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New WDR Centre: LIRNEasia to be launched 17 September

The LIRNE.NET and WDR networks are expanding to Asia. WDR is a project led by LIRNE.NET (Learning Initiatives on Reforms in Network Economies), a consortium of multidisciplinary ICT research and training centers associated with major universities in several countries. It leverages its collective academic knowledge from its research and teaching programs to facilitate ICT policy and regulation through: 

1. applied research;

2. specialized training;

3. institution-building in developing countries;

4. advice/consultancy. 

It achieves synergy by sharing knowledge across these different activities. LIRNE.NET focuses on frontier issues of policy and regulatory reform for information infrastructure and network economy development. Priority attention is directed to the distinct implications for developing countries and for the development of human capital as the foundation for development in the new economy in all countries. See www.lirne.net. 

LIRNE.NET began as a consortium of university centres at European universities – now the Technical University of Denmark, Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands, and the London School of Economics. Last year it was expanded to include the LINK Centre, University of Witwatersrand, South Africa. With a primary focus on Africa in its WDR program for 2003-04, LIRNE.NET facilitated the LINK Centre’s development of a network of African research centers – Research ICT Africa! (RIA!) and a major WDR Expert Forum in Cairo last May.

During 2004-05, LIRNE.NET and the WDR program will focus primarily, but not exclusively, on developments in Asia. This is prompted by the creation of a new centre, LIRNEasia, being established in Colombo, Sri Lanka under the leadership of Professor Rohan Samarajiva. Professor Samarajiva, a native Sri Lankan, has held academic posts in the US and Europe, is a former telecom regulator and infrastructure policy advisor and implementer in Sri Lanka, and a leading authority on Asian and international developments in the ICT field. He was a founding member both of LIRNE.NET and the WDR project. 

The new centre will be physically located in the premises of Sri Lanka's administrative training academy, the Sri Lanka Institute for Development Administration (SLIDA) in Colombo, but will seek to function as a regional virtual organization with active participation from colleagues located in other Asian countries. The partnership was established in the context of SLIDA seeking to become Sri Lanka's nodal point for infrastructure regulation training. SLIDA also hosts the World Bank funded Distance Learning Center, which LIRNEasia hopes to use for its training and dissemination work. In its first year, LIRNEasia will undertake a series of research projects on innovative and diverse approaches to extending telecom networks, funded by IDRC in support of WDR’s 2004-05 theme. Based on the input from the September meetings, LIRNEasia hopes to further the comparative assessment of telecom regulatory environment and investment performance, possibly leading to the development of a comprehensive set of annual performance reviews of the ICT infrastructures in Asian countries. A rapid response unit to provide context specific training and advice on urgent policy issues is also planned. 

LIRNEasia will host the first WDR Expert Forum in Asia in Sri Lanka, 15-16 September, bringing together leaders in the field from across Asia and around the world to examine issues of network development .On 17 September, LIRNEasia will formally be launched with a workshop examining the new center’s program for 2004-05, including its contributions to the WDR Dialogue Theme, Diversifying Participation in Network Development. (See story).

A LIRNEasia planning session will take place in Sri Lanka on 19 September. International and local participants will respond to a draft work plan and contribute their ideas on how best we can build a regionally anchored, ICT enabled virtual organization and on program priorities for 2004-05 and beyond. LIRNEasia and the planning meeting are made possible with support from IDRC Canada and the World Bank's infoDev programme. If you are interested in participating, please contact Sabina Fernando prasaby@sltnet.lk.

The WDR project began with foundation funding to LIRNE.NET from infoDev/World Bank in 2001 for 3 years until June 2004, and has been renewed for another three years until 2007 (See story). The expansion of WDR (and of the LIRNE.NET collaborative) to include the LINK Center in Africa and now LIRNEasia has been possible by foundation funding from IDRC Canada. (See story).

18/08/04 /wm