Government Computerization Newsletter, June 1997

Internet Special Issue

• What does the Internet offer to governments?
• Internet in brief - A simple glossary
• What is needed to join the Internet
• 28 April 1997: ESCAP joins the Web
• Status of Internet development in Asia and the Pacific
• Internet -- Fundamental changes for journal editors?
• Committee on Statistics retains mandate in public sector computerization
• ESCAP observes 50th Anniversary

The Internet and Intranets can be very useful for individual civil servants, public sector organizations and their customers. Benefits come from improved access to information, improved internal and external communication, and speedier provision of information and services to the customers.

The Internet and Intranets can significantly increase the speed and accuracy of various government transactions, internal and external. The networks are also excellent coordination tools as they allow convenient sharing of information among the government departments. Practically every area in the public sector can benefit from these technologies.

The Internet, in particular, can be a vehicle for providing better services to the general public, the private sector and NGOs, and other customers of the public sector. There are no limits on what information can be maintained in the global network. For instance, governments can provide information to citizens, tourists, domestic and foreign investors; they can promote the country in general and its export items in distant markets. The provision of information on the location, extent and limits of natural resources can help the effective and sustainable use of these resources.

It is not only the use of these networks that has substantial economic impacts. The construction of the information infrastructure itself requires investments and generates new jobs in sectors that are important for overall economic development. A good national information infrastructure attracts investments to other sectors as well.

Of the social sectors, the highest impact is felt in education. In the Internet era, learning and teaching are no longer restricted to one location and its resources. Initially the Internet may be used as an enhancment of traditional teaching, but as methodologies and communication links develop, it has the potential to become a primary tool for distance learning. With multimedia technologies improving, transmissions of live lectures and demonstrations are becoming technologically possible, at least in selected developing country locations. The Internet supports well the concept of life-long learning, especially after a greater number of work places and homes become connected to it. Technically this is because it provides a convenient linking facility to information repositories in academic, administrative and private networks.

Particularly important to developing countries, health care can be improved with the help of Internet. Already low speed connections are sufficient to deliver text-based health information for prevention and cure of illnesses. The Internet can be useful also in the surveillance of emerging diseases and in the management of patient services, community and home-based health programmes. Electronic transfers of patient and diagnostic information, such as electrocardiograms and X-rays, would help remote physicians to consult hospitals and colleagues to find appropriate cures. If high speed links are available, video conferencing offers possibilities to conduct distant training for health care teams. Analogous uses of the Internet can be found in other sectors, for instance in engineering.

Productivity concerns

Properly used, the Internet and Intranets in general, and e-mail in particular, are excellent productivity tools in government agencies. In principle, they can help the employees to optimize their time use: Information can be searched for exactly when needed and electronic correspondence handled when needed or when time allows.

The mere existence of an Internet connection, however, does not automatically increase an organization's total productivity. Governments need to invest in staff training; self-learning must also be

encouraged. During the introduction period, the staff would inevitably (have to) venture to areas that are outside their immediate field of work. However, that should not become a norm. To prevent Web browsing from becoming habitual at work places, brief guidelines and samples on its appropriate uses in the organizational setting may be considered. Web addictions of enthusiasts should be directed to serve the organization's goals.

Some studies have shown that a fairly large proportion of Internet use in offices is not directly relevant to work and therefore can reduce individual productivity. One private company, realizing that the checking of e-mail and surfing on the Net started to disrupt productive working stretches during the day, solved the problem by disabling those tools, except at particular early morning, lunch-time and evening hours.

Although the administrators can to some extent monitor the traffic generated by local users, they cannot effectively restrict the access to particular substantive areas in remote content providing sites. The Internet is simply too large and too dynamic to be controlled or effectively kept outside the work place. The only simple way of preventing non-business use is not providing access in the first place, which would be a pity since with appropriate policies and training, the benefits of the Internet, and in particular Intranets, by far outweigh the disadvantages.

Finding information becoming easier

Finding specific information on the Internet used to be difficult. Fortunately, the Internet information search tools have been improved tremendously during the past couple of years. There are already several reasonable search engines available and more are launched every month. There are many on-line guides on how to search for a particular piece of information on the Internet. The authors of one such tutorial (Teaching Library University of California, Berkeley: Finding Information on the Internet - A Tutorial, URL http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/ TeachingLib/ Guides/ Internet/FindInfo.html) point out that the investment of time to learn to effectively and efficiently find information on the Internet using complex search strategies is worthwhile, and simple searching is usually not.

Strategies for successful information provision

A government agency can establish its presence on the Internet fairly quickly, if it rents space in the Web server of an Internet Service Provider (ISP) and has its hypertext pages prepared externally. The pages do not necessarily need to be physically near. If the domestic infrastructure is inadequate, foreign ISPs can be considered. (This model is actually quite commonly used by private sector companies in developing countries). That way the outlay on hardware, software and training would be minimized.

Outsourcing may be a recommended strategy if the information to be provided remains fairly static, such as general information about the organization. The Internet is, however, best suited for the provision of information that keeps changing, such as news, price quotes and interactive transactions. An efficient on-line information provider would integrate the production of its Web pages to its other daily operations (business processes). For instance, word processing documents could be produced in such a way that their conversion to HTML can be automated to a large extent; this may require a new look at the organization's word processing. Similarly, existing databases could be interfaced to the Web without an extra step of converting the records to HTML.

The availability of an Internet connection is only the first step in the path towards effective Internet service provision. As has been said, training is required at all levels, including the Webmaster, information content producers and the management. Internet and Intranet, which are essentially information sharing tools, can potentially improve many of the established operations in an organization. However, high

expectations are warranted only if the organization is willing to adopt new ways of working, and especially, if it is willing to go the distance towards an open information culture.

The Internet is best introduced through live examples of what can be done with it today. Browsing through the information and services provided in the sector by leading national and foreign organizations helps one to imagine how one's own organization could utilize the network. If it is difficult to perceive how the

external clientele would benefit from the Internet services, one may want to focus on what internal benefits could be obtained from the Internet and an Intranet. To assist the general management tune into the language of the IT staff, the Newsletter has compiled a concise glossary of the central Internet terminology.

Concept definition
	Internet	The most important global network, network of networks connected by Internet gateways. Evolved in the 1970s from ARPANET, an early packet switching network in the United States. Gained in popularity in early 1980s as a defence networking standard, then spread to academic institutions in late 1980s. Has grown exponentially and spread globally in the 1990s, especially after the popularization of the World Wide Web. Internet usually refers to the physical aspects of the global network. Electronic mail, World Wide Web, FTP, Gopher, Talk, IRC are some of the applications developed for the Internet. Internet has no central administration or control. Decisions about Internet connections (establishment, upgrade, etc.) are made between parties involved in the physical connection. There is however a central authority, in fact more recently several of them, which registers the domain names.
	Internet protocols	On the Internet, data are transferred by using TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol over Internet Protocol. IP (network layer) is a connectionless packet switching protocol providing packet routing, fragmentation and re-assembly. TCP (transport layer) adds reliable communication, flow-control, multiplexing and connection-oriented communication. It provides full-duplex, process-to-process connections.
	Intranet	TCP/IP network accessed by internal users only. Like the Internet, Intranets are gaining in popularity very fast. WWW browsers are used to access various types of data in web servers and databases. Intranets offer an efficient productivity tool for managing various types of corporate/organization wide information. Can be implemented without access to the Internet. Currently expanding in technologically advanced countries more rapidly than the Internet.
	Internet 2	A collaborative effort of more than 100 U.S. universities to develop the next generation of computer network applications to facilitate the research and education missions of universities. Internet 2 is a framework for developing the tools - the applications and the network - necessary to connect member universities. Data transmission speeds targeted to be 100-1000 times faster than on the Internet. It will not replace the current Internet, but it will make use of existing and new high speed networks. While on the current Internet all traffic is given about the same priority as it is passed along the network from one computer to another, the "Quality-of-Service" concept of the Internet 2 would allow applications to request a specific amount of bandwidth or priority for themselves. The effort is supported by federal government agencies, private corporations and non-profit organizations that have experience and know-how developing computer networks. (Internet 2 home page is at http://www.internet2.edu/ )
	Internet addressing, domain names	Messages on the Internet are addressed by using domain names. Internet domain names, or names of the host systems, consist of a sequence of subnames separated by a delimiter (e.g. un.org). They are continually updated in an online distributed database system, domain name system (DNS).
Hardware
	Clients and servers	Although the users "see" only one application, practically all Internet applications follow client-server architecture, where processing is split (in various proportions) between the client computer and the server computer. The client side provides the user interface to the server, sends users' requests to the server, receives the returned information and interprets (displays) it to the user. Peer-to-peer architecture (as opposed to client-server) is also used in some user-to-user Internet applications.
	Router	A device that connects a local area network -- such as an inter-office LAN -- to a wide area network-- such as the Internet. The router's job is to move information between the two networks.
	Internet backbones	National and international high speed networks implemented with fibre optic cabling
	Satellite links	In places where backbone cabling has not been done or is not feasible, satellites can be used for Internet transmissions. Satellite transmissions are much slower than the wired alternatives.
Early applications
	Electronic mail (e-mail)	Deferred (off-line) transfer of messages using a TCP/IP mail protocol. Still the most commonly used and overall the most useful Internet application.
	Usenet	Distributed discussion forum on the Internet and beyond. Professional questions, opinions and other messages are exchanged (posted, read and replied to) publicly in locally or internationally distributed news groups. While national groups in national languages may be available only within a country or part of a country, a large number of discussion groups are internationally distributed. News sites exchange posted messages as per mutual agreements. Some groups are moderated. A very large number of messages are posted daily in the Usenet groups worldwide. Examples of the groups: comp.databases, soc.culture.indonesia, alt.travel.asia.
	FTP (File Transfer Protocol)	In TCP/IP, an application protocol used for transferring files to and from host computers.
	Gopher	A client-server application on the Internet, in which information is organized hierarchically. Overtaken in popularity by www.
Early on-line communication applications
	Talk and IRC	Talk is a command line application for exchanging (typed) messages online with another user. The Internet Relay Chat (IRC) allows group discussions in the same manner.
Application that revolutionized information sharing
	World Wide Web (WWW, Web)	The WWW is technically speaking both a server and a client. As a client browser it provides a textual (e.g. Lynx) or graphical (e.g. Netscape, MS Explorer) interface to various types of information (text, graphics, sound, video, programs) in multiple platforms (web servers, gopher servers, news, files, etc.). The WWW servers (httpd or http daemons) are server applications receiving and providing data as requested by web clients.
	Web language, HTML	Hypertext Markup Language, understood by all Web browsers. HTML is a small subset of SGML (Standard Generalized Markup Language, ISO standard 8879:1986). HTML files are technically in ASCII format; each object, such as a title, is surrounded by tags conforming to the standard HTML. They can be created, viewed and amended with almost any editor.
	Web addressing, URL	Universal Resource Locators (URLs) are used for network-wide addressing of documents in the web. A user would type in the Web browser: http://<IP address/name of the web server and the page> (for instance http://www.un.org/Depts/escap); gopher://<IP address/name of the gopher server plus directory or file name>; ftp://<IP address/name of the file server>; news://<IP address/name of the Usenet news server>; file://<path and the name of a local file>. HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol) is the transfer protocol for HTML documents.
	A common Web server, Httpd	The CERN httpd is a generic public domain full-featured hypertext server which can be used as a regular HTTP server.
An important Internet language
	Java	Java is an object-oriented language similar to C++ object oriented programming language, developed by Sun Microsystems. Its portability, security, and support for distributed programming make it useful for Internet programming. Has become one of the de facto standard programming languages for Internet applications. The most common Java programs are applications and applets. Applications are stand-alone programs. Applets are similar to applications, but don't run on their own. Instead, applets adhere to a set of conventions that lets them run within a Java-compatible browser (e.g. recent versions of Netscape or MS Explorer). N.B. Ordinary users of the Internet, including those authoring standard Web pages, do not need Java or any other programming skills.
Audio and video
	Audio conferencing, Internet telephone	Audio conferencing programs work by digitizing speech and sending the digital data over the Internet. The sound quality depends on the local capacity at each end. Although a higher speed is preferred, a 14.4 kbps modem is enough for ordinary telephone calls in ideal line conditions (when packet losses are minimal). Internet telephone may evolve as a serious competitor to traditional long distance operators.
	Broadcasting of audio and video	While the usual way of moving information around the Internet is by using unicast protocols (tools that send packets to one site at a time), the development of multicast network technologies has made broadcasting of audio and video possible. The multicast backbone (M-Bone) is overlay on the Internet that allows one site to broadcast to many users minimizing bandwidth usage.

Equipment: Computer, modem, dialup telephone line/ dedicated line, or network connection (LAN connected to the Internet Service Provider)

Software: TCP/IP interface, communication software, Internet client software

Internet Service Provider (ISP) , which provides the international gateway. The table on page 9 provides a list of countries which have local Internet Service Providers (ISPs). ISP would have negotiated the terms and implementation of a link to the global Internet with one or more parties already connected to it. If ISP service does not exist at all or is inadequate for the intended use, government agencies and academic institutions may initiate the establishment of a new provider. The private sector may be invited to collaborate.

Instructions from the ISP, hardware and software manuals, books on the Internet , organization's internal instructions and policies about the use of Internet applications.

A schematic of the Internet. All clients, servers and routers have unique IP-addresses, which are managed by Domain Name Servers located along the route. Some users may have a shell account (terminal connection) to their ISP, in which case they would not have their own IP addresses; they would use client software in the ISPþs computer for their Internet work.

Internet client software, such as versatile www-browsers, make the Internet servers, services and information easily accessible to end-users. Incoming and outgoing traffic can be controlled in routers with firewalls, which check identifications of users and contents of packets being transferred.

Indicative data transfer rates in various types of connection

Bits or Bytes? A byte (binary term) in almost all computers equals eight consecutive bits (binary digit). When used to describe data storage, a kilobyte (KB) is 1024 bytes, a megabyte (MB) is 1024 kilobytes (1,048,576 bytes, 2 to the 20th power) and a gigabyte (GB) 1,024 megabytes, 1,073,741,824 bytes, 2^30). Analogously, a kilobit is 1,024 bits, etc.

Confusingly enough, when used to described data transfer rates, a kilobyte and a megabyte refer to exactly one thousand and one million bytes respectively. Transfer rates of modems are often expressed in kilobits per second (kbps), thousands of bits transferred in one second. A 28.8 kbps can in perfect conditions transfer 28800 bits per second. The byte rate is however lower than one eighth of 28,800 as a start and stop bits are added for an asynchronous data stream; with a high quality telephone line and with V.42 error control in effect, the maximum rate is no higher than 3,300 bytes. High speed networks are normally using packet switching transmission, which sends only eight bits per byte.

Baud, which is no longer used in common language, is quite different. It measures signal changes per second in a device such as a modem. As nowadays more than one bit can be send for every signal change, there is no direct relationship to the number of bits transferred per second.

The idea was welcomed by all a long time ago, but its implementation took time. A fair amount of coordination and work was required to get ESCAP's long-awaited home page up. It was inaugurated by the Executive Secretary in connection with the Ministerial Segment of the Commission session in April.

The site is not (yet) as fancy as many others, but delivers a good dosage of UN documents for those interested in regional aspects of socioeconomic development. You can find the Government Computerization Newsletter updated twice a year at http://www.un.org/Depts/escap/stat/gc/gcnl/gcnlhome.htm. Make it a habit to check other offerings at http://www.un.org/Depts/escap. For the time being, as you can see from the URL, the pages are located in the UN web server in New York.

Statistics Division's home page can be found at http:\\www.un.org\Depts\escap\stat\stat.htm

National networking initiatives have emerged in almost every country in the region. With the recent additions of Bangladesh, Cambodia, Maldives, Micronesia, Northern Mariana Islands, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Tonga and Turkmenistan, the list of members and associate members without full Internet connection has shrunk to 15 out of 60. In spite of the existence of connections, the access of citizens and public sector organizations remains very limited in the majority of the region's developing economies.

ISO 3166 code	Country or area	Full Internet connection	Bitnet access	Only e-mail
AF	Afghanistan	-	-	-
AS	American Samoa	-	-	-
AM	Armenia	X	-	-
AU	Australia	X	-	-
AZ	Azerbaijan	X	X	-
BD	Bangladesh	X	-	-
BT	Bhutan	-	-	-
BN	Brunei Darussalam	X	-	-
KH	Cambodia	X	-	-
CN	China	X	-	-
CK	Cook Islands	-	-	X
KP	Democratic People's Republic of Korea	-	-	P
FJ	Fiji	X	-	-
PF	French Polynesia	X	-	-
GU	Guam	X	-	-
HK	Hong Kong, China	X	X	-
IN	India	X	X	-
ID	Indonesia	X	-	-
IR	Islamic Republic of Iran	X	X	-
JP	Japan	X	X	-
KZ	Kazakstan	X	-	-
KI	Kiribati	-	-	-
KG	Kyrgyzstan	X	-	-
LA	Lao People's Democratic Republic	-	-	X
MO	Macau	X	-	-
MY	Malaysia	X	X	-
MV	Maldives	X	-	-
MH	Marshall Islands	-	-	-
FM	Micronesia, Federated States of	X	-	-
MN	Mongolia	X	-	-
MM	Myanmar	-	-	-
NR	Nauru	-	-	-
NP	Nepal	X	-	-
NC	New Caledonia	X	-	-
NZ	New Zealand	X	-	-
NU	Niue	-	-	-
MP	Northern Mariana Islands	X	-	-
PK	Pakistan	X	-	-
PW	Palau	-	-	-
PG	Papua New Guinea	X	-	-
PH	Philippines	X	-	-
KR	Republic of Korea	X	-	-
RU	Russian Federation	X	X	-
WS	Samoa	X	-	-
SG	Singapore	X	-	-
SB	Solomon Islands	X	-	-
LK	Sri Lanka	X	-	-
TJ	Tajikistan	-	-	X
TH	Thailand	X	-	-
TO	Tonga	X	-	-
TR	Turkey	X	X	-
TM	Turkmenistan	X	-	-
TV	Tuvalu	-	-	-
UZ	Uzbekistan	X	-	-
VU	Vanuatu	X	-	-
VN	Viet Nam	-	-	X
Only e-mail connection may be a UUCP or FIDOnet network connection. P Provisional connection Data sources: International E-mail accessibility FAQ; © Olivier M.J. Crepin-Leblond, release 97.02.07 of 3 July 1997, available at http://www.ee.ic.ac.uk/misc/country-codes.html; and Global Web Explorer -- Linking with every country throughout the World; © Robert S. Duggan & Steven H. Gibbs; http://www.guernsey.net/~sgibbs/www.html).

Assuming that all readers would have access to the World Wide Web of the Internet, this feature issue could be a simple list of a dozen or so links to selected well-written and informative articles available publicly on the Internet. That concept of modern publishing would make such publications as the Government Computerization Newsletter more or less redundant, would it not?

Yes	No
- For many people, the Internet has become a primary source of information. They rely on it for the latest news and facts.	- Most people do not have any kind of access to the Internet. Only in the most developed countries are penetration rates high and the cost of access for the general public affordable.
- With on-line access to the Internet, you can search for information you need at any point of time. You may be able to find full articles or summaries that are directly relevant to what you are doing, for instance writing a paper on a particular issue.	- Although Internet search tools have improved enormously during the past couple of years, it can still be quite difficult to find specific information. For a person needing particular information, it does not make much difference whether the information is unavailable because he cannot find it on the Internet, or because nobody put it there in the first place.
- Internet has abundant information available on information technologies.	- Less information is available on management of information technologies, in particular when it pertains to developing countries and the public sector.

What else does the Internet mean for the Editor of the Newsletter ?

• It is an important medium to keep abreast with the latest technological information. It allows us to cross-check facts given by one source.
• It allows us to follow better what is happening in other organizations and what others are publishing.
• It challenges us to publish a meaningful articles to the readers, whose requirements for content have increased with improved access to information. Searching and copying others' texts is easy (but we try not to fall into that).
• It challenges us to provide something new for the increasingly heterogeneous readership.
• It is a medium that allows us to service the readership better as the readers can get the texts in electronic format and reuse the material more easily.
• It makes the potential readership much larger. We (can) have readers all over the world, including in the private sector and interested individuals.
• It reduces the drafting time of certain types of articles as the source material is readily available.
• It may eventually allow us to cut down the mailing costs of the Newsletter. Today we know that the majority of the readers do not have a viable electronic connection to read it. Another consideration is that most people, including the Editor, prefer to read printed material rather than the monitor (which cannot conveniently be taken along to most comfortable reading locations). However, readers of the electronic versions always have a freedom of choice to print the texts for later perusal at their convenience.
• Its e-mail facilities allow the transmission of more instantaneous feedback from our readers.

In conclusion, the Internet is a wonderful assistant that makes our work in many ways easier, but forces us to think about the value that we can add with our publication.

The Internet has significantly increased the openness and transparency of the United Nations. ESCAP inaugurated its Web site at http://www.un.org/Depts/ escap during the fifty-third session of the Commission on 28 April 1997 (see previous story). Our pages hopefully make us also more approachable to outsiders. For the time being, ESCAP has very modest resources available for its internal web development. A choice was made to concentrate on the substance rather than the fancy design of the site.

It sometimes appears that information repackagers, or those who know how to tap existing resources on the Internet, have an edge in the modern information society. The same phenomenon has been witnessed in the field of international statistics, where private companies are able to add value to data they buy from various international statistical agencies (including the United Nations) by creating centrally accessible user-friendly repositories for a wide array of statistics. We have no choice but to improve our mastery of the technological environment. At the end we believe that primary producers of information and original authors will regain their relative positions.

The fifty-third session of ESCAP, which was held in Bangkok from 23 to 30 April 1997, reviewed its own conference structure. A resolution adopted on the conference structure retained the Committee on Statistics with only slightly modified terms of reference. Public sector computerization activities will therefore continue to be monitored by the Committee on Statistics.

The newly approved parliamentary structure, in particular the names and the terms of reference of the Committees, resembles the old one (1992-1997) in several respects and the underlying thematic approach has been retained. The members and associate members recommended that the secretariat structure, which is under the jurisdiction of ESCAP's Executive Secretary, be organized with a high degree of congruence with the parliamentary structure. That incongruence had been identified as one of the weaknesses in the old system. The Committees that had a sectoral orientation (i.e. Statistics, Transport and Communications) had generally experienced stronger representation from the capitals than those with a broad thematic mandate.

The approved overall parliamentary structure consists of the following five committees, which should meet at the intervals and for the maximum duration indicated below:

Committees	Periodicity	Maximum duration
Regional economic cooperation	Biennial	3 days
Socioeconomic measures to alleviate poverty in rural and urban areas	Annual	3 days
Environment and natural resources development	Annual	3 days
Transport, communications, tourism and infrastructure development	Annual	3 days
Statistics	Biennial	3 days
In addition, the Special Bodies on Least Developed and Landlocked Developing Countries and on Pacific Island Developing Countries which have normally met in connection with the annual Commission session, were retained. The Committee on Regional Economic Cooperation will have a high-level steering group which will meet annually for a maximum duration of three days.

Committee on Statistics on its tenth session

Following a standard procedure, the Commission considered the report of the Committee on Statistics on its tenth session, which had been held in November 1996. Noting that the Committee had had extensive discussions on its terms of reference at its previous two sessions, the Commission endorsed the strengthening of the Committee's institutional structure, including the adoption of new terms of reference for its bureau.

Apart from the Committee's terms of reference and discussions on statistical issues, the Commission reaffirmed its support for the development of the ESCAP Statistical Information System (ESIS) as a key regional repository for reliable and comparable economic and social data, and urged the secretariat to allocate resources for making the System operational and accessible to member countries as soon as possible. Linking ESIS with similar national statistical information systems could facilitate the dissemination of data in the region. Noting that the ESCAP World Wide Web site was about to be launched, the Commission urged the secretariat to use it actively for disseminating statistical information, documents and data.

The Commission stressed the fundamental importance of information technology in the work of national statistical offices and was convinced that it provided one of the most cost-effective ways to improve the collection of reliable and disaggregated data. The adoption of the latest technology was, however, severely hampered in many countries by the unavailability of skilled personnel. The Commission therefore urged the secretariat and the Statistical Institute for Asia and the Pacific (SIAP) to provide more training and advice on information technology

applications in statistics to supplement national human resources development efforts.

Focus of computerization activities

The Commission noted that the Committee on Statistics had asked that greater attention should be paid to applications of information technology in statistics rather than to the public sector in general. On the other hand, the Committee had asked the secretariat to find a sharp focus for its work in the field of public sector computerization, especially by concentrating on those recommendations of the 1995 Expert Group Meeting to Review Computerization Development in the Public Sector where the available resources could have a meaningful impact. These recommendations and severe resource constraints have made it necessary to rethink the secretariat's strategy in public sector computerization. A recent internal evaluation of the past activities revealed, among other things, the difficulty of raising extrabudgetary funding for projects in this particular area, as public sector computerization had so far not ranked among the priority areas of donors.

ESCAP observes 50th Anniversary

A month before its 53rd session, the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) observed its fiftieth anniversary on 28 March 1997 with the theme "50 Years of Achievement". ESCAP was established on 28 March 1947 under the terms of Economic and Social Council resolution 37 (IV) as the Economic Commission for Asia and the Far East (ECAFE) to assist in post-war economic reconstruction. The name was changed in

1974 to ESCAP, reflecting both economic and social aspects of development and the geographic location of its members. From an initial membership of 10 countries, ESCAP has grown to 60 members and associate members, representing some 60 per cent of the world's population, or 3.5 billion people. Its membership ranges from small Pacific island countries such as Niue to the most populous countries of the world, China and India.