Taiwan aids digital project

The University of Technology (Unitech) continues to help bridge the digital divide in the country through the Apec digital opportunity centre (ADOC), a project of the Taiwanese government which is housed and run by the University at Matheson library.
Last week, the trade mission of Taiwan in PNG again boosted the centre with the donation of 23 desktop computers, 19 sets of DDR II memory and a digital camera.
Daniel Hu, the PNG country representative whilst presenting the donation said the ADOC project, which was in its second phase was proposed and funded by Taiwanese government, who so far had spent more than US$12 million to set up 43 ADOC projects in 10 partner member countries including PNG.
The aim is to assist Apec member economies to enhance their information and communications technology applications capabilities and transform the digital divide into a digital opportunity throughout the Asia Pacific by helping people to improve their ability to generate income and quality of life.
Further to this, it promotes collaboration with private sector and NGOs to enhance ICT capacity building through assisting disadvantaged groups in society, such as women, children and micro, small and medium enterprises.
Out of the 70,000 people that had benefited from the project, 4347 of them were from PNG.
Unitech planning officer Brian Kakini said the ADOC project had been very successful, with a lot of people benefiting from it.
The centre runs courses on basic computing skills, such as introduction to Microsoft Word, Microsoft PowerPoint and Excel, which has benefited a lot of ordinary people.
He said, next year, ADOC would focus more on conducting training to the outside community, including NGOs and schools.
He added that Unitech, as an institution, should take the lead in helping to develop the community.
Vice-chancellor Dr Misty Baloiloi said Unitech had embraced the ADOC concept to compliment its rural outreach concept.