..Press Release................................ UNESCAP News Services

Date: 27 March 2009
Note to Editor: N/12/2009

UN teams up with Indonesia to develop urgently needed ICT training in the country

First four workshops in national language to take place in Bali and Jakarta

Bangkok (UN/ ESCAP Information Services) -- The United Nations will start next week a series of training workshops for Indonesian government officials aimed at equipping them with the knowledge and skills to fully utilize information and communication technology (ICT) for national development.

According to the government, Indonesia will need more than 300,000 personnel for the ICT industry by 2010. However, the ICT and Computer Higher Education Association of Indonesia says the country currently produces only about 20,000 ICT graduates every year.

The United Nations Asian and Pacific Training Centre for Information and Communication Technology for Development (APCICT) has been collaborating with the University of Indonesia and the Indonesian Ministry of Communication and Information Technology (MCIT) to find ways to boost training for ICT professionals. The first national workshop will be held in Bali, 30 March - 2 April, for heads of ICT agencies of local governments.

An Indonesian national language version of the Academy of ICT Essentials for Government Leaders (Academy) - APCICT’s core curriculum – will be used for the workshop.

The Academy consists of eight core modules that begin with ICT basics and build up to more advanced ICT for development topics. The workshop will focus on two of the eight Academy modules - on the linkages between ICT and the Millennium Development Goals; and ICT for development policy, process and governance. Three other workshops, focusing on the remaining six modules of the Academy, will take place in April and May, in Jakarta. Additional workshops are being planned.

This first workshop will also be attended by high-level government officials from Timor-Leste. During the session, discussions will be held on developing a tripartite partnership between the University of Indonesia, Timor-Leste’s Directorate National for Information and Communication Technology and APCICT to roll-out the Academy in Timor-Leste.

Since 2008, APCICT has been rolling out national Academies by working closely with a number of national training institutions, providing support in customizing, translating and delivering Academies that take national needs and priorities into account. This approach has not only enabled APCICT to build the capacities of national training institutions and policymakers, but also expanded the reach and impact of the Academy.

To date, such partnership has been or is being established with Afghanistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, India, Kyrgyzstan, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Uzbekistan, Vietnam, and Pacific Island countries.

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About UN-APCICT: A subsidiary body of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) and located in Incheon, Republic of Korea, APCICT aims to strengthen the efforts of the member countries of ESCAP to use ICT in their socio-economic development through building human and institutional capacity for ICT.

For more information about the Academy, please visit http://www.unapcict.org/academy.

For further information, please contact:

Ms. Hyeun-Suk Rhee, Director
UN-APCICT
Incheon, Republic of Korea
Tel: +82 32 245 1700
E-mail: rhee@unapcict.org