Gender Assessment of Selected E-business and Strategies in Asia: The Case Studies of Malaysia, the Philippines, the Republic of Korea and Thailand (Gender and Development Discussion Paper)

CONTENTS

I.

Introduction

1

II.

Scope of study

1

III.

What are women in e-business

2

IV.

Commitment to Gender Equality and Status of E-business Policy development

4

V.

Challenges from a gender perspective

7

VI.

Policy recommendations

9

VII.

Concluding remarks

16

References

18

Annex I

22

Annex II

31

I. Introduction The United Nations Human Development Report 2001 emphatically points out that, “technology is created in response to market pressures—not the needs of the poor, who have little purchasing power”. The current global trend of commercially exploiting ICTs1 has led to the deeper and wider exclusion of the majority of the world’s people from the benefits of ICTs, resulting in what is now known as the “digital divide”. The digital divide not only reflects old socioeconomic and political divisions that are exacerbated by the introduction of new ICTs, but has also created new divisions due to the nature of ICTs.2 As governments start to look closely into the relationship between ICTs and development, and particularly in the conduct and proliferation of business to spur development growth3, it is critical to ensure that the gender dimensions are equally addressed and to recognize that many, many more women, compared to men, fall into this digital divide, with most women in the deepest end. The nature of the Internet and the promise of e-business have great potential in furthering women’s economic empowerment. Not only would women entrepreneurs be better able to market their products themselves and get fair prices without having to go through middlemen, women can be better enabled to enter markets without the traditional barriers of being seen as a “woman” entrepreneur who should only be doing business in specific sectors and at a certain economic scale.4

II. Scope of Study This study found that the terms “e-business” and “e-commerce” are sometimes used interchangeably, but the terms do in essence carry different implications for consideration. Ecommerce for businesses covers outward-facing processes that touch customers, suppliers and external partners, including sales, marketing, order-taking, delivery, customer service, purchasing of raw materials and supplies for production and procurement of indirect operatingexpense items, such as office supplies. E-business on the other hand, includes e-commerce, but also covers internal processes such as production, inventory management, product development, risk management, finance, knowledge management and human resources. An ebusiness strategy therefore is more complex, more focused on internal processes, and aimed at cost savings and improvements in efficiency, productivity and cost savings. It is within the latter context and framework that this four-country comparative gender analysis is conducted. The study takes into consideration the level of infrastructure development and ICT penetration5, the level of recognition of gender issues in general and in relation to ICT in particular, and the level of readiness and capacity for e-business development in examining the related policies from Malaysia, the Philippines, the Republic of Korea and Thailand. This study also attempts to look 1

Information and communication technologies—a result of the convergence of computing and communication technologies. UNDP. 2001. Human Development Report 2001: Making New Technologies Work for Human Development. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press. 3 A number of e-ready countries are recognizing that the Internet is not only changing how business is conducted, but also how it has contributed to a shorter life cycle for products and services. As governments begin to realize that they cannot respond as quickly to these rapid changes in products and services, they also begin to realize that the local private sector will need to develop its capacity in adjusting and dealing with the changes and the speed of changes in the market place in order to keep a country’s economic growth buoyant . 4 Women tend to fall into the informal sector when they start up their businesses. In the formal sector, most times, the kind of businesses women would conduct would be in the traditional domain and role of women such as food catering, tailoring, pre-school and child care, beauty and skin care, to secretarial services. Most often, these businesses would take the form of small and medium enterprises (SMEs). While there is an increasing number of highly educated professional women entering businesses and modern professional services, working as proprietors, active business partners or practicing professionals in legal, accountancy firms and business services, the number is still relatively low when compared with men. 5 Access to e-commerce clearly depends on access to both computers and electricity. 2

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at the policies and strategies adopted by the four countries vis-à-vis their gender empowerment measurement (GEM) rank6 and other more suitable gender sensitive indicators and sexdisaggregated statistics. However, generally, the availability, completeness and the quality of the information obtained have been directly proportional to the level of e-readiness in a country.7 While relevant information was easier to obtain for more e-ready countries, this information centred more around ICTs as a whole (e.g infrastructure, penetration, etc.) and was not sexdisaggregated nor gender-sensitive. Lessons learned are integrated within the different sections of this study. This study concludes with recommendations towards the creation of a genderresponsive e-business environment. While e-commerce related laws have been identified (see Annex 1), it was not possible to significantly analyse current legislation in each country as this would require a substantive mapping of comparative legislative environment vis-à-vis challenges women in e-business have faced or are facing, and to draw out recommendations from these national or local-based case studies. It would be very valuable for the future though, to develop such case studies at the national level or conduct a more in-depth research to garner these lessons in order to better inform policy-making, strategy development and programme design and implementation.

III. Where are Women in E-business? To answer this question, we may need to ask where are women in business generally and look at where women predominantly are situated in business. From an employer’s angle, women in business generally fall into small, micro and medium enterprises (SMMEs), either as managers or as owners.8 SMME women entrepreneurs in particular, generally fall into the category of necessity-based entrepreneurs, usually with little encouragement from government policies and programmes to shift and become opportunity-based ones.9 The increasing spread of ICT for development, globalization and changing conditions for innovation and entrepreneurship represent opportunities that women can exploit only if they are fully supported to become equally capable competitors in the free market and fair trade systems.

6 The Gender Empowerment Measure is a composite index measuring gender inequality in three basic dimensions of empowerment—economic participation and decision-making, political participation and decision-making and power over economic resources. The Gender Empowerment Measure rank can be viewed at UNDP’s Human Development Report 2003 website, at http://www.undp.org/hdr2003/indicator/indic_207_1_1.html. For the year 2001, South Korea ranked 63, Malaysia 45, and Thailand 55, while the Philippines had the highest rank of 35 among the four. The human development indices of these countries differed quite greatly with their GEM ranks, i.e. South Korea 30, Malaysia 58, Thailand 74, and Philippines 85. 7 The inflow of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), however, does not correlate directly with the e-readiness of a country. The inflow of FDI for the Philippines and Thailand enjoyed an increase compared to the inflow of FDI for Malaysia and the Republic of Korea, even though Korea is considered a high-level e-ready country and Malaysia a medium-level e-ready country, while both the Philippines and Thailand are still relatively much lower in rank compared to the two (see Chapter 9 of Malaysia’s Knowledge-Based Economy Master Plan, 2002, on “Bridging the Knowledge and Digital Divides”, p.161 and Chapter 7 on “Private Sector Spearheading the K-based Economy”, p.127). 8 The proportion of Malaysian women in management in the formal sector rose to 15.9% by 2000. Malaysian women constituted just 10% of corporate presidents and CEOs, while only 10.4% of the 3.23 million females were employers (Farida Habib Shah. 2004. “Mainstreaming Potential Women Exporters in International Markets through ICT: Malaysia” in APWIN Gender and E-Business, December 2004, Vol. 6. p.147). In comparison, in the Republic of Korea, the share of women-owned firms was 35.7% in 2002. However, most South Korean women-owned businesses are small-sized businesses with fewer than five employees (Kim, Gyu ok. 2004. “The Trend of E-Business in Women’s Enterprise: A Comparative Study of Korea and U.S.” in APWIN Gender and EBusiness, December 2004, Vol. 6. pp.65–66). 9 SMME women entrepreneurs are usually seen as important players only in the development of the local economy and in alleviating poverty at the household level. Hence, while one may be able to see a growing representation of SMME women entrepreneurs in many economies, we may find on a closer look that these exist in sectors that are traditionally unattractive to their male counterparts, and lie primarily in the informal sector which supports low-entry businesses with little growth potential (Kuga Thas, 2005).

2

The free market and fair trade systems are meant to help spur competition among businesses, however, the term “fair trade” may need a closer conceptual examination if governments are indeed keen to ensure that women entrepreneurs, as a large or potentially large contributor to the nation’s development, are able to compete in such a system that is dominated by men. For example, “fair trade” and “free competition” can be translated into what we understand as a “fair fight”. If taken in this light, this may mean that women entrepreneurs of a certain capacity can only benefit from markets which are specifically set up for them vis-à-vis an assessment of their business competitive edge. Like fighters in a boxing ring, where weight is the qualifying factor as to where, when and who a boxer fights, the competitive edge of a woman’s business would be a qualifier in the global world of trade and competition. However, with globalization, the segmentation of markets is no longer possible nor would we want them to be, considering the potential wealth that can be garnered from the various opportunities and possibilities the Internet offers as today’s modern world’s fastest, largest and more importantly, borderless, information and communication channel. Especially when traditionally the segmentation of markets are usually led by powerful companies, who are able to use their market power to do so and price-discriminate between sub-markets, e-business can change this power dynamics dramatically.10 If consumers can shop around, and compare prices across companies and across borders, then the basis for market segmentation and price discrimination will disappear. But for the potential woman entrepreneur, there is a need to find innovative ways of encouraging her to enter the world of business and to increase her skills and more importantly, her tacit knowledge in business development, and to exploit the possibilities of ebusiness. In reality though, little attention is paid to encouraging women to take up business let alone, e-business. E-business frameworks developed by Malaysia11, the Philippines, the Republic of Korea and Thailand do not explicitly stipulate gender issues and challenges, but look at e-business as the new engine for economic growth on a national scale.12 Although discrimination based on sex and/or gender is unconstitutional for these countries, and this very same value is incorporated into strategic development plans towards a knowledge-based economy, gender issues start to dissipate and completely fade away when a closer look is taken at policy and programme design and implementation. Challenges are usually defined broadly ranging from infrastructural issues to technological issues, with some human resource development aspects thrown in from a generic standpoint. For example, the need for higher level skilled training in the application of ICTs for business rather than the differential needs for higher level skilled training in the application of ICTs for business between women and men is usually highlighted. If women’s needs are emphasized, they are emphasized in a rather narrow perspective, usually premised on their practical gender needs rather than their strategic gender needs, and even more often viewed within the framework of a country’s practical development needs rather than a country’s strategic development needs. For example, Malaysia views

10

“E-Commerce Set to Liberalise Trade” in Boosting the Net Economy, 2000. See http://www.netecon2000.com/news4.html. Malaysia completed its first E-Commerce Strategic Directions Study in 2001, which provides an overall framework for e-commerce development looking specifically at potentials and challenges. The Malaysian government through its Economic Planning Unit is currently conducting the second study which is expected to be completed in July 2005. The second E-Commerce Strategic Directions Study is expected to look at the specific sectors more closely, to identify and tailor projects according to the need. For example, one project that is expected to be implemented by August 2005 is Malaysia’s online taxation programme. 12 However, on a broader scale, the Republic of Korea, to its credit, has undertaken some concrete affirmative action programmes to ensure to help address the gender dimension of the digital divide. These action programmes were established through the drive of the Ministry for Gender Equality when it took a very strong public position on the gender issues in the telecommunications and science and technology sectors. One example is the development of the bill to ensure the provision of employment and training opportunities for women scientists with the Ministry of Science and Technology (UNESCAP, 2002: p.22). 11

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women as part of its labour force whose economic participations is still relatively low13, hence efforts to increase women’s labour participation through proposed amendments under the existing Employment Act for flexi-work, part-time and teleworking so that they can continue to manage their household, care-giving and family duties—thus fulfilling practical gender needs, rather than as a dynamic pool of entrepreneurs that remains untapped of their potential and possibilities.14 The lack of attention to the different human resource development needs of both women and men by closely examining their current technological and business capacity and know-how may undermine the only true economic advantage that any country will ever have in this globalised world and new information economy, and that is, the capacity and skills of its citizens. No longer do raw materials and manufactured goods have the kind of value and high potential and flexibility for value-added the way information products and services do.15 While both require human resource inputs, the latter requires human resource inputs of a much higher-level skill, innovation and knowledge. No longer will trade be about mass production of standardized goods i.e. “one size fits all”, but the new information economy allows for the highest standards of customization of goods and services to meet the needs of the customer, and could see the downfall of traditional large corporations who are unable to deliver such customization services. In order to see how women entrepreneurs will fare in e-business, we need to examine women’s capacity and know-how vis-à-vis that of their male counterparts. We also need to see women in e-business not only from the angle of an entrepreneur but as potential customers and consumers.16

IV. Commitment to Gender Equality and Status of E-business Policy Development Implementation of an e-business strategy represents a considerable challenge requiring integration of technology, law, policy business processes and skilled people. Stress on ebusiness by all four countries have been more on the technological and legislative aspects for ecommerce rather than in creating a gender-responsive enabling environment for e-business.17 This is not surprising since a lot of the impetus and thrust behind the push in applying ICTs in 13 Although women made up 48% of the working age (15–64 years) population in 2000, they represented only 34.7% of the total labour force (Farida Habib Shah. 2004. “Mainstreaming Potential Women Exporters in International Markets through ICT: Malaysia” in APWIN Gender and E-Business, December 2004, Vol. 6. p.147). 14 This may also be due to the fact that the national culture generally is not one that is very entrepreneurial but employment-oriented. 15 This new trend and opening up of new opportunities is largely driven by the outsourcing practices of multinational corporations (MNCs) and large companies to gain competitive advantage and operational efficiencies. 16 In general, the emphasis on e-commerce itself is primarily aimed at employers and those who are part of the business world. However, policies promoting e-commerce must go beyond the interests of employers and business owners, and take into consideration issues surrounding the work place, like job security, working conditions and skills. It is important to look at all the different roles that citizens can play in relation to e-commerce, and to analyse these concerns from a gender perspective. It is important to consider what e-commerce means to women and men as (1) bosses/owners; (2) workers/employees; and (3) consumers. This is also important because women are more likely to be concentrated among (2) and very seldom at top management level, and (3) if they feature at all. 17 This may be due to the lack of capacity (resources, skills, expertise, etc.) within the Ministries that are tasked to address gender equality issues in these four countries combined with the lack of political will towards addressing gender inequality. In the Republic of Korea, the task of implementing gender equality policies lie with the Ministry on Gender Equality (MoGE), a cabinet-level agency which was created in 2001 to replace the Presidential Commission on Women’s Affairs. In Malaysia, this is the Ministry of Women, Family and Community Development. In the Philippines, this is the National Commission on the Role of Filipino Women (NCRFW); and in Thailand, this is the National Commission of Women’s Affairs (NCWA) under the Office of the Prime Minister. To address gender inequality issues, either these agencies develop and directly implement their own ICT-related projects; or they consult other relevant government agencies and develop programmes that are more oriented towards ICT literacy. For example, in the Republic of Korea, the MoGE closely collaborates with the Ministry of Information and Communication on the implementation of the national ICT-literacy campaign targeting some two million housewives as well as employees and staff in some 1,000 private institutions. On its own, the MoGE has launched its own anchor projects aimed at advancing gender equality through ICT. These projects include the creation of a portal site for South Korean women called Women-Net, and the building of the Cyber IT Education Centre (UNESCAP, 2002: pp. 28–29).

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development are factors and concerns centering on increasing a country’s global competitiveness, developing a knowledge-based (and therefore highly technically skilled) society, and promoting and ensuring sustainable development.18 In addition, for many developing countries in Asia, the mission of promoting high-tech industries is particularly important since the relative importance of traditional labour-intensive industries, which have been the engines of past growth, is declining.19 This forces countries to embrace an ecommerce strategy first before trying to develop an e-business one, and wisely so, because a well-developed e-commerce strategy will help to consolidate gains made through etransactions. Concern about the legal and technical implications and challenges of e-business is undoubtedly necessary, however, there should also be a firm foundation of stakeholders and interest groups to whom the legal framework would then apply rather than develop a framework within which that only a select few are able to participate.20 While there have been efforts to encourage women to undertake e-business, statistics on the involvement of women in their contribution towards the economic activity of their country (as an employee) has generally been easier to obtain compared to statistics on women operating their own businesses in different sectors, self-employment or in the export sector. This indicates a lack of comprehensive planning in addressing the gender differentials in women’s and men’s needs and involvement in the area of business in general and e-business in particular.21 To help governments develop their e-commerce policies, the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) developed a Model Law for e-commerce (1996 and 2001) that supports commercial use of international contracts in e-commerce. The law establishes rules and norms that validate and recognize contracts formed through electronic means and sets default rules for contract information. It also defines the characteristics of a valid electronic writing and an original document, provides for the acceptability of electronic signatures22 for legal and commercial purposes, and supports the admission of computer 18

Malaysia, though, has provided some gender analysis in its strategic plan on gender issues surrounding the knowledge and digital divides (see Chapter 9 of the Malaysian Knowledge-Based Economy Master Plan on “Bridging the Knowledge and Digital Divides”, 2002: pp.157–159). This gender perspective, however, completely disappeared in the implementation of e-business related policies and programmes which were not specifically under the purview of the Ministry of Women, Family and Community Development. 19 “Learning from others” however have not necessarily centred on regional experiences but outside of the region. For example, as part of its primary mandate, the task force on e-commerce developed an e-commerce reference framework in 2001 based on the ecommerce laws of ASEAN member states, and in consultation with the legal experts from the governments of these member states. The laws included in the e-commerce reference framework are from Singapore (Electronic Transactions Act), Malaysia (Digital Signature Act), Philippines (Electronic Commerce Act), Brunei Darussalam (Electronic Transactions Order) and Thailand (Electronic Transactions Bill). These e-commerce laws were reportedly based largely on UNCITRAL’s Model Laws 1999 and 2001, as well as the e-commerce and electronic signature laws used by some states in the United States (such as Utah and Illinois) and by some countries in Europe (such as Germany) (Quimbo, 2004 in UNESCAP Studies in Trade and Investment, No.54: p.87). No attempt was made to compare with the laws and regulatory framework of the Republic of Korea despite the country having the highest penetration of broadband use. 20 The main issues of concern of legal frameworks governing e-commerce are the validity and enforceability of electronic contracts, geographical jurisdiction and information security for both providers and clients. Legal frameworks in this context are essentially gender and business size neutral areas since they are designed to apply to everyone engaging in this form of business in equal measure. It is questionable whether any legal framework governing e-commerce would address the specific needs of women, especially since women do not receive such consideration for more established forms of business transactions either. However, special protective measures for smaller businesses (SMMEs) engaging in e-commerce are of greater importance keeping in mind that it is women who represent the majority of small business entrepreneurs and would be aligned to the obligations made by the four countries on the CEDAW Convention. 21 According to Farida Habib Shah (2004), credit facilities are available for Malaysian women professionals. However, studies suggest that when micro enterprises grow into bigger enterprises, the businesses tend to be subsequently taken over by husbands or male members of the family (see Farida, 2004: p.149). 22 There are three approaches to electronic authentication. First approach is the digital signature approach which is characterized by its focus on the digital signature technique. Legislation under this category is truly digital signature legislation because it regulates (on the basis of) digital signatures. The second approach is called the two-prong approach because of its hybrid way of dealing with electronic authentication. In this approach, legislators aim to make their legislation more time-resistant by addressing certain technological requirements and by leaving room for new technological developments. The third approach is the minimalist approach

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evidence in courts and arbitration proceedings. The UNCITRAL has also developed a model law for electronic signature (UNCITRAL Model Law 2001). The law lays a framework for determining duties and liabilities of related parties: signature holders, relying parties and signature issuers. It also sets a standard for recognizing signatures issued overseas, to avoid discriminatory practices. The work of the UNCITRAL to try and help ensure interoperability of e-commerce laws23 does not provide sufficient answers to the development of basic e-commerce legal and regulatory frameworks.24 Localisation is required and thus interoperability of the e-commerce legal and regulatory frameworks of the four countries is still very much wanting.25 When laws have not been established or amended to include e-commerce, traditional legal provisions would be used. For example, in Malaysia, currently, transactions or documents entered into electronically will be governed by the traditional provisions of the Contracts Act 1950, as the Electronic Commerce Bill has not been enacted as yet.26 The legislative framework in each country generally cover areas on telecommunication regulations, content regulations, ecommerce, electronic signature, data protection and privacy, consumer protection, intellectual property, electronic banking and finance, taxation and customs, conflict of laws and cybercrime. While laws are usually viewed as gender neutral, the effect of these laws need not necessarily be so. For example, the Digital Signature Act is premised on the digital signature approach whose legislation is concerned solely with the evidentiary status of the digital signature. The approach has three variants—technical variant, legal variant and organizational variant—all of which are very technical and technology-specific.27 Requiring technology-specific signatures in the conduct of e-commerce can easily in itself exclude large numbers of women from undertaking e-business at a more aggressive level. Judges’ rulings within the framework of these laws can also be extremely gender biased. It is therefore important that national jurisprudence on issues of e-commerce adopts a strong gender perspective. The four countries may be at different stages of development, but there are some key elements which do suggest specific advantages over one another if the goal of gender equality (i.e. substantive equality) is to be achieved in e-business. These are: 1. A higher GEM rank (currently, the Philippines leads). 2. Higher skilled women (currently, the Philippines leads as potential employees, but the Republic of Korea leads as potential employers). 3. Higher English language proficiency (currently, the Philippines leads).

which does not address specific techniques and hence, intends to be technology-neutral. Legislation relates to the functions that signatures may have to fulfill in trade, and the different levels of reliability with respect to the purposes the signatures are used for. This approach is also called the functionalist approach since it focuses on functions of signatures and the ways in which these functions may be translated into technological applications (for more information, see “Legal and Regulatory Issues in the Information Economy” by Rodolfo S. Quimbo, May 2003). 23 Of the four countries, only the Republic of Korea has ensured interoperability of its Digital Signature Act, but just up to national level (Satola, David; Sreenivasan, Rajesh and Pavlasova, Lenka. 2004. “Benchmarking Regional E-Commerce in Asia and the Pacific and Assessment of Related Regional Initiatives” in UNESCAP Studies in Trade and Investment, No.54: pp.8–9). 24 It is interesting to note that two different authors have differing views as to whether laws developed by Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines are based on the UNCITRAL Model Laws to an adequate extent or not (see Quimbo, Rodolfo Noel S. and Satola, et al, 2004 in UNESCAP Studies in Trade and Investment, No.54). 25 It is not uncommon for regional initiatives to usually adopt model laws and documents or the implementation of the principles provided in these laws. For basic e-commerce legislation, this is the UNCITRAL Model Laws 1996 and 2001. For the protection of intellectual property in the online environment, this is the WIPO Copyright Treaty 1996 and the WIPO Performance and Phonograms Treaty 1996. For cybercrime, these are the provisions or measures specified in the Council of Europe’s Convention of Cybercrime of 2001 or the United Nations General Assembly Resolution 55/63 of 2000 “Combating the Criminal Misuse of Information Technologies” (Satola, David; Sreenivasan, Rajesh and Pavlasova, Lenka. 2004. “Benchmarking Regional E-Commerce in Asia and the Pacific and Assessment of Related Regional Initiatives” in UNESCAP Studies in Trade and Investment, No.54: p.19). 26 Correspondence with Mr. Mohd Fuad Ahmad, E-Business Department, Multimedia Development Corporation (MDC), MSC Headquarters, Malaysia. 27 For more information on these three variants, see “Legal and Regulatory Issues in the Information Economy” by Rodolfo Noel S. Quimbo, 2003, p.10.

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4. Extensive infrastructure to facilitate universal access (currently, the Republic of Korea leads). 5. E-ready governments (currently, the Republic of Korea leads). 6. Balance of liberalisation of trade and de-monopolisation of economy for equitable development growth (currently, Malaysia leads). 7. Higher level of local content development (currently, the Republic of Korea leads). 8. Collection of sex-disaggregated data (currently, the Republic of Korea leads but efforts still fall short of ideal). 9. Signatory to the CEDAW Convention with fewest reservations, if at all (currently, Philippines leads with no reservations listed; while Malaysia has the most reservations). 10. A dedicated ministry to women’s affairs and gender equality (currently, the Republic of Korea leads). If the Philippines is able to draw in a higher inflow of FDI towards R&D, investment in infrastructure and venture capital, and sustain this, it would be reasonable to expect that the country could overtake Malaysia and Thailand even if they may seem more advanced at present in their human development index.

V. Challenges from a Gender Perspective It is insufficient to recognise that SMEs play an important role in sustaining domestic and regional economic growth in addition to being important agents for alleviating poverty in developing countries.28 While ICTs can be applied to achieve the efficiency and effectiveness of the delivery system of SMEs and thereby integrate them into the global supply chain, the integration of ICTs into the operations of SMEs is extremely costly and can be crippling if ICT solutions adopted are in the long-term only going to drain already limited resources of SMEs.29 These issues become more chronic for women-owned SMEs due to the kind of small-scale businesses that they tend to undertake.

1. The lack of an enabling global environment Global e-commerce policies proposed by developed countries are designed to serve the interests of those countries and may not necessarily be appropriate for developing countries. The gaps in terms of suitability may require an international treaty to regulate e-commerce on a more practical level.30 International treaties would hopefully allow for the interests of developing and less developed countries to be included on a more practical level and to ensure that equitable development among nations and within nations will not be further jeopardised. Some 28 The Republic of Korea, Malaysia and Thailand have clearly developed policies and programmes that would support the further growth of SMEs in general. The importance of SMEs to a nation’s economy is extremely critical. For example, in Malaysia, according to the International Trade and Industry Ministry statistics, in 2003, SMEs constituted about 92% of the total number of companies registered with the Companies Commission of Malaysia and contributed 29.1% of total manufacturing output, 26.1% of value-added and 32.5% of total employment. Thus, SMEs represent one of the important segments of the Malaysian economy. 29 The factors that influence decisions by MNCs and large companies to appoint suppliers are mainly cost, quality, efficiency and delivery system, and the integration of ICTs usually require a high outlay of capital and especially when the technology evolves so fast. SMEs might find themselves forced to keep upgrading in order to remain competitive for these new business opportunities that arise from outsourcing. 30 The USA is the most active nation in advocating in policies on global e-commerce. Its vision on developing the global platform for e-commerce is articulated in “The Framework for Global Electronic Commerce” (White House, 1997; cited in Tangkitvanich, Somkiat. 2001; pp.16–17). The framework lays down five principles among which clearly recognizes the private sector in the lead role and pushes for liberalisation of the telecommunications market, that the Internet be a tariff-free environment for trade in goods and services, that the commercial code be harmonized and that intellectual property rights be strongly protected.

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less developed countries would probably need a specific implementation roadmap and one that would include consideration for local interests and equity issues of the country concerned. If not, the process of localization of model laws and regulatory frameworks by individual countries would definitely reduce the interoperability of these from a global perspective.

2. The lack of proactive measures E-commerce policies and legislation show an alarming trend of leaving the responsibility of proof of wrongdoing to the customer, who usually has less resources in seeking legal advice or taking their cases to court, and women with much less resources than men. Many northern governments promote the notion that a more reactive regulatory environment would be most conducive for encouraging the free flow of information and ideas. However, this means that the government does not take any steps towards enforcement or regulation until an issue or problem has arisen and state intervention is required. It places the onus on the users/consumers to prove that they or were not the person who conducted the electronic transaction should a case be brought to court.31 Basically, e-commerce law is about assumptions and about evidence, but in a traditional business setting, government agencies make great effort in ensuring businesses do not mislead nor discriminately take advantage of the customer. These measures usually include ensuring that companies are properly registered and follow set accountability procedures, checking that prices of goods are clearly marked, ensuring that sales are indeed genuine sales at marked down prices etc. In an electronic world, such measures would be impossible, but remain very much relevant and important for the customer’s protection. While one could turn around and say that the customer can easily do the research necessary over the Internet before she/he makes a purchase online, but a search is only as unbiased as the search engine used, and the integral quality of its database. It is interesting to note that laws have been developed and amended to facilitate e-commerce growth, yet some of these very same challenges (taxation and loss of government revenue, capital outflow, low use of local resources, lack of protection for workers’ rights, etc.) are faced with multinational companies and transnational companies when they operate and/or transact in developing countries, free from national legislation in most ways. However, it is also heartening to note that the nature of the Internet is such that while it can promote e-commerce and the growth of borderless markets, it opens up the opportunity to offer and enable special measures to help level the playing field such as keeping SMMEs well-informed about their legal rights and responsibilities with regard to electronic transactions (which might put them at greater risk of legal repercussions) through suitable and affordable legal aid assistance programmes.

3. The lack of sex-disaggregated data The lack of sex-disaggregated data is strongly linked to the lack of agreed standards and methodology to ensure consistent and regular treatment of data collection. Government organisations still need to be convinced to collect ICT and telecommunication statistic by sex. There is a persistent lack of interest of some data sources in ICT statistics particularly those that are market or private-sector based such as those provided by computer suppliers. Yet, it is not data that is very difficult to collect. There is also a strong tendency to be male-biased in surveys, either actively seeking out men’s opinions or unconsciously seeking respondents irrespective of the gender differences in challenges and obstacles faced by women and men.

31 Boonruang, Sasiwimon. 2000. “Electronic Commerce: Waiting for the Laws to Pass” in Bangkok Post 2000 Year-End Review. Available at http://www.bangkokpost.net/yereview2000/ecommerce2.html.

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4. The lack of policies that serve women’s strategic gender needs In terms of women as workers/employees, there are two issues which need to be considered— changes in the types of employment and changes in the form of employment. As e-commerce becomes more widespread, reduction in employment is more likely in the area of sales and services, areas which generally employ more women compared to men. An e-business policy should acknowledge and make allowances for these possible negative effects, such as provide more technical training and upgrading of skills to women so that they will either continue to have promotional prospects within the same company or be able to take up higher-level skilled work elsewhere. E-commerce may also provide a stronger impetus for staff to work from home or telework. While this may appear to have positive implications for women who have additional household and child-rearing tasks, this only serves to meet women’s practical gender needs and in fact, will place women into a more isolatory situation of working at home, and unable to claim her rights through unions or other types of collective efforts. Teleworking or working from home also benefits only those who have Internet access—computer, electricity and at minimum a telephone line and a dial-up modem.

5. Women’s lack of power and decision-making vis-à-vis that of men Women in business need to be more involved in the development of e-business policies, laws and programmes. Women’s voices need to be listened to and incorporated into the regulatory framework, the making of policies and in the design of affirmative action programmes.

VI. Policy Recommendations Policy recommendations have been developed based on the experiences of the four countries, and from three broad perspectives premised on the nature of the “digital divide”. These are: • • •

The Information Technology Access Gap—This is the gap that represents the divide between those who have physical access to the computer (at home, school, the work place or cyber cafes). The Information Technology Application Gap—This divide separates those who know how to apply existing information technology to create wealth and those who do not. The Information Technology Creation Gap—This divide has three levels, and it represents the divide between those who conduct fundamental research and development in information technology; those who use and create IT products and services with existing technology; and those who are only consumers of the IT products and services.

Policy-related lessons were also garnered from Malaysia’s wealth of experience in implementing preferential policies for poverty reduction that are based on ethnicity, since gender issues are not unlike racial issues as both are prevalent in social, political and economic institutions, and interact with each other as well as other forms of power of class, age, region and nation. These recommendations are as follows:

1. Accelerate the de-monopolisation of the telecommunications industry, encourage wireless technology and non-technology specific e-commerce legislations

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Even with South Korea’s high penetration rate of high-speed Internet access32, women still lag behind men as users, let alone as innovators. In order to create a more conducive and level playing field for women, the technological and legislative frameworks within which women will undertake e-business should be women-friendly and consider women’s natural inclinations towards mobile and wireless technology and to non-technology specific means of function. In order to safeguard women’s interests and needs, the de-monopolisation of the telecommunications industry should be carefully carried out, and could still include a major stakeholder share with government but who need not necessarily be the majority shareholder. This will help ensure the balance to take into consideration social issues vis-à-vis the agenda of profit-making by the private sector.

2. Promote and support the use of open source and free software By using open source and free software, countries will be better able to look behind the mystifying technology and develop their own by adapting, modifying or creating anew technology that is more comprehensively designed to suit their needs. Too often does software go underutilized and yet, because software is so cheap to reproduce, we are constantly forced to upgrade and move up to the next new release almost every six months, which has even more features that countries know how to use, that requires and even greater investment in hardware, and none of which is being designed or developed in developing countries. Open source technologies are low-cost solutions that encourage knowledge-sharing, skills-building at the local level. The use of open source and free software also allows for improved costeffectiveness and interoperability of technologies.

3. Develop a more comprehensive and extensive system of gender sensitive data collection Despite the promising potential of ICTs, little attention has been paid to fine-tuning national data collection to better capture gender differentials. The minimum aim of collecting sexdisaggregated data is still wanting in efforts, and many policies and programmes continue to adopt a gender-blind approach. Qualitative indicators like UNDP’s GEM need to be established along the lines of decision-making but to extend this to all spheres of a woman’s life, public and private and at all levels of political, economic and social participation.

4. Ensure the establishment of inclusive e-commerce policies and support programmes While efforts can be made to facilitate the development and growth of e-commerce, governments must ensure that these efforts do not further discriminate against those who are unwired for a variety of reasons (lack of capital, skills, technical know-how, cost-effectiveness, infrastructure etc.). A clear recognition was given to this issue in Malaysia’s Knowledge-Based Economy Master Plan (2002: p.162) which recommended that affirmative actions must be attuned to the needs of both the “old” and “new” economies and must be simultaneously implemented. This means business opportunities must be offered both through electronic means and traditional commercial means, such as business that is generated through 32

Broadband penetration is three times greater in South Korea than in the USA and more than ten times greater than in Germany and France (see Elkington, Henry; Kwon, Harry; and Victor, Bob. 2002. “Lessons from South Korea: When Broadband Meets the Mass Market”, BCG Publications, The Boston Consulting Group, available at st http://www.bcg.com/publications/publication_view.jsp?pubID=746&language=English, accessed on 21 April 2005).

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government agencies’ procurement of services and products. For countries who are interested in ensuring equitable development and in closing the digital divide, online methods of transacting should not replace traditional methods of transacting, but must complement in every way possible.33

5. Establish an extensive business information support system for SMMEs The experience of the Republic of Korea shows that SMMEs mostly lack expertise and ability to take full advantage of the benefits of e-business.34 If this can be fact for a country like the Republic of Korea whose market is largely urban, highly educated, youth-oriented and technologically sophisticated, the realities are harsher in the other three developing countries studied. E-business therefore strategically takes on a different role for SMMEs. The focus for SMMEs should not be the number and volume of e-commerce transactions and sales, but the focus must be on the Internet as an optimal channel to provide more strategic and timely information for SMMEs and to others who would like to transact with SMMEs. Ultimately, it is access to information that is a major barrier to SMMEs in general, and women-owned SMMEs in particular. An extensive database that serves as a comprehensive directory of SMMEs, their services and products, can also include information on training programmes, financing programmes, and potential market opportunities. One-stop call centres linked to this database35 can be established to facilitate access to information by both SMMEs as well as other potential business partners who might want to network with SMMEs further and vice-versa. Detailed profiles of larger-sized companies who offer business and partnership opportunities to SMMEs can be provided to help ensure that SMMEs are not duped into exploitative business dealings. Reports and official complaints against the integrity of larger companies can also be placed online for reference by SMMEs.

6. Gender-responsive Smart Partnerships Business partnerships which governments themselves forge can be encouraged to be more gender-responsive. Governments have a completely different socio-economic mandate vis-à-vis that of the private sector. While governments may have to facilitate the liberalisation of markets in view of increasing globalisation trends and international trade-cum-political pressures, governments do not have to offer business opportunities non-discriminately if these opportunities will only further exacerbate existing gender inequalities and inequities within the nation as a result of its business and international trade opportunities.36 As such, for government-funded projects and tenders, governments may want to give priority and 33 This includes issues of concern for women as consumers. For example, women who do not have access to online shopping and banking facilities should not be penalized for this by being charged higher bank fees for using automatic teller machines. 34 In a report by the Small Business Corporation in 2000, only 20% of SMEs said that they are actively leveraging the Internet as a platform for promoting their businesses. More than 50% of all SMEs generate almost no sales from e-commerce. The shortage of dedicated resources, lack of investments, and outmoded business practices have been cited as the main challenges in promoting ecommerce among SMEs (see Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Energy, Republic of Korea, “E-Commerce in Korea”). 35 One broad example is ThaiTambon.com, an initiative founded in 1999 by Dr. Thaksin Shinawatra, the current Prime Minister of th Thailand, for the development of rural areas. ThaiTambon.com went online on 24 June 2000 and operates at the sub-district level (“tambon”) with the aim of providing information on transport, government public services, local products and industry informationsharing, tourism, hotels and restaurants. In addition, the website serves to promote the local products of every “tambon” and acts as a commercial hub for trading the products (see Gray and Sanzogni, 2004; for more information, visit www.ThaiTambon.com). 36 Not all individuals benefit from trade liberalisation equally. How much an individual benefits depends, among other things, on whether he or she works in an expanding sector or is able to switch to one, on his or her skills, and on whether there is discrimination in the labour market. Gender analysis is important to evaluate the potential effects of trade liberalisation on the population because men and women commonly work in different sectors, have different skills and different access to economic resources.

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preferential treatment to women-owned enterprises and to corporates that employ a high level of women professionals at least at upper level middle management. The Republic of Korea has major support programmes to facilitate access to market for women-owned enterprises through preferential government procurement schemes37, expanded export opportunities and increase in market share at national and international levels.38 To facilitate the identification and assessment of suitability of business partners, an extensive database of medium and large corporations, locally and foreign-owned, could be established which would contain detailed information on number of women employees at upper managerial level and beyond, and/or as highly technically skilled women professionals. These preferential measures are necessary if gender equality is to be promoted in the area of business and in e-business in particular. These measures will not seriously affect the potential profits of businesses in general since the e-commerce transaction value of B2G (business to government) tends to represent a much smaller proportion compared to the e-commerce transaction value generated by B2B (business to business).39 However, this smaller proportion of representation in total e-commerce transaction value may be due to the fact that B2G is generally still in its infancy stage. It is important too to note that this infancy stage is significant when taking into account the speed of growth of B2G in the earlier years which will reach a general plateau in the later years with little potential for growth vis-à-vis the potential growth in e-commerce transaction value of B2B and B2C (business to consumer).

7. Establish e-business incubators The setting up, conversion to, or addition of the e-business function to a business needs to be supervised, as the cost of the technology and the possibility of failure, for a variety of reasons including customer acceptance, can be very crippling. The establishment of gender-sensitive ebusiness incubators with the support of software and hardware suppliers as well as the government, are necessary in order to ensure as much as possible a successful transition to a digital economy. The need to establish sound e-business practices and develop a high level of knowledge and skills in this particular field should not be construed though as the only way of conducting business. Businesses must not be totally reliant on volumes of sales through ecommerce transactions though since losses can be very damaging if there are power blackouts and these businesses do not have any other form of backup to remain connected.

8. Establish suitable mentoring programmes The experience of Malaysia shows that women entrepreneurs can be ambivalent about having a mentor40, but they certainly do need suitable role models. The issue of trust is key since women’s businesses can be extremely vulnerable to having their clients “stolen” by others, and could adversely affect their businesses if mentoring processes take too long or are advice not timely enough. To exacerbate the situation, women entrepreneurs as role models to other women entrepreneurs are difficult to identify, let alone to be able to find successful ones who 37 For example, the government of the Republic of Korea prefers women-owned enterprises in its procurement of less than 30 million won (or USD2,500) in value of government contracts (Kim, Gyu ok. 2004. “The Trend of E-Business in Women’s Enterprise: A Comparative Study of Korea and U.S.” in APWIN Gender and E-Business, December 2004, Vol. 6, p.68). 38 Kim, 2004, p.68. 39 For example, in “ICT Uptake: 2004—Thailand in the Information Age”, the e-commerce transaction value of B2G in the year 2003 only represented 8% of total sales compared to the e-commerce transaction value of B2B in the same year of 91%. The ecommerce transaction value of B2C was only 1% of the total sales generated electronically. 40 See Farida, 2004: p.166.

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are willing to spend time, energy and resources to help mentor another. In such a situation, the approach to mentoring programmes and the delivery may need a more modified version that would be both an enabling environment for skill-building and business development. Mentorship in such cases could take the form of mentor-partner in business-related dealings rather than be limited to the scope of mentor-mentee, and by doing so, help to sustain and further develop the businesses of women entrepreneurs. Men entrepreneurs can be encouraged to have women entrepreneurs in trade dealings and projects, just as Malaysia implemented policies, programmes and incentives for Malaysian Chinese entrepreneurs to partner with bumiputra entrepreneurs to help the latter acquire the necessary skills and knowledge in business which was predominantly with the Chinese ethnic group. Mentor-mentee type programmes can still be established but these would be better forged with seasoned academics in business and entrepreneurship, who preferably have had some practical field experience. The history and culture of university students in Thailand of working with rural communities in locally based development projects can be a useful model.41 Local and foreign-owned universities that are locally based can be encouraged to support women entrepreneurs, especially women-owned SMEs, through well-tailored programmes run by the business faculties and their graduating or more senior students. In both types of mentoring programmes proposed above, pilot projects can be developed to promote e-business with women-owned or women-managed SMMEs.

9. Inculcate the participatory and team approach in business management through training and education Decision-making in businesses tend to be extremely top-down in these four countries, and particularly innate in Thailand and the Republic of Korea. Very seldom is a participatory or team approach used. This could be attributed not just to the national or innate business culture in the country, but to perceived threat to the status quo or a fear of change. New methods of working or doing business are often seen as threats rather than opportunities, especially when technology is deployed and existing skills, capacity and know-how do not necessarily match what is required. Participatory approaches are very useful to instill a sense of ownership over a project or business goals, and these are common approaches in the development sector and in addressing issues of gender inequality. Considering that the Internet is relatively the younger generation’s “domain of expertise”42, the traditional structures of “obedient subordinates” and “authoritarian ways” can only hamper a country’s advancement in the area of e-business. Working cultures must change to encourage initiative and “to dare to make mistakes”. In adopting the participatory and team approach, women too will be encouraged to put forward their ideas and to be more exploratory in undertaking e-business. 10. Support the further development of local markets

41 Thai universities have a history of participation in rural development activities through their students. One example of this is Thairuralnet.com, an initiatve funded by the World Bank and manpowered by local university students in order to bring, expose and exploit the Internet for the benefit of rural Thailand (see Gray and Sanzogni, 2004). 42 For example, Internet users in Thailand are predominantly within the age range of 15 to 24 years old or 52% of total Internet users (see “ICT Uptake: 2004—Thailand in the Information Age”). In Malaysia, concern has been expressed in its Knowledge-Based Economy Master Plan in relation to the digital divide between age groups.

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The local participation of SMMEs in e-business will be very much like the local participation of a rural community in a development project that utilizes ICTs. Communities rarely use components of ICT systems that they did not really want in the first place. Local SMMEs (formal and informal) will react in a similar manner. However, as they learn and acquire the basic knowledge and skills, these SMMEs will start to develop new needs that are more complex. Therefore the introduction of e-business and the building and implementing of rural information systems should be done in a step-by-step manner. While e-business has the potential of linking local SMMEs to international markets, expecting these to immediately enter such markets would be disastrous.43 As these learn and acquire the knowledge and skills necessary in e-business, locally based SMMEs are also the best to fulfill unmet local needs but in further geographical distances. For example, a better mapping of local needs for local produce could be developed through an extensive marketing database system, and through this a balancing of supply and demand could be ensured while strengthening and developing local self-sufficiency.44 Such a system would also help to ensure that middle men prices remain reasonable and not exploitative of the farmer and/or local producer. These SMMEs can then be linked to support export-oriented industries such as the automobile industry, the electronics industry, the textile industry and the food processing industry.

11. Expand access to banks and banking services for the promotion of e-commerce among SMMEs Businesses, particularly SMMEs, would require access to banks and banking services in order to undertake e-commerce. E-commerce is inextricably linked to formal banking facilities like business accounts and credit cards, and access to the formal banking system is a pre-requisite for accessing e-commerce. Many SMMEs already find it difficult to access banks, especially in rural areas with low population densities and inadequate public transport systems. A large section of the population is also effectively excluded from formal banking services because of low levels of income, lack of formal and therefore provable income, and because of relatively high fees charged by banks for the use of accounts. In order to alleviate these problems, governments may want to explore the possibilities of linking microcredit systems in rural areas with the formal banking system in urban areas, and support financing programmes that are more tailored to the needs of SMMEs, especially those owned by women (which are inclined to have lower volume of sales and less than five employees) and which usually have little collateral and capital outlay.

12. Conduct an extensive review of taxation policies in relation to e-commerce

43 The experience of the Republic of Korea shows that while rising investments in e-commerce are led by large companies, this is not sufficient enough to spur the proliferation of e-commerce within the business sector itself so that the country is at par with more advanced countries (see “e-Business Initiative in Korea” cited in “E-Commerce in Korea”, Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Energy). Supporting SMMEs in their efforts for e-business implementation is a prerequisite for the growth of e-commerce. The government of the Republic of Korea extended support to 30,000 small and medium-sized companies for their IT projects through April 2002. The original plan called for IT support to 30,000 companies by the end of August 2003, and so this plan was completed more than one year ahead of schedule (see “E-Commerce in Korea”, Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Energy). 44 Thailand initiated the “IT for SMEs” project at a time when the country was desperate for economic recovery (late 1999). It was believed that effected SMEs would produce dramatic improvement in business and create significant national income growth. However, at the time, most Thai SMEs had not used IT to their advantage. To strategically link the application of ICTs in SMEs with boosting national economic growth, it is important to first ascertain how SMEs view government IT policy, how SMEs are using ICTs, what was important in their business in the last five years, and what might these SMEs become in the next five years (see Sripaipan et al. 2003. “Foresight Activities and Strategic Policies of Thailand”. Paper presented at the Second International th th Conference on Technology, organized by Foresight, in Tokyo, 27 to 28 February, 2003).

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E-commerce has the potential of drastically altering the consumption of certain goods and services like software, music, film, photography, art, commercial media, and anything can be digitized (including books) to the extent that these goods and services are no longer traded in physical form. This might have implications for the classification of income and value-added tax. While it is important to balance the need for government revenue vis-à-vis the problems of local e-business entrepreneurs, government revenue through taxation is an important source if state social spending on the needs of marginalized groups that include women as the major recipients is not to be severely jeopardized. Another aspect that should be looked at is taxation of goods and services that are primarily purchased by women due to their traditional gendered roles and responsibilities do not unnecessarily burden women. Before any country rushes to embrace the counter proposals made by academicians in OECD countries, these should be viewed from a gender perspective. For example, some advocate an increase in the tax on labour wages, since they are probably least affected by e-commerce45, but how well this proposed solution will work without further burdening women would largely depend on the tax structure within that country. Others have recommended a reform of consumption tax to a system called a “broad-based consumption tax” i.e. consumption tax based on the difference between a person’s income and savings, and so would be solely on consumption and would not be levied on capital income. This can be highly discriminatory against women, particularly poor women, who are usually consumers of products that bring no incremental or potential benefit such as that of capital income. Still others advocate adopting an origin-based taxation instead of the current destination-based taxation in taxing consumption.46

13. Integrate the development of policies and laws governing e-business with the CEDAW Convention Framework While laws are generally not gender sensitive to the differential needs of women and men, particularly in the area of business, all four governments are signatories to the Convention on the Elimination of All forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW Convention), and hence, are in a position to ensure that their obligations to women’s rights and non-discrimination is mainstreamed in all areas of policy and law-making, which includes e-business. The principles as enshrined in the CEDAW Convention framework of non-discrimination and substantive equality are key in shaping and implementing any policy or programme.47 The Republic of Korea’s lead on information protection and privacy of data is a good example of how laws and regulatory frameworks surrounding e-business can be particularly gender sensitive even if they may not have set out to do so.48 The rights of the users are well protected by South Korea’s Information Protection Act, where user consent is a requirement if the service provider wants to collect the user’s personal information and provide it to third parties beyond the guidelines prescribed in the Act or specified in the service agreement. The user is entitled to control his or her own information and the service provider must first seek permission to divulge personal information to third parties. The user may also withdraw his or her consent at any given time. The protection of women’s private and personal data is especially important since women are predominantly more vulnerable in society, more vulnerable to discriminatory actions and all 45 Obviously this perspective does not include the incredible potential of loss of jobs and pushing those without the necessary level of skills to even more derogatory, lowly paid work, if they still do have work. 46 Tangkitvanich, Somkiat. 2001. “Global E-Commerce Policies Seen from the South” in Cooperation South, No. 1. Published online at http://tcdc.undp.org/coopsouth/2001_oct/default.asp or http:// tcdc.undp.org/coopsouth/2001_oct/ 016-028.pdf. p. 20. 47 See www.iwraw-ap.org for more information on the CEDAW Convention and what is embodied in these two principles. 48 The Information Protection Act of the Republic of Korea does not particularly refer to women’s needs and rights, but provides a comprehensive set of protective measures and guidelines to avoid the misuse and abuse of personal information by the private sector. Specific protective measures were identified for children under 14 years of age though (see Park, 2004 for a fuller discussion of the Information Protection Act of the Republic of Korea).

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forms of verbal, physical and sexual attacks—offline and online. Apart from privacy issues, intellectual property rights and patent issues are also critical for women, especially when they “trespass” on women’s traditional ownership rights to local and indigenous knowledge and products. The framework of the CEDAW Convention will also help to ensure that governments are more sensitive to the design of their supporting policies and programmes so that they do not discriminate women unintentionally. For example, if most women-owned enterprises are micro and small enterprises, providing financial, training and incentive packages to enterprises based on number of employees hired would be largely discriminatory to women entrepreneurs. Another example of unintentional discrimination is when these government-sponsored schemes are provided based on volume of sales transacted online or type and level of technology used in view that women are less inclined to use technology in business in the first place.

14. Establish e-business training and education programmes for women and girls Women are traditionally not inclined to become opportunity-based entrepreneurs, and most often seek to earn an income through conventional employment means. As such, a transformation of society’s expectations and culture is needed. This transformation can begin quite effectively if suitably designed education programmes are introduced to girls while still in school. Education on e-business should be offered at college and university levels, but need not necessarily be focused at these educational levels alone. Special academies for women entrepreneurs can also be set up such as that of South Korea’s proposed e-business cyber academy for women to foster more female e-business professionals.

15. Establish a more lateral operational framework for policy development and implementation The convergence of ICTs has forced the IT sector to become more lateral and integrative in its policy framework and in the design of IT-related programmes. The lateral structure allows for the application of ICTs to be thought out more extensively and integrated within all sectors that have IT potential. For example, e-health relates to the health sector, e-education to the education sector, teleworking to the employment sector, and ICT training to the human resource development sector.

VII. Concluding Remarks It is evident that telecommunications is an indispensable infrastructure for e-business, and so embracing e-business as a key approach for economic growth can be an expensive affair. For example, the Republic of Korea, the clear global leader in broadband deployment and adoption at over 50% of its 14.4 million households, has already invested over USD15 billion in broadband infrastructure development, and a further USD30 billion is expected to be expended by the year 2005.49 Even with market liberalisation of the telecommunications sector, it is unclear if developing countries like Malaysia, the Philippines and Thailand would be able to sustain the infrastructural requirements of e-business. Despite the explosive growth in 49 Macklin, Ben. 2005. “The Benefits http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/0,4621,298929,00.html.

of

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Broadband”,

April

15.

Available

at

broadband adoption in the Republic of Korea, the share prices of the leading broadband providers continue to fall. The plethora of broadband companies that have found it tough going in the USA would also indicate that broadband is an expensive business, and an ongoing investment. For developing countries, these high on-going costs may take a serious toll on ensuring equitable developmental growth within the country, although broadband costs are beginning to show trends of declining. Viewing broadband infrastructure costs side by side with other infrastructure costs may help put things into perspective, and may actually prove to be much cheaper than the infrastructure costs associated with roads, water, electricity and gas (e.g. Canada)50. The irony is that without electricity, there can be no broadband, and for most countries, their ability to embrace and optimize the potentials of ICTs will be very much hampered by the fact that despite this new borderless world of e-business, it still is and may never be a level playing field for them. For governments who have prioritised equitable development as their approach to economic growth, they would have to find that delicate balance in expending for e-business and in expending on improving health, housing and education, especially if socio-economic priorities and the gender equality agenda towards equitable development are not to be sacrificed. It goes to the credit of a caring government to ensure that the whole nation enters the digital economy in the most even and appropriate way that its economy can allow.

50

Macklin, Ben. 2005. “The Benefits of Broadband”, April 15. Available at http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/0,4621,298929,00.html.

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Koanantakool, Thaweesak. 1999. “Electronic Commerce Development in Thailand”. Available at http://www.nectec.or.th/users/htk/e-commerce/intro.html, accessed on 14th May 2005. Kuga Thas, Angela M. 2005. “Women-owned SMEs: Some Gender Issues and Implications”. Paper presented at the E-Business and Opportunities for Women in Asia-Pacific, organized by Asia-Pacific Women’s Information Network Centre (APWINC), UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UN ESCAP) and Business and Professional Women International (BPW International), on 28th to 30th March 2005, Bangkok, Thailand. Macklin, Ben. 2005. “The Benefits of Broadband”, April 15. Available at http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/0,4621,298929,00.html. Mimos Berhad, Malaysia, www.mimos.my Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Energy, Korea. “E-Commerce in Korea”, available at http://www.mocie.go.kr/eng/policies/ecommerce/ecommerce1.asp Ministry of Energy, Communications and Multimedia, Malaysia, www.ktkm.gov.my Ministry of Information and Communications Technolog. 2004. “ICT Uptake: 2004—Thailand in the Information Age”, prepared by the National Electronics and Computer Technology Center of the National Science and Technology Development Agency in the Ministry of Science and Technology, and the National Statistical Office in the Ministry of Information and Communications Technology. Available online at: http://iir.ngi.nectec.or.th/, accessed on 14th May 2005 Multimedia Development Corporation, Malaysia, www.mdc.com.my Multimedia Super Corridor, Malaysia, “Cyber Laws and Intellectual Property Laws”, http://www.msc.com.my/cyberlaws/ National Computerisation Agency of South Korea, http://www.nca.or.kr/eindex.htm Park, Jongchan. 2004. “Current Issues and Developments of Privacy Protection in the Republic of Korea” in United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific. 2004. Studies in Trade and Investment, No. 54. New York: UNESCAP. pp.115–124. Phiphitkul, Wilasinee and Sodarak, Jarupa. 2002. “Gender Justice: Digitally Empowered Women through Information Technology”. Available at http://64.233.187.104/search?q=cache:9WvVLhhsGXsJ:www.wsisasia.org/materials/wil. doc+women+and+ict+in+thailand&hl=en, accessed on 1st June 2005. Quimbo, Rodolfo Noel S. (May) 2003. Legal and Regulatory Issues in the Information Economy. e-ASEAN Task Force and UNDP APDIP. Published online at http://eprimers.apdip.net/series/info-economy/legal.pdf.

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Quimbo, Rodolfo Noel S. 2004. “The E-ASEAN Legal Framework and Its Challenges” in in United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific. 2004. Studies in Trade and Investment, No. 54. New York: UNESCAP. pp.81–90. Ricafort, Nona S. 2005. “Advices from Experiences in Doing E-Business in the Philippines”. Paper presented at Session VII of the E-Business Opportunities for Women in Asia Pacific Seminar, 28–30 March 2005, United Nations Confernece Center, Bangkok, Thailand. Organised by UNESCAP, APWINC and BPW International. Satola, David; Sreenivasan, Rajesh and Pavlasova, Lenka. 2004. “Benchmarking Regional ECommerce in Asia and the Pacific and Assessment of Related Regional Initiatives” in United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific. 2004. Studies in Trade and Investment, No. 54. New York: UNESCAP. pp.3–22. Sripaipan et al. 2003. “Foresight Activities and Strategic Policies of Thailand”. Paper presented at the Second International Conference on Technology, organized by Foresight, in Tokyo, 27th to 28th February, 2003. Tangkitvanich, Somkiat. 2001. “Global E-Commerce Policies Seen from the South” in Cooperation South, No. 1. Published online at http://tcdc.undp.org/coopsouth/2001_oct/default.asp or http:// tcdc.undp.org/coopsouth/2001_oct/ 016-028.pdf. Toral, Janette. 2004. E-Commerce Workshop E-book. Manila: McGraw Hill Education. United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific. 2002. Issues, Policies and Outcomes: Are ICT Policies Addressing Gender Equality. New York: UNESCAP. United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific. 2003. Strengthening Policy and Institutional Infrastructure in Information Technology: Study on Information Technology Needs Assessment and Readiness in the Greater Mekong Subregion. New York: UNESCAP. United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific. 2004. “Harmonised Development of Legal and Regulatory Systems for E-Commerce in Asia and the Pacific: Current Challenges and Capacity-Building Needs”. Studies in Trade and Investment, No. 54. New York: UNESCAP. Yong, James S.L. (ed). 2003. E-Government in Asia: Enabling Public Service Innovation in the 21st Century. Singapore: Times Media Private Limited. Yong, James S.L. 2003. “Malaysia: Advancing Public Administration into the Information Age” in Yong, James S.L. (ed). 2003. E-Government in Asia: Enabling Public Service Innovation in the 21st Century. Singapore: Times Media Private Limited. pp.175–203. Yong, James S.L. and Phureesitr, Poranee. 2003. “Thailand: e-Government for Public Service Reform” in Yong, James S.L. (ed). 2003. E-Government in Asia: Enabling Public Service Innovation in the 21st Century. Singapore: Times Media Private Limited. pp.268–298.

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Yong, S.L. James and Tan, Jeffery B.H. 2003. “e-Korea: High Bandwidth, High Growth”, in Yong, James S.L. (ed). 2003. E-Government in Asia: Enabling Public Service Innovation in the 21st Century. Singapore: Times Media Private Limited. pp.147–174.

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Annex 1 An Overview of Relevant Policies and Laws Country

Malaysia

Laws & Regulatory Frameworks

Policies which cover Ecommerce ICT Policy (sectoral)

• •

The Constitution Penal Code

Telecommunication Regulations • Bill of Guarantees • Broadcasting Act 1988 • Communications and Multimedia Act (CMA) 1998 • Communications and Multimedia Commission Act 1998 • Telemedicine Act 1997 • Optical Discs Act 2000 • Telecommunications Act 1950 Content Regulations • Bill of Guarantees • Industrial Designs Act 1996 • Layout Designs of Integrated Circuits Act 2000 • Geographical Indications Act 2000 • Trade Description Act 1972 • Films (Censorship) Act 1976 • Printing Presses and Publications Act 1984 • Sedition Act 1948 E-Commerce • Electronic Transaction Bill (being proposed) • Electronic Government Activities Bill (being proposed)

22

Some Gender-related and Gender-blind Policies & Programmes • Article 8(2) of the Federal Constitution, amended in 2001 that now protects citizens against discrimination based on gender. •

National Policy on Women

•

Action Plan for the Advancement of Women

•

Special Assistance Scheme for Women Entrepreneurs

•

Training and guidance to new women entrepreneurs under the MicroCredit Scheme of Bank Simpanan National (BSN).

•

Programmes by the Ministry of Rural Development and the Ministry of Agriculture to scale up women’s micro enterprises into small-scale enterprises.

•

Schemes by the

Country

Policies which cover Ecommerce

Laws & Regulatory Frameworks

Electronic Signature • Digital Signature Act 1997 Data Protection and Privacy • Personal Data Protection Bill (being proposed) Consumer Protection • Communications and Multimedia Commission Act 1998 (but insufficient coverage) Intellectual Property • Copyright (Amendment) Act 1997 • Trademarks Act 1976 • Patents Act 1983 • Intellectual Property Corporation of Malaysia Act 2002

Some Gender-related and Gender-blind Policies & Programmes Ministry of Entrepreneurial Development that offer capital loans, services and consultations for businesses and entrepreneurial development but which do not specifically target women’s needs although they offer these schemes to women as well. •

Special Technology Acquisition Fund for Women by the Malaysia Technology Development Corporation (MTDC).

•

Export Development Market Development Grants (which do not specifically target women’s needs) provided by the Ministry of Entrepreneurship and the Ministry of Rural Development for acquiring technology or skills for business or for specific projects as well as for purchasing machinery and

Electronic Banking and Finance Taxation and Customs Conflict of Laws Cybercrime • Computer Crimes Act 1997 • Internal Security Act (ISA) 1960

23

Country

Philippines

Policies which cover Ecommerce

Laws & Regulatory Frameworks

• • •

New Civil Code Penal Code (Article 201) Presidential Decree No. 1718

24

Some Gender-related and Gender-blind Policies & Programmes equipment. •

E-Commerce Grant Scheme by the Ministry of Multimedia, but which do not specifically target women’s needs.

•

Grant scheme to upgrade production/ engineering and design capabilities from the Small & Medium Industries Development Corporation (SMIDEC), but which do not specifically target women’s needs.

•

Training programmes by the Malaysia External Trade Development Corporation (MATRADE) to nurture and update exporters on trade developments and business opportunities in international markets, but which do not specifically target women’s needs.

Country

Policies which cover Ecommerce

Laws & Regulatory Frameworks

Some Gender-related and Gender-blind Policies & Programmes

Telecommunication Regulations Content Regulations E-Commerce • Electronic Commerce Act (Republic Act No. 8792) Electronic Signature Data Protection and Privacy • Anti-Wiretapping Law (Republic Act No. 4200) Consumer Protection Intellectual Property Electronic Banking and Finance Taxation and Customs Conflict of Laws Cybercrime Republic of Korea

• •

The Constitution Information Society Promotion Basic Law

•

E-Business Initiative in Korea (2001)

Telecommunication Regulations • Integrated Broadcasting Law 1999 • Telecommunications Security Protection Act • Law on Computer Network Expansion and Use Promotion

•

Financial support for matriarch

•

Financial Support for Business Startups by Unemployed Women

•

Financial Support for Start-ups by Women Technology Workforce

Content Regulations E-Commerce • “Comprehensive Policies

25

Country

Policies which cover Ecommerce

Laws & Regulatory Frameworks

• • • •

for E-Commerce Development” (2000) Framework Act on Electronic Commerce 1999 Electronic Commerce Business Law 1995 Electronic Commerce Basic Law (ECBL) 1999 Law on Trade Administration Automation

Electronic Signature • Digital Signature Act 1999 (was fully amended in 2001 and currently cited as Digital Signature Act 6585/2001) Data Protection and Privacy • Act on the Protection of Personal Information Managed by Public Agencies 1994 • Communications Privacy Act 1993 Consumer Protection • Consumer Protection Act Intellectual Property • General Guidelines for Internet Patent Review (February 2000) • Guidelines for ECommerce Invention Review (August 2000) • Intellectual Property Rights Act (amended on 27th March, 2001) • Copyright Act (amended in January 2000 to reflect the WIPO agreement of 1996) • Computer Program Protection Act (fully

26

Some Gender-related and Gender-blind Policies & Programmes •

Tax relief (not particularly focused on women entrepreneurs)

•

Financial support for long-term unemployed (not particularly focused on women’s needs)

•

Financial support for start-ups or operational costs for small merchants and industries (not particularly focused on women entrepreneurs)

•

Financial support for medium-small and venture companies

•

Training programmes for start-ups (for women)

•

Training programmes for management skills and consulting (for women)

•

Women-owned enterprise incubator centres

Country

Policies which cover Ecommerce

Laws & Regulatory Frameworks

• • • • • • •

Some Gender-related and Gender-blind Policies & Programmes

revised in January 2000) Patent Act Design Act Utility Models Act Trademark Act Unfair Competition Prevention and Business Secret Protection Act Civil Code Commercial Code

Electronic Banking and Finance • Law on Use and Protection of Credit Information • Emergency Fiscal Economic Order Regarding Real Name Financial Transactions and Secrecy Protection Taxation and Customs Conflict of Laws Cybercrime • National Security Law Thailand

Telecommunication Regulations • National Information Infrastructure Law (still pending. Also known as Universal Access Law, a bylaw of Section 78 of Thailand’s Constitution)

•

School Net Thailand

•

Tambon (group of villages) Net

•

Mooban (village) Net

Content Regulations

•

Telecentre for Community Product and Tourism

E-Commerce 1. Electronic Transactions Act 2001 (Electronic Transactions Law and the Electronic Signatures Law combined)

27

Country

Policies which cover Ecommerce

Laws & Regulatory Frameworks

Some Gender-related and Gender-blind Policies & Programmes

Electronic Signature 2. Electronic Transactions Act 2001 (Electronic Transactions Law and the Electronic Signatures Law combined) Data Protection and Privacy 3. Data Protection Law (still pending) Consumer Protection Intellectual Property Electronic Banking and Finance 4. Electronic Funds Transfer Law (still pending) Taxation and Customs Conflict of Laws Cybercrime 5. Computer Crimes Law (still pending) Notes: 1. In terms of telecommunication regulations, only Thailand was found to be in the process of establishing a separate national telecommunications regulatory agency, i.e. structurally separate from the country’s government bureaucracy or ministries. For the other three countries, mechanisms for appointing regulators were not completely independent from the executive branch of the government. 2. Only Malaysia expressly exempts Internet content providers from licensing or registration requirements. 3. While all four countries have enacted laws and certification authorities to address the issues of electronic signatures, none of them have ensured international interoperability. Only Thailand has ensured that its electronic signature law is based on the UNCITRAL Model Law on Electronic Signatures 2001 to a significant extent (Satola, et al. 2004: p.8–9). Malaysia has opted for the digital signature, which is more technology-specific and therefore reduces interoperability globally. Being technology-specific, the digital signature regulation will also tend to exclude more women from entering into e-commerce transactions. The Republic of Korea too opted for a Digital Signature Act, but the country included special provisions providing for national interoperability of digital signatures.

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4. The Republic of Korea is the only country in the region that has adopted a comprehensive data protection law. The other three countries do not have comprehensive data protection regulations in place (Satola, et al. 2004: p.9) 5. The Republic of Korea is also the only country out of the four countries studied which has adopted a law specifically addressing consumer protection in the online environment. The Philippines has addressed the issues of consumer protection in the online environment by expressly extending the applicability of the generic consumer protection law into the online environment. Malaysia has specifically excluded online transactions from the scope of its generic law n the consumer protection (Satola, et al. 2004: p.10). 6. The Republic of Korea, Malaysia and the Philippines have specifically extended the applicability of their laws governing copyright protection to the online environment. However, only the Republic of Korea has expressly extended the applicability of its generic trademark protection by court decisions (Satola et al, 2004: pp.10–11). 7. All four countries address the issue of Internet banking through regulatory instruments that have various types of legal standing (circulars, notifications, guidelines, etc.) adopted by the respective national financial service regulators. To a varying extent, such regulatory instruments also address the issues of secure electronic payment systems by prescribing security policies and guidelines that banks must comply with when providing electronic banking services. Only the Philippines and Thailand have specifically extended the applicability of their national laws on anti-money laundering to cover electronic transactions (Satola et al, 2004: p.11). 8. None of the four countries have adopted any legislation or regulatory instruments imposing a tax on online transactions beyond traditional taxes such as sales tax at the origin of sale (Satola et al, 2004: p.11). 9. None of the four countries have imposed custom duties on online services at the point of consumption of services (Satola et al, 2004: p.11). 10. None of the four countries have adopted any legislation or rules addressing the choice or determination of jurisdiction and law governing an electronic transaction. General rules established for this purpose that are traditionally applicable to offline transactions would most likely be applied to the online environment, though it would probably be on a case-tocase basis (Satola et al, 2004: pp.11–12). 11. Malaysia is the only country that has adopted a comprehensive Computer Crimes Act. In addition, certain offline offences fall within the scope of penalty provisions under Malaysia’s communications and multimedia regulations. The Philippines and Thailand have already drafted cybercrime laws but these are at different stages in the legislative process. The Philippines and the Republic of Korea have specifically addressed certain aspects of cybercrime in their criminal codes, e-commerce enabling laws, other legislative instruments or in the case law. With respect to copyright offences, penalties are imposed for online copyright infringement in the countries that have copyright protection laws explicitly extending to the online environment (Satola et al, 2004: p.12). Table Sources: For more information on the cyber and e-commerce laws in the four countries, please refer to the following: Boonruang, Sasiwimon. 2000. “Electronic Commerce: Waiting for the Laws to Pass” in Bangkok Post 2000 Year-End Review. Available at http://www.bangkokpost.net/yereview2000/ecommerce2.html, accessed 14th May 2005. Endeshaw, Assafa. 2001. Internet and E-Commerce Law with a Focus on Asia Pacific. Singapore: Prentice Hall. Prud’homme, Pascale and Chira-aphakul, Hassana. “E-Commerce in Thailand: A Slow Awakening”. Available at http://www.thailawforum.com/articles/e-commerce.html, accessed 14th May 2005.

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United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific. 2004. “Harmonised Development of Legal and Regulatory Systems for E-Commerce in Asia and the Pacific: Current Challenges and Capacity-Building Needs”. Studies in Trade and Investment, No. 54. New York: UNESCAP.

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Annex 2 ICT Maturity Indicators, the Progress of E-commerce and Women’s Status: The Cases of Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand and South Korea

MALAYSIA Brief Historical Background For Malaysia, the critical role of information technology (IT) in its development is enshrined in the 7th Malaysia Plan (1996–2000), and was subsequently reflected in the formation of the National Information Technology Council (NITC) that strategically manages IT in the interest of the nation. With a population size of 25.86 million people in 200451, and a still very strong dependence on manufacturing (especially in electrical and electronic products, textiles and rubber-based products)52, the Malaysian government is committed to leveraging ICT as a key strategy for national development and global positioning. In 1996, Malaysia launched a programme called “Vision 2020”, which laid out what it saw as necessary in order to build a fully developed, knowledge-rich Malaysian society by the year 2020, i.e. development of the ICT sector and the use of ICT to increase global competitiveness. It is therefore important to take note of how Malaysia continues to develop programmes and incentives that would further advance the integration and use of ICTs in all sectors (with a more specific focus on education53, healthcare, government, commerce and manufacturing).54 In the area of ecommerce, Malaysia’s ICT policy does state the following intention: Special focus will be given towards promoting and encouraging the wider use of e-commerce as a new way of doing business through the digital network. The Government will also undertake measures to build trust and confidence in ecommerce including security and privacy for consumers. Infrastructure and logistical support, which encompass networks, payment systems and logistics, will also be provided to enhance the development of e-commerce. Business and communities will be encouraged to respond and participate actively in the development and the usage of e-commerce. 51

See “basic statistics” at http://www.cmc.gov.my/facts_figures/stats/index.asp. Yong, James S.L. (ed). 2003. E-Government in Asia: Enabling Public Service Innovation in the 21st Century. Singapore: Times Media Private Limited; p.177. 53 Three significant programmatic efforts in this area is the establishment of Malaysia’s Multimedia University, the Computer in Education (CIE) Programme which provided computer laboratories to 90 secondary schools and 20 primary schools, and the flagship application “Smart Schools”. In addition, there is TM School Online, a website hosted by TMNet which is dedicated to primary and secondary schools students between the ages of seven to 18, providing them with tutorials, chat rooms, and creative corners for their skill development. 54 For example, the MSC plan identified seven “Flagship Applications” for priority development, with various lead agencies involved such as the Malaysian Administrative Modernisation and Management Planning Unit (MAMPU) for e-government, the Central Bank of Malaysia for the Multi-Purpose Card, the Ministry of Education for the Smart Schools, the Ministry of Health for telehealth, the Ministry of Science, Technology and the Environment for the R&D cluster, the Ministry of International Trade and Industry for the Worldwide Manufacturing Web, and the Multimedia Development Corporation (MDC) for the borderless marketing centre. An eighth flagship of the MSC was added at the end of 2001. This was the Technopreneur Development flagship, meant to drive entrepreneurship in ICT and other high technology areas such as biotechnology. The MDC also acts as the lead agency in this flagship application. For more information, see Yong, 2003, pp.184–187. 52

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— Economic Planning Unit website55 In fact, the intent behind the Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC) has been to create a high-tech environment and infrastructure that can attract national and international investors and create spillover effects in the rest of the Malaysian economy. Deregulation of the telecommunications industry started relatively early, with the privatization of the government telecommunications department in 198756, and the formation of the National Telecommunications Policy (NTP) in 1994. The era of the Internet started in Malaysia in 1992, when the only Internet service provider (ISP) at the time, JARING, was connected to the Internet after a satellite link was installed between Malaysia and the USA. Infrastructure Today, Malaysia can boast of a telecommunications infrastructure that has been welldeveloped, first by the government through MIMOS57, and the private sectors through Telekom Malaysia, Time Telekom and Maxis. In line with the rapid technological development, under the 7th Malaysia Plan, the Malaysian government began to shift its emphasis from providing basic telephone to value-added services that included multimedia integration of voice, text, data, graphics and images. More licenses were issued to new operators to provide basic network and international gateways, and cellular services were further liberalized to enhance competition and efficiency in these services. In terms of teledensity, fixed telephone lines reached 22/100 of the population in the year 2001 (compared to 19% in 1997) while the corresponding figure for mobile phone is around 30/100 (compared to 8% in 1997).58 However, if we look at the fixed line figure of 22/100 for urban and rural situations separately, we will find a sharp difference in penetration i.e. 32/100 for urban locations and a mere 11/100 for rural areas.59 Nonetheless, the target of telephone lines penetration by the year 2020 is fixed at 50 telephones for every 100 persons, while that in the rural areas is 25 for every 100 persons. While the current teledensity is relative low, what is significant for Malaysia is that the growth in fixed lines is 15% while for mobile, it is increasing by 40%.60 Broadband subscribers in the meantime represented a penetration rate of 0.98% (as at 55

http://www.epu.jpm.my/New%20Folder/development%20policies/cont%20key%20policies/ict.htm The Malaysian Government’s Master Plan for the telecommunications industry provides guidelines for competition, interconnection charges, tariff rates and network development. At the end of 1995, all operators signed interconnection agreements with Telekom Malaysia (the privatized government telecommunications department of which to-date 43.9% of its shares is still owned by the Malaysian government) to provide seamless communication regardless of carrier, though most carriers have not signed agreements among themselves (see “National ICT Approaches: Malaysia Case Study” at http://www.opt-init.org/framework/pages/appendix3Case5.html). 57 It is important to note that MIMOS is using Telekom Malaysia’s line in providing the Internet services, whereas Time Telekom and Maxis have their own telecommunication infrastructures. 58 2001 figures were obtained from “Chapter 8: Malaysia—Advancing Public Administration into the Information Age” st in Yong, James S.L. (ed). 2003. E-Government in Asia: Enabling Public Service Innovation in the 21 Century. Singapore: Times Media Private Limited; pp. 179–180. Figures for 1997 were obtained from “Information and Communication Technologies—Impact on Population, Women and Development” written by Sharifah Norazizan bt.Syed Abd. Rashid, Musa bin Abu Hassan and Cecilia Ng. Chapter 7 in Our People, Our Future, edited by Tey Nai Peng and Wong Yut Lin, to be published by the Population Studies Unit, Faculty of Economics and Administration, University of Malaya (forthcoming, 2005). 59 Malaysia’s teledensity is still low compared to the west and high-income Asia-Pacific countries, but it is still more advanced when compared to its ASEAN neighbours, with the exception of Brunei Darussalam and Singapore. 60 CGAR, 1999–2001, cited in Yong, 2003: p.180. However, a visit to the Communication and Multimedia Commission website revealed that the growth rate of number of fixed lines is actually decreasing from year to year, and is currently suffering a negative growth rate (-2.8%), ending with a figure of 17.2% for the final quarter of 2004. Mobile phone penetration still enjoys a positive but lower growth rate of 29.9%, and as at the end of the fourth quarter 56

32

end of the fourth quarter of 2004) vis-à-vis a penetration rate of 12.7% for Internet dial-up users. Although the growth rate of dial-up subscribers is much lower compared to the early years of Internet access (i.e. 14.3% in 2004 vs. 97.6% in 1996), there was an increase in the growth rate from 2003 (10.2%) to 2004. By 2001, there was an average of 13 computers per 100 persons.61 However, much of the Internet usage in Malaysia is through corporate organisations and public access points (e.g. cybercafes). Despite strong governmental emphasis on multimedia and the MSC62, broadband usage levels are still relatively low, with only 252,501 subscribers as at end 2004. Apart from the business sector, few homes have broadband access but this is expected to change as the penetration rate doubled from 2003 to 2004, and grew five times over from 2002 to 2003. Political Commitment The Government of Malaysia plays a crucial role in the development of infrastructure for the growth of the Internet. For example, the budgetary allocation of more than RM1.44 billion (USD0.38 billion)63 was determined for computerization projects in order to achieve the goals of its 7th Malaysia Plan (1996–2000). In the Mid-Term Report of the 8th Malaysia Plan (2001– 2005), the total allocation is RM7.72 billion (USD2.03 billion), revised up from its original allocation of RM5.16 billion (USD1.36 billion).64 This represents an amazing increase of more than 400% in budgetary allocation over the original allocation in the 7th Malaysia Plan. Laws and Programmes The creation of the MSC was accompanied by special Cyberlaws, policies and practices tailored to enable smart partners to achieve maximum benefits from technology and multimedia. A number of incentives and projects are underway to foster entrepreneurship and business efficiency. The Malaysian government provides both financial and non-financial incentives to Malaysian businesses. Financial incentives include zero income tax for a period of ten years, R&D grants, and a 100% investment tax allowance on new investment in the MSC. Nonfinancial incentives include unrestricted employment of foreign knowledge workers, no restrictions on global capital and limited restrictions on ownership. To allay concerns of some investors, the Malaysian government created a Bill of Guarantees to apply within the MSC, providing for strong intellectual property protection, freedom from Internet censorship, freedom of ownership, competitive financial incentives, and competitive telecom tariff. The government also developed a more comprehensive national framework for electronic commerce and among the laws drafted or already passed, are those dealing with digital signatures, electronic contracts, computer crime, data protection and electronic government. E-commerce initiatives are helping to provide Malaysian businesses with more efficient access to input and product markets, both locally and globally. For example, MyBiz, an e-

of 2004, witnessed a penetration of 55.9%. See http://www.cmc.gov.my/facts_figures/stats/index.asp, accessed on th 16 May 2005. 61 The Economist, 2001; cited in Yong, 2003: p.180. 62 The MSC’s information superhighway contains a high-speed link (10 Gbps) that connects the MSC to Japan, ASEAN, the USA and Europe, and is capable of supporting extensive public administration, education and business applications. 63 The official pegged exchange rate of RM3.80 = USD1 is used here. 64 “Chapter 9: Information and Communications Technology” in Economic Planning Unit, Malaysia. 2003. Mid-term Review of the Eighth Malaysia Plan, http://www.epu.jpm.my/New%20Folder/development%20plan/midterm-RM8.htm, page 306.

33

commerce platform designed for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) helps facilitate the collaborative marketing by linking 300 companies including 26,000 employees in a business community network. A key flagship application of the MSC is the R&D Cluster. Recognising that R&D is a critical pillar in the achievement of Malaysia’s development goals, this flagship aimed to ensure that the MSC becomes an attractive location for companies seeking to develop next generation multimedia technologies and innovations. It tries to foster collaborative efforts among leading R&D firms, local universities and public research institutions, as well as supporting the growth of SMEs. The lead agency is the Ministry of Science, Technology and the Environment. The Malaysian government introduced the Demonstrator Application Grant Scheme (DAGS), which is intended to facilitate social and economic progress through the innovative use of ICT. The Malaysian government also launched two extensive projects namely the “Gerakan Desa Wawasan” (GDW) by the Rural Development Ministry and the “Internet Desa” by the Energy, Communications and Multimedia Ministry, in order to raise awareness and acceptance as well as increase usage of the computer and access to the Internet in the rural areas. Started in 1996, the GDW project provides computer facilities to village development and security committees in assisting them to administer their villages. This project successfully introduced ICT to 995 villages in Malaysia. The Internet Desa, which was launched in 2000, set up ICT infrastructures in post offices, providing information on government services, local events and free electronic mail and Internet facilities. To enhance Government to Business exchanges (B2G commerce), Malaysia established “e-Perolehan”, an electronic procurement system on which suppliers maintain product and pricing informationf or access by government buyers.65 By the end of 2002, around 500 government procurement centres around the capital Kuala Lumpur were e-Perolehan enabled. Suppliers who register with e-Perolehan can gain access to a variety of benefits including putting up their product catalogues online, processing purchase orders and receiving payment from government agencies via the Internet and submitting quotations.66 User Profile A study by Sinnappan (1999)67 on Internet users found that 98.5% of the respondents were aged 30 years and younger. More than two-thirds (72.8%) of the respondents had a diploma or a bachelor’s degree. Almost 70% were males and nine out of ten respondents (93.4%) were single. In terms of occupation, 64% of the respondents reported that they were students, 22% said they were executives, 9.6% were middle management, and 7.4% were supporting staff. Women and ICT Statistics have shown that women’s representation in the IT sector is low where women constitute only 30% of the total workforce in IT companies. Of the number, only 21% are in the management level while 28% are executives. While teleworking has been singled out as a

65

Website of this Electronic Procurement system is located at www.eperolehan.com.my. Yong, 2003, p.175. 67 Cited in “Information and Communication Technologies—Impact on Population, Women and Development” written by Sharifah Norazizan bt.Syed Abd. Rashid, Musa bin Abu Hassan and Cecilia Ng. Chapter 7 in Our People, Our Future, edited by Tey Nai Peng and Wong Yut Lin, to be published by the Population Studies Unit, Faculty of Economics and Administration, University of Malaya (forthcoming, 2005). 66

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means to promote women’s participation in the labour force68 under the Malaysian government’s vision to achieve the K-Economy69, it is still to early to tell if teleworking will help to bring about gender equality or further perpetuate and exacerbate existing imbalances in power, decisionmaking, choice and the distribution of domestic work and care-giving responsibilities.70 Without properly addressing women’s needs for job security and promotional opportunities for better self-development and skill-building, there is a good chance that through teleworking, women will find themselves relegated to work that is repetitive, requires lower level of technical skills and has less promotional possibilities. Women and Entrepreneurship Various schemes were implemented to encourage more women to become entrepreneurs and to upgrade their skills. The Special Assistance Scheme for Women Entrepreneurs was reviewed and expanded to be more flexible and provide for easier access to the various facilities offered by the Malaysian government. Under this scheme, assistance was provided for technology acquisition or upgrading, relocation of businesses, equipment purchase and training. Companies that qualified to obtain assistance under this scheme had a minimum of 51% equity being held by women. In instances where women did not hold the majority equity, the largest single shareholder had to be a woman or where the Managing Director or the Chief Executive Officer was a woman, she had to own a minimum equity share of 10%. These companies were involved in the manufacturing and service sectors. A total of 21 companies benefited from this scheme and successfully obtained approval for the purchase of high technology equipment. In addition, soft loans were also provided to assist companies/enterprises owned and operated by women in modernizing and automating their operations. In this regard, both existing as well as start-up companies were eligible for project, fixed assets and working capital financing. A total of 58 companies was successful in obtaining soft loans through this programme. In an effort to further assist women in becoming entrepreneurs various training courses were implemented. These included courses in business management, marketing, sales, packaging and labelling. In addition, for women interested in the manufacturing sector, courses in good manufacturing practices and business networking were conducted. To supplement the income of women, weaving and handicraft workshops were established and training was provided to assist women in setting up small businesses. A total of 362,139 women benefited from these programmes. In addition, a specific programme was launched to provide training and guidance to new women entrepreneurs under the Micro-Credit Scheme of Bank Simpanan National (BSN). A total of 1,500 women benefited from this training programme. In all of these efforts, special attention is given to single mothers.

68 Although women account for nearly half of the working age population, their participation in the labour force is relatively low. 69 Even as the private sector will be further encouraged to provide the necessary support facilities such as child care centres, housing and transportation for their women employees, the Malaysian government is intent on amdending the Employment Act 1955 to include new and flexible working arrangements such as teleworking, part-time work and job sharing. 70 Many recognize teleworking as a means to meet women’s practical gender needs i.e. to help ensure that she’s better able to deliver on expectations of her as wife, mother, sister and/or daughter. However, as Swasti Mitter (2000) says, teleworking does not challenge the existing gender inequity in the home or the prevailing stereotypes that domestic work is essentially women’s work (see Sharifah Norazizan, Musa and Ng, forthcoming 2005). The notion that as long as women are at home, they are not working (contributed by the irony that domestic work is unrecognized as productive work) only further exacerbates a woman’s situation at home and the demand of her time to be flexible to everyone else’s needs can be overwhelming.

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Women, National Development Data and the National Budget71 In an effort to introduce gender awareness in all aspects of development, including policy, planning and budgeting, a pilot project to introduce the gender perspective in the national budget process was introduced in five ministries. In addition, to ensure the systematic collection and compilation of gender-disaggregated data72 to facilitate analysis, create awareness and formulate appropriate and effective follow-up action on gender issues, a prototype of a gender disaggregated information system was set up.73 However, it is interesting to note that in the revised allocation for social development programmes for the 8th Malaysia Plan period, the MidTerm Report shows an increase of 62.7% or a total revised amount of RM25.4 billion (USD6.68 billion). This revised allocation constitutes 15.9% of the total development budget, but only RM1.12 billion (USD0.29 billion) is allocated specifically for the “Community & Family Development” budgetline, which includes expenditures for women and youth programmes.74

PHILIPPINES Brief Historical Background The Philippines prides itself as a global centre for knowledge workers, with a deep pool of engineers, workers skilled in information technology and competent managers. According to a Metricnet survey, the country’s weakest area was in its “lack of investment in research and development, poor utilization of computer resources, weak process management, unavailability of venture capital and low overall productivity”.75 In 1997, following the pattern of Malaysia’s and India’s development plans, the Government of the Philippines formulated its “IT Agenda for the 21st Century”, with an aim to build a national infrastructure to provide access to “every business, every agency of government, every school and every home” and make the Philippines Asia’s Knowledge Centre through information technology. In July 2000, a high-level governmental body known as the Information Technology and Electronic Commerce Council (ITECC) was formed under the Office of the President. ITECC is mandated harness the potentials of ICTs in transforming the Philippines into a knowledge-based economy. Infrastructure Available data about access to the Internet indicates that the digital divide is very real in the country with only 2% of the population with Internet connection. While there is very little data to differentiate women’s and men’s access, it is safe to assume that women’s access to the

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Farida Habib Shah (2004) provides a more thorough description of women’s status in Malaysia in relation to where they are in the economic system in relation to areas of employment, levels of employment, proportion of university graduates and fields of study (see Farida, 2004. pp.148–149). 72 It is unclear to what extent this systematic collection and compilation of data would include qualitative gender equality indicators. If data is collected and disaggregated based on the traditional categories of men and women (biologically male and female), this would in effect be sex-disaggregated data. 73 “Chapter 12: Social Development” in Economic Planning Unit, Malaysia. 2003. Mid-term Review of the Eighth Malaysia Plan, http://www.epu.jpm.my/New%20Folder/development%20plan/midterm-RM8.htm; p.410. 74 It used to be that approximately RM50 million (or USD13.2 million) of the national budget would be allocated annually for womenspecific programmes, while the government agency was still just the Department of Women’s Affairs. See Forward Looking Agenda to Mainstream Gender Equality website, at http://www.moge.go.kr/eng/regional_meeting/paper02.html. Accessed on 1st June, 2005. 75 Rubin Systems Inc, www.metricnet.com; cited in UNESCAP, 2002, p.19.

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Internet is marginal.76 There is a rise in the number of homes with fixed telephone lines, from 3.3% in 1991 to 14% in 2000. Mobile growth though is a lot faster with 8.5 million subscribers as of June 2001 and with 15-20 million projected as potential subscribers in the next few years. Mobile subscribers outnumber PC users by a ratio of 4:1.77 Reliable figures of Internet subscribers do not exist. However, data collected by ISPs indicate that public locations like schools and Internet cafes (estimated at over 5,000) provide the major access points for most Filipinos.78 Political Commitment (Information not accessible)

Laws and Programmes Since 1997, succeeding governments have enacted a number of legislations to solidify the country’s IT policy framework. In 2000, the Philippines legislated its electronic commerce law through the enactments of the Philippines Electronic Act 2000 (E-Commerce Act 2000), thus paving the way for the full proliferation of e-commerce in the country. The provisions included mandating government agencies to be e-commerce ready within the following two years. Liberalisation in investments took place, thereby encouraging foreign investors to help boost up the economy. Under Philippine laws, non-Filipino nationals are allowed 100 per cent ownership of investments in education and manpower development, and telecommunications infrastructure. Special economic zones such as information technology parks have also been encouraged since 1991. However, the strategic framework of IT development of the Philippines is silent on gender issues and considerations. Nor have there been proactive measures to address IT-related issues and needs of women via this overall IT development strategy. To the Philippines credit, relatively strong initiatives are in place in the area of IT education and training, which provide opportunities for gender equality advocacy in government policies, pertaining to human resource development in the IT sector.79 As a result, education is one sector where Philippine women enjoy almost equal status to men, but women and men are still stereotyped into fields and occupations that continue to permeate within the educational system and the work place.80 User Profile According to the Internet World Stats, the number of Internet users in the Philippines is around 2 million people or 1.1% of its population.81 Yet, the Philippines takes pride in being the world’s richest source of qualified knowledge workers, with an impressive pool of engineers, skilled IT workers and competent senior managers. The Philippines is home to over 100,000 IT professionals, 99% of whom are English proficient college graduates and 35% of whom are the software development sector. Over 10,000 IT personnel work in international installation abroad. 76

Ricafort, Nona 2. 2005. “Advices from Experiences in Doing E-Business in the Philippines”. Paper presented at the E-Business th th and Opportunities for Women in Asia Pacific Seminar, 28 to 30 March 2005, Bangkok, Thailand. 77 See Ricafort, 2005. 78 “Pinoy Internet: Philippine Case Study”, International Telecommunication Union, Geneva, Switzerland, March 2002. 79 The Philippines is the second among Asian countries in terms of the largest number of training facilities for computer programming and computer-related courses (UNESCAP, 2002: p. 28). 80 http://www.ncrfw.gov.ph/ncrfw/education.html 81 See “Philippines—ICT Use in Education” by Ms. Tian Belawati. Available at http://66.102.7.104/search?q=cache:hHdw0RPZXyEJ:www.unescobkk.org/fileadmin/user_upload/ict/Metasurvey/philippines.pdf+wo st men+and+ict+stats+in+philippines&hl=en, accessed on 1 June 2005.

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According to an AC Nielsen Survey conducted in 2001, Internet users are skewed towards middle and upper classes and concentrated in metro Manila and other urban centres. The survey also revealed that three out of every four users are 29 years of age and below.82 Women and ICT Cisco Networking Academy is one of the more active agencies in the Philippines which has supported the gender initiative of the Philippines, and their report83 is substantiated by a report from the UNESCO written in 2001 which states that the Philippine women outnumber the men in the use of the Internet, and represent the highest number of women users in Asia. Women and Entrepreneurship (Information not available)

Women, National Development Data and the National Budget The National Commission on the Role of Filipino Women (NCRFW) together with other government agencies and NGOs formulated the Philippine Plan for Gender Responsive Development (PPGRD) 1995–2025, a 30-year perspective plan which identifies gender issues and strategies across all sectors including women's health and special concerns of women in prostitution and migration; violence against women; media, arts and culture; family and workplace. The Framework Plan for Women (2001–2004) a time slice of PPGRD focuses on upholding women's rights, promoting their economic empowerment and gender responsive governance. The Plan serves as guide for government agencies to ensure that policies, programs and projects promote gender equality through gender mainstreaming. The National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) together with NCRFW developed the document "Mainstreaming Gender in Development Planning: Framework and Guidelines" which aims to guide development planners on ways of mainstreaming gender in every phase of the development planning process. It provides guideposts on how gender as a cross cutting issue can be situated in the different sectoral chapters of the Medium Term Philippine Development Plan (MTPDP) 2001–2004. The PPGRD for 1995–2025 provides the framework for policies, programmes and projects in making women and men equal participants and beneficiaries of development. The plan also identifies prevailing gender issues in all sectors (trade, education, credit, RH, etc) and addresses them through collaboration between government and civil society. NCRFW is responsible for managing the PPGRD. Financial support for gender and development (GAD) activities is institutionalized through the General Appropriations Act (GAA) wherein all agencies are mandated to set aside 5% of their total budget for gender-related activities.

REPUBLIC OF KOREA Brief Historical Background The advanced state of South Korea’s ICT scene today is a result of the fast and relentless initiatives taken by the government and the business sector to infuse a mindset of technology 82 83

See Ricafort, 2005. http://gender.ciscolearning.org/bestpractices/asiapac/

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adoption into the society. This is an impressive achievement considering that the country was engulfed by social unrest and anarchy until the late 1980s when efforts towards industrialization started to take hold. The Republic of Korea’s efforts to enter the digital age can be traced back to 1987, when the National Basic Information System Plan (NBIS) was launched to promote the computer industry. The focus on the computerization of the public sector provided the initial markets that helped to lay the foundations for the development of an IT industry. The government-led efforts were also expected to raise the awareness of the private sector in the application of IT in their business operations. Covering the period up to 1996, the NBIS resulted in the establishment of a wide range of independent data networks via the 1st and 2nd Public Business Networking Projects. These networks supported services in the areas of People Identification, Land Registry, Vehicle Registry, Customs-Clearance management, Fishing Boat Management, Post Office, Industry Property Rights Management, Meteorological Information, Office Supplies Catalogue Management, Economy and Trade, Agriculture Technique Management, Environment Protection and Inland Revenue. The telecommunications industry was deregulated in 1990 to further accelerate the development of the information industry. In 1994, the government set up a Korean Information Infrastructure (KII) Policy Committee to consolidate the various disparate networks and create a nationwide high-speed information infrastructure. The approach was to use both government and private funding to build an advanced information network, and to develop core applications such as electronic governance services, remote medical care, and distance learning. To forge better collaboration between the public and private sectors, a KII Task Force was also established with representation from both sectors as well as academia. The enactment of the Framework on Informatization Promotion Act in 1995 led to the formulation of the Informatization Promotion master plan which was released by the Ministry of Information and Communications in June 1996. To support the plan, the Informatization Planning Office, Informatization Planning Committee and Information Promotion Fund were also established. The master plan outlined the projects that would result in the early establishment of KII, lay the infrastructure for the information and communications industry to flourish and called for spending almost 70 billion won on networks and applications. Guidelines for these projects were encapsulated in ten priority tasks which included the importance of e-government, educational information and research, national security and disaster management.84 In order to further spur the country’s economy out of the crippling foreign exchange crisis, in March 1999, the government of the Republic of Korea revised the existing Basic Plan for Expediting Information Age and established “Cyber Korea 21” as the second master plan for informatization promotion.85 This second master plan focused on creating the framework for a knowledgebased society, and to improve national competitiveness and the quality of life to the level of the advanced nations. Relevant statutes and systems were also considered for streamlining to accommodate the speed at which the information industry was evolving. The government also supported these industries by introducing knowledge-based management techniques to facilitate the adoption of new technology trends and to boost national productivity. By 2002, the knowledge-based industry was contributing a similiar proportion to the GDP as that of other OECD member nations and South Korea was its way to becoming one of the top ten information societies in the world.

84 For a more detailed listing of the ten priority tasks, see Yong, S.L. James and Tan, Jeffery B.H. 2003. “e-Korea: High Bandwidth, High Growth”, in Yong, 2003: p.156. 85 The lead agency for implementing “Cyber Korea 21” which advocates that all South Koreans regardless of age, sex, region and income should have the opportunity to use computers and the Internet, is the Ministry of Information and Communication.

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The government of the Republic of Korea set out the third master plan in April 2002 to meet the new challenges of the evolving information landscape, as well as to carry out continual reforms in the nation as a whole. The e-Korea Vision 2006 master plan has a strong focus on qualitative accomplishments such as increasing productivity through legal and institutional reforms. Beyond the quantitative expansion of the Internet, the plan also calls for innovation in business processes throughout the society. Infrastructure South Koreans have been reported to spend more time in front of the computers than in front of the television.86 It was only in the early 1980s that the Republic of Korea’s fixed line penetration rate stood at a mere 7%. In 2002, the country’s fixed line penetration rate stood at over 50% with 23 million subscribers while mobile telephone subscribers reached 30.3 million (or 60% of its 46 million people). In relation to Internet mobile subscribers using 3G, there were over 7 million by the middle of 2002, and the number of Internet users totaled 25.6 million (68% of the population) with ten million households connected by then. The Republic of Korea, having successfully built a broadband Internet network covering 144 regions around the country, experienced tremendous growth in its broadband subscribers, from 4.1 million in 2000 to 10.4 million households by 2002, more than 70% of all households in the country.87 The rapid adoption of broadband in South Korea has been driven by a confluence of factors, and five forces are particularly significant.88 These are: 1) a high percentage of households have PCs, an outcome of incentives provided to PC makers to offer inexpensive models and by requiring all public schools to offer computer training; 2) subscription and connection fees are relatively low; 3) users get to test-drive broadband services in “PC rooms” or Internet cafes; 4) highly popular applications have been developed that build on broadband’s unique features (e.g. games such as NCsoft’s “Lineage” and Nexus’ “Kingdom of the Winds”; and 5) government policies have been supportive. The Republic of Korea aims to have 13.5 million broadband subscribers and to reach every household by 2005. The country today is regarded as one of the leading nations in telecommunication services and has one of the world’s highest penetration of mobile and Internet users, higher even than that of the USA. Political Commitment Cyber Korea 21 is expected to require an investment of US$23 billion over 4 years in the hope of creating one million new jobs and US$100 billion worth of new production. Laws and Programmes In 1999, the Women Business Ownership Supporting Law was enacted, which provides a legal basis for a variety of active support programmes promoting women-owned enterprises’ start-up, business management and general operations. The policies and programmes for supporting women-owned SMEs are organized by the Korea Small Medium Business Administration and 86 In a January 2001 Nielsen survey, South Koreans were found to be the most avid Internet surfers in the Asia Pacific region (Yong, S.L. James and Tan, Jeffery B.H. 2003. “e-Korea: High Bandwidth, High Growth”, in Yong, 2003: p.153). See also Elkington, Henry; Kwon, Harry; and Victor, Bob. 2002. “Lessons from South Korea: When Broadband Meets the Mass Market”, BCG Publications, The Boston Consulting Group, available at http://www.bcg.com/publications/publication_view.jsp?pubID=746&language=English, st accessed on 21 April 2005. 87 Park, Jongchan. 2004. “Current Issues and Developments of Privacy Protection in the Republic of Korea” in UNESCAP Studies in Trade and Investment, No. 54: p.115. 88 Elkington, Henry; Kwon, Harry; and Victor, Bob. 2002. “Lessons from South Korea: When Broadband Meets the Mass Market”, BCG Publications, The Boston Consulting Group, available at st http://www.bcg.com/publications/publication_view.jsp?pubID=746&language=English, accessed on 21 April 2005.

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the matter of governmental procurement is dealt with by the Public Procurement Service. The Korea Women Entrepreneur Association is dedicated to improving the interests of businesswomen and their business activities. Non-profit organisations such as the Korea IT Women Business Association and the Korea Women Venture Association also implement training programmes for women entrepreneurs and conduct research on women-owned businesses. A number of financial supporting programmes are also in place which focus on facilitating business start-ups by women. User Profile89 As at December 2001, 24.38 million South Koreans (56.6% of the total population) over the age of 7, accessed the Internet at least once a month on average. 93.3% of all South Koreans, between the ages of 7 and 19 used the Internet, making this the most active Internet user age group. The second most active Internet user age group was young adults in their 20s, at 84.6% usage. In general, there were less women than men accessing the Internet, with women representing about 44% of total Internet users (2001). Highest access to the Internet was from the home (61% in 2001) compared to the office at 16.3%, school 6.6% and Internet café and game rooms 12.6%. Women and ICT90 In the Republic of Korea, women comprise 38% of college and university students and 16% of university faculty. Women make up half of college and university graduates, and 35% of IT jobs are held by women, while 47% of all women are employed. However, although almost half of the country’s college graduates are women, only 54% participate in the workforce. Women make up 45% of Internet users but women hold 35% of the country’s information technology positions. Women are starting to enter the IT sector as entrepreneurs. Women and Entrepreneurship The 2002 Provisional Report on the Census on Basic Characteristics of Establishment by Korea National Statistical Office (KNSO) shows that the number of women-owned businesses in South Korea was about 1.12 million out of a total of 3.13 million firms or about 36%. Women entrepreneurs were found more to be in the business of lodging and restaurants (39.7%), wholesale and retail sale (30.1%) with more than half involved in two industries. An additional 24.5% of firms are in services and the rest are in mining, manufacturing and construction, etc. Most women-owned businesses are small-sized, with fewer than five employees. This means that there is a high proliferation of small-sized companies in South Korea and these are largely owned by women. Approximately 20% of all Internet users in Korea are identified as B2C ecommerce users. However, out of women-owned enterprises, 65.8% are not using the computer for their businesses, yet PC ownership out of the total of women-owned enterprises is a high rate of 76.5%.91 Women, National Development Data and the National Budget

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Statistics obtained from “E-Commerce Korea”, prepared by the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Energy. Statistics obtained from http://gender.ciscolearning.org/Strategies/Strategies_by_Region/Asia_Pacific/Korea/Index.html. Gyu ok Kim (2004) points out that women are less inclined to use technology when she analyses the differing inclinations between male and female CEOs, and this lack of ease with technology is further reinforced by the poor economic participation of women as CEOs—the number of female CEOs vis-à-vis their male counterparts is very small, only 4.2% compared to 95.8%. 90 91

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The Presidential Commission on Women's Affairs (PCWA) was established in 1998 as the central hub connected to women's focal points in six key ministries with gender related responsibilities. It participates in cabinet meetings, although lacking full ministerial status. The Commission was replaced by the Ministry of Gender Equality (MOGE) in 2001—a full fledged ministry with 102 staff and a 32 billion won budget. Divided into four divisions: planning and policy coordination, gender equality promotion, women's rights promotion and cooperation (with NGOs and international agencies), it has six women focal points.

THAILAND Brief Historical Background Internet access was first introduced in Thailand in 1991 as an academic research network.92 By 2002, there were 18 commercial Internet serviced providers, 4 non-commercial Internet hubs, and 2 domestic Internet exchanges. The spread of broadband access was delayed by high costs that were partly related to the nature of the Thai telecommunications market due to an archaic regulation that forbade private enterprises from directly providing telecommunication infrastructure. It was during the 1980s that IT adoption surged in the private sector of Thailand, driven by business needs as the country experienced rapid economic growth. However, during the same period, IT usage in the public sector was slow by comparison. In the early 1980s, computers were visible but not widely used as they were expensive and incomprehensible for most Thais, due to the lack of Thai language software and the lack of computer standardization.93 In 1992, the National Information Technology Committee (NITC) was initiated as a policy body to oversee the national IT policy direction in Thailand. To facilitate IT development in the country, the National Electronics and Computer Technology Centre (NECTEC) was established. Since their creation, both NITC and NECTEC have led a number of initiatives to address national issues in IT development, despite budget constraints and issues of inconsistency in local government funding. By the early 1990s, Thailand was able to retain its cultural identity over the Internet with the establishment of IT standards on Thai character codes for computers.94 In 1996, Thailand’s IT 2000 National IT Policy was drafted and three major areas were addressed within this policy i.e. the building of the national infrastructure, investing in IT-capable human resource development, and achieving good governance through the use of IT in rendering public services and government administration.95 While several development projects were achieved as planned under IT 2000, Thailand’s economy and society had also changed rapidly, severely affected by the financial crisis and economic crash of 1997, and several other external factors resulting from dynamic global changes. By the turn of the millennium, a new IT policy was developed in alignment with the national development agenda as specified in the Ninth National Economic and Social Development Plan by NECTEC. This was the national IT

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This was the result of collaborative efforts in early 1988 between the Australian International Development Plan (IDP) with the Prince of Songkla University (PSU), the Asian Institute of Technology (AIT) and Chulalonghorn University (CU) to set up the first email computer network in Thailand (Palasari et al, 1999; cited in Gray and Sanzogni, 2004). 93 Obstacles that hindered further development of the Internet in Thailand included PTO monopoly, political instability, language barriers, insufficient Thai language software, a lack of well-trained engineers, and a general human resource shortage of IT professionals (Palasari et al., 1999; cited in Gray and Sanzogni, 2004). 94 See www.nectec.or.th cited in Gray and Sanzogni (2004) for a more detailed listing. 95 The Thai Government did not readily acknowledge the importance of the Internet as quickly as others did. In fact, they reacted quite negatively to the country’s shortage of human resources in IT by limiting the access to the Internet to state academic institutions and Government agencies (Palasari et al., 1999; cited in Gray and Sanzogni, 2004).

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policy for the years 2001 to 2009 known as IT 2010.96 IT 2010 focused not on technological development per se but more on the appropriate use of IT to drive balanced economic and social development progess in the context of a self-sufficient economy, to improve the quality of life of its major rural populations, and to reduce social disparity in Thai society to a minimum. To achieve its goals, IT 2010 identified five main flagships of e-Government, e-Education, eCommerce, e-Society and e-Industry which would be supported by efforts in telecommunications infrastructure development, information development, IT literacy, IT, and research and development. To complement the IT 2010 Framework and to help reduce concerns that the ten-year time frame was too long and might hamper the country’s responsiveness to the latest technological developments, Thailand developed its National ICT Master Plan (2002–2006) which was approved in September 2002. The Master Plan is expected to be revised each year to keep up with the rapid pace of ICT development, and a new five-year Master Plan will be developed in 2006 as follow-up. Subsequent to the approval of the national ICT master plan, over 280 government agencies submitted their ICT operation plans to the Cabinet in December 2002. The integrated ICT operation plans were then put forward together with a proposal to set up an e-Government sub-committee. Infrastructure97 As of June 2002, Thailand had 6.2 million fixed lines (6.9 million fixed lines as of March 2004), a teledensity of 9.8%, and 12.6 million mobile phones (18.6 million mobile users as of March 2004). PC penetration was a mere 2.4%. Most users connect to the Internet via dial-up modem, while business users are offered ADSL or cable modem options by some service providers. As of 2002, it was estimated that there were only around 5,000 broadband subscribers in Bangkok metropolitan area. The Internet user base in Thailand is approximately 3.5 million (6.97 million as of March 2004, of which 29% are located in Bangkok alone) or 6% of the total population. It is important to note that this may not be an accurate estimate because of the widespread use of prepaid Internet accounts. Many subscribers have more than one prepaid card. Internet access in Thailand is also available at most secondary schools in the country, through wireless LAN at a few private universities in Bangkok, but public access is mainly through Internet cafes which are increasingly emerging in major urban centres and other parts of the country. Internet access has also been greatly facilitated through the introduction of Wi-Fi hotspots around business centres and exploitable point-of-access places such as hotels, airports, condominiums, etc. One particularly significant resource that is being continuously developed is in the form of the Thai satellite system. With this system, Thailand is not only able to reach into its remote areas but also sell its services abroad.98 However, penetration into rural areas is still very low. 96 A more wholistic approach was adopted in the development of the new IT policy. Several research projects were set up to assess the impact of and lessons learnt from the IT 2000 Policy, to analyse various situations in the IT industry in Thailand, to review IT utilization in the private sector, and to study the national IT policy development in other countries (see Yong, James S.L. and Phureesitr, Poranee. 2003. “Thailand: e-Government for Public Service Reform” in Yong, 2003: p.274). 97 2004 figures were obtained from “ICT Uptake: 2004—Thailand in the Information Age”, prepared by the National Electronics and Computer Technology Center of the National Science and Technology Development Agency in the Ministry of Science and Technology, and the National Statistical Office in the Ministry of Information and Communications Technology. Available online at: th http://iir.ngi.nectec.or.th/, accessed on 14 May 2005. 98 The Shin Satellite Public Company was established in 1991 and is a subsidiary of Shin Corporations also operating in Cambodia and Laos as different companies. Shin Corporations now has four satellites in geo-stationary orbit and is engaged in various bodies for television broadcasts, Internet connections and communication links. Its satellites have a collective footprint that covers Asia, Australia, Africa, The Middle East and most of Europe. Although the satellite system would provide the opportunity to reach rural households and ensure better penetration of services, with the launch of its newest satellite, iPSTAR and driven by corporate

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There are only two telephone lines for every 100 people in Thailand’s poorest region in the north-east. There are only five lines for every 100 people in the north, and seven lines for every 100 people in the central region. This compares with 36 lines per 100 people in Bangkok. Roughly, ten thousand of Thailand’s 70,000 villages still have not telephone access at all.99 The figures for the distribution of Internet access are even more striking where at least 91% of Internet users are urban. Political Commitment (Information not available)

Laws and Programmes In October 2002, under the Bureaucratic Restructuring Act, the Post and Telegraph Department (PTD), the Communications Authority of Thailand (CAT) and the TOT Corporation Public Company Limited were brought under the auspices of the new Ministry of Information and Communication Technology (MICT). This new ministry is charged with formulating ICT policies and plans, promoting and developing ICT activities and the implementation of national ICT projects. Laws pertaining to e-commerce, computer crime, privacy (in a limited way) and information infrastructure are being considered by the Thai government. These laws are the Electronic Transactions Law; Electronic Signatures Law; Electronic Funds Transfer Law; Computer Crimes Law; Data Protection Law; and the National Information Infrastructure Law. The Electronic Transactions Law and the Electronic Signatures Law were combined into the Electronic Transactions Act 2001 and were implemented on April 3rd, 2002. The others in the form of bills are now being considered. User Profile Another survey that was carried out by NECTEC in December 2001 on visits to six popular Thai language websites gives more specific sex-disaggregated data on Thai Internet users.100 This survey found that women using the net have surpassed men by 2.4% (women users 51.2% while men users were 48.8%). However, this is not a full picture of Internet users in Thailand since the data samples were purposively targeted at the young generation (through the selection of the type of popular web sites). The fact that 76% of the same sample users are single women and mostly under 29 years old suggests that this group of women users will soon become smaller when they are older and get more involved in family commitments. Women and ICT (Information not available)

interests, Thailand is now able to target the Australian market offering telephony and broadband services to up to one million homes by early 2004. (Gray, Heather and Sanzogni, Louis. 2004. “Technology Leapfrogging in Thailand: Issues for the Support of eCommerce Infrastructure”. EJISDC (2004), Vol.16, No.3, pp.1–26. Also available at: http://www.ejisdc.org). 99 Gray and Sanzogni, 2004. 100 See “Gender Justice: Digitally Empowered Women through Information Technology” by Wilasinee Phiphitkul and Jarupa Sodarak. Available at http://64.233.187.104/search?q=cache:9WvVLhhsGXsJ:www.wsisasia.org/ st

materials/wil.doc+women+and+ict+in+thailand&hl=en, accessed on 1 June 2005.

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Women and Entrepreneurship (Information not available)

Women, National Development Data and the National Budget The National Commission of Women's Affairs (NCWA) is under the Office of the Prime Minister. To institutionalize and sustain gender integration across all governmental agencies, the government approved the establishment of the Gender Equality Offices (GEOs) and Gender Focal Points in every level of the ministries in 2001. As a first stage, all 20 ministries and 122 bureaus have established the GEOs, set up gender equality centers and formulated master plans for promoting gender equality in their agencies. Thailand has special funds for gender/women's programmes.

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