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Japanese Telecom Technology to Aid Vietnamese Farmers
- Youths to connect farmers with specialists via Internet and mobile technology

TOKYO, JAPAN - NTT Communications (NTT Com), NPO Pangaea and the Institute for HyperNetwork Society announced today that they will field test an international telecommunications system in which youths will mediate contact between agriculture specialists in Japan and low-literacy Vietnamese farmers, aiming to increase the productivity and quality of rice farming.

The field test, which will include the use of mobile phones, the Internet and NPO Pangaea’s youth-mediated communication (YMC) system with automatic translation, will take place between February 16 and March 31.

The field test will be conducted in TràÔn District, Vĩnh Long Province, an agricultural community with a relatively low rate of adult literacy. Using PCs or mobile phones provided at the ICT center in the district, youths will input information covering subjects such as local temperature, humidity and rice crop data, as well as questions from local farmers, into the YMC system. The system will then translate the information from Vietnamese to English and then to Japanese based on a language grid, which is a multilingual service platform developed by Japan’s National Institute of Information and Communications Technology.

Agriculture specialists in Japan will review the information and then provide advice via the YMC system, which will translate the information from Japanese to English and then to Vietnamese. To ensure clarity of the output, personnel will edit the final Vietnamese texts online.

NTT Com will manage the project manager and NPO Pangaea will provide its YMC system. The National Agricultural Research Center of Japan’s National Agriculture and Food Research Organization, the University of Tokyo’s Institute for Sustainable Agro-ecosystem Services, Tokyo University of Agriculture and Mie University will provide agricultural know-how. The Institute for HyperNetwork Society will support and later evaluate the project. NTT Communications (Vietnam) Limited and Global Data Service Joint Stock Company, a joint-venture company of NTT Com and Vietnam Posts and Telecommunications Group, will provide the network and data center in Vietnam.

A ceremony and system demonstration commemorating the launch of the YMC-Viet Project will be held as follows:

The YMC-Viet Project is a part of the Ubiquitous Alliance Project, an initiative of Japan’s Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications to construct and promote model technology-based systems tailored to specific needs in communities around the world.

About NTT Communications Corporation

NTT Communications provides a broad range of global networks, management solutions and IT services to customers worldwide. The company is renowned for reliable, high-quality security, hosting, voice, data and IP services, as well as expertise in managed networks and leadership in IPv6 transit technology. NTT Communications’ extensive infrastructure includes Arcstar™ Global IP-VPN and Global e-VLAN, as well as a Tier-1 IP backbone reaching more than 150 countries in partnership with major Internet service providers, and secure data centers in Asia, North America and Europe. NTT Communications is the wholly-owned subsidiary of Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation, one of the world’s largest telecoms with listings on the Tokyo, London and New York stock exchanges. Please visit www.ntt.com/index-e.html.

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