Mr. Jae-hong Lim, Head of United Nations Project Office on Governance, Division for Public Administration and Development Management, United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNPOG/DPADM/UNDESA), attended the ITU/NBTC Regional Forum on Telecommunication/ICT Indicators: Measuring the Information Society and the ITU/ASEAN Meeting on Establishing National ICT Statistics Portals and Measuring ASEAN ICT Targets, which was held on 13-16 October 2014 in Bangkok, Thailand. In the opening session, Mr. Jae-hong Lim delivered welcome remarks as a partner of the Forum. In session 3 entitled Regional Coordination and Knowledge and Information Sharing Platform, Mr. Keping Yao, Governance and Public Administration Expert of UNPOG, made a presentation on the key findings of 2014 UN E-Government Survey, E-Government Indicators, and UN E-Government Development Database.  

On the first day, Mr. Lim also had a meeting with the new Regional Director for Asia and the Pacific of ITU, Mr. Ioane Koroivuki to convey a congratulatory message on his new position and discuss ways to further strengthen cooperation between UNPOG and ITU. In addition, Mr. Lim had an extensive discussion with ITU and ADB on a detailed action plan for the ADB/ITU Initiative on ICT for Development for the Asia-Pacific Region (ICTD-ASP). The establishment of a trilateral committee was proposed to facilitate cooperative activities of three organisations. They also exchanged views on the development/operation of knowledge platform for the Initiative, including ID management as a suggested focus area. As the first step for the trilateral committee, three organisations have decided to have a meeting in Shanghai to discuss about concrete action plans, and UNPOG was designated as focal point for the committee. UNPOG is currently collecting ideas and issues to present a draft agenda for the meeting. Lastly, at the Welcome Dinner hosted by the Permanent Secretary of Thailand, Mr. Lim promoted UNPOG’s ongoing activity of e-procurement for sustainable development in ASEAN and discussed possible cooperation with Mrs. Songporn Komolsuradej, Deputy Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Information and Communication Technology of Thailand (MICT) and Mr Nicolas D. Ojeda Jr., Assistant Secretary, Department of Science and Technology - ICT Office, Philippine.

The Forum was jointly organised by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission of Thailand (NBTC), with support by the Department of Communications, Government of Australia and in partnerships with the ASEAN, the Asian Development Bank, the UNPOG, and the Pacific Islands Telecommunications Association. The objective of the Forum was to strengthen the capacity of countries in the region, particularly ASEAN and Pacific countries, to produce national indicators and statistics on telecommunication/ICT, based on internationally agreed standards and methodologies. The Forum targets officials and national experts, especially from Ministries, regulatory agencies, national statistical offices, service providers, regional and international organizations, as well as other stakeholders who are involved in the production, dissemination and extensive utilization of ICT data and statistics.