The contributing authors to the Digital Review of Asia Pacific met in Kuala Lumpur for three days from November 27 to 29, 2002. The publication covers 27 countries and territories of the Asia region. A special regional chapter for the Pacific Islands reviews all 14 of the islands making up the Pacific Islands Forum

The work of the contributing authors will be published as the 2003/2004 Edition of the Digital Review in July 2003. It focuses on the application of new information and communication technologies (ICTs) to support and facilitate socio-economic development of countries and territories in the Asia Pacific region. The edition reports on and analyses progress made in Internet-based content and services. It also surveys issues related to the governance of the Internet at the national and local levels.

The editorial design of the publication was finalised a year ago. A review of literature at that time revealed that several e-readiness studies were underway. This led to an editorial decision not to cover hard technology issues that has been the focus of these regional studies as well as other past publications on the ICT sector of the region.

The first day of the authors' working sessions was set aside for peer-reviews of all the chapters. The authors worked in four parallel sub-regional working groups. It was an opportunity for the authors not only to review each other's work, but also to share information and experiences, and to begin synthesizing trends in their sub-regions.

The team of authors shifted focus on the second day to discern trends in the sub-regions for the three areas covered by the 2003/2004 Edition: Governance, content and on-line services. It was a challenging day. The broad diversity of the region was striking. At one end of the scale, highly advanced countries were setting world standards in niches they had created in the industry. South Korea's leadership in broadband technology was one such example. At the other end of the continuum, countries were in the early stages of connecting to the Internet. Afghanistan and East Timor were examples of countries in the midst of rebuilding their infrastructure and connecting to the Internet at the same time. Most of the countries in the region can be found in intermediate notches on this scale. They have made stable connections, and in many cases excelling in selected niches of the sector while working hard to build universal access on other fronts.

The authors were guests of MIMOS Berhad and Multimedia Development Corporation (MDC) on the third day to learn first hand the Malaysian experiences in building the ICT sector. ORBICOM member, Tengku, Datuk, Dr. Mohd. Azzman Shariffadeen, CEO of MIMOS was the host. An interesting presentation by Dr. K.J. John of the Malaysian National IT Council laid out the country's plans to "leapfrog" from the newly industrialised and manufacturing stage of development, to a fully developed knowledge society by deploying ICTs in a strategic manner.

>The visit to the MDC gave the panel of authors an opportunity to see first hand the progress made within the 15 by 50 km. "Multimedia Super Corridor" over the past three years. The strip of former oil palm estate land has been transformed into a state-of-the-art technology park at which several major multi-national companies have established their regional hubs and offices. These companies have been drawn to the park by an astute combination of fiscal incentives, robust, high-speed infrastructure, and legislative guarantees.