Introducing APEC DOC

Along a busy Peruvian street outside Lima, a small cement building bustles with new computers, internet connections and the animated chatter of people of all ages – children, teenagers and the elderly.

“I’ve never touched these things because we’ve never been here before,” says Ismenia Begazo Pizango, a mother who sews handmade items.

A teacher showed her how to set up an email account on Hotmail and within minutes, Ismenia was connected to the digital world.

After taking computer and internet training courses at the APEC Digital Opportunity Center (ADOC) in Peru with its Lima-based partner Mujer y Sociedad (MyS), Ismenia was able to set up her own business with some friends, making custom blankets and bedspreads from sheep’s wool. She now uses the internet to promote her brand beyond her village.

“Digital life was very unusual at first,” Ismenia recalls. “But it has brought me opportunities I never dreamed of.”

Ismenia’s connection to the digital world is part of the APEC Digital Opportunity Center (ADOC) initiative, launched in August 2004, led by Chinese Taipei. The initiative is part of APEC’s Economic and Technical Cooperation (ECOTECH) projects, which aim to promote equitable development. With more than a hundred centers in 10 APEC economies providing information technology (IT) training, the APEC Digital Opportunity Center (ADOC) is focused on transforming the digital divide into digital opportunities across the Asia-Pacific region.

“The digital divide is a social issue, a form of technological inequality,” explained Meili Hsiao, Secretary General of the APEC Digital Opportunity Center (ADOC), at the Secretariat in Chinese Taipei.

“There is a strong relationship between poverty and the digital divide. For example, developing economies account for 40% of the world’s population, but of the 242 million Internet users worldwide, only 5 million, or about 2%, are in developing economies,” Hsiao continued.

The APEC Digital Opportunity Center (ADOC) project leverages the strengths of Chinese Taipei’s information and communications industry to help other APEC member economies and vulnerable segments of the APEC community access IT skills.

In 2004, Chinese Taipei contributed more than US$10 million, working with seven APEC member economies, including Chile, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Peru, the Philippines, Vietnam and Thailand, who also provided funding and in-kind contributions to establish centers in their economies. Since then, three other economies – Mexico, Malaysia and Russia – have joined.

Over the past nine years, ADOC has trained more than half a million people in the APEC region, nearly half of whom are women.

“I believe we are training more women because many are very motivated and, like Ismenia, are interested in starting their own businesses,” said Cynthia Fiorentini, Coordinator of the APEC Digital Opportunity Center in Peru.

“The MyS Center, where Ismenia trained, is a partnership with Mujer y Sociedad, a nonprofit focused on helping women improve their lives,” Fiorentini added.

As Ismenia’s story shows, digitalization can drive economic growth and incomes. According to Booz & Company, information and communications technology has boosted global economic output by $193 billion over the past two years and created 6 million jobs. Using the Digitalization Index (ranging from 0 to 100), Booz & Company found that a 10% increase in a country’s digitalization stimulates 0.75% growth in GDP per capita.

Bringing more people into the digital space can lift millions out of poverty.

For Jomar Lalata, a young man from the Philippines, the APEC Digital Opportunity Center has done just that. Jomar grew up in a poor family in Navotas, a fishing port north of Manila, where his parents struggled to make ends meet.

“I couldn’t continue my education because I didn’t have enough money,” Jomar said. “Without further education, I had no hope for a good future.”

Fortunately, Jomar was able to take part in a computer training course offered at the APEC Digital Opportunity Center in Navotas, through a partnership with ZOTO, a local urban community nonprofit. After the training, he found a job at Makro, an international chain of mini-marts.

“I can now earn enough to cover my needs and support my family,” Jomar said. “Without computer knowledge, I would have been hopeless.”

The APEC Digital Opportunity Center in the Philippines was officially launched in 2005, working closely with the ADOC Secretariat in Chinese Taipei. Today, they currently have ten ADOC Centers across the Philippines, many in rural areas.

“We have an average of 12 training sessions per year at a given Center with about 15 participants per class,” said Ms. Angelita Nicolas, Project Manager of the ADOC Partnership Office in Quezon City, Philippines.

As part of the second phase to enhance self-sustainability, the APEC Digital Opportunity Center Secretariat in Chinese Taipei has also established 21 partners, including major corporations such as Microsoft, Intel, Acer Foundation, and Chunghwa Telecom Co. Ltd., for example, this December. , Asustek Computer Inc. recently donated 150 tablets for use in Peru, the Philippines, Indonesia, and Malaysia on mobile ADOC Centers that will serve mountainous or remote communities.

Moreover, ADOC Centers also go beyond individuals and support IT training for specific industry clusters in rural areas. ADOC is currently piloting two small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) projects in Malaysia and Peru to establish value-added business clusters by leveraging information and communications technology. The SME cluster workshops bring together local governments, universities and SMEs to provide training on software, internet access, e-commerce and e-marketing targeted to that specific industry.

“To date, pilot SME IT training cluster projects include the food processing and tourism clusters in Kedah, Malaysia and the textile and food processing cluster in Cusco, Peru,” said Ms. Hsiao.

“These pilot projects and many personal stories, such as Jomar and Ismenia, demonstrate the significant benefits of the APEC Digital Opportunity Hub project,” added Ms. Hsiao.

“We are not only bringing technology to the most remote and frontier regions of the world, but also improving the lives and living standards of ordinary people.”

For more information and to learn how your organization can get involved with the APEC Digital Opportunity Hub: https://apecdoc.org Click here to watch the video.

Source:
https://www.apec.org/Press/Features/2013/1217_digital

Vietnam: 10 nominations for ADOC 2005 awards

10 Vietnamese products and solutions with the most outstanding achievements in electronicization have been selected by the Judging Council to participate in the ADOC 2005 awards organized by the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Forum. The awards are expected to be announced in mid-July.

The ADOC awards aim to recognize and honor the most outstanding achievements in electronicization from 6 member economies: Vietnam, Indonesia, the Philippines, Chile, Peru and Papua New Guinea. Each member economy is allowed to nominate a domestic organization to select 10 projects to participate in the final round. In Vietnam, the Vietnam Computer Association is the focal point for organizing the selection of 10 projects with the most outstanding achievements in electronicization from research – training, application deployment, business and service units to compete for the awards.

The ADOC 2005 Award Committee will select the three best projects from the 60 finalists, with prizes of US$1,000, US$700 and US$500, respectively. All candidates from APEC member countries whose projects are nominated for the award will be invited to attend the ADOC Week themed “Transforming the Digital Divide into Digital Opportunities” which will take place at the Taipei International Convention Center from August 3-6, 2005. Further information on the event can be found at www.apecdoc.org.

The nominated projects are:

1. “Building multimedia to operate the electronic office of the Department of Science and Technology of Dong Nai” (e-government).

2. “World Trade B2B import-export promotion e-commerce platform” (e-commerce).

3. “Instruction management software” of the Statistical Information Center under the General Department of Taxation (e-tax).

4. “SMS international freight management software” of G.O.L.

5. “PERP enterprise management information system” of Kim Tu Thap New Technology Trading Company Limited.

6. “IRP Solution for overall enterprise management according to the ERP model” of AZ Solution Company.

7. “Easy Biz customer management software” of Dan Phong software solution company.

8. “The most outstanding digital achievements at Metro Vietnam supermarket” of Metro Cash & Carry Company.

9. “Java E-learning System for online training exploitation and management” of Tu Lap group, VNIS Company Limited.

10. “E-learning on handheld devices” project of a group of students from the University of Technology, Vietnam National University, Hanoi.

According to PC World VN