The establishment of a digital chamber

Mr Xavier Roques (France) said he admired the Korean experiment. He doubted whether it could be transposed to France with the Hemicycle of the National Assembly and its pictures dating from the end of the 18^th century and the start of the 19^th century. In such circumstances, the intrusion of computer screens would present an aesthetic problem.
The French National Assembly had the reverse problem of too much communication, since Members of Parliament were sometimes tempted to engage in telephone conversations during the public sittings in the plenary. It had become necessary to install special systems to break up mobile phone communications.
Mr Petr Tkachenko (Russian Federation) asked for an estimate of the cost of all the operation. Were the resulting expenses an integral part of the budget itself and had there been a tender for the scheme before the contract had been let?
As far as what Mr Xavier Roques had said, he said that in the Upper House of the Russian Federation the use of mobile telephones had been forbidden during sittings.
Mrs I. Gusti Ayu Darsini (Indonesia) asked what the total time had been for establishment of the “digital chamber” in particular relating to staff training.
Mr Won-Jong Sang said that the total cost of the system had been about $34 million. The system had been financed by a leasing agreement and the choice of the contractor had been at the end of an open and transparent tender process.
He confirmed that in Korea the use of mobile telephones was also prohibited within the Chamber.
In response to the question of Mrs I. Gusti Ayu Darsini, he said that two months of preparation had been required with two months for installation and two months for testing system — 6 months in all.
As far as security of the system was concerned, he said that the terminals which the Members of Parliament had access to were not computers but simple terminals linked to and controlled by a central server with dual security.