ASEAN telecommunications: Infrastructure,investment and regulatory policies 1

The ASEAN countries (Association of South East Asian Nations) represent a microcosm of countries in various stages of development. As such, they provide the opportunity to examine and compare telecommunications infrastructure development, investment, and regulatory policy trends similar to other countries. The recent moves towards privatization and increasing private participation in the telecommunications sector in the ASEAN region cover a diverse set of issues that similarly affect many other developing countries and newly industrializing economies. The telecommunications sector is different in each of the ASEAN countries and each must necessarily respond to its own social, political and economic needs. However, as a region, ASEAN provides an example, of the trends towards different forms of deregulation, liberalization of markets and privatization of the telecommunications authorities.