Ways and Means of Bridging the Gap Between Developed and Developing Countries

A Paper presented

at

High-Level Panel on

Information Technology and Public Administration

at United Nations, New York on

26th September, 2000

by

Subir Hari Singh

Joint Secretary

Ministry of Information Technology

Government of India

http://www.mit.gov.in

e-mail : subir@mit.gov.in

Executive Summary Developing countries inherited a structure of governance characterised by large amount of paper work and file handling, time consuming process and many levels of explicit controls and approvals. These Government structures grew with Government taking the mantle of development and addressing citizen welfare. The advances in information and communication technologies alongwith convergence and the Internet is profoundly changing the way economies and societies develop and grow. The full impact of these technologies is not clear and they may increase the North-South divide that already exists. Developing countries are realising that one way of becoming part of the global network world is to encourage electronic governance. Even though the benefits are not clear-cut, it does appear that a failure to be part of this new network world will leave the developing countries further behind. In the process of setting up smart governance, developing countries face many constraints. They can be analysed using the ‘7-C’ model and are :

• Commitment of the top leadership throughout the process of implementing

an e-governance application.

• Connectivity which is the backbone for any e-governance application

including not only basic telecom infrastructure but also including availability, costs of access, quality of service, reasonable cost of hardware and software is often inadequate in developing countries.

• The capital costs in making these investments is high and it is necessary to

look at alternate financing models such as leasing build-on operate or build-on operate transfer as well as appropriate technologies that can lower costs.

• Competencies within the Government structure to successfully absorb

technology and re-orientation itself is a crucial factor in ensuring the success of failure of an e-governance project.

• Content creation is another major issue for developing countries in view of

the skewed nature of internet hosts and the heavy bias towards English.

• Citizens interface means the final success of an e-governance application

and depends on the ability of having applications which meet the requirements of the general public. Internet based Smart Cards and Electronic Payment Systems working through general public kiosks would be one way to ensure this.

• Cyber Laws are necessary to support meaningful integration over the

Internet especially wherever statutory and monetary involvement is there.

The recent G-8 Summit has taken a very pro-active stance in addressing the issues of Digital Divide and promoting good governance. The Summit decided to establish a Digital Opportunity Task Force (dot force) with a specific agenda to be addressed.

In conclusion, it has been brought out that the hurdles are complex but a

systematic approach to solving the issues is possible. Five recommendations have been suggested as follows :

Recommendation 1 : Create awareness of the role good governance can play in economic and social development through experience and information sharing, regional cooperation, etc. Recommendation 2 : Give assistance to countries to improve connectivity and increase access by increasing innovative solutions and private sector participation. Recommendation 3 : Encourage successful innovation of community and private sector participation in integrating ICT into the economic and society Recommendation 4 : Encourage a policy to promote pro-competitive, flexible and socially inclusive policy. Recommendation 5 : Design suitable technical assistance programme to harness intra-regional competencies.

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C O N T E N T S

1. Executive Summary

2. Introduction 01- 02

Governments in the Networked Age 03- 06

Constraints to implementing IT in 07 - 13

Government

Conclusions & Recommendations 14 - 16

3. Reference 16

Ways and Means of Bridging the Gap between

Developed and Developing Countries

Introduction: Developing countries inherited a feudal Government structure based on a command and control model of the enterprise. The structure operated vertically rather than across Government having, been set up, as a response to a particular need. As society got more and more sophisticated, rules and procedures got added to the layers of staff. Soon Governments become characterised by large amount of paper work and file handing, with time-consuming processes and many levels of explicit controls and approvals. As nations attempted greater interventions in the interest of development and improving citizen welfare measures Governments sometimes moved from just governance to becoming pro-actively involved as social reformers and providers of employment. Government hierarchies grew alongwith the associated costs and bureaucracies. In the closing decade of this century, a dramatic change has come about with the global economy becoming increasingly knowledge-based. Knowledge is now widely regarded as the key to sustained development and growth of economies as well as individuals. Capital accumulation is no longer seen as the main determinant of growth – knowledge is. Knowledge is not merely regarded as central to the process of development – it is development. More than ever before, information is the lifeblood of every economy. In some ways this is not radically different because even ancient civilizations recognized that knowledge is power. Knowledge was very closely held and zealously guarded. Power was wielded by the simple stratagem of not sharing knowledge and by controlling its usage. But today, we live in a very different world. The revolution brought about by modern Information and Communication Technology (ICTs) enables us to share vast amounts of information on a global scale almost instantaneously. These spectacular advances in ICTs and the convergence of these technologies together with the advent of the Internet have also resulted in the creation of a huge global knowledge pool from which anyone can drink, at least in theory. In this world, power and opportunity come from having access to relevant knowledge or information wherever and whenever needed, instantaneously.

These ever-evolving and increasingly powerful information and communication technologies have fundamentally changed the nature of global relationships, sources of competitive advantage and opportunities for economic and social development. Technologies such as the Internet, personal computers and wireless telephony have turned the globe into an increasingly interconnected network of individuals, firms, schools and governments communicating and interacting with each other through a variety of channels. A good indicator is the number of Internet users, which is expected to grow five-fold between mid-1998 and the 2001. The ongoing explosion of this technologically mediated global network has resulted in a world in which virtually everyone, everywhere, has the potential to reap the benefits of connectivity to the network. But there are also causes for deep concern. The great divide between rich and poor countries, long observed with regard to economic wealth and social and economic conditions, is equally prevalent and worrisome in the realm of ICTs. While the growth of the Internet and the continuing ‘digitalization of society’ are much heralded events in more developed countries, many developing nations are searching for ideas on how they can effectively participate in the rapidly evolving globally networked society. For developing countries, the global explosion of knowledge contains both opportunities and challenges. For example, poorer countries can appropriate and adapt the knowledge available for free or at very low cost in industrial countries. There is no need to re-invent the wheel or re-create existing knowledge and waste time, effort and money in the process. With communication costs plummeting, transferring knowledge is cheaper than ever. So there now exists a unique opportunity for developing countries to tap the vast resources of the global information networks to propel them to greater wealth and prosperity and leapfrog over knowledge gaps that have accumulated over centuries. Developing countries can take advantage of the large stock of global knowledge only if they develop the technological competence to grab it, to search for appropriate technologies/knowledge and to select, absorb and adapt imported technology/knowledge. In the absence of a concerted effort by the developing world to get ready for the global networked economy however, the gaps in living standards between developed and developing countries will only grow wider. In such a situation the productive use of these technologies will remain a phenomenon that is largely confined to the richest parts of the world.

Governments in the Networked Age:

Governments are realising the danger of being left behind and are

acknowledging that economic competitiveness requires embracing the ICTs. Political leadership is aware “that IT is vital for the future growth of the nation, and its successful implementation will enhance the flavors of four E’s - education, employment, entrepreneurship and e-governance.” Today we need ‘smart’ governments, and ‘smart’ governments need IT savvy politicians who not only understand the value of automation, but also understand about how its benefits can be filtered down to the country’s masses. This advent of IT as a highly leveraged enabling tool has redefined the fundamentals and changed the institutions and mechanism of delivery forever, bringing about a fundamental shift in the concept, manner and method by which the State has to deliver services. How we proceed from here is important. 1

The clear-cut benefits to developing countries are not clear, though

many predictions have been made about the economic and social benefits that they will experience as a result of the advent of the information age. In fact, ICTs have been portrayed “as a kind of panacea for a multitude of the world’s problems” and as an important economic catalyst that will propel developing countries forward to a new position of strength in the world economy. Great social changes are predicted with increased participation in government and policy-making processes within these countries. Whilst analyzing the existing literature on IT implementation in developing countries, however, we immediately recognize that the picture is cloudy. Optimism is tempered by the awareness that this most fundamental technological process is taking place in a few advanced, industrialised countries. These countries are spearheading the new phase in world economic development and dominating markets with new products and processes. Although these technologies rapidly and seemingly effortlessly permeate the economic and production systems of the world, they are not available ‘off the shelf’. They have to be understood, absorbed, and mastered. A process of North-South polarization could be underway that could exacerbate differences in world societies and aggravate the existing gap.

Developing countries number nearly 150 of which no two are alike. Distinctive business environments derive directly from differences in levels and processes of development, not only between the developed and developing countries, but also among the developing countries themselves. Given the widespread prescription of IT for Third World countries, the urgency of their needs, and the paucity of their economic resources, it seems useful to understand the state of IT absorption in different countries and the effect of different technology levels, cultures, and priorities on IT implementation.

While doing so, it has been seen that developing countries face many of

the same problems that affect organisations in developed countries, but they also have distinctive difficulties. In developing countries, as compared with developed countries, government often exerts more influence over industries and organisations, controlling, for example, access to key resources and setting costs and prices. Innovation is limited by scarcity of managerial and technical personnel and capital, inadequate physical and information infrastructure, social and cultural diversity, and political barriers that modulate and distort market and competitive forces. A few companies, often those with strong ties to the government or influential business groups, exercise disproportionate power, leading to implicit or explicit market-sharing arrangements and/or ruthless actions against competitors. The rules of the competitive game are often unclear and unstable, reflecting the underlying instability of the political and economic environments and the information imperfection of the markets. Developing countries are also more vulnerable to external economic shocks. Shifts in international prices of key exports or imports or access to primary export markets can dramatically affect competitive dynamics.

Another important component of the factors which interface with the

ability of developing nations to harness the use of IT for better and more productive governance as well as delivery of public goods and services, is the issue relating to Digital Divide between countries integrating with each other in the total IT environment. The divide that shows up is not merely between countries: developed and developing, rich and the poor, English-speaking and non-English speaking. It also exists within countries, between one community and another, one race and another, one ethnic group and another. This becomes clearer when we look at all the relevant parameters with reference to the pre-requisites indicated above. More than 80% of the people in the world have never heard a dial tone. This is as much an indicator of unevenness of economic development globally as it is of a digital divide. Information Age skeptics often ask how meaningful it is to talk about getting connected into the Networked World in area where there are problems of hunger, disease, lack of medical care, potable water and so on. But in the words of UN Secretary General Kofi Anan “People lack

many things: jobs, shelter, food, health care and drinking water. Today, being cut off from basic telecommunications services is a hardship almost as acute as these other depravations, and may indeed reduce the chances of finding remedies to them.” The skewed nature of development indicators is well known. For example, the richest 20% and the poorest 20% of the world’s people living in the highest and lowest income countries had 86% and 1% respectively of world GDP. Comparative figures for world exports are 82% and 1%, for FDI 68% and 1%, and for telephone lines, 74% and 1.5% respectively. But comparable indicators of the networked world are even more skewed. The richest 20% of the world’s people accounted for 93.3% of Internet users, while the poorest 20% accounted for 0.2% of Internet users. While the Internet is theoretically, the great leveler, in practice, various divides are accentuated. South Asia, with 23% of the world’s people, has less than 1% of Internet users. In terms of purchasing power, while a computer costs the average American one month’s wages, it costs the average Bangladeshi more than eight year’s income. Youth are more likely to use the Internet and women less likely, reveal statistics. But the most prominent distortion on the Internet is the language distortion. While 10% of the people worldwide speak English, almost 80% of all Websites are in English. There is a strong correlation between the spread of telephone lines, televisions, fax machines, personal computers and Internet usage. 2 The transition from a conventional information and knowledge management system to a modern ICT based system has to follow either a pedagogical, political or an economic paradigm. The fastest and most cost-effective results can be obtained when the transformation is brought by the private sector in an environment in which there is intense price and technology competition. This alone can ensure that, whether in the Government or private sector, the transition is done in the most cost-effective manner. An added benefit is that automatic prioritization of those areas resulting in the highest gains, is ensured. However, the cost-volume- quality equilibrium (of ICT- based services) that is reasonable, would vary considerably from country to country and on the basis of how community is being served. Ways would have to be found to meet the costs for the more disadvantaged. However, unless the whole process is linked to user charges and private investment, it cannot be sustained since developing countries are impoverished nearly all over.

Let us take Government as an example. Numerous Government services are delivered today in developing countries by archaic means. Evolution of a suitable policy environment in which the delivery of such services is made efficient, location-independent and without any time

restriction using the power of ICT in partnership with the private/public sector is the key to making the transition to a modern ICT based system. This can have multiple benefits - speed, transparency and convenience are the obvious ones. These are seldom guaranteed in prevalent service delivery systems. Consequently, while corruption is often the corollary of existing non-transparent, uncertain systems, its reduction, if not removal, can be one of the fringe benefits of a modern ICT-based system. Delivery of such services through community centres can greatly increase the utility, reach and attractiveness of both the services and the centres. As an example, Government of India is setting-up nearly 500 VSAT-based Community Information Centres in an underdeveloped hilly northeast part of the country where people are being given Internet access for the first time. It also has plans to have 1 million Internet kiosks by 2008.

Another indirect impact is that by moving towards e-Governance a

Government can greatly stimulate adoption of IT by business and industry. Business processes can also get speeded up since governmental procedures would no longer have a drag effect on the velocity of business, which is seen as a significant factor in the competitiveness of nations. In fact a powerful catalyst in developing an empowered, fast, global and electronic society would be to embrace ICT technologies and apply them in the process of governance. This would bring about SMART governance - an acronym for simple, moral, accountable, responsive and transparent government. The far-reaching implications of increasing use of IT in the Government context could include remote access by the public to Government information and services in a variety of ways. Cooperative arrangements among Government agencies could be encouraged to integrate services and to provide one stop shopping. Information would also be gathered much easier without duplication of efforts and many routine and repeated tasks could be simplified or totally eliminated. Taken together all these steps require a fundamental change to systems, procedures and processes so as to provide basic services to a broader segment of citizens with optimal quality and at a desired time, place and cost.

Constraints to Implementing IT in Government:

At the outset, it must be understood that technology, costs and logistics are not the only factors at work in determining the pace of adoption of ICT. It is necessary to set right the fallacy that successful implementing of electronic governance projects is primarily dependant on the technological aspects and the issues relating to change management and process re-engineering are relatively unimportant. Despite lack of scientific studies, a thumb rule indicates an estimate that technology plays just a 15% role in a successful e-governance project against a previously estimated 60%. Change management and process re-engineering, which were thought to be inconsequential irritants, are actually found to be nearly 80% of the input for a successful project. Ignorance of this fact is often the main cause of benefits not flowing from completed IT projects.

This view is supported by a study of donor-funded IT projects in China which has shown that technology is more than just equipment and also incorporates a surrounding shell of infrastructural requirements, - the technical and managerial skills that are needed in order to operate it. Sometimes, the objectives and interests of technology source and recipient are often mismatched. In particular, the Western source of technology may seek an immediate profit from the sale, but have little interest in helping the developing country recipient make the technology work. Heeks, for example, describes the furore and problems that arose when Western multinationals provided obsolescent, second-hand computing equipment to Indian clients. 3

The complexity in attempting to introduce e-governance is lucidly

brought out in the above example. This can be further analysed using the ‘7-C model’. The ‘7-C’s’ are: Commitment, Connectivity, Capital, Competence, Content, Citizen Interface and Cyber Laws, not necessarily in that order, and these are discussed below:

Commitment: the success or failure of an EG project is crucially dependant on change management and process re-engineering as brought out above. These issues can be successfully addressed only if there is top-level commitment to the exercise. In the absence of a ‘Vision’ statement supporting good governance, the entire exercise is futile with only lip service being paid to engaging with the thorny issues of implementation. This thus is the first imperative.

Connectivity: that connectivity is the backbone for information

technology is a truism that needs no elaboration. And, the minimum necessary condition for connectivity, is access to adequate network infrastructure. Without access to global communications, no community can participate in the Networked World. Access is determined by a combination of availability and affordability of use of the network in relation to prevalent income levels. Access can be broken down into several components covering :

• Basic telecommunications infrastructure (including twisted pair copper

wire, coaxial cable, wireless local loop, satellite and fiber optics) which forms the principal mode of providing access in the developing world today.

• Internet availability from Internet Service Providers that operate locally and

the availability of public access through public libraries, telecentres, Internet cafes, Community Information Centres, schools, etc. are a key indicator of availability.

• The costs of telephony and ISP fees in relation to prevalent income levels is

indicative of Internet affordability.

• The quality of services and available bandwidth, both for local access and

for connectivity to the Internet backbone determines the applications that can be supported and the types of online activities the network can support. Bandwidth constraints can severely limit activities like large file transfers or video streaming.

• Availability of hardware and software at competitive prices encourages

network usage.

• A strong customer service orientation is important in determining the

success of network deployment.

• The reliability and cost of electric power must be considered carefully in

assessing readiness for the networked world. In many developing countries, even this basic requirement cannot be taken for granted. One billion people around the world who do not have electricity face tremendous challenges in terms of network readiness.

Capital: the capital costs involved in adopting e-governance are

invariably high. These involve hardware and software costs as well as cost linked to re-training, re-engineering the organisation, re-deployment of staff

etc. Benefits are available only after a period of time and it becomes difficult to sustain the investments required. There is need to look at alternative financing models such as leasing, Build-Own-Operate (BOO) or Build-Own-Operate-Transfer (BOOT). These involve new ways of working and require steps for franchising and transaction-based financing. Newer and appropriate technologies that permit lower costs are also relevant to the issue of capital requirements. Some of these involve wireless technologies that bypass the fixed line plain old telephone service (POTS), Cable TV with set-top boxes to access the Internet, cheaper connectivity through Ka-band access, etc.

Competence: this word is used in the sense of the ability of the Government system to successfully adopt the use of IT. It involves sensitizing the bureaucracy, creating suitable project management skills through a cadre of persons with domain knowledge and software skills, and the ability of the organisation to re-orient itself for effective use of IT in functioning. In the absence of such changes and the cooperation of staff, any project of e-governance is bound to fail. These skills are not easily available in the quantity or quality required. To meet this challenge, a State Government in India has designed a special course in consultation with management and IT institutes to produce Project Managers with the requisite skills. “The need of the hour, therefore really, is to look beyond funding of hardware and software, and confront the fact that the basic psyche of Governance inherited from a feudal past, still views right to information with great suspicion. If for a moment we accept the fact that a large past of the problem lies at the psychological level and it is there that the real battle has to be fought, then one must develop a no-nonsense strategy which initiates computerisation of Government department not only in a fixed time frame but as a irreversible process. Very often glittering pilot projects have been set up which never replicated themselves since they were based on unrealistic premises and were never really followed up.” 4

Content: Creating content by way of datawarehousing is a first-step

towards undertaking an IT project in Government. This involves issues of standardization involving architecture, data, hardware, etc. The issue of security also assumes importance. Here too, new models of working involving outsourcing of content creation, data sharing across departments, etc. are required to be put in place.

Citizen interface: the real impact of an e-governance application

depends upon the ability of having applications, which meet the requirement of the general public. This can be done through specially designed technologies of G2C and G2B interfaces. Ensuring access through general public kiosks, backed up with Smart Cards and Electronic Payment Systems are an important part of this. These would be Internet-based Applications. There is also a

requirement for local language tools as well as content to be available for ensuring quick expansion of the Internet and consequentially, e-governance. The large number of Cyber Cafes coming up in all towns in India is laudatory.

Cyber-Laws: Amendments to the relevant laws are necessary to

enable transactions over the Internet. This would form the base for supporting interactions with the Government whenever statutory or monetary interactions are carried out. In the absence of these laws, the service can only deal with the simplest of interactions. From the above discussion it can be seen that the difficulties faced by developing nations in implementing IT applications exist right across the entire range of activities. However, the following major problems and difficulties can be emphasized: i) The concept of good governance and issues related to restructuring and

re-engineering the administrative structure is an area in which the largest amount of difficulty is faced in implementing electronic governance. For this, an exposure to the experience of other countries, case studies and an on-going dialogue with multi-national agencies like UN would be of tremendous utility to the spread of e-governance. To convince the decision-makers about the relevance and viability of e-governance applications, we have set-up a demonstration centre in India where we showcase only applications that are working in a local context. This gives the necessary confidence in taking the plunge towards e-Governance.

ii) Connectivity issues need to be tackled with determination and speed.

The high costs involved in spreading the infrastructure both for tele-communication and the power sector make the investments go beyond that of the budgets of Governments. The imperative need to attract private investments in this field is the only solution for the rapid growth of the sector. Sometimes, relevant solutions might require some technology modifications or innovations. Effective ways of partnering private sector for R&D to adapt technologies to meet local needs and conditions is necessary. Technology incubators and some limited financial guarantees could spur such relevant R&D. Some interesting local government – private sector models of partnership have emerged which hold out hope. The Gyandoot application which won the Bangemann Challenge Award this year is one such example. Language technology research is an area particularly deserving of strong international support with a view to making the Internet universally accessible in its truest sense. In addition, the cost-effectiveness of use of ICT for a particular purpose has to be established to enable private investment and when there is intense competition for financial resources.

iii) One of the crucial issues that arise is of cost: cost of access, cost of

equipment, cost to the user, cost per transaction, etc. Costs of telecommunications and many of the new technologies are very high and might be quite unaffordable if conventional developed country models of usage are applied in developing countries. Hence there is a need to find innovative ways to fund the knowledge society in developing countries. For example, Mr. Sabeer Bhatia, the developer of Hotmail.com, now talks about his next project which aims at giving everybody a voice-mail box with access at the cost of a local telephone call, is an application in this category. Community centers that combine remote services, online education, information, governmental and business services, and which also generate some advertisement revenues to enhance cost efficiencies in the provision of all services could provide a possible self-financing solution. But the exact mix of services and the conditions needed for viability need to be explored and experimented with, in order to evolve different models so that each community could choose the most appropriate option from a menu of choices. In addition, high costs of PCs also need to be tackled in innovative ways through technological, fiscal or other measures such as re-furbished computers, etc. Current software costs also far exceed what is affordable for many Governments.

iv) Local Language Software: the e-governance applications would spread

and take root only once local language interfaces with computers and local language programmes are developed. For private software developers this is not a remunerative expenditure akin to the Chicken and Egg story. There is need to develop innovative financing schemes with Governments playing a pro-active role in developing these software as well as in sustaining the creation of local content.

In the face of these difficulties, the proactive stance taken in the recent

Summit of the G-8 Countries in adding the specific issues of Digital Divide, promoting global participation and a future strategy has been of great relevance. The summit also decided to establish a Digital Opportunity Taskforce (dot force) with a view to evolving a broader international approach through facilitating “discussions with developing countries, international organisations and other stakeholders to promote international cooperation with a view to fostering policy, regulatory and network readiness; improving connectivity, increasing access and lowering cost; building human capacity; and encouraging participation in global e-commerce networks” among other things. 5

In pursuit of these objectives, the dot force will look for ways to take

concrete steps on the priorities identified below:

• Fostering policy, regulatory and network readiness :

- supporting policy advice and local capacity building, to promote a

pro-competitive, flexible and socially inclusive policy and regulatory environment;

- facilitating the sharing of experience between developing countries and other partners;

- encouraging more effective and greater utilisation of IT in development efforts encompassing such broad areas as poverty reduction, education, public health, and culture;

- promoting good governance, including exploration of new methods of inclusive policy development;

- supporting efforts of MDBs and other international organisations to pool intellectual and financial resources in the context of co-operation programmes such as InfoDev;

• Improving connectivity, increasing access and lowering cost:

- mobilising resources to improve information and communications

infrastructure, with a particular emphasis on a “partnership” approach involving governments, international organisations, the private sector, and NGOs;

- working on ways to reduce the cost of connectivity for developing countries;

- supporting community access programmes; - encouraging research and development on technology and applications

adapted to specific requirements in developing countries; - improving interoperability of networks, services, and applications; - encouraging the production of locally relevant and informative content

including the development of the content in various mother tongues.

• Building human capacity:

- focusing on basic education as well as increased opportunities for

life-long learning, with a particular emphasis on the development of IT skills;

- assisting the development of a pool of trained professionals in IT and other relevant policy areas and regulatory matters;

- developing innovative training, including distance learning and community-based training;

- networking of public institutions and communities, including schools, research centres and universities.

• Encouraging participation in global e-commerce networks:

- assessing and increasing e-commerce readiness and use, through

provision of advice to start-up businesses in developing countries, and through mobilization of resources to help businesses to use IT to improve their efficiency and access to new markets.

- Ensuring that the “rules of the game” as they are emerging are consistent with development efforts, and build developing country capacity to play a constructive role in determining these rules.

Conclusions and Recommendations: It would be clear from what has been said that the hurdles to entry into the digital world are complex and admit no easy solutions. But understanding of the issues involved has progressed to a level where a systematic approach to the problems is possible. The priorities identified in the G-8 Summit are comprehensive and should be progressively tackled. However, specifically, five recommendations are proposed to accelerate assimilation of more people and countries into the Networked World:

• Recommendation - 1: Create awareness of the issues involved in good

governance and the positive role it can play in economic and social development. This could be done by creating channels for experience and information sharing, evolution of norms and standards wherever applicable and a forum for experts, academicians, business representatives and Government policy makers to meet periodically on a Regional basis. To foster Regional cooperation, a project could be launched by a body like the UN to enable experience sharing among countries in the region on preparing for the digital era. ICT (Web-sites, Bulletin Boards, data bases, etc.) should be used for this purpose, but Workshops, Conferences and Round Tables would also be needed to enable direct interaction periodically. This forum could become a mechanism to address regional issues like legal framework, norms and standards. Suitable modalities would need to be worked out for creation and maintenance of the data/information base.

• Recommendation - 2: Assistance to countries to improve connectivity,

increase access, lower cost by encouraging innovative solutions and utilising all the resources including those of the private sector. This can be done through the following by improving access facilities for: - information infrastructure and basic tele-communication infrastructure - Internet availability and affordability - Network speed and quality – bandwidth availability - Availability of hardware, software, services and support in local market - Education and training facilities - Networking of the society – incorporation of ICTs into the way things

are done in the society, economy and government and proliferation of on-line communities

- Network policy – supportive policy environment including telecommunications policy and cyber laws

- Evolution of appropriate ownership and management models of network resources

- Evolution of appropriate business models that spur the flow of private investment into the digitalization of the society and economy

- Degree of optimization of costs by full use of economies afforded by convergence of technologies – scope for cost reduction and increasing spread and reach of network access.

• Recommendation - 3: Encourage successful innovation in community and

private sector participation in integrating ICT into the economy and society and in evolving creative models of Government-private sector-NGO partnership that Technology and cost are not the only issues relevant to the digitalization of societies and economies. Encouraging and selectively funding experiments, particularly in socially useful and relevant areas like rural education, agriculture, medical services and employment, that aim to creatively optimize cost, technology, ownership and management pattern and business models in an integrated fashion is necessary to speed up diffusion of ICT globally.

• Recommendation - 4: Encourage policy advice to promote a

pro-competitive, flexible and socially inclusive policy with appropriate regulatory environment to enable a level playing field for release of full potential. This can be done through pro-competitive community environment targeting areas such as :

- Education on demand particularly in rural areas - Health for all particularly in rural areas - Environment education - Traditional knowledge dissemination and sharing - Government services - Rural employment through IT-enabled services - Community Entertainment facilities

In addition there is need to undertake special programmes to exploit the opportunities afforded by ICTs to SMEs to compete on an equal footing with MNCs on the global market place. ICTs have created a level playing field for big and small companies alike in the global market place. No longer does a company need to have a physical presence globally (which is expensive). A presence in cyberspace is good enough to provide access to global markets. Many SMEs with good, globally competitive products languish because of ignorance of how to use ICTs to plug into the global marketplace. A special programme to create the requisite awareness,

competencies and other support structures for SMEs for this purpose is highly desirable.

• Recommendation - 5: Design a suitable technical assistance programme to

harness intra-regional competencies to accelerate transition of member countries into networked societies/economies. This would address one of the weakest links in designing appropriate policies to hasten the transition to a digital economy or society is the lack of sufficient expertise within Governments to competently deal with the complex issues involved. A minimum level of competence is needed even to access and assimilate expertise available in the market. Software also throws up the question about which technology is the most appropriate technology to adopt today which will leave very long-term consequences. Assistance in making these evaluations and assessments would go a long way in helping the Government make a decision about the appropriate packages to build on. Where Governments seek technical assistance to carry the process forward, international bodies like UN could maintain panels of experts in the region who could assist efforts of national Governments in countries that do not have the expertise.

-------------- 1 President, National Association of Software Companies, India in an article in The Hindustan Times of 3rd September, 2000 2 Paper prepared by Mr. R Chandrashekar for the Regional Round Table on Information and Development 3 Study by Erik Baark and Richard Heeks of Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and University of Manchester 4 Speech by Chief Minister of Karnataka in a Conference on E-Governance in November, 1999 5 Charter adopted at the G-8 Summit in Okinawa in July 2000.

Source: http://www.mit.gov.in/ 11/2002