Overview
The Asia-Pacific region currently has a critical digital divide whereby many countries are being marginalized from coherent and comprehensive ICT capacity building efforts due to their geographical, economical, and social challenges that leads to their continued isolation in the global knowledge-based economy. The human capacity building efforts in these countries in terms of availability of ICT capacity building training workshops and knowledge products are usually ad-hoc and in limited thematic areas.

Within the same vein, the international development communities currently do not possess an effective and co-ordinated mechanism to make their programmes and developed training resources to be made known and available to information-impoverished countries.? While such organizations may have specific geographic areas or countries they are targeting with their efforts, other countries may be able to benefit from their services if there were a way of making their capacity building programmes and resources more widely known.

Strategy of e-Co Hub
The advent of ICTs and web technologies provides an excellent platform to virtually connect different stakeholders to communicate and share information and resources. APCICT seeks to develop a centralized e-hub entitled e-Co Hub to facilitate needs assessment, knowledge creation and the sharing of intellectual capital by different communities engaged in this effort and enable existing relevant material to be made available on APCICT's Academy of ICT Essentials for Government Leaders modules.

Due to differences in objectives, it is not an easy task to bring all ICT capacity building efforts by various organizations under the governance of a single body.? However, the development of e-Co Hub as a single gateway on ICT capacity building programmes will be mutually beneficial to all stakeholders and will contribute to designing more efficient and effective programmes by participating community members. Efficiencies will be achieved by reducing duplication of efforts and sharing of experiences and knowledge related to capacity building.? Effectiveness will be enhanced by the distribution of knowledge resources by and among community members, as well as the creation of new knowledge through broader innovative synergies and collaborative efforts.

The e-Co Hub will also enhance the training activities of the APCICT by integrating the e-Co Hub as a resource into the Centre's training activities. It provides will physical and virtual synergies by providing access to ongoing after-training online resources which can be used by trainees for their own development and their own training efforts.? In addition, existence of e-Co Hub will also help other community members with similar capacity building goals.