Information & Communication Technology 2009

A PHNOM PENH POST SPECIAL SUPPLEMENT

INFORMATION & COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY 2009

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Putting theory into practice Written 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-on experience the sector needs

CAMBODIA's universities are pumping out more

graduates than its information technology sector can absorb. While the exact number is unknown - the Ministry of Education does not release full figures - the Royal University of Phnom Penh (RUPP) alone has produced around 500 IT graduates each year since 1997. Norton, Build Bright, Setec and Pannasastra universities also offer IT courses. Ouk Chhieng, head of the computer science department at RUPP, said only 25 to 30 percent of IT graduates would find full-time work while a further 20 percent would be employed in temporary or part-time positions. Those lucky enough to find a job were far from the finished product, said Erya Houn Heng, president and CEO of First Cambodia. "They need a lot of guidance in a real working environment and usually require one to two years' training before they can be considered efficient workers." First Cambodia employs about 180 people in Laos and Cambodia, all drawn from local universities. It recruits around 30 new employees each year, picking just three or four out of every 100 it sees. While the average starting salary for a new employee is $150 per month, experienced workers can earn anywhere from $200 to $4,000 for senior managers. Norton University graduate Min Phannarak works for software development company Arocore. Incredibly, or perhaps typically, when he enrolled to study IT he didn't even know how to turn a computer on.

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

He said his degree had not prepared him for work in the sector, and with no computer at home it was difficult to practice 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 the future," 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 $80 to $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 no universities 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 few Cambodians 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 good programmer," 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 full potential," 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 II Written 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 25 million 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 will take 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 said more 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 epidemics Written by Geoffrey Cain Mobile phones and Google Earth may hold the key to a coordinated approach to the world’s worst epidemics, according to researchers currently undertaking field trials in Cambodia

Bird flu outbreaks continue to swoop on communities today, and while officials have managed to contain the disease, some responses have been uncoordinated, shortsighted and bungled. And that's why techies are using Google Earth to predict where an outbreak will hit next. To better coordinate responses to outbreaks, Innovative Support to Emergencies, Diseases and Disasters (InSTEDD) is developing artificial intelligence and text messaging technologies for humanitarian workers. Cambodia is its first test site.

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

"I've repeatedly seen coordination failures put people and plans at risk, even when everyone involved was professional, dedicated, wellmeaning 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 in May 2008. The group is also holding field trials in Mongolia, Ghana and Bangladesh. Speaking in Phnom Penh, Eduardo Jezierski, vice president 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 to disasters," he said. When a disaster hits, InSTEDD's artificial intelligence software can instantly coordinate several computers with different information, 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 is outdated 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 epidemics Among the group's projects, the team in Phnom Penh is developing a software called Evolve, which detects impending epidemics by 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 the Centers 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 workers report 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 for release 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 emergency response or public health surveillance tools is proof that they really did design the tools around the problem versus trying to mould the problem to existing tools."

Software developers eye strong market potential Written by Anne-Laure Poree and Hor Hab

Opportunities are opening up for local developers of software and applications as the number of firms in Cambodia using information technology continues to grow. "Locally produced software is a better fit to the local market than off-the-shelf international variants, as most available software doesn't account for local laws and often can't work with Khmer characters," said Sous Sakal, a business development manager at Blue Technology. Accounting software was a good money-earner for the company, he said, fetching between $300 and $20,000 per program, depending on its complexity.

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

Erya Houn Heng, president and CEO of First Cambodia, a company specialising in system integration, said the local IT sector had almost unlimited 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 of Arocore, 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 have any issues." Arocore recently customised an ordering system for Elements, a new nightclub set to open in Phnom Penh, using an iPod Touch device, 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 is exactly 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. If we don't have the resources for a good product, it affects innovation." As the local market for software grows, many developers are looking further afield for sales opportunities. "There is a strong market in Cambodia," Theara Sam said. "SMEs [Small and medium-sized enterprises] need to use technology, 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 and is in the process of registering an office in Vietnam for a launch later this year, he said.

Mobile-phone operators face the levelling force of the free market Written by Sebastian Strangio and Hor Hab While Cambodia’s largely untapped mobile-phone market has potential for growth, insiders see the number of operators diminishing as the industry settles and the sector matures

AS the global economy slips into recession, domestic

mobile-phone operators remain confident that Cambodia - a country with low mobile penetration rates and large untapped 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 say consolidation is likely once the market settles and the sector starts to mature. "Cambodia provides a unique opportunity," said Syed Azmeer, chief marketing officer of mobile operator Hello. "If you 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 Azmeer said economic development and a heavy investment in infrastructure would drive the sector forward. "We've seen a good 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 subsidiary of Russian firm Latelz Co Ltd, which became Cambodia's eighth operator when it launched in February - said prospects for growth were "significant", and would compensate for any downturn in the global economy. "Despite the economic crisis, Cambodia is still developing. In countries where development is taking place, telecommunications is one of the vital drivers," he said. Photo by: Sovann Philong Mobile phones have become ubiquitous in Phnom Penh.

Room to move Despite the heated competition in the Cambodian market, Mobile Market

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Already 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 their own niche. "Despite the fact that there is a clear market leader, there are still significant developments to come in all dimensions of 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 fact that 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 the true number of mobile users. He said that since many locals owned more than one phone, the estimated 3.8 million SIM cards in circulation 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, an indication of the company's confidence in the sector. Price war But in an unsettled, price-sensitive mobile market, some say that eight operators - leaving aside the three players that have been issued 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 low prices would be a boon for consumers, he said that there would be "no room" for new entrants, and that a price war would undercut 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 bowed out of the market. Indeed, Asia's most developed economies have substantially consolidated local mobile operations: just three major state-owned operators make up the majority of the Chinese market, while Japan has five operators and Thailand four. Vietnam also has just four 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 to guess. "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 follow the same path as Malaysia, which had eight operators until the government stepped in and forced them to merge with one another. "What the government did was to force the companies to consolidate and let them talk amongst themselves and [work things out]. A couple years later, the number went down to three," he said. However, he added that consolidation depended largely on how 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 were natural limits to the number of operators who could profitably operate in the domestic market, but that its international free trade obligations prevented it from forcing companies to consolidate. "I think Cambodia should have only three mobile service providers, 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 operators prospered. "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 services from one another. Aside from the standard virtues of value for money and reliability, another potential frontier is technological innovation. With the launch of the qb (pronounced cube) network last March, 3G mobile internet services were pushed to the forefront of the Cambodian market. Mao Chakrya said three operators - MobiTel, qb and M-Fone - were operating mobile internet services, and Hundt said Smart Mobile 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 give its customers access to Wing services. "We have the capacity and the security on the network to provide that [service]." No appetite for sharing among Cambodia’s mobile phone operators EFFORTS are being made to force operators into refused to say if a draft law Hello mobile, said that there reform Cambodia's notoriously cooperation. under consideration would had been considerable anarchic mobile Thomas Hundt, CEO force operators to share improvements in telecommunications industry, of Smart Phone, said that antennae, acknowledging only interconnectivity in recent according to industry insiders, tower sharing had benefits that legislation was not the years, but that there were still but officials say the both for the urban environment only way to bring providers improvements to be made. government lacks the - by keeping the number of together. necessary laws to promote full towers low - and for But he emphasised the cooperation between the consumers, since companies "It could be a good business problem was not technical, country's eight telco operators. did not each need to make strategy for a private company and that just one local operator expensive capital investments. to come and build antennae to - whom he declined to name Two related problems "We are also in discussion lease to providers," he said. was preventing connection network interconnectivity and about these things because from Hello subscribers "We mobile tower sharing - have we believe it benefits not only In terms of interconnectability, only have issues with one put the brakes on the local the mobile operators, but also the Cambodian government particular operator. Except for industry, increasing call drop- the public domain," he said. put responsibility in the hands this particular operator, we out rates and delaying the of private operators. Hundt have no issue: [other arrival of new players into But Mao Chakrya, Director said Smart Phone had operators] reach consensus outlying markets. General of the Ministry of concluded interconnection quite quickly," he said. Posts and agreements with all operators Cambodia's mobile phone Telecommunications, said and that its interconnection "It's not a technical issue. It's towers are owned by private some operators could be operated at a "very high level". more a strategic issue from companies, and without the reluctant to share antennae as this operator." regulatory framework, there is it could affect their ability to Yusoff Zamri, CEO of Sebastian Strangio no way for the government to optimise signals. However, in the absence of a legal framework for the issue, the ministry's hands were tied, he said. He

Web under scrutiny from censors 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 to tighten its grip on what should be admissible online

WHen Khmer-American artist Koke Lor published images of naked Apsara dancers on his website reahu.com, he unwittingly kicked off a censorship storm that may shed light on the government's future attitudes towards the regulation of online content. The website stirred up controversy after a major Khmer-language newspaper published pictures from the website of the bare-breasted dancers as well as a woman scantily dressed in the clothing of a Khmer Rouge cadre.

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

Access to the website has been blocked since the end of January for users of domestic internet service providers 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 the website. “I used to draw Apsaras with very thin fabric covering naked images of Apsara dancers contained within has not only their bodies. It does not look like the Apsara on the reahu raised questions about government censorship but also over website, who have very big breasts,” she said. She said just what is and is not acceptable in Cambodian society when Apsaras were meant to symbolise the gentle beauty of Khmer it comes to media images. “I don’t think it is wrong,” said women, without alluding to them as sexual beings. As

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Rasmey, a 21-year-old Royal University of Fine Arts student who also paints ApsaraS, but with their breasts covered with transparent cloth. “But I don’t like it because it makes people think that Cambodian women like to show their bodies in public,” he said. Rasmey said some degree of government intervention was needed because “these kinds of pictures can turn 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 the busty, topless women gracing the reahu

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traditionally depicted on the walls of Angkor-era temples, Apsaras bear their breasts, noted Heng Monyphal, a professor of painting at the Royal University of Fine Arts. “So it’s an artist’s right to do it this way,” he said. But today, he said, most artists add some degree of cover out of respect for women, and he suspected modern-day compositions of topless Apsaras came not from a dedication to historical accuracy but rather 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 users following 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 said he 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 of Posts and Telecommunications to have the reahu website banned domestically along with other websites that she considered pornographic. 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 the Kingdom, such as when she spearheaded an effort among the wives of senior officials in 2006 to ban 3G net connections, citing concerns 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 he was sympathetic to Koke Lor but stood by the line of the Ministry of Women's Affairs. "With reahu in the US, this is freedom of information - 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 that stood." However, he added that any decision to ban access to a website should have been approved by the Council of Ministers first. Government denials The government-prompted blacklistings follow denials from the Ministry of Information that new legislation it is drafting for audiovisual 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 from local 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 the platforms 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 explicitly about the content. The technology that allowed its delivery was not relevant, which was why the proposed law would be regulated 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 its shaky track record with freedom of speech. Cambodia is currently ranked 128th - or "partially free" - on the US-based Freedom House organisation's 2008 press freedom list. Norbert Klein, a German national who is credited with introducing the first internet connection to Cambodia and is editor of the Cambodian 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 had proved nearly impossible in other countries.

Govt key to lower internet

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prices Written by Nathan Green Government plans to connect to the Asia-America Gateway may improve internet reliability, but local service providers are worried the new connection may still carry a high price tag

This map of Cambodia’s fibre optic network shows the country is reliant on Thailand and Vietnam for its internet access. Planned extensions to the network are also shown, 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 report by 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 broadband internet, 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 companies incorporate that into their business plan." ITU spokesperson Ivan Vallejo said inadequate infrastructure and the lack of a competitive environment to foster the emergence of 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 around 10 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 the moment, 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 efforts would be futile without government commitment to making prices cheaper to ISPs on the wholesale market. Better links Key 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 and Thailand to offer cheaper access. Cambodia currently relies heavily on bandwidth from these two countries, and that reliance comes with a hefty price tag. While wholesale prices within Vietnam are around $400 for every two megabytes per second of bandwidth, ISPs in Cambodia must pay between $1,300 and $1,400. A year ago, before reforms in Vietnam boosted competition, they were paying between $2,000 and $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 were investing heavily in upgrading and expanding the country's fibre-optic backbone and linking into the superhighway. As a key part 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 a submarine 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 WiMax broadband network for CHUAN Wei (Cambodia), agreed that Cambodia was at the mercy of other countries when it came to broadband 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 are able 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 AsiaAmerica Gateway, a cable system connecting Southeast Asia to the US that will allow Cambodia to bypass neighbouring countries 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, but she 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 on the Cambodian side of the border, controlled by state-owned Telecom Cambodia, a major component of broadband prices. ISPs must not only pay for transmission charges from the border to main centres, but also to connect customer premises to the nearest hub, and those hubs to AngkorNet's data centre. ISPs must pay Telecom Cambodia $15 a month for every connection to a 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 capital expenditure, 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. We have 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 backbone Written 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 by the end of the year

All government offices across the country will be online and connected to the central government's information-sharing system 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), said large-scale servers had already been established in Phnom Penh, Siem Reap and Sihanoukville to feed connections and data to offices 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 the backbone," he added. Called the Provincial Administration Information System, the e-government project has a budget of $15 million to connect offices within each province to each other, and another $20 million to connect each province to the central government in Phnom 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 offices in 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 by fax 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 will become easier."

Rural kids disconnected from ICT access Written by Robbie Corey Boulet The high cost of technology means ICT education is making slow progress to the provinces

As the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport continues work on a master plan to incorporate ICT into schools nationwide, officials are grappling with how to best reach rural provinces, which are markedly less connected than their more developed counterparts. Sun Lei, education program specialist for Unesco, which is working with the ministry to develop the Master Plan for ICT in Education, said recently that she expected it to be finished "sometime in 2009". But she said efforts to encourage the use of ICT in rural schools had been hindered by the limited nature of knowledge about ICT's benefits, as well as a pervasive lack of infrastructure. PHOTO COURTESY UNESCO Rural schoolchildren learn to use computers.

Financial limitations, too, have proved a considerable 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 the private 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 ICT access in seven provinces: Banteay Meanchey, Kratie, Mondulkiri, Oddar Meanchey, Preah Vihear, Ratanakkiri and Stung Treng. The study concluded that "very few schools" were using ICT in the classroom; that ICT training was needed for both teaching 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 there was 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 in recent 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 a pro-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. "In outlying 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 to government 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 market research 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 incident such as last year's conflict over Preah Vihear temple, the Ministry of Interior and the Ministry of National Defence could have a live 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 meet its 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 its own," he said. In remote rural areas, the poverty rate was 45.6 percent in 2004, according to the 2005 interim assessment of Millennium Development 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 benefits of economic growth, centred mainly in urban areas, with those rural communities," Wisal Hin said.

Changing Cambodia's attitudes to computers and egovernment 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. How did you come to be involved in development of the ICT sector in Cambodia? I left Cambodia in 1979, ended up in a refugee camp in Thailand and then went to Seattle in the United States. I came back to Cambodia in 1993 after the UNTAC elections and worked as an adviser for the Ministry of Commerce. Back then, people did not have literacy with computers so I provided computer training to people working at the ministry. My background was in computer science. I studied at Spokane University in Washington.

Photo by: BRENDAN BRADY Phu Leewood has been involved in Cambodia’s communications infrastructure since 1993.

What was the ICT situation when you returned? In 1979 people were just coming back to Phnom Penh to find their relatives. It was about survival. When I came to Cambodia in 1993, there were no computer skills. The Ministry of Commerce 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 we started to implement IT development. In 2001, we implemented the GAIS [Government Administrative Information System] 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 of mindsets. 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 learn this 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 your fingertips: information about each ministry and their contact numbers. But it's true more must be done by ministries in the future 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 back to an office to get information on who is the owner. There also have been problems with fraud of land titles. Once all that information 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 at their 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 strategy here? This will be the burden of the government. We are planning on having connections to all schools, and from schools they will provide 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. Some provincial offices have internet, but most do not. The moment we connect the backbone onto the access network of provincial offices, 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 central government. 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 act as 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 recently experienced 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 boundaries faster than the law can address. This is a blurred line between freedom of information and cultural preservation. This blurred line 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 attractive advertisement 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 a blurred 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 the internet 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 the Criminal Code passes.

A virus that can attack in a flash Written by Kyle Sherer Internet experts say the possibility of a slow-spreading local virus means Cambodian users should not rely solely on common anti-virus software, but also find extra protection locally

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The development of high-speed internet in

Cambodia has thrown open the floodgates for internationally created, fast-spreading computer viruses. Cambodian computer users who think they can beat malware by simply installing Norton AntiVirus are enjoying a false sense of internet security, according to Bernard Alphonso, director of Cambodian-based Alphonso Security Consulting. "I have frequently encountered people in Cambodia who are under the impression that because they are not in a country with a high internet penetration rate, they should not been overly concerned about viruses, fraud or data theft," he said. "This attitude could not be further from the truth, and it is putting many businesses and individual computer users at high risk." Photo Supplied Khmer Anti-Virus creator Kheng Vantha.

Carlton Pringle, technical director at Conical Hat Software, said Cambodian web-surfers are just as vulnerable to internet viruses as 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 all the 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 in this 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 through their software." Layered protection Pringle 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 the threat 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 are infected 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 precautions users 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 on the 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 when they're plugged into a computer. "Autorun is a good way for a virus to attack your PC," said Vantha. "When you plug in a USB drive, Windows will automatically run the files, so your PC can catch the virus. But the TweakUI program, available on the internet, 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 like rootkits, 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. "They should never take anything for granted. And when in doubt, don't click the mouse."

Customs overhaul coming Written by Sam Rith

A centralised customs clearance system designed to drastically speed processing times will be phased in across the country following 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 it received 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, the Philippines, 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 shared and processed among the relevant agencies throughout the region. After clearing one regional port of entry, traders would be able 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 Port Deputy Director General Ma Sunhout said.