We, the participants of the Roundtable at the 7th Asia Open Source Software (OSS) Symposium, 6-8 March 2006, representing the 19 Asian Economies listed in Appendix, hereby agree to recognise the Kuala Lumpur Statement for the Asia OSS Roundtable.

The 3-day long symposium has adopted the theme, “Towards Asia Open Source Software Ecosystem - for sustainable development of OSS”. As planned, participants engaged in several knowledge-enriching activities which include plenary sessions, working group meetings and roundtable discussions.

We confirmed that the previous six symposia have facilitated information exchange among Asia OSS members in each economy, established human networks, and have led to the widespread acknowledgement and understanding of open source software by the general public. Now, we acknowledge that Asia OSS is entering a new era of development that focuses on the OSS ecosystem.

The OSS ecosystem is envisaged to be an environment in which the stakeholders interact, collaborate and leverage on one another in a continuous cycle. The stakeholders include organisations from the public, private, academic and community sectors and symbiotic growth is encouraged among these organisations in the OSS ecosystem.

Towards enhancing a sustainable OSS ecosystem, we want to give attention to human resource development, standardisation, localisation, and future implementation strategies.

OSS Ecosystem
We recognise the need to establish a sustainable OSS ecosystem that is able to nurture and provide critical resources to drive the adoption and deployment of OSS in Asia as a strategy towards achieving a knowledge society.

We recognise that governments can create an enabling environment to drive the adoption and deployment of OSS in Asia as a strategy towards achieving a knowledge society through formulating appropriate policies, legislations and support infrastructure.

Human Resource Development
With regard to OSS skills and certification, greater efforts are needed to improve existing formal and non-formal training programmes and materials, enhance professionalism and build a community of OSS professionals.

Standardisation and Localisation
We recognise the prevalence of localised OSS, and therefore it has become imperative to identify the distribution channels to promote these products.

We also duly recognise the need for a regular forum for information exchange among members.

It is also vital for research groups and development practitioners as well as policy formulators to continuously build network and dialog sessions in order to develop the OSS further.

CodeFest
CodeFest has been proven to motivate developers and accelerate development. Therefore, we support the setting up of periodic CodeFest events to strengthen the development of the OSS ecosystem.

Future Direction and Challenges
We agree that future OSS symposia to be held once a year. However, we encourage interest groups to spearhead their own OSS initiatives.

Towards realisation of OSS ecosystem in Asia, we are fully aware of challenges such as creating critical mass, focal point in participating economies, legal aspects of OSS, instituting regular training programmes, sharing of resources and materials and effective deployment of OSS projects especially involving international collaboration as well as multi-stakeholder partnership.

We, the participants of the 7th Asia OSS Roundtable have laid the groundwork for realisation of the full potential of the OSS ecosystem.

7th Asia Open Source Software Symposium Member Economies

Bangladesh
Cambodia
Hong Kong China
India
Indonesia
Japan
Korea
Laos
Malaysia
Mongolia
Myanmar
Nepal
Pakistan
Philippines
Singapore
Sri Lanka
Chinese Taipei
Thailand
Vietnam