A new half-hour documentary on how telephones, computers and Internet are enriching lives and livelihoods across Asia was launched at the just concluded UN World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) in Tunis, Tunisia.

The video film, titled Connecting People: Changing Lives in Asia, was produced by TVE Asia Pacific in partnership with the Pan Asia Networking (PAN) Programme.

The film shows how information and communication technologies (ICTs), when properly applied, can help the developing countries in Asia to generate wealth, create more jobs and improve living conditions for millions of poor people.

This has major implications for the whole world as 60 per cent of humanity lives in the region, including a majority of its poor.

“The empowerment of the village people must become a reality and because India has developed considerable capacity in ICT and there are so many models all over the country; private sector, public sector, commercial sector. There are very many successful models of taking the benefits of ICT to rural people.” – Professor M S Swaminathan, in exclusive interview for this film

The challenge is outlined as the film opens. “There are more poor people in Asia than in all other regions combined. At the same time, some Asian countries now have the most advanced economies in the world. Their prosperity is partly due to how they have developed or adopted ICTs.

It then poses the question: “How can the developing countries of Asia use ICTs to generate wealth, create more jobs and improve living conditions of all people?”

This is the question that the PAN has been addressing for over a decade through action research. An initiative of Canada’s International Development Research Centre (IDRC), PAN has played a pioneering role in introducing, popularising and promoting the tools of ICT across developing Asia.

For this film, PAN facilitated access to its projects and partners across South and Southeast Asia. TV crews commissioned by TVE Asia Pacific travelled to remote corners of the region to gather exclusive footage, interviews and insights.

Several exclusive interviews were also recorded with the region’s top scientists, digital pioneers and researchers. These included Professor M S Swaminathan, father of India’s green revolution who now heads the dynamic M S Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF) in Chennai, India, and Chin Saik Yoon, Malaysian publisher and a leading writer on communication for development.

The resulting video combines the experience of ground level, action research by leading development practitioners in Asia with the strong journalistic and story telling skills of TVE Asia Pacific -- a regional leader in using television and video for communicating development.

The video is presented as a journey across mainland Asia – visiting Bhutan, Cambodia, India, Indonesia and Pakistan – to look at the work and accomplishments of several PAN supported projects and partners.

Some regional projects – involving several countries -- are also covered. These include the PAN-ASEAN Electronic Mall, and the Digital Review of Asia Pacific.

When it started in the 1990s, PAN was instrumental in introducing commercial Internet connectivity to several developing countries or territories. These includes Mongolia, northern areas of Pakistan, and later Butan.

In recent years, PAN has focused on applying Internet and online technologies to meet the region’s development needs, and has supported action research projects in rural ICT, distance education, ICT localisation and e-commerce. All projects are designed and implemented by local experts and partner organisation, with action research leading to policy and practice.

Using local knowledge and understanding, PAN has provided well-targeted, often catalytic kind of support to local ‘champions’ who strengthened ICT uses that promote sustainable development in Asia. Such champions have come from different backgrounds -- entrepreneurs, academics, civil society activists and government officials among them.

For producing this video film, TVE Asia Pacific mobilised local TV crews and the region’s top talent. In all countries except Bhutan, nationals of the country filmed the stories under TVEAP’s direction. The film was edited and post-produced at Video Image (Pvt) Limited in Colombo, Sri Lanka.

Both PAN and TVEAP will distribute this video across the Asia Pacific, as well as in other regions. The video is part of a wider IDRC/PAN exercise to document and share its experiences in what works in ICT for development.

Click here for short summaries of each story in this video

Click here for the full list of production credits

Click here to download new book on Pan Asia Programme