3.8. Conclusions from this Chapter

• 3.8.1. Conclusions - General access to the Internet in DMCs
• 3.8.2. Conclusions - Internet access by Project DIAL audiences
• 3.8.3. Conclusions - Interest in Project DIAL by its proposed audiences
• 3.8.4. Conclusions - Legal information of greatest interest to Project DIAL audiences
• 3.8.5. Conclusions - Significance of the availability of a country's own laws on the Internet
• 3.8.6. General conclusions

On the basis of these conclusions, we then make recommendations for any follow-on RETA that the Bank may decide to undertake.

3.8.1. Conclusions - General access to the Internet in DMCs

• The overwhelming majority of DMCs of the Bank have Internet connectivity, so the proposed DIAL facilities are of potential use to DMCs generally.
• The variety and speed of international Internet connectivity from the seven countries surveyed is such that Internet access to world-wide legal materials is achievable in practice in each of the seven countries.
• The availability of Internet Service Providers (ISPs) providing reasonable speed Internet connectivity within each of the seven countries surveyed, at least in relation to major cities, means that effective Internet access is a reality within these countries.
• Laws and regulations are not a significant impediment to access in any of the countries surveyed.

3.8.2. Conclusions - Internet access by Project DIAL audiences

• The price of hardware and software necessary for Internet access does not show a great deal of variation between the seven countries (on average, about US $1,000), and was rarely mentioned by survey respondents as a major impediment to access.
• Recurrent telecommunications and ISP charges are most often mentioned by survey respondents as an impediment to access.
• Among legislative personnel (the primary audience of the project), the current level of official access to the Internet varies a great deal, ranging from near zero access to access by about 50% of officials. However, in some cases a high percentage of officials had their own personal access to the Internet.
• In all seven countries there were significant likely secondary audiences (private lawyers, courts, libraries, law schools, companies involved in international trade, NGOs etc) for the proposed facilities, but the particular secondary audiences likely to be interested varied considerably between countries. In all countries surveyed, with the possible exception of Mongolia, there were secondary audiences who already have access to the internet. They constitute a larger likely audience for the DIAL facilities than the primary audience of legislation personnel.
• Survey respondents from the most likely secondary audiences expressed a high level of interest in and the DIAL facilities and expectations of their usefulness. As noted above in relation to the primary audience, this was despite the lack of any demonstration facilities.

3.8.3. Conclusions - Interest in Project DIAL by its proposed audiences

• The extent to which comparative legal materials are used in the law reform and drafting processes is difficult to ascertain, but officials in all countries surveyed expressed interest in access to such materials.
• A high level of interest in, and enthusiasm for, the proposed DIAL Index facilities was typical of the primary audience (legislative personnel) survey respondents. This was so even though it was not possible for demonstrations of DIAL to be given to respondents due to the DIAL Index still being under development at the time of survey (and lack of internet access by respondents in some cases), and even though the availability of the DIAL Search facility was not stressed (due to its later development). We expect that the level of interest would have been even higher if demonstrations had been possible.
• The legislative processes in the seven countries surveyed differ a great deal, so that decisions about which particular agencies should be regarded as a priority in facilitating their use of Project DIAL (in terms of their influence on the legislative process and on their potential to encourage other agencies in use of DIAL facilities) must be decided on a country by country basis.
• In each country surveyed there is at least one `key legislation agency' which fits the first of these criteria, including the State Secretariat in Indonesia, the Ministry of Justice in Vietnam, the Ministry of Law and Justice in Pakistan, the Ministry of Law and Justice in India, and the Bureau of Legislation Affairs in China.

3.8.4. Conclusions - Legal information of greatest interest to Project DIAL audiences

• The highest level of interest in legislation-related materials from other countries, was in access to the texts of the laws themselves. There was significant and approximately equal interest in access to law reform materials, official explanatory materials, treaties, and law journals. There was relatively little interest in access to Parliamentary debates.
• There was interest in the countries surveyed in obtaining access to laws from a very wide range of countries, including European countries with colonial and linguistic ties to the countries concerned, the United States, Australia, countries in Eastern Europe and Central Asia undergoing similar transformations to market economies, other ASEAN countries, China, and India. There was no interest expressed in relation to the countries surveyed in obtaining access to laws from Latin American or African or Middle Eastern countries.
• English appeared to be the single language in which access to laws could be provided which would be of most general value, but there was also interest in obtaining access to laws in Chinese, Russian, German and French.
• No consistent pattern emerged of the areas of law in which respondents were interested. The areas most commonly mentioned were banking and finance; market regulation; infrastructure and privatisation; and intellectual property. The Bank or the management of Project DIAL would have to make their own assessment of priorities for the areas of concentration for DIAL Index and DIAL Search, perhaps guided by user feedback including through the DIALogue facility.

3.8.5. Conclusions - Significance of the availability of a country's own laws on the Internet

• Whether a county's own laws are being made available via Internet is a matter of considerable significance to the likely use of facilities such as those in Project DIAL, as it is one of the main determinants of overall Internet usage by lawyers.
• There are already substantial collections of the laws of China, India and Vietnam available on the World-Wide-Web, but not yet those of the other four countries surveyed.

3.8.6. General conclusions

Almost all of the other DMCs of the Bank have international Internet connectivity. If the experience of the seven surveyed DMCs is representative, then we may conclude that the proposed Project DIAL facilities will be welcomed generally by the target audiences in the Bank's DMCs, and will be capable of being used effectively across the Bank's membership.