DotAsia Organization Ltd, the Hong Kong-based registry operator of the ".asia"-sponsored generic top level domain, announced yesterday that it would begin accepting applications for the ".ASIA" domain name in June, opening the domain first to 73 Asian government departments.
"The domain name will be recognizable and representative of the Asian community," Edmon Chung (鍾宏安), chief executive officer of DotAsia, told a media gathering in Taipei.
The company will reserve Web sites named after countries for governments, Chung said. For example, www.taiwan.asia will be reserved for the government of Taiwan, Chung said.
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), an Internet governing agency based in Washington, gave its preliminary approval in December 2005 for the ".asia" suffix for Asian and Pacific countries, after it approved the ".eu" domain name for the European Union.
Given that the region has developed into a global force in the international commercial, political and cultural network, there is a clear demand for the ".asia" suffix for the Asian community, Chung said.
The number of Internet users in the Asia-Pacific region has reached 223 million, which is still only 6 percent of the population in the region, he said, adding the number would definitely increase.
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