Wednesday, July 21st, 2004

Tokyo Metropolitan Government Holds “Asian Network of Major Cities 21” Videoconference a

Tokyo Metropolitan Government (TMG) held a meeting of the Asia Distance Learning Project at the Tokyo Development Learning Center (TDLC) with 13 representatives of local government across Asia. Eight capital and major cities in Asia participated, including Tokyo, Beijing, New Delhi, Jakarta, Singapore and others.

The Asia Distance Learning Project is part of the Asian Network of Major Cities 21 (ANMC21) which fosters social and economic bonds and cooperation between member cities. ANMC21 projects focus on vital areas of concern for 21st century Asia including the development of new technology, environmental protection and sustainability, urban planning, and health issues.

The objective of the Asia Distance Learning Project is to promote a wide range of education such as language and IT literacy through distance learning, and to develop local and international talent to incubate and lead business in the Asian region.

In the first session of the conference, Dr. Shintaro Ishijima, President of the Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Technology and the conference Chair, introduced participants and reviewed the past activities of the Project before opening the introducing a range of presentations from participants. The conference, which laster for an hour, took full advantage of the TDLC's facilities for document sharing, video broadcasting, and high-speed networking.

The major points covered were

• Confirmation of the basic concepts of the business plan and discussion of how to distribute distance learning teaching materials among the participant cities

• Explanation of the role of the business promotion team

• Presentation of a detailed model plan for the project launch

This conference succeeded in building consensus among participants for the Project's next steps, with participants convinced of the effectiveness of holding videoconferences among participating cities through the GDLN, and JICA-Net.

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