Previous Page  64 / 208 Next Page
Information
Show Menu
Previous Page 64 / 208 Next Page
Page Background

could decide – before walking long hours into the market –

whether the daily price was worth the long walk.

Information plays an important role in business and economic

development as the source of knowledge, education and human

capital. The availability of better information helps to improve

education and health services, and provides knowledge, ideas

and opportunities. Thus it contributes to national productivity.

The efficiency of household activities increases with telecommu-

nications by enabling easy access to services like healthcare,

education and financial services.

But this easy access to telecommunications services should be

affordable to many ordinary people. Such affordability is a chal-

lenge in LDCs, one that must be tackled. Governments and

telecoms service providers have a duty to make access to ICT a

practical reality, not just a policy of universal access written in

government policies, statutory documents and companies’

annual reports. Universal access means that telecoms and ICT

services should be available and affordable to most people in

society at a reasonable distance from where these people live.

In the context of its numerous business activities with African

fixed and mobile operators, Belgacom International Carrier

Services responded positively to a request from the Social

Foundation of one of its African customers by donating 30

computers. These computers will be distributed to schools in

Senegal for the purpose of helping children to have access to the

many possibilities offered by ICT.

Telecommunications as a medium for transportation of

information

Telecommunication contributes to positive economic, social and

cultural development by facilitating the efficient transfer of infor-

mation. In the information age, the access to ICT through

telecoms is not simply a major factor in socioeconomic develop-

ment. Its absence could become an even greater constraint on

national development than in the past.

Malaysians, for example, use the Multimedia Super Corridor

(MSC) to develop the social lives of people and for the economic

development of their country through telemedicine, electronic

government, technological research and other kinds of develop-

ment. The primary means by which telecommunication services

can promote economic development is by serving as a medium

that facilitates the acquisition and transportation of information

in cost-effective ways while minimizing the obstacles of distance

and time. The Internet will make the world a global village by

interconnecting countries.

Through its quality SMS transit product, Belgacom International

Carrier Services has facilitated the exchange of international SMS

between African people in their home country and their relatives

in other countries. Such improved communication flow has defin-

itively strengthened again the link between dispersed relatives.

Direct and indirect effects of telecommunications on

economic development

Diffusion of new ideas and knowledge

– The importance of new

knowledge and new ideas as key elements for stimulating growth

is widely accepted. The source of knowledge and new ideas can

be domestic or global. If knowledge is local, telecommunications

technology can be used to globalize that local knowledge. This

process is known as localization: making a local idea global. Where

information or an idea is made known in various countries (and

usually adopted in those countries), this process is known as glob-

alization. ICT, then, makes both localization and globalization

possible. Modern telecommunications provide a cost-effective and

time-efficient medium for accessing the rapid development of ICT.

Reduction of the regional infrastructure and development gap

– The

telecommunications infrastructure gap existing today between

rural and urban areas gives rise to an information gap. This digital

divide threatens the economic power of rural areas. Increased

availability of telecommunication services can help to improve

[

] 64