APCICT News

To support and empower women-owned micro-small businesses in Cambodia, APCICT and SHE Investments, a Cambodia-based social enterprise, launched “KOTRA Riel”, a bookkeeping mobile application.

KOTRA Riel will help Cambodian micro women entrepreneurs accurately track their daily income and expenses and produce basic financial reports. In Cambodia, many micro women entrepreneurs are unable to apply for financial loans for business expansion due to inability to accurately report business income and expenditures.

In collaboration with the Royal Institute of Management (Bhutan), APCICT co-organized a National Training of Trainers on Data-Driven Governance from 23 to 25 October 2019, in Thimphu.

APCICT/ESCAP, in collaboration with SHE Investments, a business incubator for women-owned micro-small businesses in Cambodia, conducted a Training of Trainers on ICT and Basic Financial Management for Women Entrepreneurs in Phnom Penh on 5-7 November 2019. The TOT aims to train local trainers to deliver basic business financial management training, including the use of a bookkeeping mobile app, to Cambodian women micro entrepreneurs.

In an effort to strengthen the capacities of government officials and policymakers of Kazakhstan on data-driven governance, the Centre of Applied Research and International Partnership and the Institute of Professional Development of the Academy of Public Administration for Kazakhstan and APCICT co-organized a National Training on Evidence-Based Decision Making from 7 to 9 October 2019, in Nur-Sultan.

Recognizing the tremendous impact of digital technologies in improving local governance and development, APCICT has been strengthening its partnerships with local governments and stakeholders to provide ICT capacity building support to local government officials. In line with this effort, APCICT conducted a Training of Trainers (TOT) on Digital Local Government in Manila, Philippines on 24-26 September 2019. The TOT was organized in collaboration with the De La Salle University – Jesse M.

To support member States to enhance women’s economic empowerment and entrepreneurship as a strategy for poverty reduction, social wellbeing and sustainable economic growth towards the realization of SDG 5 on Gender equality, ESCAP is implementing a five-year (2019-2023) regional programme on “Catalyzing Women’s Entrepreneurship – Creating a Gender-Responsive Entrepreneurial Ecosystem” funded by the Government of Canada.

The Expert Group Meeting on ICT for Disaster Risk Management took place on 26-27 August 2019 in Bangkok, Thailand, as part of ESCAP’s Disaster Resilience Week. 

The steady growth of social media as communication platform and  multi-dimensional tool, irrespective of the existing infrastructures, has created both an opportunity for policymakers to leverage these tools for development, and a need to create frameworks and guidelines to best maximize their use.

The Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications and APCICT/ESCAP co-organized the National Training on ICT for Development Policy, Process and Governance on 2 – 3 July 2019 in Vientiane.