|
He told the Global Information Infrastructure Commission (GIIC), which met in Dublin, that there had to be a "level playing field" if poor countries were to benefit.
The GIIC is a non-profit organisation made up of major technology executives dedicated to fostering policies and understanding of issues that encourage or hinder the development and proliferation of the information infrastructure.
The Annual World Forum of the GIIC made a number of recommendations following its meeting in Dublin, which were as follows: Business and government leaders need to develop local solutions to the digital divide. New public and private partnerships need to be formed to address a country's strategic plans to close the gap. New education reforms and e-government applications must be stressed to speed up modernisation in developing countries. New funding mechanisms, focussed on countries prepared to make real change, are needed to create technology infrastructure funding programmes. Finally, new forms of global governance are needed to quicken the pace of closing the digital divide.
Opening the meeting, Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern said the private sector has driven the digital revolution in the richer countries, and has a role to play in driving a similar process elsewhere.
"So I believe that governments need to find new ways of working through public/private sector partnerships," he stated.
He added, "If the world's poorest countries are to use trade and investment to overcome poverty and under-development, they need a level playing field. Access to information and communications technology is also vital."
W. Bowman Cutter, executive director of the GIIC and managing partner of Warburg Pincus, said focusing on global solutions to the digital divide will be insufficient to yield short-term positive results in developing countries.
What were needed were unique solutions in each region and each country. Local governments needed to focus on education reforms and create positive investment incentives in technology infrastructure, according to Cutter.
GIIC Americas co-chair, H. Brian Thompson, said government and business leaders needed to study the factors that lead the Irish government to promote infrastructure investment.
Highlighting changes to education policies and tax incentives in Ireland, he said these were the sort of actions that have the best chance for closing the digital divide in other developing economies.
|
