Growing Together: Economic Integration for an Inclusive and - escap

esearch institutions in Australia, China,
India, Indonesia, Japan, the Lao People’s
Democratic Republic, the Republic of Korea,
Malaysia, Nepal, Pakistan, the Philippines,
Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Viet Nam,
Australia and Taiwan Province of China. 51 This
network, which was recognized at the eighth
Asia-Europe Summit at the level of Heads
of State and Government, 52 is expanding to
include Bangladesh, Bhutan and Cambodia. A
similar initiative is the €6 million Central Asia
Research and Education Network which came
into operation in 2010; currently connecting
Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan, it is
expected to be extended to Kazakhstan and
Uzbekistan. 53
These developments have opened up more
opportunities for the private sector. By the end
of 2009, Asia and the Pacific had nine of the
world’s top 30 telecommunications service
providers by revenue. 54 China and India have
primarily been connected by undersea cables
FIGURE TITLE
III.8. Submarine telecommunications cables landing in Asia and the Pacific
Source: TeleGeography. Available from www.telegeography.com.
through Hong Kong, China or Singapore, but
2010 saw the launch of an underground highspeed
network connecting Yadong in China
with Siliguri in India. 55 Other private-sector
initiatives are under way; for instance, in 2011
the national Russian telecommunications
operator Rostelecom and China Telecom
agreed to expand the bandwidth of the
terrestrial Transit Europe-Asia cable system.
This provides the shortest route between
Europe and Asia, running mainly over the
territory of China and the Russian Federation
and connecting countries in Central Asia
such as Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan and
Ukraine. 56
Despite this range of private and public
initiatives, the region still lacks infrastructure
commensurate with its growing global influence, or
its expected surges in Internet traffic. This would
require more systematic intergovernmental
cooperation to provide an organizing framework
for expanding ICT connectivity.
84