Report:
Web Key to Prosperity
New
York - Poorer
countries can raise their living standards by changing laws,
building technology infrastructure and training workers to use the
Internet, a report released Monday stated. The 86 page report,
"Creating a Development Dynamic," came from the UN
Development Program, along with the Market Foundation, a New York
based charity, and the global management consultancy Accenture. Together, the group calls itself the Digital Opportunity Initiative.
"This
is not about technology for technology's sake," said Vernon
Ellis, Accenture's international chairman. "We need to
encourage local entrepreneurs to use information technology to
generate the wealth that can fund a whole range of nodal
needs."
five
areas: Technology infrastructure, human skill development,
entrepreneurship, government policy and local Web content.
The
report also cited as models
several successful projects that
use
the Internet, wireless telephones or business incubators
They include the Bangle Village Pay Phones project,
which makes small
loans to buy
cell phones in
1,100 villages in
largely phone-less Bangladesh.
Entrepreneurs who buy the
phones set up small
"call centers," taking messages and renting phones to
farmers.
The
UNDP says farmers
who use the
cell phones to
check crop prices
and weather earn 10 percent
more
for their crops.
In El Salvador, a
group is using interest-free government loans to
build 100 Internet-equipped " tele- centers" by the end of next year.
The centers, equipped with 30
computers, should
be profitable
in just over two years, while creating jobs and expertise that will
raise
incomes in the country.
The development report
was released amid a flurry of attention over the so-called
"digital divide."
The Cambodia Daily- July 17, 2001
|
