Opening Ceremony and Keynote Speeches

The Peacock dance originated in one of Cambodia's Pusat province after farmers went to the mountain to pick cardamom flowers and saw peacocks and peahens playing and dancing in the misty mountain breeze. When the farmers came back to the village, they told friends in the village by imitating the peacock's gesture. It became a folk dance that was later choreographed and taught at the Royal University of Fine Arts in Cambodia and performed during the New Year celebration to pray for rain and good crops in the next season.

Professor Kanchana Kanchanasut, AIT

Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Thailand are tightly linked by their cultural heritage but due to different political systems, their exposure to the Internet differed significantly in the 90's. Though these four countries are at different stages in their development, they do share a common motivation to further develop their Internet infrastructure. One major motivation was to overcome the communications barrier posed by the high telecommunication tariff and the sparsity of coverage before the arrival of the Internet. Many regional Internet organizations, including APNIC, were formed in the 90's and these have been instrumental in providing external support as well as indirect pressure for the development of the Internet in these countries. Human resource development has been viewed as the key to the success of Internet development and is going to be much more important in the near future as the Internet is gradually being integrated into our daily life in this sub-region.

In this keynote speech, Kanchana will focus on the development of the Internet in this subregion as well as the roles of regional organizations in that development. She will also raise some concerns that much more public awareness of the use of the Internet must be addressed alongside the extension of its accessibility.

Kuo Wei Wu, CEO, National Information Infrastructure Enterprise Promotion Association (NIIEPA)