group meeting for developing the Asia-Pacific Information Superhighway Action Plan 2022-2026 on 25 May. The meeting was convened by UNESCAP, and chaired by Mohamed Shareef, Maldives' newly appointed State Minister of Environment, Climate Change and Technology.
LIRNEasia discussed policy challenges of ensuring access for all as well as the challenges of working from home during a pandemic for women at the the inaugural Sri Lanka Internet Day, organised by the Federation of Information Technology Industry Sri Lanka (FITIS) on 6-7 April 2021.
There was overlap between budget analysis and an invitation to contribute to thinking on how things could be made better for Jaffna using ICTs. The result is described here.
Now in 2020, the Postel Award has been given to LIRNEasia alumnus Onno Purbo. We congratulate Onno for this well-deserved honor. What he did before and after his association with us is what won him the approbation of the jurors of the Postel Award. Onno played an important part in one of our formative wins, something that defined LIRNEasia. In this post, what we can talk about is what we know.
Chair Rohan Samarajiva was interviewed by Roar Media on the implications of using drones for identifying those violating curfew orders.
In a wide-ranging interview, the Director General of the Sri Lanka Telecom Regulatory Commission (TRC) explained the reasons for requiring mandatory registration of IMEI numbers from October 1, 2020, saying all commercial vendors of terminal devices had to be registered with the TRC and that the IMEIs of the devices they sold had to be registered as well. He stated that these actions were being taken to protect consumers. Consumer protection in a market economy is anchored on information asymmetry. The default position is caveat emptor: let the buyer beware. Each consumer has a right to decide on the price-quality bundle he/she wishes to buy.