[WSIS CS-Plenary] World Bank sees digital divide narrowing, 25 Feb

[Martin Olivera]

I guess I understand why "World Bank sees digital
dvide narrowing"...


It is just a relativist point of view... things are
seen smaller when you are more far.


World Bank is just more and more far from the world...
(and of course more and more close to the banks :P)


 --- Gaston Zongo <gzongo at sentoo.sn> escribió: 
> Thanks. But can the core report-document  be shared?
> 
> Gaston Zongo
>   ----- Original Message ----- 
>   From: Rik Panganiban 
>   To: plenary at wsis-cs.org 
>   Sent: Friday, February 25, 2005 12:13 PM
>   Subject: [WSIS CS-Plenary] World Bank sees digital
> divide narrowing, 25 Feb
> 
> 
>   Dear friends,
> 
>   Here is an interesting article on the World Bank
> views on the WSIS.
> 
>   Rik Panganiban
> 
>   ========================================
> 
>   ABC News
>  
>
http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200502/s1310673.htm
> 
>   Last Update: Friday, February 25, 2005. 9:21am
> (AEDT)
> 
>   World Bank sees digital divide narrowing
> 
>   The World Bank has called into question a costly
> UN campaign to bring hi-tech communications to the
> developing world, saying the "digital divide"
> between rich and poor nations is narrowing fast.
> 
>   The World Bank says in a report that
> telecommunications services to poor countries are
> growing at an explosive rate.
> 
>   "People in the developing world are getting more
> access at an incredible rate - far faster than they
> got access to new technologies in the past," the
> report said.
> 
>   It says half the world's population now enjoys
> access to a fixed-line telephone and 77 per cent to
> a mobile network - surpassing a World Summit on the
> Information Society (WSIS) goal that calls for 50
> per cent access by 2015.
> 
>   The report says there were 59 million fixed-line
> or mobile phones in Africa in 2002 - contradicting
> Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade's claim last
> year that there were more telephones in Manhattan
> than in all of Africa.
> 
>   "Unless New Yorkers and their commuter friends
> have 12 phones each, Africa now has many more
> telephones than Manhattan," the World Bank report
> said.
> 
>   The UN hopes that widening access within the
> developing world to technology such as mobile phones
> and the Internet will help eradicate poverty and
> build stable democracies.
> 
>   Poorer countries, particularly from Africa, are
> expected to repeat calls in Geneva for a "Digital
> Solidarity Fund" to help finance the infrastructure
> they say is needed to close the perceived technology
> gap.
> 
>   To help fuel fierce demand for communications in
> countries which lack fixed-line alternatives, US
> mobile phone equipment maker Motorola Corp announced
> this month it planned to provide an ultra low-cost
> mobile phone for less than $US40.
> 
>   It will be aimed at emerging markets.
> 
>   About 1,700 international experts are gathering in
> Switzerland to prepare for the United Nation's World
> Summit on the Information Society (WSIS).
>   ===============================================
>   RIK PANGANIBAN Communications Coordinator
>   Conference of NGOs in Consultative Relationship
> with the United Nations (CONGO) 
>   web: http://www.ngocongo.org
>   email: rik.panganiban at ngocongo.org
>   mobile: (+1) 917-710-5524  

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