The meeting was organized by the UNESCO Office in Bangkok in collaboration with the Malaysia National Library in Kuala Lumpur. It gathered professionals in information and communication, including ICT specialists and librarians, from Bhutan, Fiji, India, Indonesia, Iran, Japan, Lao PDR, Mongolia, Nepal, New Zealand, Philippines, Peoples’ Republic of China, Republic of Korea, Republic of the Maldives, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Vietnam, and Malaysia. 30 local observers from the government ICT sectors also attended the meeting.

The Director General of the National Library of Malaysia, Siti Zakiah binti Aman, unofficially welcomed the participants, and Susanne Ornager from the UNESCO Office in Bangkok gave a debriefing session before elections of officials took place.

Joan Yee presented a comprehensive report for APIN including profiles and the status of telecommunications across the Pacific. She also reported on the establishment of the Pacific IFAP Committee and the Fiji National IFAP Symposium, organized by the Fiji Library Association and University of the South Pacific Library.

The session concluded with the following recommendations:

Human Resources

• South-South Cooperation recommendation on a Malaysian survey on information literacy for the region for different groups, i.e. high school, graduate and under graduate students etc.
  
• South-South Cooperation recommendation for Korean assistance with digital literacy training in the region
  
• Recommendation for programmes to train the trainers of information literacy

ICT best practice and joint research

• Recommendation for UNESCO to investigate a common set of ICT indicators for making regional comparisons with in the APIN region
  
• Recommendation for UNESCO to fund and undertake a joint research project for ICT impact in the APIN region
  
• Recommendation for better use of ROISAP as a portal for ICT research by APIN country members
  
• Recommendation for UNESCO to produce a set of standards for APIN countries to help them develop and revise their national information policies that take a holistic approach

Content creation

• Recommendation for IFAP National Committees to focus on local content initiatives and to form virtual/face to face subcommittees to assist them
  
• Recommendation for a regional exchange of information on the use of telecentres in the APIN region for the purposes of the dissemination and creation of local content, i.e. in the areas of health, agriculture, business enterprises, rural development, etc.
  
• Recommendation to organize workshops on local content development through South-South Cooperation for APIN member countries.
  
• Recommendation that APIN, in collaboration with the UNESCO Office for the Pacific States, host a sub-regional workshop on identifying opportunities for digital content creation and digitization for the Pacific region

Reports of the session (PDF)

• Report, by Sin Joan Yee, University Librarian, University of the South Pacific
  
• Pacific islands, by Sin Joan Yee, University Librarian, University of the South Pacific

APIN is guided by the Information for All Programme (IFAP) and provides an opportunity for the countries to jointly work towards building knowledge societies.