HOW Asia-Pacific economies can prepare themselves for the information revolution will be one of the crucial issues to be addressed by the 13th general meeting of the Pacific Economic Cooperation Council which convenes on Oct. 21-23 at the Makati Shangri-La Hotel.

Noted information technology experts, international academics, top government and business leaders will be keynoting a concurrent IT conference, ''Towards the Asia-Pacific Information Society,'' which will discuss the potentials, the problems and the challenges for both government and business in the development of a true ''e-conomy'' in the Asia-Pacific.

PECC 99 has adopted the overall conference theme of ''The Pacific E-conomy in the 21st Century'' to underscore the fact that the economy of the future, often referred to as the information economy, will be powered by the knowledge explosion.

PECC Chair Roberto Romulo, a former foreign affairs secretary who used to head IBM's operations in the Philippines and Thailand, will himself chair the IT conference.

According to Romulo, few of the Asia-Pacific economies are prepared for the information revolution.

''Emerging Asia's problem begins with the fact that basic infrastructure of e-commerce has yet to be addressed,'' he said.

Information structures and actual deployment of information technology in Asia-Pacific has not yet reached the level at which they boost productivity, lower transaction costs and provide small and medium enterprises with efficient access to information.

Computer literacy rates remain low and governments in the region have been slow to incorporate information technology into their daily operations.

''Considering that the next 10 years could see an enormously profitable explosion in e-commerce, the need for countries to promote IT-friendly policies becomes more pressing,'' Romulo said.

In the case of Asia-Pacific nations, the need becomes especially urgent because e-commerce can serve as a long-term strategy for getting back to the steady growth patterns of the past, he said.

The IT conference will be divided into three discussion sessions:

• ''Developing Asia-Pacific Networked Economies,'' to be chaired by Keith Chang, director for business development of the information and communications branch of Industry Canada, will address such questions as harnessing the potentials of the region's enterprises for digital commerce, Asia-Pacific gains from increased electronic cross-border transactions and the legal and policy reforms required to create networked economies.
• ''Building the Asia-Pacific Information Infrastructure,'' to be chaired by Janet Stenzel, executive director of PECC Tel, will discuss the infrastructure requirements for the Asia-Pacific, its costs, benefits and time considerations, as well as provide a road map for the Asean information infrastructure.
• ''Developing Human Resources,'' to be chaired by Dr Paul Mu, chair of the PECC HRD Task Force, will tackle the issues of education, research and development and the training of the workforce for networked economies.

PECC 99 is taking place during a crucial time in both the Asia-Pacific and international calendars, just after the Summit of Apec Leaders in New Zealand in September and just before the WTO Ministerial Meeting in Seattle in November.