Information & Communication Technology 2009

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A PHNOM PENH POST SPECIAL SUPPLEMENT

INFORMATION & COMMUNICATIONTECHNOLOGY 2009


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2 Phnom Penh Post ICT Supplement March 31, 2009

Putting theory into practiceWritten by Eleanor Ainge Roy and Hor Hab

Cambodia produces too many IT graduates every year for the limited jobs available and many lack the hands-onexperience the sector needs

Photo by: Sovann PhilongA Cambodian IT student comes to grips with the reality of the workplace.

CAMBODIA's universities are pumping out moregraduates than its information technology sector can absorb.

While the exact number is unknown - the Ministry ofEducation does not release full figures - the Royal Universityof Phnom Penh (RUPP) alone has produced around 500 ITgraduates each year since 1997. Norton, Build Bright, Setecand Pannasastra universities also offer IT courses.

Ouk Chhieng, head of the computer science department atRUPP, said only 25 to 30 percent of IT graduates would findfull-time work while a further 20 percent would beemployed in temporary or part-time positions.

Those lucky enough to find a job were far from the finishedproduct, said Erya Houn Heng, president and CEO of FirstCambodia. "They need a lot of guidance in a real workingenvironment and usually require one to two years' training

before they can be considered efficient workers."

First Cambodia employs about 180 people in Laos andCambodia, all drawn from local universities. It recruitsaround 30 new employees each year, picking just three orfour out of every 100 it sees. While the average startingsalary for a new employee is $150 per month, experienced

workers can earn anywhere from $200 to $4,000 for seniormanagers.

Norton University graduate Min Phannarak works forsoftware development company Arocore. Incredibly, or

perhaps typically, when he enrolled to study IT he didn'teven know how to turn a computer on.

He said his degree had not prepared him for work in thesector, and with no computer at home it was difficult topractice his skills.

"At university you learn the theory of software, but you don't know how it works - you are just told that you will need it in thefuture," he said.

But he was one of the lucky ones, he said. Most of his fellow graduates were unemployed or worked at computer shops for $80to $100 a month.

They are like rough diamonds that have not yet been polished.

Arocore CEO Kit Hargreaves, who employs 13 Cambodians, said finding qualified graduates was difficult, particularly as nouniversities or schools in Cambodia taught Flash, a common development program.

Most of Arocore's Cambodian staff did manual database work as their skill levels were still low, Hargreaves said."We actually only have a couple of guys I can trust to be really good programmers."

He said a lack of intuition about computers and applications stemmed from inadequate teaching and the fact that fewCambodians had grown up around computers.

"What they learned in school - how to type code in theory or how to follow instructions in a book - isn't what makes a goodprogrammer," he said.

"What makes a good programmer is being able to apply old technologies or established bits of code in a new and intuitive way,which is something Khmers have a long way to go in grasping."

Sous Sakal, business development manager at software design firm Blue Technology, said Cambodian programmers needed

more practical work experience.

"I think local universities produce quality students; [but] they have not yet had the opportunities to develop to their fullpotential," he said.


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"They are like rough diamonds that have not been polished."

It's game on at the Justice X Wars

IIWritten by Hor Hab

The battle lines have been drawn for the second annual Justice X Wars II (JXII) team challenge, with a prize pool of 25million riels (US$6,108) up for grabs.

The games will be held at the ICT & Telecom World Expo 2009 at NagaWorld from April 3-5. The winning eight-player team willtake home half the prize money, and other teams that qualify will also take a portion of the pot.

JXII is a multi-player online role-playing game launched last year by Sabay, the country's leading internet portal.Teams qualified over four days in March, with 16 teams going on to the grand final. Sabay Marketing Manager Chan Borith saidmore than 1,000 players took part, with more than 60,000 players registered for the game nationwide.

The leader of team Perfect Net, who referred to himself by his hero name, Kimura_Takuya, said he expected stiff competition."We only expect to come third or fourth because there are many good teams participating in this competition."In the game, players complete tasks to develop their characters, or heroes, while battling hordes of demons.

Google zooms in on epidemicsWritten by Geoffrey Cain

Mobile phones and Google Earth may hold the key to a coordinated approach to the worlds worst epidemics, according toresearchers currently undertaking field trials in Cambodia

Photo by: SOVANN PHILONGThe InSTEDD team in Phnom Penh use new technology to detect impending epidemics.

Bird flu outbreaks continue to swoop oncommunities today, and while officials havemanaged to contain the disease, someresponses have been uncoordinated,shortsighted and bungled.

And that's why techies are using Google Earthto predict where an outbreak will hit next.

To better coordinate responses to outbreaks,Innovative Support to Emergencies, Diseasesand Disasters (InSTEDD) is developingartificial intelligence and text messagingtechnologies for humanitarian workers.Cambodia is its first test site.

"I've repeatedly seen coordination failures putpeople and plans at risk, even when everyoneinvolved was professional, dedicated, well-meaning and working very hard," said Eric

Rasmussen, CEO of InSTEDD, in an email from California.

The San Jose-based NGO, funded by Google.org and the Rockefeller Foundation, started its first field laboratory in Cambodia inMay 2008.

The group is also holding field trials in Mongolia, Ghana and Bangladesh. Speaking in Phnom Penh, Eduardo Jezierski, vicepresident of engineering and former Microsoft software developer, said the group was learning from the past.

"We're ... taking lessons from [Hurricane] Katrina and Banda Aceh [the 2004 tsunami], and trying to improve response todisasters," he said.

When a disaster hits, InSTEDD's artificial intelligence software can instantly coordinate several computers with differentinformation, averting the red tape that so often hinders a speedy response.

"Different groups have different information, and the [computer] systems rarely talk to each other. Sometimes the data isoutdated or incorrect," Jezierski said.


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"This century's challenges will transcend categories, so we need to improve coordination," he added.

Evolving response to epidemicsAmong the group's projects, the team in Phnom Penh is developing a software called Evolve, which detects impending epidemicsby monitoring satellite maps and the media reports, said Taha Kass-Hout, adviser to InSTEDD.

Then, algorithms suggest the disease's means of spreading - food-borne, water-borne or other - and advises the best course of

action.

"The great thing about Evolve is that we can zoom in on a region and source of the disease," Kass-Hout, a former physician at theCenters for Disease Control and Prevention in the US, told IRIN.

"Traditionally, this takes a lot more time, during which the disease can spread into a full-blown epidemic."Evolve is now undergoing field trials with the World Health Organisation and the government and is to be released this summer.

The Cambodian lab is also testing GeoChat, a text-messaging program that pinpoints disease cases on a map when relief workersreport them from their mobile phones.

With the technology, a command centre can quickly forge a unified response against an epidemic or disaster.The organisation is working with the Ministry of Health and the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) to test the technology, set forrelease in May.

Designing the technology in the environment in which it is to be used, rather than a computer laboratory, was one of the keys to

success, said Karl Brown, associate director of the Rockefeller Foundation.

"The fact that several of their tools are first of a kind, in that they don't really fit into any existing category of emergencyresponse or public health surveillance tools is proof that they really did design the tools around the problem versus trying tomould the problem to existing tools."

Software developers eyestrong market potential

Written by Anne-Laure Poree and Hor Hab

Photo by: Anne Laure PoreeKit Hargreaves says money spent on a good IT system is money well spent.

Opportunities are opening up for localdevelopers of software and applications as thenumber of firms in Cambodia usinginformation technology continues to grow.

"Locally produced software is a better fit to thelocal market than off-the-shelf international

variants, as most available software doesn'taccount for local laws and often can't work

with Khmer characters," said Sous Sakal, abusiness development manager at BlueTechnology.

Accounting software was a good money-earner

for the company, he said, fetching between$300 and $20,000 per program, depending onits complexity.

Erya Houn Heng, president and CEO of FirstCambodia, a company specialising in systemintegration, said the local IT sector had almostunlimited opportunity to grow.

"Only about 5 percent of small and medium-sized enterprises in Cambodia are using computer systems," he said.

But for many companies, cost is a real obstacle to using advanced technology, said Kit Hargreaves, the 23-year-old boss ofArocore, a new arrival on the local technology development scene.

"But an IT system is the backbone, the life of the company in many ways," he said "If the money is spent well, you don't haveany issues."

Arocore recently customised an ordering system for Elements, a new nightclub set to open in Phnom Penh, using an iPod Touchdevice, which allows waiters to transmit orders to the bar in real-time, improving efficiency and reducing errors. Integration

with a central billing and inventory system also helps manage stock levels.


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"The income generated was average compared to the time passed on this project, but through it we developed our skills and it isexactly what we love doing," Hargreaves said. "We like creativity."

Locally produced software is a better fit to the local market.

Theara Sam, Blue Technology's sales director, said the sector needed to be led.

"This is the story of the chicken and the egg," he said. "If there is more money injected in IT, IT will help the industry to grow. Ifwe don't have the resources for a good product, it affects innovation." As the local market for software grows, many developersare looking further afield for sales opportunities.

"There is a strong market in Cambodia," Theara Sam said. "SMEs [Small and medium-sized enterprises] need to usetechnology, otherwise there will be obstacles to their growth. But we are thinking about expanding in the international market.

A shop in Singapore will pay much more than a shop in Cambodia for the same kind of software."

Erya Houn Heng said First Cambodia was looking to expand throughout the ASEAN region. It already had an office in Laos andis in the process of registering an office in Vietnam for a launch later this year, he said.

Mobile-phone operators face thelevelling force of the free marketWritten by Sebastian Strangio and Hor Hab

While Cambodias largely untapped mobile-phone market has potential for growth, insiders see the number of operatorsdiminishing as the industry settles and the sector matures

Photo by: Sovann PhilongMobile phones have become ubiquitous in Phnom Penh.

AS the global economy slips into recession, domesticmobile-phone operators remain confident that Cambodia - acountry with low mobile penetration rates and largeuntapped markets - will see mobile-phone usage continue to

boom.

But with 11 mobile operators currently licensed in Cambodia,eight of which are operating, industry insiders sayconsolidation is likely once the market settles and the sectorstarts to mature.

"Cambodia provides a unique opportunity," said SyedAzmeer, chief marketing officer of mobile operator Hello. "Ifyou look at the whole Mekong Basin or Indochina markets,this is one of the last untapped markets."

Hello, which is owned by Telekom Malaysia International,launched its new 081 phone prefix last month, and Azmeersaid economic development and a heavy investment ininfrastructure would drive the sector forward. "We've seen agood uptake in the last two years. We have a lot more people

who can afford to own a phone now," he said.

Thomas Hundt, the CEO of Smart Mobile - a local subsidiaryof Russian firm Latelz Co Ltd, which became Cambodia'seighth operator when it launched in February - saidprospects for growth were "significant", and wouldcompensate for any downturn in the global economy.

"Despite the economic crisis, Cambodia is still developing. Incountries where development is taking place,telecommunications is one of the vital drivers," he said.

Room to moveDespite the heated competition in the Cambodian market,

Mobile MarketAlready operating:

Mobitel (Royal Group)- 012, 092, 017

Hello (Telekom Malaysia) - 015, 016, 081


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M-Fone (Camshin) - 011, 099, 085

qb (Cadcomms) - 013

Star-Cell (Applifone) - 098

Excell (GT-Tell Cambodia) - 018

MetFone (Viettel) - 097

Smart Mobile (Latelz) - 010, 093

Due to start up:Beeline (Sotelco) venture - June 2009

Kahua - company and launch date unknown

Final operator remains unknown

Hundt said that "poor" customer service levels and an undistributed market gave a lot of room for operators to carve out theirown niche. "Despite the fact that there is a clear market leader, there are still significant developments to come in all dimensionsof telecommunications," he added."There is a lot of potential and a lot of investments have been made."

While mobile phones have become ubiquitous in Phnom Penh and the major provincial towns, their presence conceals the factthat the market is still largely in its infancy.

Hello CEO Yusoff Zamri said although Cambodia had a SIM card penetration rate of around 30 percent, the figure overrated thetrue number of mobile users. He said that since many locals owned more than one phone, the estimated 3.8 million SIM cards incirculation translated to perhaps 3 million actual subscribers - leaving a market of nearly 12 million who are yet to enter the

sector.

He added that Telekom Malaysia has invested "in excess of $100 million" in capital investments for the coming years, anindication of the company's confidence in the sector.

Price warBut in an unsettled, price-sensitive mobile market, some say that eight operators - leaving aside the three players that have beenissued licences by the government but have not yet launched services - will saturate the local market and that local costs, while a

benefit to consumers, would drive down profitability.

"Eight operators is too many," said Pasi Koistinen, CEO of Star Cell Mobile, owned by local operator Applifone Co Ltd. While lowprices would be a boon for consumers, he said that there would be "no room" for new entrants, and that a price war wouldundercut companies' ability to conduct profitable business.

Some sort of consolidation was therefore inevitable, he said, and the 11 licences would likely shrink as firms merged or bowedout of the market.

Indeed, Asia's most developed economies have substantially consolidated local mobile operations: just three major state-ownedoperators make up the majority of the Chinese market, while Japan has five operators and Thailand four. Vietnam also has justfour major players, although several new ventures are set to come online this year.

Hundt from Smart Mobile said consolidation would take place "in the medium to long term", but its exact form was hard toguess.

"I don't know any country in the world where eight or nine MP operators are in place," he said.One method, said Hello CEO Yusoff Zamri, was direct government intervention in the sector. Zamri said Cambodia could followthe same path as Malaysia, which had eight operators until the government stepped in and forced them to merge with oneanother.

"What the government did was to force the companies to consolidate and let them talk amongst themselves and [work thingsout]. A couple years later, the number went down to three," he said. However, he added that consolidation depended largely onhow willing the government was to intervene in a freely competitive market to "push" for consolidations.

In an interview with the Post March 23, So Khun, Minister of Posts and Telecommunications, acknowledged that there werenatural limits to the number of operators who could profitably operate in the domestic market, but that its international freetrade obligations prevented it from forcing companies to consolidate. "I think Cambodia should have only three mobile serviceproviders, but we can't limit the number we have as Cambodia is a member of the World Trade Organisation," he said.

Mao Chakrya, director general of the ministry, said the government would let open competition determine which operatorsprospered.

"The market is still there because penetration is still low, and the operators can see this," he said.How the sector will settle over the next 10 years will be determined in large part on how operators can differentiate their servicesfrom one another.

Aside from the standard virtues of value for money and reliability, another potential frontier is technological innovation. Withthe launch of the qb (pronounced cube) network last March, 3G mobile internet services were pushed to the forefront of theCambodian market.

Mao Chakrya said three operators - MobiTel, qb and M-Fone - were operating mobile internet services, and Hundt said SmartMobile would introduce a 3G service later in the year.

Azmeer from Hello said the adoption of new electronic credit top-up technologies would increase the willingness of people to


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adopt mobile technologies.

"What's important here is the synergy between the bank and the telco," he said, adding that Hello was the first company to giveits customers access to Wing services.

"We have the capacity and the security on the network to provide that [service]."

No appetite for sharing among Cambodias mobile phone operators

EFFORTS are being made toreform Cambodia's notoriouslyanarchic mobiletelecommunications industry,according to industry insiders,but officials say thegovernment lacks thenecessary laws to promote fullcooperation between thecountry's eight telco operators.

Two related problems -network interconnectivity andmobile tower sharing - haveput the brakes on the localindustry, increasing call drop-out rates and delaying thearrival of new players intooutlying markets.

Cambodia's mobile phonetowers are owned by privatecompanies, and without theregulatory framework, there isno way for the government to

force operators intocooperation.Thomas Hundt, CEOof Smart Phone, said thattower sharing had benefitsboth for the urban environment- by keeping the number oftowers low - and forconsumers, since companiesdid not each need to makeexpensive capital investments."We are also in discussionabout these things becausewe believe it benefits not onlythe mobile operators, but alsothe public domain," he said.

But Mao Chakrya, DirectorGeneral of the Ministry ofPosts andTelecommunications, saidsome operators could bereluctant to share antennae asit could affect their ability tooptimise signals. However, inthe absence of a legalframework for the issue, theministry's hands were tied, hesaid. He

refused to say if a draft lawunder consideration wouldforce operators to shareantennae, acknowledging onlythat legislation was not theonly way to bring providerstogether.

"It could be a good businessstrategy for a private companyto come and build antennae tolease to providers," he said.

In terms of interconnectability,the Cambodian governmentput responsibility in the handsof private operators. Hundtsaid Smart Phone hadconcluded interconnectionagreements with all operatorsand that its interconnectionoperated at a "very high level".

Yusoff Zamri, CEO of

Hello mobile, said that therehad been considerableimprovements ininterconnectivity in recentyears, but that there were stillimprovements to be made.

But he emphasised theproblem was not technical,and that just one local operator- whom he declined to name -was preventing connectionfrom Hello subscribers "Weonly have issues with oneparticular operator. Except forthis particular operator, wehave no issue: [otheroperators] reach consensusquite quickly," he said.

"It's not a technical issue. It'smore a strategic issue fromthis operator."

Sebastian Strangio

Web under scrutiny fromcensors

Written by Brendan Brady and Mom Kunthear

As more internet content pushes the boundaries of what is acceptable in Khmer culture, the government has moved totighten its grip on what should be admissible online

Photo by: SOVANN PHILONGAn internet user views the controversial images of apsaras on a website blocked bydomestic service providers since January.

WHen Khmer-American artist Koke Lorpublished images of naked Apsara dancers on his

website reahu.com, he unwittingly kicked off acensorship storm that may shed light on the

government's future attitudes towards the regulationof online content.

The website stirred up controversy after a majorKhmer-language newspaper published pictures fromthe website of the bare-breasted dancers as well as a

woman scantily dressed in the clothing of a KhmerRouge cadre.

Access to the website has been blocked since the endof January for users of domestic internet serviceproviders Angkor Net, Mekong Net and Online.Mobile service provider qb has also blocked access via

Reaction to reahu

The ongoing blockade of the reahu.com website due to thenaked images of Apsara dancers contained within has not onlyraised questions about government censorship but also overjust what is and is not acceptable in Cambodian society whenit comes to media images. I dont think it is wrong, said

website. I used to draw Apsaras with very thin fabric coveringtheir bodies. It does not look like the Apsara on the reahuwebsite, who have very big breasts, she said. She saidApsaras were meant to symbolise the gentle beauty of Khmerwomen, without alluding to them as sexual beings. As


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Rasmey, a 21-year-old Royal University of Fine Arts studentwho also paints ApsaraS, but with their breasts covered withtransparent cloth. But I dont like it because it makes peoplethink that Cambodian women like to show their bodies inpublic, he said. Rasmey said some degree of governmentintervention was needed because these kinds of pictures canturn our culture into a joke. For 19-year-old Chhim Srey Roth,a third-year art student at the Reyum Institute art school, the

Apsaras she learned to draw were far more demure than thebusty, topless women gracing the reahu

traditionally depicted on the walls of Angkor-era temples,Apsaras bear their breasts, noted Heng Monyphal, a professorof painting at the Royal University of Fine Arts. So its anartists right to do it this way, he said. But today, he said, mostartists add some degree of cover out of respect for women,and he suspected modern-day compositions of toplessApsaras came not from a dedication to historical accuracy butrather an intention to catch the eye and drooling mouths of

male audiences.

BRENDAN BRADY AND MOM KUNTHEAR

its 3G internet network.

In late February, the website of the UK-based corruption watchdog Global Witness was also unavailable for some local web usersfollowing the organisation's release of a scathing report on the Kingdom's oil and mining industries.

Minister of Posts and Telecommunications So Khun confirmed at the time he had sent a letter to the internet providers, but saidhe did not know what effect it had.

Sy Define, a secretary of state at the Ministry of Women's Affairs, had told the Post her office cooperated with the Ministry ofPosts and Telecommunications to have the reahu website banned domestically along with other websites that she consideredpornographic.

She also asked the Education Ministry to include lessons on traditional culture in school curriculums around the country to

reaffirm Khmer morality. "Nowadays, youths seem more interested in Western culture than in their own," Sy Define said.

First lady Bun Rany has also crusaded against images and technologies that, she says, compromise the social mores of theKingdom, such as when she spearheaded an effort among the wives of senior officials in 2006 to ban 3G net connections, citingconcerns the video technology would be used to send pornography.

For his part, Koke Lor has shot back at local critics, calling them myopic.

"I am pushing the boundaries and that's being creative," he said. "If you don't push the boundaries, you cannot find your limits."

Phu Leewood, secretary general of the National Information Communications Technology Development Agency (NIDA), said hewas sympathetic to Koke Lor but stood by the line of the Ministry of Women's Affairs. "With reahu in the US, this is freedom ofinformation - it's fine art, attractive commercial art," Phu Leewood said.

"But, in Cambodia, some people say its pornography. The Ministry of Women's Affairs says it's degrading to women, and thatstood."

However, he added that any decision to ban access to a website should have been approved by the Council of Ministers first.

Government denialsThe government-prompted blacklistings follow denials from the Ministry of Information that new legislation it is drafting foraudiovisual media will bear on content or online material.

If you don't push the boundaries, you cannot find your limits.

In mid-January, first reports of the proposal, the details of which have not been publicly disclosed, drew a sharp response fromlocal media who cautioned it would be used as a tool of state censorship against online material critical of the government.

Information Minister Khieu Kanharith has since said the draft law is widely misunderstood, insisting that it would regulate theplatforms of radio, TV and print media, but not their content - and would not apply to the internet.

However, Mao Chakrya, director general of the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications, said the draft law was explicitlyabout the content. The technology that allowed its delivery was not relevant, which was why the proposed law would beregulated by the Ministry of Information rather than the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications, he said.

Local leaders of Cambodia's online community remain deeply cynical of any government efforts to govern the internet given itsshaky track record with freedom of speech.

Cambodia is currently ranked 128th - or "partially free" - on the US-based Freedom House organisation's 2008 press freedomlist.

Norbert Klein, a German national who is credited with introducing the first internet connection to Cambodia and is editor of theCambodian Mirror website, said the government was running a haphazard campaign to "clean society".

He said an internet content law was no magic bullet, as developing a consensus on what content should be admissible hadproved nearly impossible in other countries.

Govt key to lower internet


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pricesWritten by Nathan Green

Government plans to connect to the Asia-America Gateway may improve internet reliability, but local service providers areworried the new connection may still carry a high price tag

This map of Cambodias fibre optic network shows the country is reliant on Thailand and Vietnam for its internet access. Plan ned extensions to the network are alsoshown, one of which will travel through Laos and connect to Yunnan province in China. A submarine cable is also planned to link Cambodia to the Asia-America Gateway.graphic courtesy national ict development agency

Cambodia is one of the most expensive countries in the world when it comes to using broadband, according to a recent reportby the International Telecommunication Union (ITU).

In its latest ICT Development Index report, Cambodia ranked as 125 out of 154 countries in the costs of using broadbandinternet, and one of only 30 where the cost of broadband exceeded monthly per capita gross national income.

According to the report, which was based on 2007 pricing, broadband prices were 201.2 percent of monthly national income,compared with 6.3 percent in Thailand and 25.8 percent in Vietnam.

And it is not just the poor who are hit hard by high prices. Ted Perrein, managing director of Conical Hat Software, said the cost

of broadband access was one of the biggest obstacles businesses faced in Cambodia.

"Reliability is all right, but the pricing is an issue. It is one of the big disadvantages of working in Cambodia, but most companiesincorporate that into their business plan."

ITU spokesperson Ivan Vallejo said inadequate infrastructure and the lack of a competitive environment to foster the emergenceof several internet service providers (ISPs) was a key reason for high broadband prices in most countries.

In Cambodia, the lack of competition is not an issue, at least at the ISP level, said Gary Wong, chief marketing officer at Online,one of Cambodia's largest ISPs. While exact numbers are hard to come by, around 37 ISP licences have been issued, and around10 major ISPs are operating.

"Cambodia is a very price-sensitive market but we have to be prudent," Wong said. "Everyone is going into a price war at themoment, but if they sacrifice quality, then what happens next? We cannot go below our costs - we are not a charity."

To cut costs, the company was looking to invest more in its infrastructure to boost its contention ratio, or the number of

subscribers it can provide service to for every megabyte of bandwidth it purchases from wholesalers. But Wong said effortswould be futile without government commitment to making prices cheaper to ISPs on the wholesale market.

Better linksKey to this was the greater cooperation with neighbouring countries through the Asian Development Bank-funded Greater


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Mekong Region Superhighway and developing a link to an international gateway to put pressure on operators in Vietnam andThailand to offer cheaper access.

Cambodia currently relies heavily on bandwidth from these two countries, and that reliance comes with a hefty price tag. Whilewholesale prices within Vietnam are around $400 for every two megabytes per second of bandwidth, ISPs in Cambodia mustpay between $1,300 and $1,400. A year ago, before reforms in Vietnam boosted competition, they were paying between $2,000and $2,300. By comparison, the same bandwidth costs around $110 in Singapore and $50 in Hong Kong.

Mao Chakrya, director general of the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications, said the government and donors wereinvesting heavily in upgrading and expanding the country's fibre-optic backbone and linking into the superhighway. As a keypart of that, a new fibre optic link through Laos to China's Yunnan province is due to be connected in May, and planning had

begun for another link from Kampong Cham to Vietnam, connecting at Smach on the border.

"We are working and fighting to reduce the price for voice and internet," he said. "Right now, as you see, we don't have asubmarine cable into an international gateway so we rely on the prices set by telcos in neighbouring countries."

Chun-Wai Mah, sales director at Alcatel-Lucent Cambodia, which recently won a contract to build a nationwide mobile WiMaxbroadband network for CHUAN Wei (Cambodia), agreed that Cambodia was at the mercy of other countries when it came tobroadband prices. "Cambodia needs its own international gateway out of the country," he said

"By having one you could really reduce dependency on telcos in other countries and help reduce the price so mass consumers areable to access the internet."

Respite is on the way, with local firm Telcotech winning a bid in 2007 to link Cambodia via a submarine cable to the Asia-

America Gateway, a cable system connecting Southeast Asia to the US that will allow Cambodia to bypass neighbouringcountries and connect directly to the World Wide Web.

But Sok Channda, CEO of the ISP AngkorNet, said the link would improve reliability of service by providing another link, butshe was pessimistic about how much impact it would have on prices.

"It depends on the government," she said. "If they control the link, how much will they charge us is the big question."

The government's track record on pricing was cause for concern, she said, with transmission charges on the fibre-optic cable onthe Cambodian side of the border, controlled by state-owned Telecom Cambodia, a major component of broadband prices. ISPsmust not only pay for transmission charges from the border to main centres, but also to connect customer premises to thenearest hub, and those hubs to AngkorNet's data centre. ISPs must pay Telecom Cambodia $15 a month for every connection toa customer's premises, a significant portion of the total bill charged to customers.

AngkorNet was building its own fibre-optic network to bypass the government, but that would take time and significant capitalexpenditure, she said.

"We are trying to bring down the price so that all Cambodians can access the internet as we need this for our development. Wehave already brought down the prices a lot from three years ago when we first started, and I hope we can bring it down more.But lower prices need to come from the government."

E-govt to get a bit of backboneWritten by Hor Hab and Brendan Brady

The Cambodian government aims to use fibre-optic cable to create an online connection to its offices in the provinces bythe end of the year

All government offices across the country will be online and connected to the central government's information-sharingsystem within the year, according to the official behind the nationwide e-government rollout.

Phu Leewood, the secretary general of the National Information Communications Technology Development agency (NIDA), saidlarge-scale servers had already been established in Phnom Penh, Siem Reap and Sihanoukville to feed connections and data tooffices in their surrounding provinces.

"Each has a service and access network; it's a matter of connecting them to the backbone through a fibre optic cable," he said.

"All the main government offices within each province are connected to each other, but they need to be connected to thebackbone," he added.

Called the Provincial Administration Information System, the e-government project has a budget of $15 million to connectoffices within each province to each other, and another $20 million to connect each province to the central government inPhnom Penh.

"Once this application is available, government offices will be able to communicate with each other and with the central

government more efficiently," Phu Leewood said.

Cheam Chansophaon, director of Battambang's provincial Agriculture Department, said the digitalisation of government officesin the countryside would streamline work between rural and Phnom Penh government officials.


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"This will narrow the gap between provincial offices and Phnom Penh so we can send and receive reports on time," he said.Soun Dy, director of Kampong Cham's Industry Department, said reports from his office to Phnom Penh were currently sent byfax since his office did not have an internet connection.

"If we can have a digital system, it would be a big break because then we can get information from anywhere and our work willbecome easier."

Rural kids disconnected fromICT access

Written by Robbie Corey Boulet

The high cost of technology means ICT education is making slow progress to the provinces

PHOTO COURTESY UNESCORural schoolchildren learn to use computers.

As the Ministry of Education, Youth andSport continues work on a master plan toincorporate ICT into schools nationwide,officials are grappling with how to best reachrural provinces, which are markedly lessconnected than their more developedcounterparts.

Sun Lei, education program specialist forUnesco, which is working with the ministry todevelop the Master Plan for ICT in Education,said recently that she expected it to be finished"sometime in 2009". But she said efforts toencourage the use of ICT in rural schools had

been hindered by the limited nature ofknowledge about ICT's benefits, as well as apervasive lack of infrastructure.

Financial limitations, too, have proved aconsiderable barrier, she said.

"ICT is very costly," she said. "At this point, I think it'd make more sense to mobilise resources from the civil society and theprivate sector [rather than rely on government funds]."

Progress made in bringing ICT to rural schools has been slow, a point borne out by a 2006 Unesco report that assessed ICTaccess in seven provinces: Banteay Meanchey, Kratie, Mondulkiri, Oddar Meanchey, Preah Vihear, Ratanakkiri and StungTreng. The study concluded that "very few schools" were using ICT in the classroom; that ICT training was needed for bothteaching and non-teaching staff; that access to computers was quite low; and that girls were being "disproportionately" affected

by the urban-rural digital divide.

Sun Lei said this report, produced between 2004 and 2006, had provided the most recent relevant data, though she said therewas little reason to believe the situation had improved since then.

The greatest challenge lies in equitably sharing the benefits of economic growth.

The ICT in education effort mirrors the broader push to promote ICT in rural areas, according to industry experts, who said inrecent interviews that the Kingdom has a long way to go before it can achieve universal ICT access.

Ken Chanthan, president of the ICT Association of Cambodia, pointed to a handful of needs that have yet to be met, including apro-ICT policy framework, infrastructure investments, the translation of applications and content into the Khmer language, and

widespread education and training.

Eric Lim, project director for Gateway Communications, singled out financial resources as the biggest hurdle."There has been a lot of talk of using ICT to increase the telecom infrastructure, but it's a very slow process," he said. "Inoutlying areas, for example, it becomes very difficult because it is a very costly affair."

Benefits to Cambodia

Ken Chanthan said ICT expansion would bring a range of benefits to the provinces, improving everything from education togovernment to business.

"The community-driven use of information communication technology has the potential to help underserved citizens


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throughout the world to learn new skills, find new opportunities and improve their lives," he said via email.

In particular, he said, ICT could help businesses become more efficient, collaborate with other firms and expand marketresearch efforts to better understand their customer base.

Lim said expanded ICT in rural areas would also aid government officials based in Phnom Penh. For instance, in an incidentsuch as last year's conflict over Preah Vihear temple, the Ministry of Interior and the Ministry of National Defence could have alive feed directly to the fight, he said.

Wisal Hin, poverty reduction unit leader for the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), said Cambodia's ability to meetits poverty targets would depend on its ability to diversify the economy in just this manner.

"Agriculture will continue to be one of the main drivers of the Cambodian economy...but will not provide sufficient growth on itsown," he said.

In remote rural areas, the poverty rate was 45.6 percent in 2004, according to the 2005 interim assessment of MillenniumDevelopment Goal progress published by the Ministry of Planning.

"Since more than eight of every 10 Cambodians reside in rural areas, the greatest challenge lies in equitably sharing the benefitsof economic growth, centred mainly in urban areas, with those rural communities," Wisal Hin said.

Changing Cambodia's attitudesto computers and e-government

Written by Brendan Brady

Phu Leewood, the secretary general of the National Information Communications Technology Development agency (NIDA),talks to Brendan Brady about the challenges the country faces in developing, and using, a robust information network.

Photo by: BRENDAN BRADYPhu Leewood has been involved in Cambodias communications infrastructure since 1993.

How did you come to be involved in

development of the ICT sector inCambodia?I left Cambodia in 1979, ended up in a refugeecamp in Thailand and then went to Seattle inthe United States. I came back to Cambodia in1993 after the UNTAC elections and worked asan adviser for the Ministry of Commerce. Backthen, people did not have literacy withcomputers so I provided computer training topeople working at the ministry. My background

was in computer science. I studied at SpokaneUniversity in Washington.

What was the ICT situation when youreturned?In 1979 people were just coming back to PhnomPenh to find their relatives. It was about

survival. When I came to Cambodia in 1993,there were no computer skills. The Ministry ofCommerce back then had 4,000 employees.

I said, we don't need 4,000 people; we need maybe 40. What we need is a network connecting the department.

When did the government start investing in this network?After the formation of the National Information and Communication Technology Development Authority, NIDA, in 2000 westarted to implement IT development. In 2001, we implemented the GAIS [Government Administrative InformationSystem] project, which included the import of about 1000 PCs for government offices.There was resistance with government staff - people were afraid computers would take over their jobs. We had to change a lot ofmindsets. We had to explain the computer will not take away your job, it will help you do your job better.For the new generation, it's easier. But for the legacy workforce, we've had problems. For the older people, it is difficult to learnthis new system.

What is the purpose of e-government?People can get information about the government online. This information was not readily available in '93. Now, it's at yourfingertips: information about each ministry and their contact numbers. But it's true more must be done by ministries in thefuture to put more information online. There is also a system that includes vehicle and real estate registration for revenue


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collection purposes. Before there was no way to track stolen vehicles. But now police on the street can radio a plate number backto an office to get information on who is the owner. There also have been problems with fraud of land titles. Once all thatinformation is logged into a computer, it will solve a lot of problems.

Can e-government help reduce corruption?Once information is online, everyone can know that information, so it's harder to take advantage of someone.

When information is not available, it is easier for people to make unreasonable demands.

How is internet changing lives of Cambodians?Penetration of the internet is really affecting the lives of younger people. Now they have information from around the globe attheir fingertips. It is changing education by offering education services online. In terms of information, youth are updated on

world news.

Providing internet services in rural areas is very expensive but necessary. What is the government's strategyhere?This will be the burden of the government. We are planning on having connections to all schools, and from schools they willprovide a telephone-based connection to the local area. This can happen after we connect rural government offices to the

backbone.

What progress has been made on connecting rural government to the backbone?Right now we have a connection for the central government only. The connection to the provincial offices will come soon. Someprovincial offices have internet, but most do not. The moment we connect the backbone onto the access network of provincialoffices, then they will be online and connected to the central government information sharing system. This should happen

within the year.

All the main government offices within a province are connected to each other, but they need to be connected to the backbone.Once we achieve that, all provinces will be online and their systems will be connected and they will be connected to the centralgovernment. We have completed the access networks; it is now a matter of connecting them to the backbone.

We created three data centres - one in Phnom Penh, one in Siem Reap and one in Sihanoukville - and these data centres will actas a hub for surrounding provinces.

The growth of internet tends to push the limits of a society's attitudes towards acceptable media images. Cambodia has recentlyexperienced tension over government-directed blocks of the reahu.com website.

This is quite a difficult issue because the technology is moving faster than the law. The technology is moving across boundariesfaster than the law can address. This is a blurred line between freedom of information and cultural preservation. This blurredline will be defined; the internet law will be introduced soon.

For me, I was educated in the US, this is freedom of information, this is the expression of the artist. But what's attractiveadvertisement in the US may be pornography in another country.

Who will decide on content and what rules will be used?We are working on it now. NIDA will be the sole agency in drafting this law. If you look at existing practice in the US, there is ablurred line as well: What is the line between attractive advertising and pornography?

The internet law will be based on other laws, as well. The criminal code needs to be passed first to define punishment under theinternet law. We are working on the internet law now. We've been working on it for a few years, and we will have it soon after theCriminal Code passes.

A virus that can attack in aflash

Written by Kyle Sherer

Internet experts say the possibility of a slow-spreading local virus means Cambodian users should not rely solely on commonanti-virus software, but also find extra protection locally


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Photo SuppliedKhmer Anti-Virus creator Kheng Vantha.

The development of high-speed internet inCambodia has thrown open the floodgates forinternationally created, fast-spreadingcomputer viruses. Cambodian computer users

who think they can beat malware by simplyinstalling Norton AntiVirus are enjoying a falsesense of internet security, according to Bernard

Alphonso, director of Cambodian-basedAlphonso Security Consulting.

"I have frequently encountered people inCambodia who are under the impression that

because they are not in a country with a highinternet penetration rate, they should not beenoverly concerned about viruses, fraud or datatheft," he said.

"This attitude could not be further from thetruth, and it is putting many businesses andindividual computer users at high risk."

Carlton Pringle, technical director at Conical Hat Software, said Cambodian web-surfers are just as vulnerable to internet virusesas people in other countries.

However, unlike in other countries, users here have more to fear from USB drives than they do from the net."I think the threat level from fast-spreading virus attacks in Cambodia is similar to anywhere else in the world," he said. "So allthe usual security precautions used in the West are also applicable in Cambodia.

"However, the slow-spreading viruses, such as those spread by USB disks, present a whole new challenge. If a virus is created inthis part of the world, perhaps in China or Vietnam for example, and spreads slowly on USB flash drives, then there isn't going to

be the required critical mass of infection in the USA for the well-known antivirus manufacturers to provide a remedy throughtheir software."

Layered protectionPringle said that for this reason, Cambodian users should not rely on a single antivirus program. "Anti-virus programs typically

work by keeping a database of threats. But no antivirus manufacturer is building a database of threats that exactly matches thethreat profile in Cambodia."

"So it's a good idea for companies in Cambodia to also run antivirus software from other manufacturers based in other locations,such as Rising AntiVirus, made in Beijing. It's not unusual for companies that try alternative antivirus software to find they areinfected with two or three viruses that well-known American antivirus programs are just not finding."

Kheng Vantha, web designer for Expat Advisory Services and creator of Khmer Anti-Virus, said there were a few precautionsusers could take to prevent slow-spreading viruses from attacking their computer.

"Instead of double-clicking on folders when you plug your flash drive into your computer, you should click the folder name onthe left panel," he said.

"Some viruses on USB drives have a folder icon to trick users into activating them."

He said users should also disable the Autorun option on their computers, which automatically accesses external drives whenthey're plugged into a computer. "Autorun is a good way for a virus to attack your PC," said Vantha. "When you plug in a USBdrive, Windows will automatically run the files, so your PC can catch the virus. But the TweakUI program, available on theinternet, can disable Autorun easily."

But even if a Cambodian computer user is vigilant against viruses, there's still a minefield of dangers."Viruses are just the tip of the crimeware iceberg," Pringle said. "Understanding current and emerging security threats likerootkits, bot networks, spyware, adware and click fraud is certainly challenging for the average Cambodian computer user."

"To face internet threats, Cambodian computer users should not rely on one single type of protection," said Alphonso. "Theyshould never take anything for granted. And when in doubt, don't click the mouse."

Customs overhaul comingWritten by Sam Rith

Acentralised customs clearance system designed to drastically speed processing times will be phased in across the countryfollowing its country launch at Sihanoukville Autonomous Port in May.


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Phnom Penh Autonomous Port was ready to introduce the Asean Single Window (ASW) information system as soon as itreceived the go-ahead from customs, Director General Hei Bavy said.

"We have already prepared the computer system and we have enough staff to implement the Asean Single Window," he said,adding that the Phnom Penh International Airport was also ready to introduce the ASW.

The agreement to link the region with a unified customs system went into effect in 2008 in Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, thePhilippines, Singapore and Thailand. Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam are set to fully implement the system by 2012.

When completed, it would allow a trader to submit customs data to a centralised hub, which would then be automatically sharedand processed among the relevant agencies throughout the region. After clearing one regional port of entry, traders would beable to forward goods to any Asean country.

The system would cut clearance times to 30 minutes from a regional average of four hours, Sihanoukville Autonomous PortDeputy Director General Ma Sunhout said.

Documents

Information & Communication Technology 2009