The objective of this project is to provide remote educational training to local information and communication technology (ICT) policy managers in an effort to foster human resources in the ICT field in the Micronesian region. At the same time, Japanese and American ICT experts are dispatched to the Marshall Islands and the Federated States of Micronesia to support the reform of national policy in this area. In the final year of the project, Dr. Norman H. Okamura of the University of Hawaii helped to establish the Micronesian Chief Executives' Summit (MCES) Telecommunications Committee to arrange a regional conference regarding ICT, while also providing advice on the establishment of national ICT policy in the Marshall Islands.
The project provided seven trainees from government institutions, universities and telecommunications-related companies in Palau, the Federated States of Micronesia, Samoa and the Marshall Islands with satellite-based distance education programs. These programs covered cutting-edge ICT, policy and regulations, along with operational issues as a part of a telecommunications resource management program at a level equivalent to that offered in postgraduate courses at the University of Hawaii. For distance educational training, the University of Hawaii and the University of Guam discussed the possibility of joint tuition options for the future as well as methods of transmitting information regarding training details.
Over the three years of the project, distance education was provided to 21 persons from governmental, corporate and educational organizations involved in the Pacific Island countries' ICT policy, enhancing the participants' knowledge of policymaking and management. Some participants were government officials including senators and senior officers of transportation and telecommunications-related ministries and agencies. In the Marshall Islands, participants made suggestions on their country's ICT policy after finishing the program, proving that the project had succeeded in fostering personnel who can play a central role in ICT policymaking in each country. Furthermore, the launch of the MCES Communication Committee allowed participant countries, such as the Marshall Islands, Palau, the Federated States of Micronesia, Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands, to exchange information regarding ICT policy in the Micronesian region as well as to establish a system for ongoing discussion about ICT-based joint projects.