Growing Together: Economic Integration for an Inclusive and - escap

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CHAPTER THREE 81 Building seamless connectivity BOX III.4. Asian Energy Highway Following the successful experience of the Asian Highway and the Trans Asian Railway, another intergovernmental framework could be developed for an integrated regional power grid, which could be termed as the “Asian Energy Highway”. The experience of developing intercountry agreements and addressing technical standards of the Asian Highway and Railways, could be an effective model to enhance the energy security through regional collaboration. The proposed Asian Energy Highway could provide a system that enables countries to maximize the supply and demand of electricity by taking advantage of the broader geographical coverage by optimizing the available resources and encourage utilities to pursue clean fossil technologies and renewable energy resources. It would also provide better opportunities for smart grid including the decentralized systems to be connected to a greater system that would ensure the stability of the grid. The development of the ASEAN Energy Highway should also include the facilitation of energy trade among developing countries and stimulate investments in energy infrastructure. This initiative would connect existing subregional inter-connections under way, such as ASEAN’s planned integrated electricity grid, with the long term goal of reaching all countries in the region. Source: ESCAP. people hitherto marginalized and boost the productivity of small and medium enterprises, which can now use systems of communication comparable to those of large enterprises. Equally promising has been the development of new software applications by young entrepreneurs, who are willing to take the risks and capitalize on big trends that meet the local needs of the region’s increasingly prosperous consumer base. Companies in countries such as Bangladesh, China, India, the Philippines and Viet Nam are providing novel ICT solutions through both applications developments and the provision of content to gaming, social networking, music and news websites, which are experiencing exponential increases in subscriber bases. Furthermore, content is becoming more localized and as the Internet connection becomes faster, more ubiquitous and more mobile, further increases are expected. In addition, ICT has much potential to help businesses and consumers adopt more sustainable and less carbon-intensive patterns of production and consumption. A case in point is the use of smart electricity grids, which allow two-way, real-time information exchanges between generators and customers, thus reducing the need for the former to hold excess capacity. In addition, videoconferencing and the sharing and exchanges of documents remotely through the Internet could significantly reduce the need for commuting and travel, allowing for savings in transport, vehicle maintenance and fuel consumption. The digital divide Although the information technology revolution has greatly benefitted Asia and the Pacific, such benefits have been rather unequally distributed. Beyond the growth in mobile phones mentioned above, the digital divide has actually increased in the region. At one extreme of the divide are countries such as the Republic of Korea, the world’s
most advanced country for ICT; at the other extreme, countries such as Papua New Guinea rank among the lowest. 46 Part of this divide is attributable to differences in per capita income. This is illustrated in figure III.7 in which the size of a country bubble is proportional to its per capita gross national income, and its vertical position corresponds to its value on the ICT develop-ment index devised by the International Telecommunica- tion Union. Unsurprisingly, the largest bubbles cluster towards high ICT development, reflect ing a strong correlation between ICT development and per capita incomes (correlation value of 0.885). Figure III.7 also shows the importance of ICT usage prices, indicated here as the percentage of average income required to pay for a representative basket of ICT services – ranging from less than 1 per cent in Singapore, for example, to over 40 per cent in Cambodia and Papua New Guinea. As illustrated in figure III.7, as ICT prices rise, there is a sharp fall in the ICT development index. Furthermore, at very low levels of the development index, there is a group of countries in which the ICT price basket rises exponentially (inset countries). These are also the countries with very low per capita incomes, pointing to the fact that ICT prices absorb the highest percentages of average income in those very countries where people are least able to afford them. On average, less than 20 per cent of people in Asia-Pacific have access to the Internet – far lower than in North America (78%), Europe (62%) and even Latin America and the Caribbean (33%). 47 However, of note, this may underestimate the extent of disconnectedness in the poorest countries. In Asia and the Pacific, only 4 per cent of the population is believed to have access to the high-speed broadband needed to exchange content-rich materials through data-intensive streaming. As a result, it is largely only the wealthier citizens who can connect and broadcast ideas, potentially magnifying socioeconomic disparities and deepening divi- sions between the connected and the un- connected. There are significant differences in the bandwidth available to different countries. 48 This is derived from wired connections, primarily terrestrial and submarine fibreoptic cables, terrestrial wireless transmission, or satellite-based transmission. Each type provides services at different quality and costs. Similar to the direction of exports, most of the region’s data transmitting routes link to markets in Europe and North America. In fact, around four-fifths of the high-capacity international routes in Asia are trans-Pacific. Hong Kong, China; Seoul; Singapore and Tokyo have emerged as the core global hubs of Asia where international carriers have established points of presence. The rest are mainly through the Indian Ocean/ Mediterranean routes (figure III.8). Some least developed economies in the Pacific have made progress in getting connected with submarine cables to the rest of the world. Samoa and American Samoa, for example, are connected through the American Samoa- Hawaii submarine cable. The Marshall Islands and the Federated States of Micronesia are connected via Guam through the HANTRU-1 submarine cable. Other Pacific island economies are also connected via submarine cables – such as French Polynesia through the Honotua cable to Hawaii, New Caledonia through Australia using the Gondwana-1 cable, and Fiji through the Southern Cross cable. Thus far, however, these connections are mostly confined to capitals and densely populated areas and have yet to be extended to more remote areas. Telecommunication costs in the region are higher than in European and North American Internet hub cities. For example, while Hong Kong, China is regarded as the most competitive Internet transit market in Asia, prices are still 2.5 to 3.5 times higher than in London. Costs are even higher in cities far from major Internet exchanges, such as Bangkok and Manila due, at least in part, to the cost of transport back to the primary exchange. Integrating regional information and communications technology infrastructure Internet traffic volumes are expected to continue to increase exponentially both 82
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ii Photo by Warren Field
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iv Growing Together articulates a n
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vi The following experts prepared t
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viii CONTENTS (continued) Page Chap
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x FIGURES I.1. Real rates of growth
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xii TABLES I.1. Transitions from mi
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xiv ABBREVIATIONS (continued) CEPA
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xvi ABBREVIATIONS (continued) RCM R
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xviii The term “Pacific” in thi
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xx opportunities for all social gro
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xxii Many of the labour flows withi
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xxiv development gaps. Land routes
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xxvi development agencies and priva
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xxviii weighted mean Gini coefficie
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CHAPTER ONE 1 UNDP Photo The case f
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CHAPTER ONE 3 FIGURE TITLE The case
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CHAPTER ONE 5 The case for regional
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CHAPTER ONE 11 The case for regiona
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CHAPTER TWO 19 Towards a broader in
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CHAPTER TWO 21 FIGURE TITLE Towards
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CHAPTER TWO 27 Towards a broader in
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CHAPTER FIVE 131 FIGURE TITLE Econo
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CHAPTER FIVE 133 Economic cooperati
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CHAPTER SIX 135 Towards an inclusiv
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CHAPTER SIX 137 Towards an inclusiv
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139 Annex Technical notes Photo by
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141 Annex Technical notes ii. Expor
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143 Annex Technical notes of the ag
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References 145 Photo by Warren Fiel
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References 147 __________ (2009). E
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References 149 Brenner, Cath (2009)
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References 151 __________ (2010b).
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References 153 Hertel, T., ed. (199
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References 155 __________ (2005). P
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References 157 Quah, Danny (2010).
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References 159 Thailand, National E
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References 161 United Nations, Econ
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