BdREN Participates in 16th Asi@Connect Meeting in Seoul, South Korea
The 16th Asi@Connect Meeting was held in Seoul, South Korea, from October 16 to 18, 2024. The event featured a series of sessions, including the Governors' Meeting, Steering Committee Meetings, and Task Force Meetings. Prof. SMA Faiz, Chairperson-BdREN attended the meeting as Governor, Asi@Connect project. Mohammad Tawrit, Chief Executive Officer-BdREN, and Dr. Mohammad Farooq Ali Tarafder FCMA, ACS, Chief Administrative and Fianance Officer-BdREN, participated in the meetings as resource person and steering committee member respectively.
Asi@Connect is the successor to TEIN4 (Trans-Eurasia Information Network) which supports 24 economies by providing a regional high-capacity internet backbone for research and education collaborations within the Asia-Pacific region. The network also connects the pan-European GÉANT network as well as academic and research networks in other global regions with high-bandwidth links.
This particular meeting was convened to address the issues related with the future of Asi@Connect project, especially focusing on the financing of the next phase, as the present phase is destined to expire on August 2025. During the event, BdREN’s CEO, Mohammad Tawrit, on behalf of the Task Force Team which comprised of representatives from different NRENs and TEINCC, presented the "Cost Share Model" for Asi@Connect Phase-2.
Threadbare discussions followed the presentation on the model and the figures were slightly revised based on the comments of the Governors to plug all the holes and to make it flawless. Finally, the meeting concluded with a voting for approval of the revised model. Almost all the participants voted in favor of the revised “Cost Sharing Model” with Japan-AP being the only exception which abstained from giving votes.