Brussels, 20/02/2008 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission has invested a further €12 million in the Asia-wide Trans-Eurasia Information Network (TEIN). TEIN currently enables 10 countries in Asia and Pacific to use large-scale internet connection to carry out research projects globally. With the new budget and an additional €6 million from Asian partners, TEIN will be able to operate until 2011 with improved capacity in a greater number of countries. TEIN is a regional research and education network in Asia created on a similar concept as the GEANT2 network in Europe. The pan-European GEANT2 links over 30 million students and scientists through internet connection at fast bandwidth speeds. To promote research cooperation worldwide and help to bridge the digital divide in less developed countries, GEANT2 links the European research and education network to the regional networks in Latin America, Africa, Middle East and South East Asia. The original idea to create TEIN was proposed at the Asia-Europe Meeting summit in 2000. Since 2004, the EU has taken the lead, providing funding for the second, and now the third phase of the network. 4,000 research and education institutions with about 30 million end-users in the Asian countries currently benefit from the TEIN network. (I.L.)