Whats wrong with the way governments and organizations like the World Bank are tackling the technology gap?
One problem is that technology is always seen as a separate entity, disconnected from things like environment and infrastructure. It should cut through all lending programs. For example, the biggest cost of telecommunications is laying down fiber-optic lines. When governments or the World Bank finance road building and start digging ditches, why don’t they fill them with fiber-optic lines at the same time? They don’t because they are hampered by their internal structure and bureaucracy. Don’t Third World countries have more urgent problems to deal with, like disease and poverty? We’ve become a global knowledge economy, no matter what sector you talk about. Factories in the Dominican Republic are competing with factories in Mauritius. You visit the most successful yet humble garment manufacturer in Mauritius and they’re wired to the Internet because they need to tell buyers when the shipment is leaving. Those who don’t adopt the technology are going to fall further and further behind. T
