Report of the Technology Working Group on APOINT 2001

ASIA PACIFIC PARLIAMENTARY FORUM

14-19, January, 2001

Valparaiso, Chile

Report of the Technology Working Group on APOINT 2001.

1. The Technical Working Group on APOINT 2001 (TWG) met on Tuesday, January 17, 2001. Representatives from all TWG member countries were at the meeting, namely, Mr. Alan Griffin, MP from Australia, Senator Noel Kinsella, from Canada, Mr. Tim Barnett, MP from New Zealand, Mr. Italo Marsano, MP and Mr. Francisco Tudela, MP from Peru, Senator Pensak Chagsuchinda from Thailand, Mr. Yasuhide Yamanouchi from Japan, and officials from Australia, Korea and Thailand.

2. Japan and Thailand briefed the meeting on the current stage of implementation of the APOINT 2001 project since 1998.

2.1 It was informed that APPF opened an APPF website in Peru in 1999 and tasked the Peruvian Congress to operate the website and link it to parliamentary websites of member countries and inter-parliamentary organizations.

2.2 APPF is making progress in its development of a multilingual search engine and font system, designed to facilitate member countries to read in their own languages, information retrieved from its website in Peru and those available in the parliaments of member countries.

2.3 APPF is in its initial stage of developing a Legislative Exchange System that will provide member parliaments with an information link to laws and legislation in the parliaments of member countries.

2.4 There have been clear signs during the past years from host Parliaments of annual conferences that electronic communication played a role in their preparation for and running of APPF conferences.

2.5.- APPF was highly successful in stimulating awareness of information technology among members who are not familiar with it or have no access to it. In this regard, Korea reported on the developments of parliamentary websites by the Parliaments of Papua New Guinea, Laos and Vietnam during 2000. The meeting also acknowledged that the Parliament of the Marshall Islands does not have such facilities at the moment and Korea will continue to give its technical assistance to the Parliament.

2.6.- An electronic mailing list of TWG points of contacts as compiled by Japan is now readily available for member parliaments to exchange their ideas for APOINT 2001 with TWG.

3. The meeting resolved to report to the 9th APPF Annual Conference and ask for its approval of the followings:

3.1 The meeting reaffirmed that Peru continues as the chairman of TWG.

3.2 The meeting was unanimous in advancing APOINT 2001 further into the 21st Century and decided to change its name to APOINT as suggested by Canada, in order to be relevant with times and goals of the project, as contained in the 1997 Vancouver Declaration.

3.3 The meeting agreed that a comprehensive development of the Legislative Exchange System will be its prime focus for the early years of this century with a clear cut parameter and timeframe for its implementation as suggested by Australia and a long-term goal of encouraging member parliaments to engage in policy consultations among themselves as proposed by Thailand.

3.4 The meeting assigned Japan to look into the technical aspects of the Legislative Exchange System and Thailand to work on its substantive parts based on suggestions from New Zealand and Peru, which called for ways to collect legislation from available sources including parliaments, manually or electronically. The materials should be collected at minimal costs and according to areas of interests of parliamentarians and priority issues important for the Asia-Pacific Region and its role in the world. To this end, Japan and Thailand will consult TWG members and APPF member parliaments during the course of 2001 and will report back to the TWG within 6 months prior to the 10th APPF annual conference in Hawaii in 2002.