Building e-community centres for rural development : report of the regional workshop : Bali, Indonesia, 8-14 December, 2004

Economic and social commission for Asia and the Pacific Asian development bank institute

During the last decade information and communications technology (ICT) has experienced unprecedented growth, which has facilitated greater flow of resources, including monetary capital, physical goods, human resources, and most importantly, information. ICT helps people to communicate effectively, overcoming the limitations of time and space, empowers people by providing information and knowledge, provides income generating and learning opportunities, increases government transparency and efficiency, and enables people to express their concerns and to actively participate in decision-making processes.
ICT penetration and application vary significantly across the region that makes the benefits of ICT not universal, leading to the creation of the digital divide between and within countries. Therefore, the challenges faced by various stakeholders and international organizations are to narrow the digital gap and create digital opportunities by providing people with equitable, affordable, quality and universal access to ICT.
The community e-centre (CeC) or telecentre is one way of providing access to ICT to rural communities. CeCs provide access to telephones, faxes, computers, the Internet, photocopiers and other equipment and services. They enable communities to access new knowledge and information that can be incorporated with local knowledge. Examples of services of such centres include provision of information on job and employment opportunities, education information, government services (e.g. providing links to e-government) and technical information on agriculture for their daily lives such as information on new varieties, planting techniques, and disease prevention. In these ways, they serve as "virtual roads" or communication highways. Some Centres are used as training centres for local people to learn computer and ICT skills. The staff are typically used as intermediary persons to find information. Many CeCs are located in schools and libraries where information services can be easily offered CeCs can also be used for commercial transactions by small, medium and micro enterprises by setting up e-business web sites.