ASEAN Rural Connectivity Conference for Education and Development has opened in Vietnam’s capital city of Hanoi today [Sept 21], state media reported Sept 21. The three-day event aims to highlight existing and ongoing people-to-people rural connectivity efforts by member states in education and other essential community services to narrow the development gap, with a special focus on the Lower Mekong region. The conference will focus on key themes on the improvement of service delivery for the development of rural communities in ASEAN, especially in the Lower Mekong region; strategies for rural connectivity and technology; developing locally applicable ICT content and software applications for rural communities; financing ICT and investment for education and development and alignment of ICT with the policy priorities in the education and health sector. The conference which expects to draw hundreds of regional officials is co-organized by the Vietnamese Ministry of Information of Communications, the ASEAN Secretariat and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). (Thoi Bao Kinh Te – Economic Times Sept 21 p2)
