It has been said that "Printing industry is the mother of the culture." The printing industry has contributed a great deal toward building our modern culture and history.

At the same time, the printing industry has played the role of providing a method of disseminating information in a broad sense. The most important element constituting our contemporary society is information. In this sense, the printing industry is a most basic industry in that it supports the transmission of information.

However the printing industry has developed as a "domestic demand industry", based on a country's own culture, at present is undergoing a great change with the dizitazation of information technology, the development of communication technology and the global change of economic environment. Along with these change, new tasks have emerged for us: the opening of printing technology and information and international exchange, and the need to go beyond our natural boundaries.

Especially, in order to promote the uniform development of printing industries throughout the totality of the Asian region, providing an open printing technology and information and international exchange are tasks that should be accomplished by all means.

The object of the FORUM of ASIAN GRAPHIC ARTS TECHNOLOGY is to facilitate the exchange of printing technologies and to promote progress in the printing industry in Asian countries, considering to built cooperative relationship with a view toward internationalization.

Proposal for the Establishment of the Forum of Asian Graphic Arts Technology

1.Object of the Establishment of the Forum of Asian Graphic Arts Technology

(1)Recognition of technological environment in the printing industry and the market environment (Pre-requisite of the e stablishment of the Forum)

1) Industrialized societies have matured and the bases of social life have stabilized. Based on these changes, an advanced information society is developing as a new life style. Information technology has been developed rapidly.

2) As industrial technology has been transferred to Asian countries, market for industrial products and production activities have been globalized. At the same time, material standards of living in Asian countries have improved, making people's lives richer and more standardized, and the needs for information have reached higher levels.

3) If the transition and diffusion of people and materials are realized, there will be information that goes along with these trends, and there will be new information created. In this sense, a high standard of living, an advanced means of transportation, and the distribution, development, and liberalization of telecommunication must exist as the infrastructure for the information society.

4) The industrial technology is still being transferred to the developing countries. At the same time, the information technology is also being diffused. The reason for this is that the essence of an information society is globalization.

5) The information technology is characterized by its diffusive and simultaneous nature which transcends locality and time. This will even lower the barriers of borders and corporations.

6) In order to make the information society more improved and developed, it is necessary to have a better infrastructure of information technology. This means the development and improvement of information networks, development of information processing technology and various related equipment. Based on these factors, there should be a potential for higher levels in the quality of information, greater control over the quantity of information, and an expressive technology for information.

7) The infrastructure of the printing technology is primarily a technology for selecting information according to values (the removal of junk information and the rating of information) and, secondly, improving imaging technology.

8) Asian countries have improved their levels of standard of living with industrialization and the transplanting of industrialized ares. At the same time, they have rapidly moved into an information society.

The problem areas of the Asian printing industries are the unstable imaging technology used in printing. There is no standard for the adoption and combination of equipment in view of the quality level required, and this results in varies standards. In addition, there are problems of difficulty in creating communication methods and networks with large capacity and a lack of orientation in the DTP education.

9) In order to promote development of the graphic industry in the Asian region, it is necessary for the printing-related people in the Asian region to have solidarity and to exchange technical information daily.

10) After the processing technology for next information and imaging information are unified within the Asian region and the free exchange and transmission of information are made possible, the globalization of graphic information wil be the next task.

(2) Objective of establishment of the Forum of Asian Graphic Arts Technology

After recognizing the above environmental changes, we propose to establish the Forum of Asian Graphic Arts Technology with the following objectives:

1) Transmission of printing data: As the standard of living in Asian countries improves, the market for industrial products and printed materials will become uniform for the whole Asian region, and the size of the markets will expand. When these changes occur, it should be possible to freely exchange and transmit imaging data and to produce printed materials easily where the transmitted data is received. As a result of this, the quantitative expansion of the market for printed materials will become possible. In order for this to happen, it is necessary for the printing engineers in Asian countries to daily exchange technical information.

2) Expansion of the market: As printing technology information is exchanged, printers in each country can accurately grasp the printing environment in other countries. If this brings about changes in the orientation of Asian printers toward a global market, then printing demands can be expanded, and printers will develop broader vision.

3) Forum for the exchange of information: As the market for printing technology, equipment, and printed matters expands in all of Asia, there will be an interchange of activities related to printing sales business and printing production. For these activities also, the Forum of Asian graphic Arts Technology will be an indispensable organization for the exchange of information.

(3) Significance of Asian countries participating in the forum of Asian Graphic Arts Technology

2) Participants in the forum will receive information reports issued by the representative organizations participating in the Forum of Asian Graphic Arts TEchnology three times a year.

3) Through the Forum of Asian Graphic Arts Technology, participants will be engaged in exchanges with the member countries and will be utilizing the network of members.

4) Participants can disseminate the information obtained through the Forum of Asian Graphic Arts Technology to printing related industries in their own country.