Lao PDR and Viet Nam are suitable lead participants in the piloting of the systems proposed for the following reasons:

(1)   Lao PDR represents a small economy located between two larger countries with major poultry farming sectors; the challenges it faces represent those of smaller ASEAN countries in the process of developing preventive measures against Avian Flu.

(2)   Viet Nam has a large poultry sector and has experienced both major Avian Flu and SARS outbreaks and therefore represents a large ASEAN country with a significant farming sector that is vulnerable to animal-borne diseases such as Avian Flu.

(3)   Lao PDR and Viet Nam share a long common border which will facilitate the field testing of trans-border communication protocols as well as the sharing of data and information among neighbouring countries.

Senior representatives from the ministries of health, agriculture, and telecommunications of all 10 ASEAN Member Countries will provide oversight to the pilot project. They will meet during the launch of the project to contribute their input into the implementation of the pilot They will meet again at the conclusion of the field-trials to review research findings and project reports and then decide on the up-scaling of the initiative if the results of the field trial prove the GIS and WiMAX systems developed to be useful and ready for region-wide deployment.