Foreword
This report was drafted by Inmaculada Cava Ferreruela, Lauren Crean and Hokuto Nakagawa, based on statistical analyses from Frédéric Bourassa from the OECD Secretariat. It was prepared under the supervision of Verena Weber, Head of the Communication Infrastructures and Services Policy Unit within the Digital Economy Policy Division (DEP) and the overall leadership of Jerry Sheehan, Director of Science, Technology and Innovation (STI), Jens Lundsgaard, Deputy Director of STI, and Audrey Plonk, Head of DEP. Andreia Furtado assisted with communication efforts. Editorial and formatting work was undertaken by Mark Foss and Meral Gedik. Thanks go to Robert Dawson, Alexia Gonzalez Fanfalone, Seongtak Oh and Alice Weber for their contributions to the publication.
In addition, the project team extends its gratitude to the OECD’s Global Relations Secretariat for their support on regional engagement, in particular Alexander Böhmer, Max Bulakovskiy, Massimo Geloso Grosso, Linh Truong To Khanh, Quynh Trang Luong, Andrew Muratore, Tiyarat Niamkohphet-Cader and Hong Anh Vu. Alessandra Tonazzi and Wouter Meester from the Competition Division under the Directorate for Financial and Enterprise Affairs also provided valuable inputs.
This report benefited from discussions at two events. First, the OECD Secretariat hosted a joint workshop with the Asia-Pacific Telecommunity (APT) in conjunction with the 2022 APT Policy and Regulatory Forum in Bangkok, Thailand. The OECD sincerely thanks the APT Secretariat for its support and engagement. Second, the OECD Secretariat hosted a side event at the 2023 OECD Southeast Asia Ministerial Forum in Ha Noi, Viet Nam to present the initial findings of the report and engage with regional stakeholders.
The engagement by officials and experts from the five countries included in the study (Cambodia, Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand and Viet Nam) was essential to this report. The OECD wishes to thank the Ministry of Post and Telecommunications (MPTC) and the Office of Council of Ministers (OCM) of Cambodia; the Ministry of Communications and Informatics (MCI) of Indonesia; the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) of Singapore; the Ministry of Digital Economy and Society (MDES), the Office of the National Digital Economy and Society Commission (ONDE) and the Office of the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC) of Thailand; and the Authority of Telecommunications (VNTA), a department of the Ministry of Information and Communications (MIC) of Viet Nam. The institutional support of these organisations and their staff was invaluable as they provided essential inputs to inform the report, assisted to organise meetings with relevant stakeholders, and contributed valuable comments on the draft of this publication.
In particular, we would like to thank MPTC Secretary of State Sok Puthyvuth, OCM Secretary of State Kang Chandararot, MPTC Under Secretary of State Sun Rapid and Kiyoung Lee, Head of Cambodia-Korea Digital Government Co-operation Center, MPTC (Cambodia). We would also like to thank Director Tran Tuan Anh, Director Nguyen Tien Son, Director Luong Pham Nam Hoang, Director Nguyen Anh Cuong and officials Nguyen Tuan Vinh, Pham Manh Ha, Vu Huy Cuong and Nguyen Minh Ngoc from the VNTA (Viet Nam). We would also like to thank Pathomdanai Ponjan and Thitikorn Sakhamula for their indispensable assistance throughout the project, especially during the OECD’s mission to Bangkok, Thailand in 2022. This publication was made possible by the financial contribution of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Korea.