VIENTIANE, June 21 (Xinhua) -- Laos joined other ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) countries for dialogue on pushing forward the alignment of public policy and a regulatory framework to promote a regional cloud computing environment.

More than 60 participants from ASEAN member states, as well as Japanese experts, government officials from ministries, and representatives of telecom and ICT companies held a two-day meeting on Thursday and Friday in Lao capital Vientiane, local daily Vientiane Times reported on Friday.

The workshop was chaired by Lao Director General of the E-Government Centre, Thavisak Manodham.

Thavisak said the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications of Laos, as the leading implementing agency of activities, was aiming to create harmonized interoperability across different cloud platforms adopted by ASEAN member states.

Objectives include determining technology interoperability standards by examining existing government policies, and the technology landscape in each ASEAN member with a map to track vendors' product development strategies.

Thavisak pointed out it was vital to establish technology interoperability within the region because the least developed ASEAN states had limited ability to invest, and if not addressed the skillset and technology gap would continue to expand.

Japanese experts from both public and private sector also shared their insights on the latest status of cloud computing in Japan and how to align policies and regulations to support the realization of the interoperability and enhance the regional cloud platform environment.