A Relevant Excerpt from the Speech of Minister Yoshiro Mori

At the Conference Dinner for the "Sixth International Conference on the Future of Asia"

Hosted by Nihon Keizai Shimbun, 8 June 2000

"Of the four fields, I believe that Asia has tremendous potential for development especially in the field of information and telecommunications. I understand that this Conference on 'The Future of Asia' also includes discussions on the IT Revolution. Recognizing that information technology will gain importance as the key to prosperity in both developed and developing countries in the midst of globalization, which is expected to gain momentum as we move further into the 21st century, at the Kyushu-Okinawa Summit, we would like to exchange views on ways to

make the benefits of the IT Revolution available to all of us. As the chair of the Group of Eight, Japan intends to exercise leadership in the cooperation with developing countries, and in this sense, I wish to put together a package of comprehensive assistance measures comprising four pillars. The first is intellectual assistance for policy formulation and institution building while promoting the awareness that IT holds opportunities for developing countries as well as developed ones. The second is assistance for human resources development, focusing on programs of training and education. The third is assistance for building the infrastructure and networks for information and telecommunications. And the fourth is promotion of utilization of IT through development aid.

"Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong of Singapore is advocating the e-ASEAN initiative and its expanded version - e-Asia Initiative - which includes the neighboring Asian countries in the region. I think that active promotion of these plans will be instrumental in bringing prosperity to Asia in the new century. Japan intends to cooperate actively in the e-Asia Initiative through steps such as assistance for the training of IT personnel and rule-making of electronic commerce, and would like to have consultations with ASEAN at the earliest possible timing."