e- Community Centres Boost Rural Communities

e-Community Centres (CeCs) or telecentres are providing access to the rural communities to reach out to the wider world. In the Asia Pacific region where major farming communities live, the resources of information and communication technology are set bring far-reaching changes to the community life and their way of doing business.

In a province in Mindanao, Phillipines a high school student uses this e-centre to call her mother in Saudi Arabia and it cost her less than the bus fare for the 13 kilometre ride to reach her home.

The telecentres which look like cyber cafes provide facilities where, for a minimal fee, the public can access various information and communications technology (ICT) services such as web browsing, email, voice service, and fax service. These centers serve as community libraries, points of access to distance education, business service centers, local, regional and international news services centers, and portals for various government services. The e-centers, have enriched the learning experience of students in the area who previously had access only to antiquated library materials.

The e-center has also had a significant impact on local businesses. Business people, who once had limited contact and little access to markets , can now arrange efficient domestic and overseas transactions through the CeC. In fact, locally-made baskets made by the indigenous Teduray tribe, are being sold internationally through the Internet. Thanks to technology, product information on these baskets is posted in the local government unit’s website.

According to UNESCAP Report over 60% of the people in the Asia-Pacific region live in rural areas. The rural population tends to be poor, neglected and marginalized groups of society. In comparison to urban areas, the accessibility and availability of information and communications technology (ICT) is significantly lower in rural areas. Government and the private sector do not invest much in infrastructure development for ICT in rural areas, as it is not cost-effective. But modern communication and technology is changing the rural landscape, albeit perhaps rather slowly but with profound changes in the offing. With the awakening of the sleeping giants China and India, propects for an economic boom are greater in this region.