An Indonesian project developed by the National Development Planning Board (Bappenas) in partnership with the UNDP, which aims to promote and expedite the development of ICT applications in poor rural areas, won the APEC Digital Opportunity Centre Awards for ICT best practices for the Bridging the Digital Divide category.
The other two categories contested were ICT Best Practices for e-Government and ICT Best Practices for small and medium enterprises (SMEs), won by the Philippines and Peru, respectively. The awards are given to programs that use ICT to improve the quality of people's lives. The Pe-PP concept's win in the awards was a reflection of APEC members support for the concept. Under the Pe-PP concept, a telecentre network is to be built in eight villages in rural poor areas, mostly in the eastern part of the country, Dinar Pandan Sari, a senior officer in the project, told. Dinar added that this project is not all about widening ICT access; it also stresses the importance of developing a partnership between telecentre teams and the community. The awards, which were first proposed by the Taiwanese government at the 11th APEC leaders meeting in Bangkok in 2003, was established to help APEC economies take advantage of the revolution in information technology.
