Dates: 16 to 18 December 2024

Venue: Royal Princess Larn Luang Hotel, Bangkok, Thailand

Working languages: English

The Subregional workshop for Asia was held from 16 to 18 December 2024 in Bangkok, Thailand and aimed to examine and promote the concept of universal and meaningful connectivity (UMC) and how to streamline it in national digital policies, how to improve the statistical capacity of countries in the region to produce and disseminate relevant statistical data, and how to use the data to identify good practices and policy recommendations.

It was organized in collaboration with the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC) of Thailand and with the financial support of the European Commission.

Target audience

This workshop was addressed to policymakers in charge of national policies and strategies for digital connectivity, and statisticians responsible for the measurement of telecom/ICT development from ministries, national statistics offices (NSOs), regulators, telecom operators, research institutions, and other relevant organizations from Asia.

Participants from national statistical offices and other institutions that collect data on ICT were requested to complete the two following free, self-paced courses available through the ITU Academy, prior to the workshop:

Measuring digital development: ICT access and use by households and individuals
Measuring digital development: Telecommunication / ICT indicators

Objectives and programme

The workshop covered the following topics:

Embracing universal and meaningful connectivity: The new policy imperative (day 1)
Data-driven decision making: Enhancing statistician-policymaker collaboration (day 2)
Tracking UMC: Strategies for overcoming measurement challenges (day 3)

Background

With the financial support from the European Commission, the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) has been organising a series of regional and subregional workshops. These workshops convene policymakers and statisticians to deliberate on metrics for gauging progress towards Universal and Meaningful Connectivity (UMC), analyze the persistent socio-economic and geographical divides, and harness data effectively to refine, monitor, and assess digital policies. A separate subregional workshop for the Pacific will be organised in 2025.