ITU establishes ICT Centre in Japan

Waseda University to support ITU standardization and development initiatives

The International Telecommunication Union (ITU), in cooperation with Waseda University of Japan, has established a Centre for Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) at the Yokosuka Research Park near Tokyo. Known in short as ITU–Waseda ICT Centre, this institution of higher learning opened on 1 June 2003. Beneficiaries of this collaborative venture will be primarily senior managers and executives drawn from private and public organizations in the ICT sector.

For a bit of background, the ITU–Waseda ICT Centre grew out of the ITU Centre of Excellence Programme in the Asia–Pacific region. The new Centre will support the telecommunication standardization and development activities of the ITU by providing expertise in information technology (IT) networking, mobile communications, network security, digital content creation and other emerging technologies.

The Centre will also work with ITU to bolster human resources development (HRD) in ICT by providing graduate training programmes, as well as seminars and workshops that will support standardization and development activities. “Strengthening the cooperative ties between industry, academia, and telecommunication regulators is essential to bridging the ICT gap between developed and developing countries,” notes ITU Secretary–General, Yoshio Utsumi. ITU and Waseda University will jointly select up to 30 researchers to participate in specific research projects related to ITU activities and 30 graduate students to take part in an ICT Masters Programme.

Already, the Graduate School of Global Information and Telecommunication Studies at Waseda University admits about 50 government officers to its Masters Programme, with scholarships from both the Japanese Government and the governments of the participating students. Under the framework of the ITU–Waseda collaboration, the Centre will be able to accommodate another 30 government officers and IT managers. To qualify for admission to a one–year ICT Master Programme, applicants must at least have three years of business experience in the ICT sector after graduation from university.

The Yokosuka Research Park is considered as the “Silicon Valley of Japan”, with more than 70 government and corporate research laboratories based there. The Mayor of Yokosuka City expects the ITU–Waseda ICT Centre, “to generate great synergy and partnerships for global collaboration in research and development between government, university and industry.”

To mark the establishment of the Centre, Waseda University in cooperation with ITU, the Asia–Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) and the Government of Japan will hold a “World Summit on E–Government” in Tokyo, from 27 to 30 October 2003, at which 300 international experts in the field are expected to attend. The Summit is expected to provide a unique opportunity to set priority agendas on global research and development collaboration among governments, industry and universities, as well as evaluate the ongoing APEC–ITU project on HRD for e–Government as a new business model. It will also be an occasion to explore opportunities of youth participation in the activities of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), being organized under the leadership of ITU in two phases — the first phase of which will take place in Geneva from 10 to 12 December 2003, and the second in Tunis from 16 to 18 November 2005.