Deputy for Information, Communication and Transportation Technology to the Research and Technology Minister Dr. Ir. Engkos Koswara APU made the remarks on the sidelines of an ASEAN workshop to draft the implementation plans of COST (Committee on Science and Technology) Flagship Programmes held at the Novotel Hotel here on Tuesday.
"The request surfaced for the first time at the ASEAN Ministerial Meeting (AMM) in Jakarta in 2005 when Kusmayanto Kadiman was Indonesia`s research and technology minister. At the time the organizing committee made available a laptop to each ASEAN minister taking part in the meeting. They were surprised at why Indonesia did not use Microsoft but open source software, a national desktop system. Since then they became interested in it," he said.
He said the ASEAN community had the potential to use open source software which was more economical than proprietary software which was more expensive.
The development of open source software in Indonesia was very encouraging and nearly 25 percent of the Indonesian people particularly regional governments was using open source software, open office software in particular, he said.
Citing an example, he said a number of district administrations including Jembrana, Sragen, and Central Aceh had begun to use open source software.
"Until now many parties still ask for our assistance to switch from propriety to open source soft ware," he said.
The two-day workshop brings together delegates from all ASEAN member states -- Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
At the ASEAN Committee on Science and Technology (COST) meeting in 2006, ASEAN ministers agreed on six flagship programs, including early warning system to mitigate disaster risks, biofuel, application and development of open source software, health and climate change.(*)
Editor: Aditia Maruli Radja
Copyright © ANTARA 2011
