Preparing for complex, overlapping crises key to building resilience for countries in Asia and the Pacific

Countries meeting today at the seventh session of the ESCAP Committee on Disaster Risk Reduction were called on to intensify their efforts to prepare for and tackle complex, overlapping crises as the region strives to increase the resilience of its people as well as its economies.

"Notwithstanding the progress made by many countries in devising more robust systems of early warning and responsive protection -- with far fewer people dying as a result of natural disasters -- the Covid-19 pandemic has demonstrated that  almost without exception, countries around the world are still ill-prepared to deal with multiple overlapping crises, which often cascade, with one triggering another,” United Nations under-secretary-general and executive secretary of ESCAP Armida Salsiah Alisjahbana said, adding that tropical cyclones, for example, can lead to floods, which lead to disease, which exacerbates poverty.

Since the start of the pandemic, the region has been hit by multiple natural and biological disasters. At the same time, climate change has continued to warm the world, exacerbating the impacts of many of these disasters. The Asia-Pacific Disaster Report 2021, also launched today, reveals that the pandemic, combined with the persistent reality of climate change, has reshaped and expanded the disaster 'riskscape' in Asia and the Pacific.

The triple threat of disease, disaster and climate change is causing not only considerable human hardship but also significant economic losses. Currently, the annual average disaster-related losses are $780 billion. It could nearly double, to around $1.4 trillion, in a worst-case climate scenario, it reads, adding that choosing a proactive strategy of adapting to natural and other biological hazards would be far more cost-effective at an annual cost of $270 billion.

In her statement during the opening session, the special representative of the United Nations secretary-general for Disaster Risk Reduction Mami Mizutori voiced support for the Committee’s work and reiterated the need for immediate and decisive action to build disaster resilience.

"The string of record-breaking weather events show that we do not have the luxury of ‘waiting this out’: action must be taken now to address these risks,” she said, adding that it includes increasing international funding for disaster risk reduction and climate adaptation, especially for countries graduating from the least-developed category.

Also speaking at the opening session, the secretary-general of the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) Petteri Taalas emphasised the importance of climate change mitigation efforts. "All in all, successful climate mitigation doesn’t affect our everyday life very much,” he said, “but if we fail with climate mitigation the impact is going to be felt for centuries, even millennia."

The final speaker at the opening session, the secretary-general of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) Houlin Zhao highlighted the need for countries in Asia and the Pacific to make progress on digital transformation.

"It’s time for the Asia-Pacific region to rely even more on Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs),” he said, adding that he is confident that countries in the region will access the unique opportunity presented by Covid-19 to accelerate digital transformation and leverage the historic role of ICTs in tackling the dual challenges of climate-related disasters and Covid-19.

Today also saw the return of the ESCAP Regional Conversation series, with a Ministerial Panel on Disaster, Climate and Health Resilience. This was the first in a series of four events that will bring together eminent personalities and thought leaders to exchange ideas and solutions to some of the key challenges facing Asia and the Pacific.

In her remarks, Alisjahbana highlighted the need to build universal resilience to address the vulnerabilities the pandemic has exposed and to tackle rising levels of inequality and poverty. She called for a paradigm shift in disaster risk management toward a focus on investing in prevention and the building of resilience.

France to help set up security printing facility

Nepal and France today signed an agreement to set up state-of-art security printing facilities and Nepal's satellite plan with the French assistance and
The two countries signed two separate memorandums of understanding (MoU), one of which is aimed at setting up of security printing – in the absence of which the government and private firms are spending billions of rupees abroad annually – and another to provide concessional financial aid and technical support to Nepal to operate and manage Nepal's own satellite.
Nepal can print passports, banknotes, all kinds of smart cards, question papers and stickers once the security printing press is set up in the country. Head of the security printing division under the Ministry of Information and Communications Bikal Poudel – on behalf of the government – signed the memorandum with INGROUPE, a French government undertaking. The security printing is likely to be set up at Information and Technology Park in Banepa, Kavre.
Currently, the passports, and especially banknotes are being printed in different parts of the world. But the separate printing blocks that will be set up at the project site, including one bullet-proof structure where banknotes will be printed will save the country billions.
Nepal and France will sign the final agreement during prime minister KP Sharma Oli’s visit to France in June. By then both the government will work out on financial modality and cost. The financial modality could be technology transfer based on build-operate-and-transfer (BOT) model or foreign direct investment (FDI) or French loan and aid.
The primary estimation has it that the security printing facility would cost around $300 million (Rs 30 billion).
Earlier, the Ministry of Information and Communications had held negotiations with the German government to set up security printing facilities but the deal could not come to conclusion due to financial arrangements. And the French company came into scene showing its interest to assist Nepal in setting up security printing facilities.
Among the two memorandum, France is also willing to provide concessional financial aid and technical support to Nepal to operate and manage Nepal's own satellite – estimated to cost Rs 20 billion – in the orbital slot provided by the International Tele-communications Union (ITU).
According to the Ministry of Information and Communications, the ITU has provided orbital slot (123.3 E) to Nepal for its dedicated satellite, but due to the technological and financial constraints, Nepal has not been able to utilise it.

Global mobile penetration to match world population

There will be 6.8 billion mobile phone users by the end of this year, almost as many as there are people on the planet, according to the latest statistics from the International Telecommunication Union (ITU).

Access to mobile broadband is still much lower, but growing quickly. Almost 50 per cent of the world's people are covered by 3G networks, and almost 30 per cent or 2.1 billion use mobile broadband, it said, adding that the number of users of 3G and 3G+ networks is growing at an average annual rate of 40 per cent. 

The study also looks at the most highly developed information societies, in the ITU's ICT Development index.
It was led in 2013 by South Korea for a third consecutive year, followed closely by Sweden, Iceland, Denmark, Finland and Norway. The Netherlands, the UK, Luxembourg and Hong Kong also rank in the top 10.  

The report also identifies the most dynamic countries, which have recorded above-average improvements in their ICT Development Index (IDI) rank or value over the past 12 months.
The UAE, Lebanon, Barbados, Seychelles, Belarus, Costa Rica, Mongolia, Zambia, Australia, Bangladesh, Oman and Zimbabwe have most improved, according to the IDI ranking. 

ICT development in many countries has been helped by the fall in the price of bandwidth. An analysis of broadband pricing in more than 160 countries found that in the period 2008-2012 fixed-broadband prices fell by 82 per cent, from 115.1 per cent of average monthly income per capita in 2008 to 22.1 per cent in 2012.
The biggest drop occurred in developing countries, where fixed-broadband prices fell by 30 per cent year-on-year between 2008 and 2011, it said. “The average price per Mbps also decreased significantly, with a global median price of $19.50 per Mbps in 2012 almost a quarter of that charged in 2008.”
The results also showed that in developing countries mobile broadband is now more affordable than fixed broadband, but still much less affordable than in developed countries.
Austria has the world's most affordable mobile broadband, while Sao Tome and Principe, Zimbabwe and the Democratic Republic of the Congo have the least affordable, with service cost equal to or higher than average monthly gross national income per capita.
Other countries that rank well for mobile broadband affordability include Qatar, the UK, Germany, Kuwait and France.

Overall, global internet penetration was estimated at 37 per cent of households in early 2013, compared to 41 per cent with a computer and almost 80 per cent with a TV.
A strong digital divide remains, with almost 80 per cent of the developed world using internet and just 28 per cent in developing countries. It leaves around 1.1 billion households without internet access. 

The ITU research also looked at capital expenditure by telecom operators and found spending peaked in 2008 at $290 billion worldwide. This was followed by two years of decline and then a small upturn in 2011.
However, investment levels still have not returned to the level of 2008, due mainly to the weak economic climate and restricted access to capital markets.

Nepali slips nine places in global internet access report

The country has slipped nine places to 148th position among the 192 countries in terms of the percentage of population having internet access, according to The State of Broadband-2013 published by the UN Broadband Commission today.

Some 11.1 per cent of Nepalis have the access to the internet services, the report said, adding that last year Nepal was ranked 139^th with internet penetration rate of nine per cent. “However, 2.1 per cent internet penetration has increased in a year, despite rapid development in the telecom sector.”

The last one year has seen slowdown in extending fixed and mobile broadband connection, according to the report that has placed Nepal at 136th position – down from the 127^th last year – on the basis of fixed broadband lines service that is wired broadband service including cable internet, ADSL and cable modem. “It has reached 0.4 per 100 inhabitants.”

Likewise, Nepal ranked 99^th among 128 developing countries with 4.1 percentage of the households having internet connection.

According to the report, South Korea has the highest household broadband penetration at over 97 per cent, whereas Switzerland leads in fixed broadband subscriptions per capita, at over 40 per cent.

In terms of internet use, in more than 70 countries over five per cent of the population is online, according to the UN Broadband Commission.

Iceland (96 per cent), Norway (95 per cent), Sweden (94 per cent), Denmark (93 per cent) and the Netherlands (93 per cent) are the top five countries having maximum internet penetration rate, whereas Burundi, Myanmar, Timor Leste, Eritrea and North Korea are at the bottom five.

The 2013 edition of the State of Broadband Report – prepared by the UN Broadband Commission based on the total number of users in the member countries of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) by 2012 – has termed mobile broadband as the ‘fastest growing technology’ in human history. “Mobile broadband subscriptions, which allow users to access the web via smartphones, tablets and WiFi-connected laptops, are growing at a rate of 30 per cent per year,” it concluded.

Government to study feasibility of launching own satellite

The government has formed a committee to study the feasibility of launching Nepal's first satellite to an orbital slot provided by International Telecommunication Union (ITU) — originally founded as the

International Telegraph Union — in 1984.

"The government has formed a five-member committee to study it," according to the Ministry of Information and Communications.

According to ITU, Nepal has to use the orbital slot by 2015. If it fails to use the orbital slot, it will be difficult to claim again. "If Nepal is unable to use the entire satellite for its internal purpose, it can be leased out to neighbouring countries for commercial purposes," according to the ministry.

The satellite will facilitate TV broadcast and weather forecast as TV channels and weather forecasting agencies have been paying about $25 million annually for accessing international satellite services.

Nepal has, however, no experience of setting up a satellite. The committee will have to study everything from scratch, like technicalities involved, feasibility at the commercial level, estimated costs and profitability of the investments.

After the study report is finalised, other supplementary studies need to be conducted before calling a tender to set up the satellite.

Since it costs a huge amount of money for setting up a satellite, it could be a good option to go for public-private partnership (PPP) model, including international expertise. The other option at hand is to go ahead through a joint-venture among national and international firms and the government.

China and India already have their own satellites, whereas Bangladesh and Sri Lanka are working on it.

The five-member committee led by joint secretary at the Ministry of Information and Communications Narayan Sanjel includes representatives from the Ministry of Science, Technology and Environment, Nepal Telecommunications Authority and Nepal Television.

China’s Great Wall Industry Corporation (GWIC), which has helped launch satellites for a number of developing countries, from Pakistan and Sri Lanka to Bolivia and Nigeria, is expected to make a pitch for cooperating with Nepal on the project, having voiced its interest in principle in the past to Nepali diplomats.

GWIC is also in talks with Bangladesh over its satellite programme.

Google starts public campaign over ITU regulatory conference

Google has started an online campaign ahead of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) regulatory conference next month, calling on internet users to sign a petition supporting a 'free and open' internet.

Google said some governments are trying to use the 'closed-door' meeting to 'increase censorship and regulate the internet'.

The ITU conference in Dubai will discuss the International Telecommunication Regulations, a multilateral treaty governing international telecommunication issues such as interconnection and interoperability.

Each country that is a member of the ITU may send a delegation. Google said governments alone should not be allowed to direct the future of the internet, and the billions of internet users should have a say in the matter.

It also termed the ITU 'secretive' as the proposals at the conference are confidential. At the same time as building up public interest, Google is participating in the US government's delegation to the conference.

The company has four representatives in the 94-member delegation, the most of any company. Other companies participating include AT&T, Cisco, Intel, Microsoft and Verizon.

The International Telecommunication Union, previously the International Telegraph Union, is a specialised agency of the United Nations which is responsible for information and communication technologies.

ITU coordinates the shared global use of the radio spectrum, promotes international cooperation in assigning satellite orbits, works to improve telecommunication infrastructure in the developing world, and establishes worldwide standards.