The United Nations established its Information and Communication
Technologies (ICT) Task Force (TF) to accelerate growth,
eradicate poverty and promote national action to overcome
regional disempowerment. The TF established Regional Networks to
implement its Plan of Action. Through the Asian Regional
Network, the UN aims to promote the use of ICT as a tool for the
region's development. The network will function as a think-tank
and consulting body for policy-making and assist in the
evaluation and dissemination of ICT. In March 2001, the United
Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) requested the
Secretary General, Kofi Annan, to establish an Information and
Communication Technologies (ICT) Task Force, an initiative
intended to lend a global dimension to the multitude of efforts
to bridge the digital divide and to give the United Nations a
pivotal role by providing support, a wide-ranging vision and
viable strategies. This new UN mechanism is an innovative
instrument, with a balanced representation of go