Brunei Ranks 2nd In Mobile Usage
By Azlan Othman

Bandar Seri Begawan - Brunei recorded close to 50% mobile phone penetration and that 25 inhabitants out of 100 have land lines making Brunei second in terms of mobile penetration in Asean after Singapore, a survey by ITU indicated.

This was revealed by Dato Paduka Awg Hj Abdullah, Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Communications in his paper, "Laying the Infrastructure Foundation for K-Economy in Brunei Darussalam", which touched on the statistics on communication services.

However, Brunei ranked third after Singapore consumers (55) and Malaysia consumers (13) in terms of possession of PCs with 8 consumers per 100 inhabitants.

With 1,000 subscribers, Brunei is also behind Singapore (5,500 subscribers) and Malaysia (2,800) per 10,000 inhabitants. Developed countries like the United States, Japan, Germany, Canada as well as Australia still dominate the statistics on communication services, the survey by ITU indicated.

Speaking on factors that determine the success of Knowledge Based Economy, Dato Hj Abdullah also highlighted Access, Content, Efficiency, Trust, Computer Literacy and Digital Divide as the crucial factors.

He said Access must be ubiquitous, affordable and reliable while for Content, Dato Hj Abdullah highlighted the importance of search engines, designs, niches and value. In Efficiency, he stressed on the need to be `convincing' as well as maintaining `standards'.

Dato Hj Abdullah highlighted that the five important factors for Trust are privacy, public key infrastructure, authentication, robustness and dispute and litigation across borders.

He also highlighted the role of government in determining the success of knowledge based economy namely political stability, economic development, human resources (education and life-long learning), pro-business policy (law), intellectual property rights and access. -- Courtesy of Borneo Bulletin

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