Abstract of the Forum (August 3rd, 2002)

The Forum was opened with greetings from Dr. Satoshi Iue, Representative Director of Awaji Conference, followed by Dr. Abdul Waheed Khan, Assistant Director-General of UNESCO, who said that, for IT to be a truly powerful means of promoting cross-cultural exchange in the Asia Pacific region, an environment should be created in which equal access to information is guaranteed to all.

Next, Mr. Kouji Ohboshi, Corporate Advisor of NTT DoCoMo, Inc., spoke, suggesting that it was necessary for our area to expand an IT network across Asia through information and technological exchange and personnel interaction among Asian countries, and to continue upgrading this network to realize interaction with the US and the EU on equal terms.

In response to the two keynote proposals, Professor Norihiko Morinaga of the Graduate School of Engineering of Osaka University, summarized the points to discuss, saying that the significance of IT was its potential as a powerful tool, not only for worldwide cross-cultural understanding, contributing to world peace and humankind's prosperity, and for business management and community vitalization, but also for supporting individual lives and activities, while adding face-to-face communication which is becoming increasingly important.

In the latter half of the Forum, after the lunch break, Professor Kenichi Sudo, Dean of the Faculty of Cross-Cultural Studies of Kobe University, and Professor Morinaga served as co-moderators for discussions. For over two hours, opinions were actively exchanged from various viewpoints concerning such issues as the digital divide, information and human exchange, promotion of cross-cultural understanding and IT, e-learning, and more.

Before closing, Professor Sudo, on behalf of the Awaji Conference Statement Drafting Committee, orally presented a draft of the "Awaji Conference Statement" about "Information and Human Exchange in the Asia Pacific Region," which summarized the two-day Awaji Conference. The draft was adopted by the members unanimously.