TEIN3 takes to the stage at APAN meeting in Taiwan

Friday 20 March 2009, Cambridge, UK: The first day of the 27th APAN Meeting held from 2 to 6 March 2009 in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, culminated in a ceremony to celebrate the achievements of the Trans-Eurasia Information (TEIN) initiative and to introduce the new TEIN3 network to the APAN community. Since its inception in October 2000, TEIN has come a long way. Its third generation provides a dedicated high-capacity data-communications network for research and education across Asia-Pacific, marking a further major milestone towards an inclusive information society in the region.

Dr Yeong-Ro Lee representing KOREN during his speech at the ceremony DANTE’s David West, TEIN3 project manager, opened the ceremony by thanking the many organisations who have helped make this initiative such a success.
Following a short but impactful introduction of the network via a video that featured the wide range of supported applications, Yeong-Ro Lee, Executive Director of u-Infrastructure Division of the Korean NREN KOREN, recalled the ASEM3 Summit in 2000 in Seoul which marked the beginning of TEIN and proposed a toast as one of the founding fathers of the initiative. It was then the turn of Denis Villorente, Director of ASTI in the Philippines, to recognise the catalytic impact of the network on research networking across the current partner countries as well as the benefits for the user communities and the wider population. Finally, Prashant Manandhar, Director of the Nepalese NREN expressed his country’s interest in joining the network, stressing that not only is the current TEIN3 network faster and stronger, but with the imminent extension to South Asia it soon will have a wider geographical footprint, providing a gateway for global collaborations to virtually the whole Asian region. The round of presentations was concluded by Mark Prior of Juniper Networks, that supply the TEIN3 routers, who also welcomed the new network.

Following the official speeches, the 150 delegates who attended the ceremony had the opportunity to discuss this continuing success story over drinks and canapés.