WELCOME TO CAMBODIA

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a
Cambodia ICT Trend and Policy The 4th Asia Open
Software Symposium Taipei, Taiwan 1-3 September
2004
Noy Shoung, noy_shoung_at_nida.gov.kh Chankrisna
Kith, chankrisna_kith_at_nida.gov.kh National ICT
Development Authority (NiDA) Website
www.nida.gov.kh
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Contents
2
Challenges and Difficulties ahead
4
Open Source Activities in Cambodia
5
Cambodia Information Communications Technology
Association (CICTA)
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Government ICT Policy

• The Royal Government of Cambodia encourages the
  use of Open Source Technology as highlighted in
  the statement of the Deputy Prime Minister H.E
  Sok An made during the 2002 IT Awareness Seminar
  in Cambodia
• All the laws, regulations, and policies in the
  IT sector will reflect the following guiding
  spirit and philosophy

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Government ICT Policy (cont)

• To uphold the interests of the consumers and
  general public.
• To guarantee security of information, while
  facilitating the broadest possible access to
  public information
• To respect individual rights, and
• To avoid dependency on proprietary systems,
  instead promoting open system and
  interoperability.

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Government ICT Policy (cont)

• In addition, the draft of ICT Policy of the Royal
  Government of Cambodia states
• Policy 3.15
• Government will promote Open Source system(s) in
  ICT to cut costs in a long term but also to
  broaden the skills and capacities of ICT
  professionals.

6
Challenges and Difficulties ahead

• Lack of human resource
• Lack of technical supports
• Lack of awareness of the concepts and the
  potential benefits of Open Source Software
• Too-reliance on the piracy and illegal software
• Lack of financial supports

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Solutions

• Given the facts that the Cambodia face many
  obstacles and difficulties we should consider the
  policy in two perspectives
• 1. In the short run
• Raise awareness and promote the OSS, developing
  the capacity to use OSS and start shifting from
  proprietary software and piracy software
• 2. In medium/long run
• Aim at establishment OSS production capabilities
  and produce more skilled individual for the
  development of OSS.

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Solutions (cont)

• The Government in the near future may look at the
  below development

• Development of Open Source expertise in the
  University
• Development of Open Source expertise in Companies
• Expertise is based training

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Open Source Activities in Cambodia

• The e-government servers are running on Linux
  operating system
• Most of the web servers run on open source based
  technology as well
• One NGO creates the first Khmer email using
  Thunderbird.
• The Open Forum of Cambodia has reported that
  Cambodians are now able to send and read email in
  Khmer using localized version of the open source
  email client Thunderbird.

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Open Source Activities in Cambodia

• The national IT trend in Cambodia is moving
  toward Open Source because Cambodia will soon
  become member of WTO and other world bodies and
  Cambodia needs to re-enforce its laws on copy
  right and Intellectual property rights. Thus,
  illegal and piracy software will be hardly
  available. And on the other hands, the licensed
  software is expensive for the Cambodia. As the
  result, open source seems to be the solution.

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Cambodia Information Communications Technology
Association (CICTA)

• Based on the previous conferences of OSS and the
  Hanoi statements lead to the establishment of
  CICTA dedicated to research and development of
  Open Source Technology in Cambodia. However,
  CICTA is an infant with no experience and
  strongly need the supports both technically and
  financially in order to operate successfully.
• Therefore, we would most welcome any
  inputs/comments, which will contribute to the
  successful open source movement in Cambodia.

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OSS Research Center CICTA
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THANKS YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION

• Welcome to your kind support, recommendation
  suggestion

Presentation by Noy Shoung Chankrisna Kith