21719 -~~~ I)Jc z:'tio') nt/ - Spring 2000 OUITREACH P U T 1 I N G K NO W 1. 1. D E T O Xv 0 R K 1F0K R I)1. v E 1. ' o P M*1 E N T Esther Dy'son on the Internet Bridgin' the Digital Divide: L CA- c~,. L I C -. t±Lll2 tLLS - La iis the- VvI Itte LIu. S r T H W O R L D B A N K I N s T I r U T E * V OLM U M E T OW N T MB E NO * 2 0O0 Editorial Board _ Swaminathan S. Aiyar Economic Times of India, New Delhi, India As we begin the new century-and millennium-the world is Michael Cohen faced with the dawn of a revolutionary information age, one th New York University, New York, USA promises both potential benefits and obligations to global lead- Paul Collier ers and the world's citizenry. This expected sea change in the The World Bank, WVashington, DC. USA way we conduct business, educate our children and connect wi Stephen Denning one another across country boundaries and income levels was The World Bank, Washington, DC, USA the topic of two recent meetings of the world's most influential John Gage leaders; the first in Davos, Switzerland, in late January and the Sun Mlicrosystems, Palo Alto, California, USA second, in Washington, D.C. at The White House in early April. Joseph K. Ingram At both meetings, concern for those on the other side of the dic 'rhe World Bank, Sarajevo, Bosnia tal divide-often without skills or access to the information rev Kwame Karikari lution-dominated the discussions. School of Joumnalism and Communications, The digital divide can be daunting to people living and The University of Ghana, Legon, Ghana working in the developing world, where access tD the tools of Vira Nanivska the information revolution is crucial to enabling struggling International Center for Polkcy Studies, Kiev, Ukraine economies to leap-frog into the new century. 'Imagine," said Pepi Patron World Bank President James Wolfensohn, 'what it's like in Cattiolic Uniaersitn , Lima, Peru developing countries, as you see the digital divide presenting J. Robert S. Prichard you with another mountain to climb before you can compete University of Toronto, Cdnada internationally." Rafael Rangel Sostmann But success stories exist, and are increasing daily. In Monterrev Tech University System, Monterrey. Mexico Korea, the impressive growth of telecommunications services transforming the country into a knowledge-based economy. N Adele Simmons Quaynor, a Ghanaian entrepreneur and chairman of Ghana.Cor Chicago inetroW olis Chago IL, USA NCS, describes pockets of excellence in Africa's information technology and the agenda to foster those advancements ove Centre for -nvironment, Gender and Development, Singapore the whole continent. And Esther Dyson points to the integrity Dewe/,opnent 0UIRRA (7II is published quarterly by the World Bank Institute and reflects of the information technology sector in Russia, and its effect c issues arising from the World Bank's many learning programs. Articles are solicited that offer a range of viewpoints frontu a variety of authors worldwide and do not represent official enforcing sound market principles. positions of the World Bank or the views of its management. The new technologies also have the potential to improve Partial funding for this issue wsas providedl by the Swiss Agency for Development and health care and education in the developing world. These s Cooperation, SDCD as ameberofheGobaKtors are fundamental to ensuring a comprehensive approach t Mroperation. SDC. as a member of the Global Knowledge Partnership, development, one that ensures the economic benefits of the sMa v .M1cNeil information age are realized throughout a society and sustaini beyond normal business cycles. We report here on the latest Anna Lawton developments in distance learning, as well as the use of wire- A4555jale I'dijto,r less technologies to provide information to remote areas whet John Gage both education and health care are often lacking. Gste.fl &htir We hope you enjoy this issue, and look forward to receivir Bob SouIa your comments. Along with inviting you to visit our website De,!swn andpr/duasim Iwww.worldbank.org/devoutreach). we'd like to remind our Photo and illustration, credJirs: Cover: Bob Soulc. I'age 2: Dorsatti MNiadani: Page 4: Nlark readers in developed countries that beginning with the next Malloch Brown; Page 6, 7: Photodise and Anna lawton; Page 10: KRT Photos/Joanne issue, a subscription fee will be required before receiving the I-Hoyoung Lee; Page 12: White House/Sharon Farmer; Page 19: AFP Photos LiveKim ma Jae-Hwan; Page 22, 23: Karen Akerson; Page 26, 29: Gilat Satellite Networks; Page 31 magazie. Please fill out and mail the attached form on page Corbis; Page 33: Monterrey ''ech System; Page 35: Newsmakers Phon,osAmit Bhargava; 40 so we can continue to include you on our mailing lists. Page 37: 'rhe World Bank And finally, I'd like to thank John Gage, a leader of global WORLD efforts to bridge the digital divide, who served as the guest BANK editor for this issue in addition to contributing the report from li - INSTITUTE Davos. World BanIk 1nstituic w-w.worldhank.or&/wbi- Vinod 'rhomas, Vice President vwv.world[.nk.grg/dtevoutreach / J I'he World Bank dlevoutreacah@svarldb)ank.org 1818t 11 Street NW Mary McNeil Washingtonn, DC 20433 Editor USA ISSN 1020-797X 0 2000 The WorlU B;-k Institule Dev'elpnent A11~ Volume Two, Number Two Spring 2000 What Our Readers Think 2 FEATURES 7kr Ctiarrot I Better than the Stiek Nancy, Birdlsall and Peter Hakim Korean Telecommunications Grow at Record Speed: A Country Profile 19 Charles Kennv and Anuja Aclhar Utz Development News 3r t t/.is L e ).7c' 1'1. e) r'eanalz97y Guest Editorial 4 Thbe 1nirinatll,;n Ite 'hlinand I)evelopinent Esther Dyson on the Internet in Russia 22 'lark M\Xalloch Brown The ranpiner p idin4u) ytrv i'i h' . 1'ia I/,Zpnd) neu/Z liti a' link, uz tbth l,lteli. It a' a i/il '¢'l lr o tiublet)i ('e-onalon yano SPECIAL REPORT: Bridging the Digital Divide d(l'.()ilU7z0l' i//l.I0ti1'I From Digital Divide to Digital Opportunity: Wireless Communication: Linking Remote Business Leaders Report from Davos 6 Areas 26 John Gage Gary Tooker ii'an,pA 'riniiir the piate,itialaftib Inter/uet hit' praZL'h - '1l iijtiliztj'~ Theo eyele t h nene zt'r/aete,aave q IIu If t Vedlzlt* r e'liiiet irn poai; ru1ral eaonani'e,'din/a hegqlhal Inarketplaeec The Digital Divide in Africa 29 The Global Divide in Health. Education and g Nil' Ouiavnor Technology 10 f'tii Oanri (from the \Vhite flouse Conferenice on the New Economy) ,. tYll, t/ I'd h C)ete,'ilite ,i7t il'l 7 nli/a/t'r am) prIii' ran&f that7 'iill e~ypall- oex'6iuq, but i,'alateo ak/ t Bill Clinton, Bill Gates, James WXolfensohn, Henry eX(ellenee III the i/Z'i'zztAi,i teChala107qY Cisneros, Amartva Sen, MNlarai Chatterjee, Robert Chase, Alan Greenspan E-commerce Eludes Developing Countries 31 Iiat;i dizltill teehnIl,aqj AI.e the pa,ler i htftl people,,itt Qfpi),ertJ/ Ron Berry cratI 11l) the 'ar{/-f). Theii',er l iitiA, ha t)171k'n?aii/ta ta mas h lia li/seA1, )e//er'lpnr aitrie,' nli'r l/1r1'i'aralb'nha tra z leCldrlltlyh e i nb'aat,'ut ie ir auntri-vcif)r 1' . e f the ilernelt Monterrey Tech's Virtual University 33 Rafael Rangel Sostmann Anoa'eri' 'en' altbte u,'e ol/net~' eteehnrlaryui'en ifl in LilAierit'dcr DEPARTMENTS LLt - t Voices from the Field 35 Fle1 --hi7z1) im,iqiit n1iit thea i t ze lapairat liui) Aiii) is' 1Argrlalial 1iiiteri'Cthii Knowledge Resources 37 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ,' a/ an/l1r' tr{feXiaL'1 7ta tbe//7i/alttet A hez aliaril at knni'/r'v rye anX { r 1 || I111;)l'l)761tl;l1I ili C0I72171ZliI11Clt1;017 1Tr/.7lU}7/11 1Y iIz k i _ Bookshelf 39 Calendar of Events 40 -~~~~ - SpeciaLtdits in international development react to the article "The Two Battles of Seattle," forums on the effects of collec- that appeared in the Winter 2000 tocue. tive bargaining on wages, wel- the Stick i 1 | _ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~fare and trade. The Carrot Is Better thanfaendtd. the Stick Third, decisionmaking at the WTO has to byNancy Birdodall and PeterHaktl be opened up. The WTO should operate under a presumption of disclosure, releasing its doc- The storm of protest that undid global trade uments to the public unless there is good rea- negotiations in Seattle last December has son not to do so. It could establish a special blown over. But in fact all is not well. In office, as the World Bank has done, for out- trade as on Wall Street, standing still is not reach and liaison with nongovernmental orga- really an option. i 5 - | _ f f i _ nizations worldwide. President Clinton touched a raw nerve In a globalized world, free traders and among WTO delegates in Seattle, when he are committed to locally appropriate labor and champions of social justice can both win - seemed to endorse applying trade sanctions environmental standards. Why not, for exam- with more and freer trade that is not isolated to nations that fail to enforce minimal labor ple, create a special ILO fund to support from other issues. We need more integrated and environmental standards. Most dele- developing country efforts to enforce their markets, but we also need labor and environ- gates-particularly those from developing own labor standards?, mental standards. We can and should have countries-fear that using trade sanctions to Second, the WTO needs to develop formal both. achieve goals unrelated to international com- working relationships with relevant UN agen- merce (i.e., human rights, decent working con- cies. In environmentally related trade disputes ANancy Birddall Ed senior associate, Carnegie ditions, or cleaner air and water) will WTO tribunals could more systematically coop- Endonsment forInternationalPeace. Peter inevitably lead to protectionism by stronger erate with UNEP's scientists. The WTO and ILO Hakim is president of the Inter-American and richer countries against the weaker and could team up to conduct research and public Dzalgnue. poorer. Governments of developing countries are afraid that whatever comparative advan- tages their economies now enjoy, lower G O A E E O M N E W R wages or abundant resources, for example, will effectively be nullified if industrialized ad nations can use standards to raise barriers to generate ae knowledge their exports. In contrast, the protesters in Seattle wel- comed the Clinton statement. They are cynical about the willingness of governments (whether in developed or developing nations) or corporations to defend human rights, attack poverty, or protect the environment. In the Gl b lIt post Cold War, globalized world, they see stiff trade sanctions as the necessary "big stick" to coerce good behavior. This sharp divide benefits no one. Less$1 50 0frteB s De lo en Pojc trade will mean less growth and more poverty in developing nations-and nothing accom- plished on the labor, human rights, and envi- ronmental agendas. There is a better way to O P proceed. First, carrots instead of the sticks that e _ trade sanctions represent. The international community ought to be working toward a sys-Qusin?C tatnogneor tem of rewards for third world countries that 2 W O R L D B A N K I N S T I T L T E Development News News highlights on development issues from around the world The Global Development 2000, an additional 16 independent Distance between existing networks and the future Gateway Will Open New Inter- Learning Centers will be interconnected to the Third Generation Networks already being net Avenues network. Visit: www.worldbank.orQ/gdln planned. It uses radio frequencies very effi- Plans to build a Global Development Gateway ciently and enables a far more user-friendly (GDG) are underway. The World Bank Group, IFC Joins Japan's SOFTBANK charging system, based on information trans- in partnership with Microsoft, IBM, Soros' to Spawn Startup Internet fer rather than call duration." Open Society Institute, Bloomberg, Cambridge Companies Technology and many other private and multi- In the most significant single initiative yet to The Global Research Project Is lateral partners (UNDP, OECD and others) is narrow the global digital divide and jumpstart Underway leading the project for the opening of a Gate- the new digital economy in the developing The Global Development Network lGDN) way on the web in support of worldwide world, the International Finance Corporation announced an unprecedented Global Research poverty alleviation. The Gateway will have and SOFTBANK CORP., a Japan-based global Project designed to strengthen the links five large portals, including developing coun- Internet company, will invest $500 million to among researchers and policy implementers try governments, the international donor com- found SOFTBANK Emerging Markets (SBEM). in developing and developed countries. munity, the media, civil society, and the SBEM will support startup Internet companies Nearly fifty researchers in seven regional private sector, and will support countries in in some 100 developing countries. It will research networks met in Prague, Czech their own initiatives to leverage the benefits serve as an accelerator to speed the creation Republic, in June for the first phase of the of the Internet for their development and to of Internet-anchored enterprises in developing project. acquire a significant presence on the web. countries by working with a network of global Launched in December of 1 999, GDN is an Implementation of the three-year plan started industry leaders and local partners, emerging association of research and policy in March 2000. The initiative reached a major "This historic partnership will play a crucial institutes worldwide that generate and share milestone on May 4th, as the board of the role in building the new digital economy in knowledge about policies that promote devel- World Bank Group gave the team the green developing countries around the world," said opment. Instead of the traditional emphasis light to proceed with the startup phase of the Masayoshi Son, President and CEO of SOFT- on Western-designed solutions imposed on project, which will continue through June BANK CORP. "By leveraging SOFTBANK's developing countries, the network seeks to 2001. Visit: www.worldbank.org/gateway global Internet capabilities and IFC's expertise support the generation of local knowledge to in international development, this unprece- solve local problems. A Powerful Tool for Sharing dented initiative offers tremendous opportu- Another major GDN initiative is the Global Development Knowledge nity to investors and entrepreneurs to build Development Awards to promote the quality In early May the World Bank Distance Learn- successful new Internet business in emerging and availability of policy-oriented research to ing Center in Washington was linked with 10 markets." Visit: www.softbank.com/sbem fight poverty (see ad in this issue). GDN's sites across Africa, East Asia, the Caribbean, modus operandi and structure are still materi- and Europe regions. In a short 10 month South Africa unveils GRPS at alizing. Through electronic surveys and online period the Global Distance Learning Network Tel- Com 2000 discussions as well as through more tradi- (GDLN) had progressed from being just an Visitors to the Telcom Africa 2000 Expo in tional conferences and workshops, GDN is idea to a reality. Johannesburg are In for a technological phe- formulating its raison d'etre directly from the Last year the World Bank invited govern- nomenon courtesy of MTN South Africa and opnnsadedsfthpoleiswhs ment agencies, foundations and private com- Ericsson. These major players in the telecom- opinions and needs of the people its wishes ment aencie, foudatios andprivat com- munictionsarenahave jinetoorserve.hotVisit:ve. wisit:www tanotoo,,and panies to join in the creation of GDLN to munications arena have joined forces to host www.Qdnet.oro/grproiect.htm provide a tool for sharing development knowl- the first ive publc demonstration on the edge. This independently operated network African continent of General Packet Radio will provide courses, seminars and discussion Services (GPRS) - the new technology that opportunities from a variety of sources around finally combines two of tne fastest-growing the world. GDLN will link the globe through a international industries, namely wireless tele- network of Distance Learning Centers that phony and the Internet. Development OUTREACH will support learning through videoconferenc- Explains Bruce Cockburn, General Man- is now available online at ing, the Internet and print. By the end of June ager Products and Innovations at MTN South www.worldbank.org/devoutreach Africa, "GPRS is a vital stepping stone D E V E L O P M E N T O U T R E A C H SPRI NG 2000 3 a * * w A A * : The Information Revolution and Development years ago there were still only 50m ing democracy and free speech. And Internet users, by 2001 there will be all that will in turn depend on new 700m. Currently Internet traffic dou- international support. bles every three months with e-com- mregrowing by 1 00 percent a year. Underlying Opportunities In little more than five years there are But those sobering facts should not likely to be 900m electronic devices obscure the tremendous underlying connected to the Internet-equaling opportunities. By effectively eliminat- the number of telephones in the ing space and time the Internet gives world. us an unprecedented means of over- For many in the developing world coming two of the root causes of these rapid changes are seen as a extreme poverty, ignorance and isola- threat. The information explosion has tion. Vast pools of interactive informa- so far been a major contributing fac- tion from textbooks to technology and tor to the growing gap between rich instructor support that would other- and poor, both within and between wise be inaccessible can, for the first The "Information Revolution" has countries. In our new global Knowl- time, be sprung open for the world's become so ubiquitous a phrase we risk edge Economy, poorer states with poorest. losing sight of what it really means. fewer resources and less well-edu- We are still only in the pioneering Too many people argue that in a cated workforces are being left further phase, but already there are signs of world where half the population has and further behind. Sub-Saharan promise for the future. Several coun- yet to use a telephone and there are Africa, the worst affected region, has tries are successfully experimenting nearly a billion illiterate adults, using nearly 10 per cent of the world's pop- with banking and other financial ser- IT for development is inappropriate ulation but just 0.1 per cent of its vices for poor rural areas using only and ineffective. But the point about Internet connections. And information wireless technology that does not even revolutions is that they are revolu- technology growth is improving so require users to be literate. A new tions: they transform all the processes rapidly in the rich world that as health network linking 30 developing they touch from financial transactions quickly as poorer countries are countries is able to provide summaries to educational provision. Already for responding, the gap is continually of latest medical research and access much of the world the Internet has widening rather than narrowing. to global medical libraries. Organiza- changed the way people live, work Finding ways to bridge this "digital tions like PEOPLink, which brings and do business forever. Our chal- divide" is a daunting task. It will the work of 130,000 artisans across 14 lenge is to find ways to unlock that require not only new investments in countries in Latin America, Asia and transformative power to ensure the telecommunications infrastructure but Africa onto the web, shows how elec- poor are among its beneficiaries and improved and more responsive regula- tronic commerce can open new mar- not its casualties. tory frameworks across the develop- kets even to the poor. And a number ing world. It will also eventually of Internet-based distance learning The Information Explosion require - and demand -dramatically initiatives have already been It is difficult to grasp the scale and improved systems of governance that launched, shifting virtual schools and pace of the change. Less than three embrace cutting red tape and widen- universities from concept to reality. 4 WORLD BANK INSTITUTE We need to build on these scattered internet units in Malaysia to special ment strategies and generate more examples, find what works and what community telecenters in a wide range equitable economic growth. doesn't, and then mainstream the best of countries from Bhutan to Egypt. and most effective schemes. But these are only small steps. The The Boundless Scope of The Internet also offers new ways success of the internet to date has Applications to do just that by greatly facilitating been private sector driven, and our The point is that the scope for new knowledge sharing. UNDP and other role must be to develop projects that applications is almost infinite. Some multilateral organizations - most can act as springboards for the kind of will inevitably fail, but others will notably the World Bank with its public/private partnerships necessary succeed and new opportunities Global Development Gateway -- are to build and sustain bigger networks continually present themselves. well underway in setting up new and increase access opportunities UN secretary-general Kofi Annan's global information networks. In across the board. new Millennium Report recognizes UNDP's case, the Internet has for the Again, the early signs are encour- this by launching not only a new UN first time allowed us to take full aging. One example is the Interna- Information Technology Service advantage of our global reach - head- tional Finance Corporation's recent (UNITeS) but also a global health quarters to provide real time assis- alliance with Softbank in setting up a network and a wireless based commu- tance and our 133 country offices $500m investment fund to help incu- nications system for emergencies and directly to share lessons and experi- bate internet related businesses in disasters. ences on everything from municipal developing countries. And the success We must build on these and other reform and decentralization to busi- stories in information technology are initiatives. Long term success will ness development strategies. already there: India's newly booming require both resources and resource- On another level, UNDP's launch of software exports are expected to fulness: visionary leadership in devel- the NetAid website (www.netaid.org) increase from $4bn this year to $50bn oping countries combined with clear in partnership with Cisco systems, has by 2008 and Costa Rica is being trans- and coherent support from the inter- begun to mobilize new constituencies formed into a regional IT hub. Others national community and an embrace for development in rich and poor can follow where they lead. of the same kind of innovative think- countries alike. For the first time we In the future cheaper handsets will ing that spawned the information rev- can recruit online volunteers from the create new incentives for the private olution in the first place. Because the developed world to offer virtual ser- sector to expand into underdeveloped most important and far-reaching vices to poorer countries and link markets. And the cost of Internet applications of IT for development companies, NGOs and individuals access and cellular services is plung- have yet to be discovered. together around common themes and ing everywhere. Unlike old telephone issues. NetAid also allows people to systems, new wireless models can Mark Malloch Brown id admim2trator of follow and directly monitor the impact reach anywhere without an expensive the United Nationd Demelopment Program. of contributions they make for partic- landline infrastructure and access Visit: www.undp.org ular initiatives, such as a recent costs are falling quickly. In short, the mother and baby survival program we plummeting cost of information offers launched in Rwanda. the developing world a dramatic UNDP has also been experiment- opportunity to leapfrog older develop- ing with pilot schemes from mobile D E V E L O P M E N T O U T R E A C H U S P R I N G 2 0 0 0 5 l~~~~~ 3 A _\ I | i _ ~ ~~~~ |a _D - ]_r- I Z ~~~~~ mC 'C p,- ~ o-C)~D~C S P E C I A L R R T FROMDITGITAL DIVIDE TO DGT OPPO\RTUNITY: BUSINESS LEADERS REPORT FROM DAVO S BY JOHN GAGE AVOS, February 1, poverty: the divisions are deepening, both between countries and within 2000. Tony Blair countries. Yet emerging wireless and % -- X and Bill Clinton Internet technologies could transform global efforts to affect the lives of the -111111111111 have presented world's poorest. "The new capabilities their views of the changing of information and communication technologies, together with a rising .777> b - .-world economy to the global sense among people all over the world bush,~ss leaderS assembled in Davos, and have that they are entitled to participate openly in their government and society, rti d t&Iondon and Washington. Two thousand offer enormous potential for advances CG C4.remain in Davos for the last day of the Year th anlbeooftgreat andlasn enf COO* ~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~to all people of the world ... and particu- 2006 World Economic Forum, and sixty of them are larly to thepoorest people of the -gathed inthe Belvedere Hotel dining room listening world saysWorldBankPresident James Wolfensohn and the executives intansely to discussions of how to make information nod. The next morning, sixty-five of them gather in the basement of the Belvedere $ohuyiki Idei (Sony), John Chambers (Cisco), Steve Hotel to talk about technology, business, and the digital Case,(AOL-Time/Warner), Martin Velasco Gomez (Tele- divide. They're called the Governors for Information fonica), Bill Gates (Microsoft), Bill Joy (Sun), Carly Fior- Technologies, Media, Communication and Entertain- ina (Hewlett Packard), Eric Schmidt (Novell), Richard Li ment -the heads of the world's largest information tech- (Pacific Cyberworks), Tmu Koogle (Yahoo), Masayoshi nology and media companies -who gather each year to Son (Softbank), and sixty other CEOs, representing hard- predict the future of technology, and analyze how it affects ware and softwarej ufrastructure and content, communi- business and society. This year, they are resolved to emerge cations and computing hear the stark facts about world from Davos with a direction, a plan, a common project: to DE VVELOPMVNT OUTREAC H N SPRING 2000 7 turn the emerging digital divide into a digital opportunity speakers, deplored the widening division between those for all. As John Chambers, president of Cisco Systems, with access to the tools of an emerging new economy- told his peers, "We can change the life of every child who information and communication-and those without, and dreams of creating something new, but we must work challenged the world business community to act. together to create policies, practices, and opportunities to As President Clinton said, "We should stop denying that enable access for all." there is in many places an increase in inequality, and we * *' 4 should instead start explaining why it has happened and Each year, in January, the World Economic Forum assem- what we can do about it .... When we saw, beginning about bles business, political and cultural leaders in Davos for 20 years ago in most advanced economies, a shift from the extended discussions of the state of the world. For six industrial economy to the digital economy, in many places days, participants from a hundred countries debate policy there was an increase in inequality... The paradigm of the and practice in global development, discuss changing mod- global economy puts a huge premium on education, skills, els of corporate and institutional governance, and explore and access to information technology [which is] burden- the role of technology in transforming business and society. some to developing economies ..but people will not be In seminars and lectures, in breakfast meetings and denied access ... My most important wish is that the global press conferences, world figures exchange public and pri- business community could adopt a shared vision of what vate views about the future. This year, they focused on you want the world to look like, and then go about trying globalization, reform, and the impact of information tech- to create it in ways that actually enhance your business, but nologies on education and economic development. Ideas help other people as well." flow, positions are debated, but Davos is discussion, not UK Prime Minister Tony Blair said, in his opening action ... in public. In private, agreements are negotiated, keynote, " In an economy dominated by information and commitments are made... off the record. knowledge, education is king.. and our entire system of The public discussion at Davos shapes the private educating and developing the potential of people needs rad- agreements. Both Blair and Clinton, this year's keynote ical change ... What makes sense for the industrialized world is imperative for the developing world -150 million chil- World Economic Forum dren of primary age in developing countries do not go to Forthcoming Events ~~~~~~~~school and over 900 million adults, two thirds of whom are 8 June FranceMeeting 2000,Paris, Francewomen, are illiterate... .The bane of all modern developed nations is social exclusion - a group of people, set aside 21-23 une SuTher Afria Ecoomic ummit2000, from society's mainstream --who need to be offered a deal, not some more benefit. ...The next step is to get the new 28-30 une Cntraland EsternEuropan Ecnomic Information Technology to the poor as well as to the com- Summit 2000, Sazburg, Austriafortable." The sihy-five CEOs agreed with this call to action, and Geneva8 Switzerland formed a task force -the Digital Divide Task Force - '11-1 Septmber sia Pcifi Econmic Smmit 000,including Cisco, Sun, Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard, Tele- Melbourne, Australia ~fonica, 3Com, Toshiba, Siemens, and GrameenPhone, 28-28Noveber Idia conoic Sumit 000, ew Dlhi, charged with preparing an initial Statement of Principles India ~~~~~~~~~and an Action Plan to propose policies for governments 4-5 Decmber Meico Meeing 200, Mexic City,and businesses that could be translated into action. Mexico (to be confirmed)Supported and staffed by the World Economic Forum, Dates t be Midle EaslNorth frica Eonomicthe Task Force is holding meetings around the globe, test- announced Summit 2000 ~~~~~~ing policy recommendations against the practical experi- 25-30 January Annul Meeting in Davosence of business and government in every region. Meetings 2001 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~have been held in Beijing, Kazakhstan, Rio, Geneva, and 8 WO RL D B AN K INS TIT UT E further meetings are planned to take X COIZJCIZJIIS impact of these programs in bringing place in Washington DC, Durban, Mel- universal access to the tools of the infor- bourne, New Delhi, and Cairo. elI;ztel ) 'wtoed mation economy is a basic component of In March, in Geneva, fifty represen- *e j' the Digital Divide Task Force. tatives from industry, as well as repre- a t1'1;tjle c11 l l 7Z71y The cumulative effect of these poli- sentatives from the World Bank, the cies will be to create an environment United Nations, the International ide!.: accco. conducive to the development and pro- Telecommunications Union, the motion of the talents of a country's peo- OECD, the European Commission, the UnI Velvalt7cceo. ple, to the promotion of WTO, the Japanese Ministry of Posts entrepreneurship and initiative, to capi- and Telecommunications, and numerous tal formation to support economic devel- foundations met in Geneva to review opment, and to the creation of the and extend the proposals. A consensus emerged, focused physical and cultural infrastructure that is central to a on a single summary idea: access. Universal access. Every nation's capability to raise living standards for their citi- human should have access to the world's developing infor- zens. The challenge that lies ahead is to succeed in trans- mation infrastructure. forming the potential of the Internet into practical The challenge is to develop plans that all countries and initiatives for development. The first step is to bring the all companies might use to drive change -in education, in experience of business to bear on transforming the digital entrepreneurship, in empowerment, in economic develop- divide into a digital opportunity. ment, and in bridging other human divisions of health care, of food and water supply, of energy availability, and of John Gage lJ chief science officer with Sun Micraoyjtems. poverty. Viit: www.weforum.org The first public forum for these proposals and plans will be at the Summit of the G7/G8, to be held in Tokyo and Okinawa on July 19 and 20, 2000. Dr. Klaus Schwab, the President of the World Economic Forum, has been invited by Japan, the host of the Summit, to present the agreed views of the world's largest companies to the assembled G7/G8 leaders. This process of proposal, review, innovation and action wIll continue, culminating in a report of work-in-progress '9 to a special session of the World Economic Forum 2001, where details of interventions and collaborations will be presented to all industry and governmental groups assem- bled in Davos. The action plans spell out the policy direc- tions for governments, as well as the joint actions by- businesses, that are necessary to bring access to everyone. Industrial initiatives have begun. The pioneering educa- tional efforts of companies in creating teaching and training institutes in hundreds of countries-the Cisco Academies, the Microsoft educational groups, the HP training groups, the Sun and IBM Java Acadamies -have provided the most advanced technical curricula to teachers and institu- k34 tions-both public and private-in countries from Uganda "WK to Peru, from China to Korea to Nepal. Measuring the 20 D EV E LOPMlE N T OU-1T RE AC H EPR I NO 2 0 009 =;~~~~~~~ -5 at the White House in Washington, D.C., to discuss the growing gap between the world's technology- connected and those who lack access to the tools of the Information Age. This global digital divide, according to U.S. President Bill Clinton, "is real and growing worse." But the opportunities the information revolution presents are immense as well. "I believe," said Clinton in introductory remarks at the conference, "that the computer and the Internet give us a chance to move more people out of poverty more quickly than at any time in all of human history. But it won't happen by accident. We'll have to work to make it happen." Featured below are excerpts from the conference's panel discussion on the "Digital Divide in Health, Education and Technology." A complete transcript of the conference proceedings can be found at: www.whitehouse.gov. 10 WORLD BANK INSTITUTE The fq/o ln/ 91'Dire in ulf/L Panel: The Global Divide reduce a lot of the overhead in the more we can do qive w '(l3/ in Health, Education and economy. A lot of the pushing-paper- to drive this tt7 glObt7l Technology around jobs that are not interesting forward... . and not value-added will be reduced I think tech- caunletu lie President Clinton: The topic of this in that those resources will be freed nology is a discussion is "The Global Divide in up for productive activities... This great change - Bill Gates Health, Education and Technology." change is not just good for business. agent for This is something that exists within In fact, if you had to pick who's the democracy, whether in this country or each country .....but I think it's clear to big winner in all of this, you'd defi- in other countries. I think that it will all of us that we have a special respon- nitely have to pick consumers. Tech- increase voter involvement, voter sibility and, indeed, a real opportunity nology is putting them in the driver's accessibility to what's going on. And I to make a better world by addressing seat... That makes businesses inno- hope that voter participation can rise this issue globally... vate in a way that really wasn't neces- as a result of that... All this power is I want to begin by calling on Bill sary before, whether that's innovation rooted in the possibilities of technol- Gates, the founder and chairman of in quality, customer service, or simply ogy lifting up people around the Microsoft. the price of the product. And it's that world. And because technology has Bill Gates: Thank you. It's an honor virtuous cycle that's allowed capital- the power to make such a positive to be on this panel. The pace of inno- ism to work better in this era than difference, we have an obligation to vation and the breadth of its impact ever before... make it available everywhere we can. on our society are really unparal- Nowhere does this technology hold The global divide must give way to a leled... We're just beginning to more promise than in education. The global connection... understand how central the PG and Internet and the personal computer The President: I want to call now on software innovation have been to the are critical tools that teachers will be the President of the World Bank, Jim creation of the remarkable prosperity able to use in new and exciting ways. Wolfensohn, who from the first day he that so many people are enjoying In this age, learning will be more stu- took office has had a critical part of today. It's this pace of change and the dent-centered and more global. Soft- his mission bridging these divides in contribution of these changes to our ware will let teachers share best traditional and innovative ways. future prosperity that are changing ith each other. They'll let our lives, not onlv here in this country, rcie ae ofnon hn o butarournlive, oth glonher Inths socontra students reach out to find other stu- very much, Mr. President, and for the dents with common interests, and invitation, and to talk about the new that we understand th'is- that there is they'll allow the world of knowledge economy, which I think I'm invited to an obligation, I think, for all of us to to be easily available. The collabora- extend to mean the global economy - not only embrace the new technology, tion we're seeing between teachers, because our country is integrally but to think about how we can make it libraries, students and parents _ it's linked with the globe in ever-increas- available to everyone, without regard.. tolbackgroun orystone, withoutrevnwat very, very exciting. And yet, here, ing ways. too, we can say that we're just at the As I think you know, we have 6 bil- country they live in. And I think beginning. Today only 14 percent of lion people on the planet today. And that's a key theme of our panel teachers [in the United States] are as we address the question of the today... actually using the Internet as part of divide, we have to think that 3 billion Right now we're just embarking on their instruction, and there's a lot of those people live under $2 a day, electronic commerce. This is going to D E V E L O P Mt e N C L u T R E A C H S P R I N G 2 ') 1 1 and .5 billion live under $1 a education comes in. Because day, in absolute poverty. So education, within that frame- as we hear Bill talk about work, is the key determinant getting computers in every fto find classroom, and 14 percent of their way out of their condi- the teachers only using corn- tion. SO, for us, the focus of puters for teaching, in many so much of our activitles of the parts of the world we interrelates the health and deal with there are no corn- the education activities... puters, and surely less than I Alan Greenspan was talk- percent of the teachers are, in ing about the inadequacy of fact, using computers for a high school education in teaching purposes. growth, it's talking about Hamlet this country, and the need for continu- But the issue is not just static, without the prince. ing education at community colleges; because as we look at the new econ- Indeed, it's true-the issue of eco- that is a fantastic dream. But our omy, we need to project for-ward, if nomics is fundamental to what we're dream in so many parts of the world is not the millennium, 25 years. In the dealing with. But interacting with to get primary education. Our further next 25 years we will add 2 billion economics are the issues of technol- dream is to get secondary education, people to our planet. And the 4.8 bil- ogy, education and health. And as we for very few people have the opportu- lion that now live in the developing look at the developing world in which nity for tertiary education. And this countries will, in fact, grow to 6.8 bil- we're operating, there are, in fact, presents us with an enormous sense of lion, or just short of it. So the chal- fundamental issues that require a fear, which comes with the challenge lenge that we face of this digital divide framework in which they can operate. of globalization. is not just one of measurement ... It In the countries in which we're deal- As we look in our country at tech- will in fact be the determinant of ing, we must have a legal and a gover- nological innovation as a challenge to peace and tranquility around the nance system which works. We must losing jobs, imagine what it's like in world. Unless we can deal with that have a judicial system which works. developing countries, as you see the issue of the divide as our issue in the We must have financial frameworks. digital divide presenting you with yet new economy, we will fail in internal We must fight against corruption. To another mountain to climb before you activities that we do here, without bridge the digital divide is not just can compete internationally. Here, regard to other parts of the world. So addressing the questions of technol- however, the story's not all bad. In I make that as the first point. ogy, education and health. It has to fact, the opportunity exists because The second point that I'd like to be done within a context. Throwing technology can both provide the chal- make is that we were asked to talk money, or technology, or education lenge and the answer. That is where I about technology, health and educa- into a system which doesn't deal with believe in this new economy as we're tion. And indeed, these are fundamen- the issues of justice and opportunity coming into a new and highly positive tal elements in terms of breaking for people simply won't work... phase in terms of the difference down the digital divide. But this The biggest challenge to the liveli- between the rich and poor countries. needs to be looked at in a context, hoods of poor people is health. We have many examples of how the first. Breaking the divide will be Because if you're living on a dollar a use of technology -- in terms of dis- dependent on economic growth in day and you get sick, that is not just tance learning, information on mar- those countries. As our distinguished an inconvenience, that is a question of kets, creation of new markets with Secretary of the Treasury said the life. They want opportunities to have e-business, access to global knowl- other day, if you have a discussion of their health care protected, but they edge -- may well provide the key for these issues without talking about also want opportunities to get out of the breaking down of that digital their condition. And this is where 12 WO R L D B AN K INBS T IT T E divide. It is both a challenge and a WTO meeting in Seattle, or the media, the NGOs, the research insti- great opportunity. speeches of developing country lead- tutions, public and private, and so on. The President: I'd like to now call ers at Davos, or the jobs that go off- Each of them can play a major, but on Henry Cisneros, who did yeoman's shore to make our quality of life complementary role in enhancing the duty in this administration's first term possible in some sense, where people well-being and freedom of the individ- as the Secretary of Housing ad Urban work for a few dollars a day or even a uals in the society and in the world at Development, and now the CEO of few dollars a week... large... Univision. More and more, we're seeing com- The complementarity between dif- Henry Cisneros: Thank you very puters as a commodity that ought to ferent institutions demands a fuller much, Mr. President. The challenge of be very low-priced so that people can recognition in the making of public this panel is to discuss ways to harness utilize the technology on the other policy. The market mechanism can the new technologies, to bring those side, and then even on the global provide an enormous opportunity to who are left behind -- both domesti- scene, urging these policies globally, raise incomes and to expand living cally and internationally -- into the including low telephone access standards, and yet, there may remain sphere of the new economy. And I charges. In the final analysis, it seems major gaps. For example, special would argue that we have to be some- to me that there is a convergence of incentives may have to be created by what sober in our assessments sort of three initiatives here that are in public policy to make private funds because the gaps are very large and the public domain. They are, one, how develop and deliver the goods and ser- because the scale is huge... to make educational content available vices needed by the poor with inade- -- that's a public issue. Secondly, how quate purchasing power... I think we I1I)eZdul;2IC ,,ut it'd likLe ik /z to make the technology as available as have to think creatively about these possible and relevant as possible -- issues... Just as democracy creates o) er/loapinq cLuhlitri'd, asd Yo/ul that's a public issue. And then, how political incentives, enlightened public the government can play the role of support can create economic incen- fee tMe cYqital diVlde pres tit- broker, organizer, to create the part- tives of a very vital kind. nerships that bring the entities Indeed, the complementarity i'llq yo/t iit7 j/lel- ti/lOt/0 J together... between different institutions is one of iiwuiita iii t. c/flu/i ~ ~ The President: I'd like to now call the major lessons of modern develop- -71outel tbl Yu on Dr. Amartya Sen, who won the ment experience... CUIll COpl/k'te iliteivuati0aza/k/. Nobel Prize in 1998 for his magnifi- The President: Now I'd like to call cent work on poverty, ethics, and eco- on Marai Chatterjee, who is the Sec- -James D. Wolfensohn nomics, and who has come from retary of the Self-Employed Women's Cambridge University to be with us. Association of India... Thank you for Thank you, sir. We're honored to coming this long way to be with us. It's sometimes too easy to take a have you here. Marai Chatterjee: Thank you very few anecdotal cases of instances Amartya Sen: I'm delighted to be much, Mr. President. I'm very hon- where the Internet is reaching, or here. I'll confine my observations ored to be here... I would like to technology is reaching, and suggest mainly to one central point, which I share some experiences from the Self- that that constitutes a massive wave, think has fairly extensive implications Employed Women's Association of when we know, as Mr. Wolfensohn and a fair amount of reach on other India (SEWAI), which I represent. It has said, that the numbers are so mas- fields. is a union of a quarter of a million sivc and the necd is so great. Wc also The main point is this. I think we very poor women workers who are know that the anger, the resentments live in a world of many interactive earning definitely less than $1 a day, and the insecurities reach our world institutions -- the market, the govern- more close to 4O cents a day. What we and our conversations, as at the recent ment, the democratic process, the have learned in the last 30 years is D E V E L O P M E N T O U T R E A C H S P R I N G 2 00 0 13 THE WORLD TIMES/IDC lSI Info Revolution INFORMATION SOCIETY INDEX Countries sized by ISI scores wit Skaters at +2, at +1 Sprinters at 0, Strollers at -1 and Starters at -2 in size The 55 ranked countries collectively account for 97 percent of global GNP and 99 percent of global IT expenditures. In a strong position to take full advantage of the Information Revolution because of _ NI'E ERS ' i r( } _ advanced information, computer, Internet tand social infrastructures ., _ 21 tSK V1'll.RS t I _ w ~~~~ ~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Rank Score and Rank 2 W t- ° P S IRi 1I)I S .' s1 Sweden 5.062 4,084 (2) S'IRDKl)lRS 2 United States 5.041 4,238 (1) 3 Finland 4,577 3,740 (3) 99 4 Norway 4,481 3,682 (5) Rank Sc:ore and 5 Denmark 4,336 3,621 (6) 14 Hong Kong 3484 3,0 6 Canada 4.257 3,363 (10) 15 Belgium 3 419 2.9 S 'RI N IEIRS 7 Netherlands 4,230 3,532 (7) 16 Austria 3 397 2,6 ] I8 8 Switzerland 4,174 3,333 (11) 17 New Zealand 3 289 3,0 9 Australia 4,129 3,492 (8) 18 Taiwan 3 177 2,5: 10 Japan 4,093 3,475 (9) 19 Ireland 3 144 2,4 11 Singapore 4,014 3,728(4) 20 Israel 3.140 2,8 12 United Kingdom 3,807 3,029 (14) 21 France 3,140 2,5 S'lROLLERS 13 Germany 3,558 2,883 (16) 22 Korea 2,931 2,5 23 Italy 2,703 2,2 24 Spain 2,533 2.2 Scr't/ctsrnmereial PCs ® Ar t ss acD r,~,,,,,,,', '. Ede>a Hz 1 teme 25 UAE 2,301 1,4, ew ,, < ?,9> tsrnalB ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~26 Portugal 2,199 18 ?t1Cn 0 0 0 0 [ IuC11-1 PI F hl 1I 27Czech Rep2 13017 c t e ju _4 00 j ~~~ .Dut szom ne c 3 3(: e ] Im erts ~~~2 8 Hu ngary 2 t130 t 8 !e-pbont 1C 0 0 9 f X r HUm?CEspTerts __ ~~~~~~~~~~~~29 Greece 2,333 17 Ce ,,,,,,.,.,. -r no s s ' eC? P r 150 unranked nations have yet to build the 7 . ~~~~~~~~ST I AR El R S basic infrastructures needed to take c,,, ? r 00* erSrlr F 0 eSt radvantage of the information age. ISI V\ RIutxAIIIES: 23 indicators measuring the capacity for a country's citizens to exchange information internally and externally (0),1l 'tI' IT1 INIOS Itt'l l 101 t Rl l\RINIRNEI I NF1\ST10RI(A1RF St I1 A ()ItM 71 tIlt()N INR5l'ltt("I' 'ltli S(1 xi 1N1 Fic5s'l IO 1 URl * I'Cs installed r'capita Amoutnt of e-commerce * Telephone lines/household - Secondary-schooL enrollment * Home I'Cs shipped//household # Internet home users * Telephone faults/lines * Tertiarv-school enrollmenit * Govs 't,/commercial PCs * # Interriet business users * Cost of local telephone call shipped/professionial wvorkftorce # Internet education users * Television ownership/capita * Ed'ucation E'C's shipped/ * Radio ownership/capita P Press freedons stUdernts& facIlty * Fax ownership/capita *Civil liberties * Nethorked l'Cs ", * Cellular phones/capita * Softvare,/hardswa rc spend ing * Cable subscribers For informat on, fee based-country reponrs and data details contact: W ford Wech, Word Times. wwelchewordtimes.com. 415-388-9550 or Matt Too an, ]DC, mteovan(riuccom. 508-935-4576 the Globe Measuring who's hot and who's not * Sweden surpassed the United States as top-ranked for the first time since the annual ISI commenced in 1996 * The first ISI had two countries in the top Skater category. Now, there are 13 -. ,/ J s - . .__ in all with Nordic nations > 'LiiIEF acc oun ting for four of the five most sophisticated information __ ~ - = societies -~ r . '' < o * Most countries increased -> >7 , / - P S S A >scores by an average of 7 S>t> < X t0 * >< f - J 6 r percent since 1998. The UAE , < Y ~ -EA __._r - - <> . " had the largest increase, roughly 20 percent, with Austria, Sweden the US, Uk and Japan close . ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~behind Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Canada, New Zealand and Romania jumped ahead in the ISI rankings four or more places. > \ (l 6 / , ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Singapore, Argentina and Peru purposefully into the informationSigpr,AennandPu hpmuchposfullYmt the inecessary ation ', ~ ! ,., ' n ' each slipped four or more places h much of the necessary , F K *, ,cture in place L The big population countries continue to lag at the - ^ ~ F ^ -> bottom of the rankings due to >.,,- _ 1w s t 3poor social infrastructure and the Moving forward in spurts before having to difficulty of universal SPRINtERS catch their breath and shift priorities due to j communications within large, '5 99 Score economic, social and political pressures. -lowincome lands Score and Rank - Id 1,808 1.572 (30) A nia 1,679 1,410 (35) 1,677 1,473 (32) - Moving ahead, but inconsstently. itina 1,651 1,604 (29) ;Ak ,C often because of limited financial i Rica 1,635 1,376 (36) resources in relation to their vast E Rica 1,635 1,37636populat ons. ysia 1,583 1,412 (34) 9R aria 1,578 1,446 (33) STR()I.I.ERS ma 1,539 1,320 (39) '99 Rank X Africa 1,537 1,330 (37) Rank Score *and ScoreW !uela 1,491 1,328 (38) 49 Jordan 942 916 (5sO _ a 1,444 1,283 (40) 50 Egypt 931 853 (51) i Arabia 1,362 1,064 (48) 51 China 915 776 (53) i 1,354 1,186 (41) 52 Indonesia 888 793 (54) dor 1,314 1,171 (42) 53 Peru 877 985 (49) - .o 1,286 1,169 (43) 54 India 871 793 (52) y 1,259 1,080 (47) 55 Pakistan 719 657 (55) nbia 1,136 1,108 (44) )pines 1,012 1,085 (46) 3nd 1,010 1,107 (45) Prepared ana b . Pepa r TeannuallNDy,by: Framingham, MA Boston, MA that work and employment are central enhanced the divide, in some ways The other issue .. .is the whole rise to poor women. As my sisters in closed it. of the infotech sector, with tremen- SEWAI say, if we work, we survive; if If I look at the positive impact, we dous possibilities even for a poor we work, we can eat, we can feed our now have our own Women's Coopera- country like mine. But so far, we find families. They work hard and long tive Bank in India with 125,000 that this sector is mainly linking those hours and are ready to maximize any woman depositors. And with global- who have access to this technology, employment opportunities that come ization and deregulation, we've been and leaves out and even de-links those their way. able to get financial services to our who don't have access, the poor. I'd But despite this, I'm sorry to say rural members. Also, those of our like to give a few examples of how in that the income divide for my sisters is members who are involved in produc- my own organization we've been try- increasing both within India and tion and in small businesses have been ing to close the divide and increase across countries. The good news is able, for the first time, to dream of incomes through use of information that while income inequality is having access to markets of the North. and technology. increasing, the divide in health and My sisters who are producing exquis- Through the use of computers, education is narrowing down, even in ite craft products -- embroidery, tex- we've been able to rapidly expand the poor countries like mine... tiles -- are now, equipped with an number of poor women self-help I'd also like to talk about two or export license and can proudly sell groups to almost 2,000 small groups. three key issues which have the poten- their products all over the world. And These women are saving 30 to 40 tial both to close the divide and to of course, this has resulted in higher cents per month. Although these are force the divide open further. One is incomes. small beginnings, they're now able to the impact of globalization and liberal- Speaking about the negative buy a buffalo, their work equipment, ization. As most of you would know, impact, which reinforces the divide, and to have assets for the first time in we are one of the last countries in the we no longer have access to raw mate- their own name... world to open our economy. Our rials. Certain industries are almost Even a simple technology which experience with globalization is about going extinct, because we are export- you know for many years in the 10 years old. And from the point of ing to the global market, and primary United States but is still new to us, the view of the poor it has been a very producers such as hand loom weavers telephone, has revolutionized the lives mixed experience; it has in some ways simply cannot afford to buy cotton of many of my rural sisters in SEWAI. yarn. Recently one of our members took the plunge, as they always do, and Cost ofLong DstanceCommvncationand GO per cpita. rea oftook a loan of, I think, four bubble enotes ountry opulatin (Soure: WDI 9. ITUtU.S. dollars to get a telephone. 100 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~And now, there's a rush of people trying to get tele- phones, because they found that their income was enhanced just by this one tech- 19 * * ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~nology. * * ~~~~~~~~~~Infotech can increaLse 'b's' * ~~~~~~~~~incomes provide we set up (US~~~~~~~~~~3 o r ~~~~~~~~~~the infrastructure. For a poor Inter co~~~~~~~~t to USA ~~~~~~~country like ours, the hard- ware is still far too expensive. ¶ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~The software has to be appro- GOP pet~~ capita ioo~~~o ~ priate, it has to be in our lan- 1 6 W OR5LD SANK INST7ITUT E guages. Most oft us don't speak Eng- i'd like to close mv' remarks wsith a be more timelv... Today, as you said, lish, wxe don't work in the English few points on what we have learned Mr. President, there are about 125 wvorld at all, and we also have to have from women and work as to how xve million children out of' school. training and backup services. Ve are can actually close the divide. One Another 150 million will leave their excited by the inlotech revolution, and v'erv important point, AIlr. President, classrooms w,vhere thex exist without so w,-e have been using satellite com- 'which I also suggested to yvou w-hen gaining basic literacy skills. The munication to reach out to large num- we met in Alumbai, is the increasing future of' our planet literally rests and bers of' wvomen. WVe have been using of employment opportunities. I w,as lies in the hands of those children. our own government's satellite -- very happy to hear it cliscussed this And I don't believe that we can sit by SATCOMNl, wNe call it -- to get training, morning on the panel, because wve are when one in three people of the devel- Ancd for the first time, rural women saving the same to otir government. oping world is grownving up illiterate... are able to pin dcown and speak to Full employment, regular, continuous We learned at a recent meeting in government officials whom they have xvork, an(d an increase in the number the Caribbean, one held just this past been xvaiting to speak to for months, oftemployment opportunities are the February, that more and more govern- The other point that I would like to surest w,vays to fight poverty, to attackl ments are investing in technological make, wvhich is keeping the divide poverty, and also to close the divide, hardware without training people on open, is the health sector. Both the 'The second wax that xve have hoxv to use it. So technological hard- issue of'access and afforclability. I learned to close the divide is capital- ware sits there, unused, and making a mean, wve are very heartened by the ization of' the poor. Promotion of capi- situation even worse ...Another chal- tal formation at grass-roots level-and lenge stems from U.S. domination of rF., thve fir Jst timZe, rulral . particularly with omen. We have the software industry. Because the learned that asset ownership is one of softxvare industry is produced in this - o,tnen ale alule to pilf the most pow,-erful tools to attack countrx, too often people cannot pox'ertx and close the divide, obtain softwxare in their oxvn Ian- downi and speak to The third point is capacity btiilding guage... of the poorest, even if thex"re illiter- Guaranteeing a free, compulsorv go-verninezt officalsG wbhom ate, unschooled. WVe have learned education to everx' girl and ever' bo' that the poor have tremendous hunger is an enormous undertaking. It wvill be they baPJe Pee/i wattng to ;to learn, particularl,' xvomen, they expensixe. It max' cost as much as $8 speak to for months. want the opportunities, thex' need the billion a year for the next IO vears to capacitx' building and the etlucation to guarantee that every child has the Marai Chatterjee stand firm in the competitive markets, opportunity to learn, but the cost il 4to have access to information technol- be mtIch greater if' we don't make this o&,'x, science, edlucation and also man- commitment to our kids. When you dlevelopment of vaccines ancl other- agement skills .. considler that $8 billion is less than important (levelopments in science, The President: I'd like to noxv call what North America spends annually But the qicstion is, how do we reach on Bob Chase, who is the President of on toys, and what the wvorltl spends on these exciting developments to the the National Erlucation Association, the militarx in under six days, this poorest, the women in the most and has been a leading advocate for investment in our children is money remote village in countries like mine, closing the educational dlivide in our well spent... We haxe to develop mechanisms for countrv. that to happen. Otherwise, w,vhatever Robert Chase: Thank you very For a complete transcript of' the little our members earn is tritterecl much, Ar. President. This conference White Hlouse meeting, visit: ana,vx in high medical costs and med- on the new economy and closing the w_v.xxvhitehouse.ov ical bills.., global divide on education could not I, 1 \ 1 1 c, I I I ( I I \1 I \ , I e I I I I Ce I I ,, {I ,, 11 17 COMMENTS BY Alan Greenspan Chairman of the Federal Reserve W hile there are various competing expla- arguably at the root of the loss of business pricing nations for an economy that is in many power in recent years. To be sure, marked respects without precedent in our increases in available global capacity and the annals, the most compelling appears to be the deregulation of key industries have removed bot- extraordinary surge in technological innovation tlenecks and increased the competitive supply that developed through the latter decades of the response of many economies, especially ours, and last century. In the early 1990s, with little advance these developments have been influential in sup- notice, those innovations began to offer sharply pressing price increases... higher prospective returns on investment than had Before this revolution in information availability, prevailed in earlier decades. The first sign of the most twentieth century business decision making shift was the sharp rise in capital investment had been hampered by pervasive uncertainty. orders, especially for high-tech equipment, in Owing to the paucity of timely knowledge of 1993. This was unusual for a cyclical expansion customers' needs, and of the location of because it occurred a full two years after the troth inventories and materials flowing throughout of the 1991 recession. complex production systems, businesses required By 1995, the investment boom had gathered substantial programmed redundancies to function momentum, suggesting that earlier expectations effectively. Doubling up on materials and people of elevated profitability had not been disap- was essential as back up to the inevitable pointed. In that year, with inflation falling, domes- misjudgments of the real time state of play in a tic operating profit margins started to rise, company. Decisions were made from information indicating that increases in unit costs were slow- that was hours, days, or even weeks old... ing. These developments signaled that productiv- These developments emphasized the essence of ity growth was probably beginning to move information technology. The expansion of higher, even though official data hobbled by statis- knowledge and its obverse, the reduction of tical problems failed to provide any confirmation. uncertainty. As a consequence, risk premiums Now, five years later, there can be little doubt that were associated with many forms of business that not only has productivity growth picked up activities have declined. In short, information from its rather tepid pace during the preceding technology raises output per hours in the total quarter century, but that the growth rate has con- economy principally by reducing hours worked as tinued to rise with scant evidence that it is about activities needed to guard productive processes to crest. The acceleration of productivity stem- against the unknown and unanticipated. ming from the investment boom has held cost Narrowing the uncertainties reduces the number increases in check. Despite the surge in demand, of hours required to maintain any given level of unit labor costs over the past year have barely production readiness. budged, and pricing power has remained well- Because knowledge is essentially irreversible, contained. Apparently, firms hesitate to raise much, if not most, of the recent gains in prices for fear that their competitors will be able to productivity appear permanent. Expanding e- wrest market share from them by employing new commerce is expected to significantly augment investments to produce at lower costs. this trend... It appears to be only a matter of time Indeed, the increasing availability of labor-sav- before the Internet becomes a prime venue for the ing equipment and software at declining relative trillions of dollars of business-to-business prices, and with improving delivery lead times, is commerce conducted every year. 1 8 i' c 1< :, 1' i I \ '1 i I | I I I : F Recor- Speed A CO4UNTRY PROFILE .4. .~~~~~~~~~REIO, NCUDN RPDADVANCED OFEL EXORT-OS CRIENTED LESDEVELOPED SRT COUTRIES INT TH BY CHARLES KENNY AND ANUJA ADHCHINAZ ANOLDG-AE OEDCOUNTIES USEOF NOWEDG HS AWAY BEN A lNIPRTAT CNKOREAT IS CURNTY COUNRY' DEELOPENTSTRTEG. ITIS ECOIN DEVEL OPE INGASTRANT- TIONOF NW KOWLEGE,AND N TE PRCESING ND ITSELFINATION AF BY CHARLESKNiAINY ANDVANCEJASIEC A ARD UTECNOOGKAENOWOLEDEBAE ENALIN TH ENINERIG O NE MTERALSAT HEMAKINGLA LEETVEL COUNTRY'S DIEVCELTOPMNT.TAEYI SBCMN VNMRMOTN DEVELOPMENT OUTFREACII U SPRING 2000 19 Advances in small businesses using the Internet for less than 20 hours a information and month at off-peak times, a recent study by the Organiza- communication tion for Economic Co-operation and Development technologies (OECD) suggests that Korea's rates are the lowest among (ICTs) are also all members in the Organization. -e l 0m S beginning to In turn, employment in information and telecommunica- impact the struc- tion companies has climbed from 318,000 to 507,000 in ture of economic 1994-8 and public telecommunications revenue reached and social activ- around $US 9.1 billion in 1997. Turnover in the ICT sector ity, whether it be as a whole in 1999 is estimated to have increased 20 per- at home, at work cent to 71 trillion won. or at play. To take advantage of the potential of this Driving this rapid expansion are two major factors: a knowledge revolution, the new paradigm for Korea's tran- strongly committed government and increasing competi- sition to a knowledge economy involves four inter-related tion. The government's recent Cyber Korea plan, along components: a new economic incentive and institutional with a number of other policy documents, has laid out an regime; a highly skilled and creative population; a dynamic ambitious agenda to provide for the networking and information infrastructure; and an effective innovation sys- knowledge needed in the new global economy. Policy goals tem. This article looks at Korea's achievements and chal- include creating 1 million jobs and 118 trillion won worth lenges in the third pillar of this paradigm: the of new production, providing universal service access telecommunications sector. speeds of 2Mbps. President Kim's announcement of January 3, 2000, that Growth in telecommunications Korea should transform itself into an advanced knowledge- Growth in basic telecommunications services in Korea over based nation includes the following goals: the last twenty years has been very fast. In 1980, telephone U making Korea into one of the world's ten information penetration in Korea was just 7.3 lines per 100 people. By and knowledge superpowers; 1997, it was 44.4, nearly equal to the OECD average rate U developing the next generation Internet and the infor- of 48.9. But even more impressive than this long term per- mation superhighway by 2005; formance is the phenomenal expansion of mobile and Inter- U promoting the use of computers by students, teachers, net connectivity over the last three or four years. and the military; Between 1994 and 1998, the number of mobile phone U envisioning the dawning of an Internet democracy; and subscribers increased from under a million to 14 million for U closing the development divide through productive a population of 46 million. By end- 1999 it is estimated that welfare and balanced regional development. this number had reached nearly 23 million, suggesting a mobile penetration rate (alone) of close to 50 per 100 peo- Good initiatives ple. The number of Internet hosts is also increasing In order to meet these ambitious targets, a range of initia- rapidly, with the country adding nearly 100,000 host sites tives have been introduced. The government will invest by January 1999-2000 (an increase of over 50 percent). 10.4 trillion won in advanced information infrastructure Some estimates suggest there were already as many as 12 and information technology by 2002, while connecting million Internet users in Korea in February of this year. 10,400 schools to the Internet, providing computers free of Just last year, an estimated 2 million Internet PCs were charge to 236,000 teachers and 200,000 classrooms. It is sold. Users can connect over an information superhighway addressing the issue of digital divide through a program which is already installed in 94 major areas of the nation which will give free PCs and five years of free Internet with a capacity of 2.5 gigabytes per second. And usage has access to about 50,000 children from low-income families. been encouraged by very low charges: for consumers and To further ensure public access, it is facilitating Internet 20 WORLD BANK INSTITUTE PC purchases and building public Internet Plazas. There work (ISDN), as of May, 1999, Korea Telecom had but are ongoing plans to teach 900.000 civil servants, 10 million 90,000 customers. students and 600,000 military personnel how to use com- Independent regulation will be one part of the solution puters, and train one million housewives in Internet use. to overcome these problems and ensure stronger competi- Finally, to ensure the future of network commerce, the gov- tion. Korea is one of only two countries in the OECD with- ernment will remove a number of legal impediments to e- out an independent regulator. The Korean commerce and digitize the public procurement operations Communications Commission (KCC) lacks independent of 26,000 institutions (up from 556 in 1998). legal status (coming under the supervision of the Ministry At the same time, it plans to continue liberalizing the of Information and Communications-MIC) and has but 20 telecommunications sector. Perhaps most importantly it employees who remain part of the MIC's management plans to sell off a significant part of its remaining stake in the structure. Its powers are largely indirect and advisory, its incumbent telephone operator, Korea Telecom. This should role reactive rather than proactive. encourage further sector growth because where fair compe- A reformed regulatory regime could introduce a number tition and less regulatory intervention has been allowed for of reforms to expand competition. These might include significant periods, the results have been impressive -not lowering barriers to entry posed by very high license, least in the mobile sector and in third party resellers for annual and research fees levied on operators and moving voice over Internet Protocol (IP) services. In 1995-8, mobile toward the unbundling of services. Presently, local loop revenues increased nearly six-fold. With the removal of the network elements may not be unbundled, in effect meaning government-imposed compulsory subscription period of two that Korea Telecom's competitor in this market (Hanaro), years for mobile in April 1999, the number of mobile cus- must replicate all existing sunk plant at prohibitive cost to tomers shot up by a further three million in one month. And itself. If unbundling remains prohibited, real competition low prices for Internet access are in part the result of fierce will be unable to blossom. and relatively unencumbered competition between about 24 Korea's recent record in the information infrastructure commercial and five non-profit Internet Service Providers sector has been extremely impressive. The Korean Gov- (ISPs) in the country, some of which offer free PCs in return ernment has been essential in this process, and it is follow- for three year's subscription. ing a number of laudable policies that will ensure widespread access to the new ICTs. Combined with fur- More reform ther reform to encourage active competition, the sector will The benefits of liberalization to the sector in Korea does remain a vital engine of growth for the country's transfor- suggest one area for further reform in order to sustain the mation to a knowledge economy. momentum of the networking revolution in Korea. For while growth over recent years in service provision and the This article is based on a major econonic report, Korea: Transition to a ICT sector has been impressive, there is still some way to Knowledge-Based Economy, that isjwt beuig completed by the World go in less competitive parts of the sector. For example, in Bank and the OECD, under the direction of Carl Dahbnan of the the national long-distance market, Korea Telecom had a 91 WBI, at the requet of the Ministry o f Finance and Economny of Korea. percent market share in mid 1999, and close to 100 percent in the local market. As a result, prices have remained high Charles Kenzy is an information infra,structure economnist in the and service provision weak. Between February 1996-1999, Communications atd Information Technology Grouip of the Wor/ld the longest distance telephone charge in Korea dropped by Bank. Anuzja Adhar Ut: is a knowlecdge management officer at the 22 percent, as compared to 50 percent in Japan or 46 per- World Bank Institute. cent in France. Perhaps most important in the future is rollout of more advanced equipment and services. The net- work digitalization rate in 1997 was 66.7 percent of fixed access lines, compared to an OECD average of 89.2 per- cent. In the area of the Integrated Services Digital Net- D e v E L O P AM E N T UT R E A C H S P R I N G 2 4) 0 0 21 It~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ -~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 0O\ THFE Ihave been traveling to Russia for ten years, and I am on the Board of Trustees of the Eurasia Foundation that fos- ters and sponsors NGO activities in the Russian Federa- tion as well as in the FSU. Therefore, I am not the kind of investor who goes to Russia to buy government paper and get rid of it quick. For about five or six years, I was in Russia as the writer of a newsletter about the computer industry. This was a great vehi- cle for getting educated on the subject, because one cannot just walk into some little computer company and say: "Hi, I'm here to help you. Tell me about your business and I'll give you goodl 22WORLD D BANK INSTITUTE invest in these markets; these are great 1markets for people who are smart. What you should do is invest not simply by Browsing the Internet between classes (above)trwn nmny btb riigpo Students in a Moscow school (right~~ ple. " Eventually a friend of mine, a ven- ture capitalist in the United States, said: "You keep telling people to invest in these markets. How about if I give you a mil- advice." Instead, I would walk lion dollars, would you invest it for me?" in and say: "I'm writing a And I said: "Oh, no. I couldn't do that. it would be a newsletter about the computer conflict of interest. Besides, I don't have the time; I'm a business and I'm going to make writer." But then I thought: "If someone wants to give me you famous. So, tell me about a million dollars, I'll figure out how to do it." In those days, your copany."This way, I a million dollars went pretty far, especially in the Central learned a great deal about the European computer markets. This guy was actually afraid S ~~~Russian computer market, and of Russia, and the fund invested only in Central Europe. also about the U.S. market, A couple of years later, I started investing in some Russ- simply by being able to con- ian computer companies with my own money. But the gen- trast it with a place where mar- eral attitude towards what I was doing was: "Oh, that - ~~~1. ket rules did not apply. Once I Esther! She's so cute. She invested in those computer coplained to somebody that companies over'i Central Europe, butlI'm sure shewill he did not include the phone never make money." I will not go into any detail, but it is * , ~~~~~~ ~number on his marketing liter- true that I did not yet realize a lot of gains. On the other U - ~~ature, and he said: "When I put hand, one can make money starting small businesses there, it on, people scratch it off; then and I have and plan to do more. U~~tw' ~ they hand out my literature and sell the phone number." The computer market is virgin territory Definitely, a very different There are real people in these markets, and especially the market! Russian computer market is something magical. Those who know Russia, know what a huge cesspool of problems it is - Sound investments corruption, lack of transparency, misuse or neglect of laws - In 1990 I started a series of conferences, one conference a all the things the World Bank is fighting against. It is diffi- year, called the East-West Tech Forum. Now, the name cult to do business in Russia, because there are few working has changed to EDventure High-Tech Forum in Europe. banks, minimal payment systems. poor logistics and the like. At that time, it was like the boys vs. the girls. The boys But the computer industry is actually different in Rus- were the rich American vendors selling computers and sia. First of all, the people from that industry did not steal software, and the girls were the nice, little East European anything from the state. It is not an industry of privatized resellers, who would add value on top of those products. computer factories. It is a marketplace of people who built The idea of the conferences was to get these two groups software from nothing, out of their own heads. The older together. I kept telling the American vendors: "You should ones mostly come from research institutes where they DE VELO0P MENT O UT REA CH U SP RING 2 00 0 23 worked as mathematicians, scientists or engineers. They This is a fairly optimistic view, but this is the one that are honest, and they have the self-respect and dignity that keeps me going. As recently as six months ago, most peo- come from having built their own business, rather than ple in the XVest still thought that what I was doing was cute having to be grateful to someone you despise for every- and sweet. But then, suddenly, the fascination with the thing you own. So, the IT/software market is a real little Internet moved not just from the United States to WVestern jewel in a troubled country. The challenge is how to take Europe, but even into Russia. I got a fax from Boris Jor- that little jewel and help it grow and become a virus that dan's office--he started Renaissance Capital in Moscow- can infect the rest of the Russian economy. Even if many and then I got an email from his secretary, saying that he other businesses deservedly wither away, the guys who are wanted to invest in high-tech and inviting me to discuss able to use information systems well and honestly will this with him. So I wrote him back and said as politely as flourish and prosper. 24 W t R of A) B A N K I N Se r N e a u d I could: "If you want to invest in the Internet, you have to savvy company; the write your own emails." second is how,N to Besides Boris Jordan, who is mostly looking at Western keep people. This is Europe, there are five or six groups which want to invest tough. Not long- 20 or 30 million dollars each into e-commerce in Russia. ago I xvas speaking 4 Mdy first reaction to that was a strange sort of jealousy:" It's to a group of mid- MY Russia, who're these people coming in?"...even die-management though in my rational moments I had been desperately people from tradi- k hoping people would 'Join me because this sector needs tional companies., investment, needs support, needs growth, needs people and I asked them:~~ backing it. "How many of you- would like to leave v- F-commerce culture your job and go to a But these initiatives sound very much like, "Let them eat startup?" Using an '~~t~ 4 cake." Russia does not need a bunch of Internet portals; anonymous feed- Russia needs food distribution systems. factories that wvork, back system, 44 percent of this traditional audience said: logistics, food-processing and the like. It does not need all "WNe want out." Although they had not acted on it, if I were that fancy high-tech stuff. an official from Ford or the like I would be scared. And But, in fact, any kind of commerce noxv is e-commerce. Ford is. So, they are giving computers to all their employ- Anybody who is starting a business will use the Internet. ees, not)just in the U.S., but in their factories in Poland and just as in the past he would use the telephone. The great everyweees.IwudlietInorg op nisn thing about e-commerce is the culture that comes xvith it. It Russia to do the same thing, because despite all you hear is the culture that tells Boris Jordan to write his own emails about Russia, there too there is a huge people shortage. and interact with people directly. It is the culture that says, Russians, like anybody else, respond well to being treated postyour prices." so that people can compare. It is acul- wvith respect, to being told: "We want to invest in you. We ture of openness and fair transactions, a culture of competi- want to give you a computer to use at home, and after two tion, a culture of communicating with the customer both years. if you're still with us, it's yours to keep." Miaybe, in before and after the sale. This is what Russia really needs, the case of Russia, you have to throw in Internet service. M'y hope is that we will see more and more of this, and that But I think this kind of approach is going to be tremen- people will start funding e-commerce efforts in Russia douslv helpful. It is not a giveaway, and at the same time it related to wholesale markets in the steel industry, food dis- mayT require some kind of extra push; it may not be cost- tribution, lots of exchanges, and so forth. In a country effective, at least in the short run. where there are not many trade shows, brochures or cata- In this specific case, I am trying to foster a scheme for logues, 800 numbers, or SEC disclosure statements, it is the pharmaceutical companies to give computers not only important to start building an infrastructure of information, to their employees but to their distributors, and possibly which is really the base of most modern commerce. the little drugstores. This will create a kind of groundswell. In fact, it is tremendously exciting. The big challenge, This is the right way to go to a country and to invest in it, though, wvill be a huge shortage of trained, experienced peo- because what is often needed is a role model and examples ple. I want to mention the following as a model for the kind of success. If a company is successful in attracting people of things that might be possible in order to meet this chal- because it gives them computers, other companies will have lenge. Lately. Ford established a program to give a com- to react. I am working to make this happen. puter to each of its employees. Ford is not a charity; it is a compan,y trying hard to compete in a world that is changing Eihr .r 6 htrat4EeetreHhinq around it. The company is facing two challenges: One is Visit: www.edventure.com how to become a modern, e-commerce-enabled, Internet- [) ~IIr\P[LJP MLN I L T ZE A CII 5 SP RIZIN , 2 fl. ( 25 WIRELESS COMMUNICATION: Lin king Remote Areas oday, with the convergence of I - e r.s -. s - -@- .; | * computing and communications, access is no longer defined by a dial tone, but by a much broader Almost 20 years ago,c vision of the dwgital future. Uni- versal access and Internet access the International have become synonymous. The Internet's unprecedented popularity has profoundly Telecommunications affected society, commerce, politics and the media, and is widely recognized as the Union said, "Access fundamental building block for bringing basic telephony and data services to the to a dial tone is a peoples of the world. New wireless and fiber optic technolo- fundamental human ~~~~~~~~~~~~ gies are greatly improving the means of access to modern communications in both right." the developed and developing worlds. The convergence of wireless communica- tions and the Internet will provide limit- less access to information in all forms and provide extraordinary opportunity. Motorola estimates that there could be a billion wireless phone users by 2002, up from 470 million wireless and 260 million Internet users in 1999, and that the indus- try will ship a billion devices with wire- less Internet access capability by 2003. Opportunities springing from the wireless Internet revolution include the delivery of public services, such as educa- tion and health care to a much broader 6 population. The delivery of information is the most powerful tool in building a 26 WO RLI) BAN K INS TIT UT E knowledge economy. As the basis of the educational svs- example, the WVorld Bank and certain developing nation tern, it creates the trained workforce that is essential for could create a plan to aggregate rural markets into a larger alleviating povertv andt succeeding in a global knowledge mnarket to entice private investment. The Internet protocol ecoom. he wi'reless Inter-net promises access to infor- is an open airchitecture that overcomes national borders mation wn'Ihout restrictions of time or location. For th-e and the barriers of conflicting standards. Likewise, when first time, it sets thie stage for unilver-sal access anid closing harmoniized stanidards are adopted across nations or the gap betwveen the "Information hav.es and have-nots". It can happen, if the WN,orld Bank, the private sector and gov- ernments take the right steps. In the early I 980s, only one in five people in the entire World had access to a telephone. Since then, the conver- gence of telecom and com-puting has had a huge impact in the developed world, but the gap betwveen informat'ion poor and information rich has actually increased. In Asia, for example, over half' the people have never made a phone call, Just as in 1982, despite the growth in the number of telecom users in the developed economies of the region. China's record of installing 20 million telephone lines a year is impressive, but it oniv keeps up with China's popu- P A R T I C I P A T E lation growth. Investment has been concentrated in d enselv populated urban areas where an early revenuecu Is ce y spr b / y stream can be achieved and the existing network operates most efCiciently, the larges4t,snglejactor In much of the developing w,orld, the existing elcm munications netw,ork is inadequate to support the deploy- iti developinent... ment of high-speed data Inte-rnet applications. In some James Wolfensohn, president, The World Bank cases, the appropriate regulator-v environment does not exist to allow for the introduction of' w~ireless Internet The World Bank Institute, in conjunction with a variety of access in an expeditious and cost efficient manner, external partners, is developing a core course and global As with anty effor-t that intr-oduces new techinology it is training program on citizen participation and governance. vital that the public and private sectors work cotlabora- We invite you to construct this course with us by visiting our tiv.ely to find creative and flexible ways to address the chat- west:tt/wn.catioioor lenges of' bringing wxireless Internet access to the Contribute to background materials, suggest experiences to developing world. Governments need to provide an attrac- draw upon, comment on the development of instructional tive nvestent cimat. Onenecesary ngredent i thematerials. Help us to learn the best methods for improving creation ol' an enabling regulatory env'ironment for thecizepatiaioinhedvlmntrcs. wireless Internet. This includes allocating sufficient and Who should participate? Everyone. globally harmonized spectrum, acceptance of international Suggestions to be sent to cparticwpation@Oworldbank.org or standards, implementing clearlY articulated policies provid- ing for transparent licensing procedures, free circulation of Mary McNeil Victor Vergara wireles Intenet hndsets flatrate picingscheme, andWorld Bank Institute World Bank Institute wirelss Inernethandsts, fat rae priing shemes and701 18th. Street NW, Rm. J2- 139 701 18th. Street NW, Rm. J4- 115 full and fair- inter-coninection r-ights. Washington. D.C. 20043 Washington, D.C. 20043 In addition to regulatory reform, the \korld Bank, gov- Ph.: 1202 473-3861 Ph, 12021 473-3942 ernments and the private sector should collaborate on cre- Fax: 12021 522-1492 ative waYs of improving the investment climate. For regions, larger markets are created, regardless of distance. The World Bank needs to be part of a mechanism that Governments must promote open and vigorous competition enables the rich and poor alike to partake in the benefits of as a principal driver for establishing the physical infra- ubiquitous communications. The emphasis is on the idea of structure necessary for wireless Internet services to thrive. developing market-based community information systems This enables all providers to participate and consumers to utilizing local talent, based in centers that might start with enjoy freedom of choice and lower prices, because Internet telephone access and could be updated over time. For exam- access must be affordable by all. Besides, by fostering ple, the so-called LINCOs (Little Intelligent Communities). competition, economies can create self-sustaining Internet The partners of LINCOs are the Costa Rican Center for networks. And, just as important given the ability of the Sustainable Development, the Media Lab at the Massachu- Internet to fundamentally reshape national and interna- setts Institute of Technology, the Center for International tional economies, both the public and private sector must Development at Harvard, the Institution of Technology of also be active in trade negotiations to ensure that no tariff Costa Rica, the Center for Future Health at the University or technical trade barriers exist that would impede devel- of Rochester, the School of Architecture at MIT, and the opment of and access to the Internet. Omar Dengo Foundation. Motorola is working with them, Emerging economies are being held back by a shortage providing embedded solution and chip sets. Basically, it con- of communication professionals. This is a significant prob- sists of trucking communication systems into rural communi- lem that could be addressed by \Vorld Bank/private sector ties. The system fits in a shipping crate of about 20 cubic partnerships. For example, a partnership has been estab- feet, and includes telephone communications, power, Inter- lished betwveen the WVorld Bank and Motorola in which net, and a screen for the village people to come and interface, scholars from developing countries work to develop a uni- and get acquainted with communications. Other examples versity-level educational curriculum focused on communi- include young innovators such as Kam Ligu, who is bring- cations and IP-based network technologies. In addition, ing broadband telecom to villages in Africa, and Miguel Motorola has provided equipment and trainers in areas like Lennox of the Genome Project, who works on providing Indonesia, China, and other countries, where in conjunc- free software to a number of Mexican communities. Still tion with the technical universities, people are trained to another example is Chilean professor Ricardo Rojas, who install and maintain the equipment. This is not something has developed softxvare to teach disadvantaged children we do because we're just good people. It's because without basic skills in reading and calculating using video games. the training, there wouldn't be any people to put the system Since the wireless Internet is inherently borderless, in or to maintain it. nations will need to work together and achieve a nexv level of cooperation among private companies, governments and financing institutions. This is needed to assist developing Techolog Input Idic 1397199 countries in achieving universal access by helping them '1997 1998 1999 9799 develop strategies and long term visions, providing techni- (est) cal assistance to build strong competent regulatory frame- Mobile Phones pe 1,000 persons works, and building partnerships between the public and private sectors to invest where needed. The convergence DECO Countries 195 268 332 +70 of the Internet and wireless technology presents an oppor- Middlebst &o Afri a 20 28 40 ±100% tunity to transform the nature of communications as we -Sa enAr11 9% know it todav. Properly managed, it can enhance com- merce, education, and health care and bring poor, rural Latin America & Ca ibbean 25 41 6L ±¶W% economies into the global marketplace for the first time. Asia Pacific 12 20 31 i%t Gory L. Tooker 6,i chairman of the Board, rv/tred, illotoro'a. 28 WC)RII) BANK INSTITUT1 THE he spread of the Internet has enabled the development of information economies and thereby the potential to narrow the economic gap. This is an opportunity for the African F , countries, if thev embrace the facilities rapidly. Effective information services can create wealth, but to achieve that goal we should develop a suitable agenda for the African continent. BY Nil NARKU QUAYNOR Five years ago. I attendled one of'the Internet Society workshops, and there I decided it xvas time for mv countryst iinformation hirh-,vays and elxchan-es must be constructed to move towari ftull connectivity. XVhen I returned to b to interconnect all kex toxvnships in each country and also Ghana, I put the process in motion. No wve have a pri- i ev eryN capital citv on the continent. vate Internet communitv. We have grown from 9,600 bits The information economy cannot function without ade- per second international band\vidth to twro megabits. We have grown f'rom one subscriber to wNell over 1 0,000. And quate management, especially in the current phase of global market development. Without a strong local econ- ev hax e grown from havnmg no corporate links to a'bout 30. oyi svr ifcl o neegn aint opt omY it is v erv dlifficult t'or an emerging nation to comfpete These are positive results, but a lot still needs to be done. Anii azgenda foe Whe African continent wvill includle items effectively in the global market because several ol'the required services--logistics, quality control, return policies. managehmantrastmeture sttitonal development inoraion weconand the like--maY not be at par internationallv. For this manairement, and inlstitutionlal dev'elopmenlt, as xvell as stb-ate-ic .lirections andpriority applications. *reason nations should have policies that support local mar- strategic directions and prioritL appliations. ket development as a prioritv. Furthermore, strong local International connectivitv settlements anti Internet dis- markets benefit key applications such as e-commerce and persion xvithin the country and regionallv are extremelyv c-gov ernance. Liberal and competitiv e markets are impor- important for infrastructure development. Although most tant in stimulating needeci investment in the telecommuni- African countries have attained full connectivitv, this has cation market. An accepted methodt of' ensuring a level been achieved bv Internet Service Providers (ISPs) orga- plaving tleld( and presenting an obj'ective recourse in (tis- nizilig a pipe to coniect to their upstream provider. Once the link is in place this is utilized by all global users. A po1- pute resolution among operators is the implementation of an independent regulatorv agency. Such a regulatorv icy is needled to normalize these costs in order to reduce the m regim is aceut to th te1omneti nutv unclue burden on the ernerging countries that are perform- r e s adequate for the telecommunications industry. flHoxever, the laYered services otftelecommunications inf'ra- ing a global service. IFurthermore, very high bandcwidth I N I 1I I NI I. I R I \I \I I 11 I \ I 0N (I N N 29 structure, including ICT and Internet, thrive in a self-regu- Secondly, the new economy must have a democratic lated environment. Best practices in legal framework such basis. Democratic governments depend on the votes of as cyber laws and taxes should also be shared. their citizenry for election. A commitment to the informa- The role of institutional development cannot be overem- tion economy by governments is to embrace the use of ICT phasized. Large governmental ICT projects have a unique for the voting process, or at least for consultations with ability to harness the entire industry towards achieving the their constituencies. Universal Access methods that assist nation's priority objectives as well as developing ancillary ser- in accelerating the diffusion of Internet and ICT into vices for the larger good of the information economy. The deprived communities would be an asset. rules for coordination and administration of the Internet are Thirdly, the creation of technology parks. Expertise for currently being redefined through ICANN, which is an inde- critical aspects of the information economy is scarce in pendent international non-profit corporation registered in Africa and efforts should be made to concentrate these California (see box, pg. 24). However, several governments, resources in order to create the necessary critical mass for international agencies and citizens are not participating. To rapid development. block the appropriation of the process by a few global enthu- And finalWy service accessibility must be expanded. siasts, African countries should establish corresponding Although manufacturing of chips, equipment and software- regional organizations such as AfriNIC (for addresses), products are the desired long-term goals, services such as bulk AfDNS (for names) and AfNOG (for operators). African data entry, custom software development for export and design governments must participate in the Governmental Advisory center productions are accessible and should be stimulated. Committee of ICANN and mobilize their citizens to partici- Another task is the prioritizing of application develop- pate in the at-large membership of ICANN. ment. One of the fields that demands immediate attention Another key issue is industry development. It is recog- is the cultural field. Traditionally, Africa has relied on oral nized that a good amount of the technology components means to preserve its history and folklore. More recently, essential for implementing networking infrastructure are various artifacts have been preserved in national archives manufactured by a few multi-national corporations who and museums. This method of preservation, however, is are not currently operating in African countries. Hence, short-lived and much of the material has decayed. It would African governments should devise policies and programs be better to preserve the cultural heritage in digitized form. that attract these multinationals to invest and manufacture There is an endless number of applications that need some of the products in Africa. Africans must not only be to be developed where education is concerned, and all users but also contributors to the development of the tech- fields of study should be encouraged to produce relevant nologies and, therefore, develop human resource capacity. content. However, flagship projects in distance education, An integrated approach to capacity building is required tele-medicine and environment should lead the way. And due to the inter-disciplinary nature of the information in the field of linguistics, applications that foster natural industry. In this regard, nations must develop plans that language development must be supported. Indigenous lan- address building capacity at all levels including primary, guages are widely spoken in African countries, yet there secondary, tertiary, researclh, industrial, conitinued educa- are few writings available resulting in the disappearance of tion and awareness. There is great potential in making use these languages. The Internet is a good medium to publish of organized forces such as the national service, unions, in the indigenous languages. Fonts and encoding should be and armed forces as the trainers in axvareness programs. developed in an effort to engage the rural community who The African agenda should move in four strategic direc- uses predominantly native languages. tions. First of all, toward empowerment of the private sec- Africa is blessed with pockets of excellence in the informa- tor. Netpreneurs are taking significant risks in developing tion technologies. The challenge facing the continent is to the infrastructure and info-structure of the information determine the right mix of policies and programs that wvill economies. Given the importance of the new economy and cause those isolated pockets of excellence to become pervasive. the need for its rapid development, a policy to encourage the entrepreneurs to accelerate the deployments is desired. iV'ii Qua ynor i.d Cthi'lTna/o Of Ghana.Cnat, NCS. 30 W o IZ1 , L) B I N K I N SI' I' U T 1, FEATU RE 4 ¾ 0 hebusiness world and society have undergone many UTFP$ .__ changes because of information technology, and the f ITipact of the Internet may cause some of the biggest yet. The Internet is quickly becoming a global information system acesble in nearly all countries. Moreover, at the beginning, A ~~no one envisioned it as a tool for conducting business virtually I F ~ ~ A S ~~~"'~ anywhere at anytime with anyone who has access. With an esti- mated on-line customer base of 288 million people R 0 N B E K R Y (www.glreach.com) that is growing daily, conducting Internet commerce seems like the thing to do. Quite simply. the Internet is quickly becoming the major business commerce, are expected to reach $153 billion this choice for electronic commerce transactions. The Internet year. Besides connectivity and global reach, common wIll be a driving factor in the global economy during the advantages related to using the Internet for business pur- next centurly, as organizations and companies are looking poses include reduced transaction and communication for xvays to tie into and leverage the network to conduct e- costs, expanded market potential and improved communi- commerce. The increase in e-commerce via the Internet is cations. In addition, companies now can oiler their goods definitely moving society a little closer to the "global vil- and services to customers 24 hours a day virtually in every lage'l concept that has been touted as a future way of life, time zone. In essence, the business storefront never closes. More importantly, it is changing the face of business. These advantages, however, do not come without chal- The Internet may level the competitive playing hield for lenges. small businesses and entrepreneurs competing in a global Organizations conducting business over the Internet economy. It is now possible for a small, virtual organiza- face new legal, security, and privacy issues. Issues such as tdon that has no inventory, no wvarehouses, and few employ- the legality of email messages as binding contracts must be esto successfully compete in the global arena with addressed. Additional securit"y measures to ensure that multinational organizations. Because of the Internet, for- data and systems are reliable and valid must be developed. mer barriers to global market entrv such as huge capital Since most information will be collected and stored elec- investments, large staffs, and huge multi-li'ngual. transna- tronically. organizations must develop measures to ensure tional infrastructures no longer exist. the privacy of' their customers and their own organization. People began using the Internet for business purposes Additionally,~ if organizations are going to conduct business by publishing static web pages for advertising and creating globally, they may run into language, cultural, and cur- an on-line presence. D~ynamic pages soon emerged and rency prbeslodcigbsns ndvlpn on allowed organizations to support on-line sales, customer tries might prove difficult because of a lack of credit cards service, and other information or value added services, by citizens of those countries, for example. According to some statistics, it is estimated that over $1 0 The new, virtual, organizational design calls for heavy billion in business to consumer sales have occurred within reliance on technology and business partners. With Inter- the last year via the Internet. Sales in the area of Internet net commerce, if the server or other critical network com- commerce expected to see the largest growth, business to ponents are down, then business is down. To further 1)EJLVE[OI'\XVNF NI OL1RIrII EAC1 S P RIN ~~2 0 0 31 compound this problem, organizations may be relying on the Internet. Costs of equipment and access will keep citi- business partners or foreign governments to provide access zens of developing countries from participating on the to the Internet, inventory, shipping, billing, or many other Internet. Similarly, entrepreneurs in the most remote areas normal business functions. If one of these partners of the world may find it difficult to access new markets via becomes unable to fulfill their obligations, then business the Internet. However, there is some hope with wireless may be affected. In summary, Internet commerce calls for technology. an unproven business model that could be very risky, espe- A Dutch group is processing email for organizations cially to small organizations. and individuals in countries with Internet access by using In developed countries, the expansion of the Internet wireless connections as opposed to dedicated lines. This has been nothing short of phenomenal. The technology group sets up a central computer with a modem to serve a infrastructure, along with a high penetration of computers, region of users. Every night, the computer is accessed to has supported the growth in Internet commerce without pick up email messages that are sent out worldwide too many problems. Unfortunately, developing countries through other providers. Another group, Volunteers in are being left out of the expansion and the move toward Technical Assistance (VITA), has established a low earth the concept of a "global village." If developing countries orbit satellite system for communication to and from the are not able to join the Internet revolution soon, the dis- Internet. While both of these systems seem innovative, tance between the "technology haves" and the "technology they both have severe limitations. For example, the VITA have-nots" will continue to widen and may not ever approach can only send messages four times a day for 14 recover. minutes. Another approach involves the use of short wave Many challenges and obstacles must be overcome or VHF radio systems for communications to and from the before developing countries can benefit from the Internet Internet in developing countries. This approach is promis- and Internet commerce. In most developing countries, the ing and has already been used in conjunction with VITA's necessary technological infrastructure is either inadequate satellite system. or non-existent. To upgrade or develop the infrastructure While it may seem highly unlikely for entrepreneurs in would be extremely expensive and require the support of developing countries to participate and succeed in Internet the government, which may never happen. In countries in commerce, we must always remember that nothing is transition, such as Eastern Europe, the hold over from impossible. MNian was first put on the moon with comput- prior socialist governments still limits competition and ing power that is not as powerful as what most people in maintains centrally controlled telecommunication firms. In developed countries use to access the Internet today. As most of Europe, every single phone call has a cost. If there the efforts of volunteer groups continue and technology were a fee every time an American connects to the Internet progresses, developing countries may become active partic- from his home, most likely use of the Internet would ipants on the Internet. change drastically. Until governments become Internet and business friendly and set Internet access and use as a Ron Berry i. the Fnterqy Enzdow)jed Profeasor of C'ol7puter Informa- priority, developing countries may never reap the benefits tion Syotemd at the I1JVeriity of Louisiana at lfonroe, anfd the their world counterparts share. fiunuydinq editor of the Journal of Internet Commerce. Another problem in some developing countries is the limit placed on foreign investment in domestic businesses. The authorgratefully acknoariledqeo the input and feedhack of Dr. Without outside investments, telecommunications may not Jim Wiodd, Malker Fndowed Profeosor of Entrepreneulship at the reach the level necessary to participate in the Internet University of Louisliana atilwonroe. global economy. Partnerships should be allowed to enhance the development of the technology infrastructure For information on the Journal of Internet Commerce, necessary for Internet penetration. visit: www.hawortpressinc.com Most likely, developing countries are years away from having the necessary infrastructure for countrywide use of 32 W o IL 1) B A N K I N S T IT U I'E FEATURE ¢+ ! Monterrey Tech's vi Vcrtual Art verd t: BY RAFAEL RANGEL SOSTMANN elecommunications and information tech- ulty members and thus avoid the high cost in terms of time nologies are having a growing influence these and money involved in sending them abroad to obtain Tays in both companies and institutions as well as graduate degrees. This was how the Interactive Satellite in all facets of everyday life. In education, the Education System came into existence. UNESCO's World Declaration on Higher Education In the mid-90s, the Interactive Satellite Education System states: "The rapid breakthroughs in new information and gave way to the current Virtual University, that uses satellite communication technologies will further change the way and other information technologies to offer graduate pro- knowledge is developed, acquired and delivered. It is also grams in maiagement, engineering, information technology important to note that the new technologies offer opportu- and education technology. Monterrey Tech's Virtual Univer- nities to innovate on course content and teaching methods sity also offers terminal courses in several undergraduate and to widen access to higher learning'. majors at some of the System catnpuses that do not have fac- These technologies provide immediate access to world- ulty accredited in certain required specialties in undergrad- wide information banks and new knowledge that is uate study plans. Building on this initial experience focused appearing daily. In addition, they make knowledge avail- on delivering accredited academic courses, the UV created a able to an increasing number of people, without requiring business channel with programming designed to develop the that they physically attend a university or other facility. As competitiveness of firms in Mexico. There are currently a result, it is no longer necessary to invest enormous sums 1,000 classrooms in operation, particularly in small and of money in the real estate that has traditionally supported medium companies, across the country. face-to -face education systems. Other initiatives in continuous education targeted for The highly industrialized countries use technology specific groups soon followed. Another important program capacities to satisfy a broad range of educational needs. If at the UV is aimed at developing the professional capacity this is a valid approach for highly industrialized countries, of elementary education teachers in Mexico and other it is even more significant for newly industrialized ones as a Latin American countries. The program focuses on upgrad- means of reducing the educational gap between the devel- ing teaching skills and training teachers in the use of new oped and the developing worlds. didactic techniques using computers and multimedia. One The experience of the Monterrey Tech System is a case of the most recent programs is seeking to give non-govern- in point. Monterrey Tech, a university system with 29 cam- mental organizations in Mexico and Latin America the puses across Mexico, began using satellite technology to tools and knowledge they need to advance their agendas solve communications problems that existed between some with greater success. Finally, the UV is working jointly of its campuses in the late 1980s. In addition, in 1988, how- with the World Bank to offer a training program for ever, the institution started using satellite communication to municipal employees and officials, who often have no prior offer graduate programs to a large number of its own fac- DEVELOPMENT OUTREACH S SPRING 2000 33 experience with public administration and typically are world. Similarly, group effort is being recognized more and elected for short terms. more as a relevant part of job performance. Distance educa- In these various programs, the UV uses a wide range of tion supported by group learning in which the participants teaching models, that are products of both expanding techno- work asynchronously helps develop this skill. logical infrastructure and the growing experience of partici- Universities cast in the traditional mold will continue to pating educators. In graduate programs, for example, be important; their role is vital for the success of distance emphasis is placed on independent and group learning. As a learning in higher education. They will certify the quality result these programs encourage the formation of student net- of the courses delivered electronically and their faculty will works, spanning different countries, that provide an environ- be responsible for husbanding the logical integration of ment that enriches the knowledge and experience the knowledge. High-tech distance education systems are too members have acquired in their individual home countries. A new to verify how efficient they are. There are simply not tutorial faculty group follows up on the work done individu- enough data. And these systems are not without their crit- ally and in groups by graduate students. Terminal courses in ics, who tend to weigh them against face-to-face systems. undergraduate majors are also based on this teaching model, They raise such questions as the efficacy of uniform acade- while other programs make use mainly of satellite transmis- mic administration and evaluation, disperse systems, and sions and video conferences. The Virtual University has the impact on the socialization process--traditionally an classrooms in ten Latin American countries, in which com- important facet of a university student's formative experi- munication is mainly via satellite but also by Internet in those ence. These and numerous other challenges are only countries that have the appropriate infrastructure. beginning to be studied and addressed. The development of teaching models at the Virtual Uni- However, in view of the education gap between highly versity has had an impact on how teaching is being done in industrialized countries and those in various prior stages of Monterrey Tech's face-to-face system. In campus class- industrialization, the basic issue is how to bridge the gap on rooms across the country, techniques have been adopted a broad scale as quickly as possible. It is not so much a that encourage students to develop their capacity for inde- question of which system, old or new, is superior or ideal pendent learning, information search, the formation of but which system can respond to the immediate need. work groups, problem-based learning and case studies as Therefore, where traditional face-to-face systems cannot be learning experiences. Faculty has worked on new curricu- provided in the short term, distance education systems are lar designs in which creating the environments for this kind undoubtedly a viable answer. Although setting up the of learning and mentoring the processes is key. required infrastructure for them does not come cheaply, the As educators, we ourselves have learned several lessons investment in monetary terms is modest in comparison with from the Virtual University experience. First, we are con- what would be needed across the world in physical and vinced that the new technologies are a valuable resource for human resources to meet current education needs with tra- bridging the education gap. Thanks to these technologies, ditional systems. To which one must add the cost of the Monterrey Tech has been able to meet its goal of raising the loss of human talent and productive capacity left under- or number of professors wxith a graduate degree from 38 to 97 undeveloped because education is inadequate or not avail- percent in roughly 10 years. Our experience with the Virtual able. Emerging technology has always brought change in University has also taught us that distance or distributed edu- the way things are done and opened up visions of new cation requires the adoption of teaching models suitable for opportunities. Old and new co-exist and may complement, the different kinds of participants in the different programs. even enrich, each other. The revolution in telecommunica- What works well for graduate students, for example, is not tions and information technologies that is transforming the necessarily effective for training public servants. worlds of business, finance and the mass media has a dra- Many of the skills developed in this kind of learning expe- matic role to play in education. Indeed, at Monterrey Tech rience have value in the workplace. Knowing how to look this has already begun to take place. for information and finding the right information, which stu- dents must learn to do as part of their academic experience is Rafael Rangel Sodatzann ii president ofzIlonterrey Tech System. becoming increasingly important in the globalized business Visit: wxsvw.sistema.itesm.mx 34 W o0R 1 1) R A N K I N S I' I r U T E r ~~~~~~~ ~~he Field Children WVorldwilde Must be Internet- Connected by Muhammad Abd al-Hameed * ~~Lahore, Pakistan. Most middle class fathers in Pakistan * ~~~(as well as in other developing countries) want theit children to have petsonal computers hut canniot afford to buy them, even though the ptice is as Ioxx' as it can he. A multimedia personal computer, complete wvith monitor and speakers, costs the equivalent of US$600. But that sum equals 2 to 3 months of a junior executive's salar y. And it amounts to twic th prie o a 2' clor eleisio mot mddle class homes? There ate Children from the Kalkaji slums in set, which can be enjoyed by the entire several things that governments in NwDli ni,bos h familly, not just the children,' developing countries can and should do Internet using a touch pad j ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~computer provided by NIIT, India's Not that the government is not to achieve the objective, leading computer education doing its bit to make personal Excienp/Si,foj'ei bnportd4atie,t. The institute. The computer, part of computers affordable. As soon as the personal computer should be exempted an experimental program, is installed on a side wall of the personal computer became widelyf from all import duties and taxes, institute and draws many children known in the early 1980s, the Import duties and taxes on personal from nearby neighborhoods. Govermentof Paista alloed ~ compuers ill be gone in any case in Notwithstanding the fact that fovremenipot. "free"imeant nlowe only thenerputure unewtetemoIh these children had never seen a fre imort "Fee"meat nt oty henea fuureundr te trmsof he computer before, they were able removal of all import restrictions but Information Technology, Agreement, to learn how to browse just like also exemption from customs duties, which most countries have signed on the children who received The popularitv of the Internet has the recommendation of the World schooling at the institute, Dr. Sugata Mitra, the R&D Head added to the woes of the parents. Trade Organization, of NIIT, observing that children in Students have another very strong fhzteratz WnlL clrcu il,i at alc'tual coit. '['h e the slums responded the same reason to have a personal compuiter at bogey of "national interest" allows the way to a computer as those from home, especiallY when the cost of telecom monopolies in the developing upwardly mobile backgrounds, commented: "When it comes to Internet is lowv (it is as low as Rs 10, or countries to charge whatever they like computers and children, we don't 5 US cents, per hour). The availability for their services, which is often many have to rely on conventional of the Internet, even in middle-size times more than what they pay to the peaguslktxbo san classroomrs.' cities increases the demand greatly. international carriers for the circuits. This story is part of the ICT And with it, the demand for personal The burden, naturallv, falls on the Stories Project and was presented computers. Tnternet service providers, who have to at the Global Knowledge 2 How to make personal computers pass on the exorbitant charges to their Conference in Kuala Lumpur, March 2000. For more about the and Internet connection affordable to customers. Stories Project, visit: www.iicd.ora/stories iiI 1\EiOP MLkNI \ U OT [/FA C 11~ S P k [N . 11 11 35 Leasitng it,ih a newi, approacb. If we say of personal computers in developing international financial institutions may, that the obvious answer to the cash price countries. It will be a normal commercial hoxvever, allow computers from various of PCs is leasing, the reaction will be operation but for a great cause. sources at competitive prices. hardly very enthusiastic. The reason is the In all these cases, even small amounts Once a computer has been leased, the very high cost of money in most will go a long way. Let us say the target is leasing company will inform the approved developing countries. High interest rates to lease 100,000 personal computers per Internet service providers and authorize logically lead to high leasing payments, month. At the wholesale price of say $300, the lessee to get the connection from any discouraging the prospective customers. the total will come to $30,000,000. In a of them. The lessee may go to any other But there are some sources of cheaper year, the total will come to $360 million. In approved ISP if he is not satisfied with the funds that may be tapped: a three-year revolving cycle, the total service of the present one. Supp/ieri credvt. One source can be the funds required wvill be $1.08 billion. In The lease period will be three years. computer supplier. It is in his own interest every cycle of three years, 3.6 million Since the price of a personal computer is to encourage the sale of his goods by computers will be added. It will be quite a falling all the time while its specifications making the purchase easier for the buyer. start to prepare for the requirements of the are improving constantly, the lease will be The supplier may arrange funds from his 21st century. The amount will not be based on the current price and own bank, or use its own surplus funds. much, especially when it will not be a specifications. A lessee may not be allowed Fxport financinzg u,½,itntufia.,. There are grant but a fully returnable loan. And it to terminate a lease before the expiry financial institutions that charge very low will be providing 1,200,000 personal period. At the end of it, he may sign a new interest rates to enable developed computers per country every year. The agreement for a new computer at the price countries to export their products. These smaller developing countries may not even prevailing at that time. institutions can provide funds to the have that many homes in need of This package will be definitely an manufacturers of personal computers to computers. affordable cost for lower middle class promote their export to the developing Once a personal computer is in place in homes, or even the poor families in countries. a home, the Internet part will be easy. If Pakistan. If a parent can afford to get his Goverenment as.,tance. The Japanese the cost of the international leased circuits son or daughter in college, he will also be government has given aid to many is reduced to a level where it is on a par able to pay US$20 per month for developing countries to set up television with the prevailing international prices, computer and Internet. It will be less than stations. When strong television signals the major hurdle in providing Internet at the price of a typical college textbook. The are beamed to all parts of a country, a affordable rates will be removed. knowledge obtained will, however, be far huge demand is created for television sets, The plan in actuon. How will it work in more than what a single book can provide most of which are manufactured in Japan. practice? The funds coming from various a student. This is enlightened self-interest. If a external sources will go to a leasing The combination of personal computer country is a major manufacturer of company. If more than one leasing and Internet connection in an affordable personal computers, its government may company is willing to participate in the package will be the single most important provide interest-free loans to the leasing plan, they will be required to offer contribution to the education of a student. companies in developing countries to uniform lease terms to all lessees of Thanks to distance education courses promote the export of computers. computers, just like all Internet service being offered on the Internet by leading International financing indtitutioa.i. The providers will offer the uniform universities and other institutions all over World Bank, Asian Development Bank, connection rates. They may, however, the wvorld, quality higher education will be Islamic Development Bank and other have different standards for qualifying within the reach of poor students even in international and regional financial applicants and their service operations the remote parts of the developing institutions can provide funds without may also differ. countries. The long-term benefits of this interest, or with minimum interest, to The source of funds will determine the revolution are not difficult to imagine. developing countries for the leasing of implementation of the plan. If a personal computers. manufacturer of personal computers Alabaninamd Abd al-Hlaneed 5i a coneaultant on Conlunercial bank.'. In some countries, arranges funds on his own, he will infornmation and telecommunicationa such as Japan, where the interest rates are obviously supply his own product. If the teceinol/g/c.' in2 Pa/citan. very low, the commercial banks may be government of a country provides funds, persuaded to provide funds for the leasing the computers will come from there. The 36 W o IS L I) S A N K I N S T I T U T E World Bank to World: Can We Talk? Dei'A)ptizeiit Rw'ulii harnc71es. the7 Interet 'i - Ie Iad rea7ch /afo' diah)i qIZe aIid /cio'Ie)qe-s rii by Kerry Stephen McNamara What do a \World Bank senior economist, The lorum employs a hvbrid Bank is wvorking wvith external partners- the head ofa wvomen's NGO in Senegal, emailMWeb platfor m. [)iscussions take ranging Irom the Panos Institute, London an entrepreneur in Nepal, and a profes- place by means ol' moderated ciail lists to Transparency International to the sor in Canada all have in common? accessible to anyone xvith even the sim- Netherlands Alinistry of Foreign Aff'ailrs- They, along vith more than 15,000 others plest email conniection. They are in organizing andl hosting these global from 150 countries, have participated in archived to a Web site where participants e-consultations. the past year in a unique experiment in can view the discussions and access back- I'he forum, in short, is another- tool of online learning hosted by the \Vorld ground documents and related links. the Bank's embrace of' the information Bank Institute. The forum is an adaptable tool; it can revolution, and ol'the increased recogni- Development Forum, the Bank's vir- complement anid improve traditionial tion that the groxvth ol'a global inflorma- tual auditoriUMm for collaboration and dia- training programs logue on development issues, harnesses by linking partici- s the global reach ol'the Internet to bring pants in a \Vorld 4 together a broad r ange of practitioner s, Bank Institute A JI researchers, communitr workers. govern- core course in ain ment ofbfcials, journatlists and others f'rom ongoing commiu- across the w,orld for focused debate aind ni[v of practice' inf'ormation-sharing on specific develop- It can help Bank ment challenges. In the past yer-talffreach out to, evntin this global virtual auditorium and conisult wi'th,a evetsk I I I aI have ranged from public consultations on broader rainge otf the draft of the World Baink's World clients, stakeholdi Development Report on Po'ertv to ers antI externiatl * focused, intensiv-e "virtual working partners on specific challenges they' face tion economy presents the Bank wvith groups" on subjects ranging trom env i- (as in the recent virtual working group both the opportttnitv andi the challenge of ronmental sustainabilitv to anti-corrup- on curbing ttnwanted teen pregnancy tI "learning to learn" with its clients, critics, tion strategies, trom sustainable Al'rica.) It can help the Bank open up to, and others f'rom across the globe, con- microfinance schemes to gender and anid eittgage -with, its critics on controver- nected bv the extraordinarv reach ot'the development. Recently, in the -wake of' sial issues (as in the recent debate on Internet. the WVorld Bank/lNIMF Spring iNMeetings globalization.) and the protests that accompanied those A team ft'om the \Vorld Bank Institute Ke'rrty .SI,p/.co ,lcA"INa,I'a &;, kmnle W ko,'Icm)ql meetings, the forum has f'eatured a lively mianages the forttni and trains staff' 1o771,7gf'm7co ct/aC',' th,mi I1' l'1') B,m,mk month-long debate on "Globalization, throtighlout the flank in the use of onlline 1loll/.6 Poverty and Developtinent" xwith over dialogue as a tool lor knoxwledge-sharing Visit Ievelopment Forum website at: 5,000 participants flrom across the globe. and global outreach. Increasingly, the * ww s.worldbank.org/dex lorum .s ifi] "' SiN i. l < 1 1 37 ¾ '1 - : ^ ): .combat poverty world-wide. Global Links is an award-winning new _. ' .A:e.m:. From the website, try the folloxwing television series which explores critical links: .Jillenniuln Ci/n/deqe, to issues in economic and social communicate wxith students around the development around the xvorld, world; Facen 01f Ioc1/iohf, the portraits of drawing on the vast knowledge * Visli<<<9dn:m-ss fTHKse six people xvho are striving to meet resources of the WN7orld Bank. their own challenge of inclusion D)evelopment is sustainable when a through their personal efforts; l.N broad base of society can understand The Information for Development 1/illenni;ln;, the Millennium Assembly of and participate in the process. Global Program (i;foLDev) is a multi-donor the United Nations to discuss grant program that supports innovative fundamental review ofthe role projects demonstrating the development challenges facing the United Nations in opportunities offered by information the new century. and communication technologies. 'is,.s'orldl;e,zk.arayg/eiui,_ i_ i obDer,s mission is to utilize these technologies for economic and social The Global Trade Negotiations Home development, wvith a special emphasis Page is a one stop resource for those on the needs of the poor in developing interested in analytical, up to date economies. hzifoDe;' operates as a information on the multitude of issues, "venture fund" for ideas. It also offers a debates, government standpoints, Links focuses on people-their mechanism [or rapid deployment of institutions and organizations that compelling stories transcend targeted technical assistance for surround international trade policy. The nationalities and cultures to convey the emergency situations. site provides a collection of research human face of illiteracy versus papers and articles, links to other education; disease versus adequate sanitation; and poverty versus economic The World Bank's Millennium growth. Global Links is broadcast to Program is ayear-long effort to focus television viewers primarily in . i. ili !! | Sdeveloping countries. Video cassettes are also used for educational purposes * e t ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~in secondaryv schools, universities, and professional seminars websites, as wvell as contact information ...... lfor additional sources. Ideal for policv makers and advisers, researchers and attention on global poverty and to negotiators. The site does not advocate highlight the major development any specific trade policies or support challenges that the wvorld faces in the any particular ideology. Rather, as an 21st century. Over the 12 months, academic resource, it offers an objective running from September 1999 through entry point to the many trade related September 2000, the World Bank will resources on the Internet, wvith a focus host a series of conferences and special on many areas relating to developing events and launch newv publications countries. aimed at encouraging discussion, li';;' ek) ha;van2edo debate, and innovation on how best to 38 w o R 1. 1) BI A N I N S T I T U T 1 YinL Sa7yO YinaInita Rein/utLyo: A Story of loteroetandocie Sot As a result, policvmakers often lack the I/n"rnzitttno Agte Po/itt/n. by Reed E. H-undt. by James Slevin. gudance of economilc theorists. This hook Yale University Press, 2000 PolitY Press, 2000 analyzes regulatory reform and the Al Gore did not invent the Internet, but The hook features emergence of competition in network his vision affcted the goal of antitrust wide-rangingindustries using the state-of-the-art hisvisornevHnt affce thedgoalsoanirt a vinrde-raniong tetheoretical tools of industrial organization. attorney undt, as ederal inroductionto tepolitical economy, and the economics of Commuoications Commission Chair Internet and itsinetvs (1993-97). The complicated process that significance in produced the 1996 Telecommunications modern culture TeQaiiq'ri,bb io hms Act, and the FCC regulations that and society. with a variety of examples Thensoor/~ Da lamietAh b iod Tbrehomas, implcmented the far- from around the world. It develops, an Dne afan ai ihr ao reachilng legislation, original argument about the nature of the Dne afan ai ihr ao E. Lopez. and Yan are the center ofthis Internet, blending social theory. ag h lol lively narrative, communications analysis and case studies. Wangk The Wxorld Hundt's story It also links the impact of the Internet to Bankveandt Oxford includes cable rate central debates and concepts concerning 20Uivrit0res regulation, manufactured risk, reflexive - ~~~~International trade modernization, self-formation, publicness What contributes to talks, and quality and globalization. development? children's television. Economic growth Internel anoi Ini'reiet Sectirity alno,jnqe;oet: remains central -not just its pace, but also Dqig/tn Cap/tn/iuwo Netsiwok/oq tie Glo/ba! Ri.k,i anodS,i/otM1z,i by Lech Janczewski. its quality. The discussion here brings out 1AlarkietSwt.eni by Dan Schiller. MNIT Idea Group Publishing. 2000 f'our dimensions of the quality of growth: Press, 1999. distribution, sustainabilitv, variabilityv, and ________________________________ From typical local networks through -oennesronigtegot One of the early claims of cvberculture countty-wide systems and business-based grovernanche surounadingathes growth in was that the Net constituted a realm distributed processing, wve have wvitnessed the policy framework: from the often, sole distinct from the "real world." This hook wvidespread implementation of computer- fouonaqntaivagdaorsr- argues strongly to the contrary. Not only controlled transmissions encompassing terms eonomqunictgroveht aged qualita rtiv is cyberspace an integral part of the real almost every aspect of our business and aed novn ua,sca n xvorld, Dan private lives. This hook addresses the evrnetlyssanbedvlpet * ~~~~~~Schiller insists, issues of information security from the ecvionomieroth,l propiaberl uderstood,nt - ~~~~~but it exists maagerial, global point of view. The hsmn iesosipretycpue primarily to serve global approach allows us to concentrate by such ''gefgrsa D e aia powerf'ul real- on issues that could be influenced b~y This WAorld Bank study calls attent'ion to xvorld economic activities happening on opposite sides of' the xvider span of contributions to human interests. It was the earth. xvelfare and carefully documents them. tss tOsSer neitherA Petgore 'o;p'tti''ii inz The result is a more sober and nuanced the Pentagon ~~~~~~~Te/eciomni on/ n/acinl,, assessment of the conditions of life in asbclureaav nof (The hini/oh developing countries. "(Kenneth .1. Arros., long-haired hackers that brought digital ecoe.)bJen PIifi.rStoc Loe'/yn)N/e networks into being. but the large Jacques Laffont Lnoivtette, enontonzii) corpor ations that xvere looking to expand and Jrean, Tiro9. operations across national borders. MTPes 99 CE8 Thieoretical models based on the assumption that telecommunicanions is a natural monopoly no longer reflect reality. i) i\Vlinl, 0 PN FNT 0 iuT IlcI' R 5I 21Ni IJ 39 J u ly 2 0 0 0 21-23 Okinawa G8 Summit, Japan 14-17 10th Stockholm Water Symposium, Stockholm, Sweden 4-6 2000 Forum Economic Ministers of 24-8/4 Subnational Budgeting for Poverty the Pacific Islands Meeting, Niue, Reduction, Georgia State University S e p t e m b e r 2 0 0 0 New Zealand and World Bank, www.decentralization.orQ 5-8 World Federation of Public Health 5-7 Urban Cultural Heritage Forum, Associations, Beijing, China Beijing, China 26-29 GhaCLAD 2000, Accra, Ghana. A global effort to bring all of Africa 9-10 APEC Finance Ministers, Brunei, 8 G7 Finance Ministers Meeting, online Darussalam Fukuoka; Japan www.ghaclad.org ghacladgghaclad.org 11-13 World Economic Forum, Asia Pacific 9-10 G8 Foreign Ministers' Meeting, Summit - Australia Davos Connection Miyazaki, Japan A u g u s t 2 0 0 0 Melbourne, Australia 9-14 XIII International AIDS Conference. 1-15 People Across Borders: a virtual 19-28 World Bank/IMF Annual This global meeting brings together conference. A regional effort to Meetings, all sectors engaged in the local of network academics and intellectuals Press Room opens Sept. 18; Program global response to HIV/AIDS. in the Middle East through the use of of Seminars will run Sept 23-26; Durban, South Africa IT Plenary sessions of the Boards of Debrework Zewdie, 202 473-9414, www.mevic.orQ Governors will run from Sept 26-28, Dzewdie@worldbank.oro mdahan©ibm.net Prague, Czech Republic Riad al Khouri, meba(nets.com.jo 10-14 Urban Futures, Johannesburg, South Africa 9-13 World Tobacco or Health Conference/Strategic Advisory 11-13 Asian City Development Strategy , Committee Meeting for WHO Fukuoka; Japan Tobacco Free Initiative, Chicago Starting in Summer 2000, a subscription fee will be charged to subscribers from the following developed countries: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Kuwait, Luxembourg, Monaco, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States, and Vatican City. 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E-mail us at books@wor dbank.org The Quality of Growth "The book .. supports the argument that ensuring universal coverage of basic social services of good quality is one of the most effective...ways of reducing poverly.... THi U- 0 L IT The book's message Is one of hope, namely that a better world for all can be achieved.. 0 (1R ) X with genuine participation by the poor people themselves." - Carol Bellamy, Executive Director, UNICEF The last decade of the twentieth century witnessed striking economic growth to a progress in the developing world and at the same time, it also qualitative agenda involving saw stagnation and setbacks. These large differences and sharp human, social, and reversals have taught us much about what contributes to environmentally sustainable , development. development. ' : "'-' Economic growth remains central-not just its pace but also its 2000. A Copublication of the World Bank and Oxford University quality. The four dimensions of growth relevant for quality Press. Stock no. A61593 ISBN 0-19-521593-1. $35. outcomes are distribution, sustainability, variability, and governance. The World Bank, P.O. Box 960, Hemdon, VA 20172-0960 The Quality of Growth, a collection of essays in an ongoing Tel: 703-661-1580 or 800-645-7247 research project, advocates broadening the policy framework or Contact your World Bank Distributor from the often, sole focus on a quantitative agenda for shor-term www.worldbank.org/publications AMGO {,= World Bank Publications Visit our website at www. worldbank. org/publications Managilng Development Project S A Computer Simulation for Risk Management in Infrastructure Project Finance V;<4 ;'; i sWX .................... w$;rryojcts, Project Pertorrn Mrasurerenstn and coiorate entities. * multi-period Value-at-Risk Management of Project Teams, and Project analysis for a project s loan commitment, equity, earnings, _ Management Tools and Applications. com e eqiw eng and cash flow For more information please contact * works in conjunction with Ms Hoveida Nobakht, Microsoft Excel® 97 or higher World Bank Inst tute (WBI), The World Bank ISIS H Street, N W., Washington, DC 20433, For more information, USA WO R L D please contoct John Van Dyck Tel: 1t-202)473 6621, Fax: 11-2021522-2619 B | BANK of ivondyck@worldbonk.org or f mai hronakht©worlobaro org Ti N ST ITUT E vovfox t+.202.334.B350. Emai hnobakht'-owarldbank org_______I N STIUT worldabonk.org/wbi/infrofinr WWorld Thel Bank Bank Sinp |pore UNIVERSITY SCIENCE MALAYSIA Polytechnic WVorld Bank Institute (WBI)/l'he World Bank, in partnership with Worl(d Bank Institute (WBI)/the World Bank, in partnership with Singa- University Science Malaysia, will organize this Workshop as a collabora- pore Polytechnic, will organize this Workshop as a collaborative learning tive learning opportunity lor managers of educational anrd training institu- opportunity for training executives/directors, senior trainers and education tions who are interested in adopting high-qualits standardls. Improvements planners, through real and virtual group interactions, to study the proper of the quality of learning pro-esses, methods and outcomes are nosy essen- applications and utilization of interactive learning technologies (ILT) for tial for the survival of educational and training institutions in the highly improving training and education quality. During this 3-phase Workshop, competitive and global market plat The ISO-I Workshop activitie will participants will develop their own Strategic Plan for ILT utilization in sup- include sharing of experiences through peer-based learning, and the use of port of their institution's learning/training programs. case-method and analysis to identity and understand the requirements and procedures of the ISO 9000 certification process and the ways it can bring Phase-i: Pre-Workshop Internet/Web-based Briefing benelits to learning organizations. (3 weeks: starting August 1, 2000 at oWn training institute/ home-base) This workshop is organized as part of the World Bank Institute (WBI)'s Phase-2: Peer Learning and Group Training Kno-ledge Utilization through Learning Technologies (KULT) program (10 days: August 21 - 30, 2000 in Singapore) Phase-3: Post-WVorkshop Follow-Up: Free After-Training i'ifrif-ra/ar Gfi,rmauiont *7 thb/ lI§itrk-.')sop adls/or too hta/ia ih/ Coaching Service App&0artion Form, ple:.o',,ton/ltt: (3 months: September - November 2000 at own training institute/home-base) Zaraidah Muhd. Zain, Coordinater Quality Bureau Uoi-ersity S.iene- Malaysia (USNI) 'I'his workshop is organi7ed as part of the World Bank Institute (WBI)ys 11800 Penang, MALAYSIA Knowledge Utilization through Learning Technologies (KLJLT) program Phane: (60-4) 657-7888 Fax: (60-4) 659-0152 E-mail: un--rai(oasm.-y Ronoy Adhikarva Jarfirt /zer inf/rmiti ni M,L Work.r/op a7ndo/er I, tbta/o tke Senior Traini,,g Off. & KU UT Progran M-anager lI/pinralwttw Fortn, ple,&.e contact: WiIold Bank 1.stitute, The Worl-d Ba3-k Washington, 0I 020433, U.S.A. Billy Chan, Manager Plosn: (1-202) 473-0305 Fas: (1-202) 522-1492 Co-tii-ing Eds..cation Centre (CEC), Singapore Pollytechnic K-mail: radhiksarva@sorldbank.org Telephone: (65) 772-1277 Fax: (65) 772-1957, Email: Billy@sp.esd.sg WORKS I-IOP WFlBSI'IE: Ronn' Adhikarya. SeniorTriing 0lig . & KULT Progras Manager W WO RKLO DA N K.WORS R /W B E/1 SO- World 1ank Institute, 'he World Bank lelephone: (202) 473-03()5 Fax: (202) 522-1492 Email a d1ika yaf vorldbank.,g Workshop Sponsors WORKSHOI' WEBSITE: %WWW.WORt.DbANK.0RG/WBI/ILT-I 1'EEO Vs WW Vs ORIDl) \N K OR (LJFTELEKOM W orkshop Sponsors I1 MALAYSIA and Te ekon Training College _. J _- _ (TTC!, Malavsia MictV,es ft- REU TERS( National Institute of Inttt af Pub c Admitiistration (INTANI Malaysa I K O N 0 S (4 ISO 9001 Certifi6d ROME I WASHINGTON NTT Singapore Pte. Ltd. THE PAN PAC IFIC If-10l I. c~~~~Liou t~~~~~~~ao Pacific Haoe ^ x- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Kua aLumpur t F ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~SIRIM Tra ning An IBM Coanpany Senices Hotel Pho.nix Singapore