Speaking in an interview hours before the opening of the 24th annual meeting of the PTC, Kim, a Korean who has been with the PTC since 1992, said the importance of the meeting stemmed from the fact that the Asia-Pacific region "is the most dynamic region in the world today."

"These countries in the Pacific region need to get together to exchange ideas and experiences. The PTC is at the core of the IT sector in this region," he said.

As hundreds of delegates gathered in Honolulu, many carrying the world's latest mobile telephones and connecting their portable computers to one of the fastest and most efficient conference networks many had seen, Kim said his highest priority would be to provide added value for members.

"I cannot say or promise anything at this stage, but I can commit myself to value membership. I would like to make sure that the human networking at this conference is maintained for years to come," he said.

Kim said that competition in the telecommunications field had proven to be its best regulator and he said he was pleased to say that China, potentially one of the world's largest telecommunications market, had opened up to the world of telecommunications, the Internet, and electronic connectivity in ways undreamed of in years in past.

For the first time this year, a senior official of the Chinese government is attending the conference. Wu Jichuan, the minister of the Ministry of Information Industry (MII) will deliver a keynote address on Monday.

"We are delighted that he is here with us. We have a lot to learn from China because China has shown considerable willingness to learn from us," Kim said. He noted that although all the world's mobile telephone systems were not necessarily compatible, for instance that he could not use his ivory-white Korean gadget half the size of a packet of cigarettes in Honolulu, "Mr. Wu can and he has been telephoning people here and in China and in Korea without the slightest problem."

It is this type of ease of communications, which is the very essence of the conference. Its theme this year will be on making the next generation of information technology work for everyone - and Kim said, not only work, but make it understandable and accessible to the public at large.

With this in mind, he said leading academic experts from many nations were also attending the conference to exchange not only the latest ideas and thinking, but also the latest teaching methods.

Abdul Wahid Khan, Assistance Director-General for Communication and Information at UNESCO, said, "The rapid pace of social, economic and technological change in our society has been profoundly modifying the basic paradigm of education. Educational structures and approaches have had to evolved to provide deeper and more polyvalent formal education to equip students for change, and ever wider opportunities for lifelong, on-demand learning."

Thus, he said, education was becoming more international, interdisciplinary and dynamic, stressing problem solving skills rather than rote learning. Hoyt Zia, executive director of the council said one of the key themes of the conference this year would be to help developing nations derive maximum benefits from the telecommunications revolution sweeping the developing world ? a point on which Khan raised a note of caution:

"Developing countries, particularly the least developed countries, are finding the information revolution to be a mixed blessing," Khan said. "While many are seeing it as the generator of an additional gap separating them from the industrialized world ? the so-called 'digital divide' ? new information and communication technologies are also proving to be especially suited to addressing some of the most critical problems of development."

In fact, the UNESCO official said, the new technologies are important to developing nations working to reach the immense numbers of children unable to attend school, to improve access to secondary and higher education systems, and to provide learning opportunities to benefit from new and competitive markets.