South Asian Subregional Economic Cooperation

ICT for Development - an e-Resource

ICT holds great potential for developing countries to achieve leapfrog development. This site has been designed for access by policy makers and practitioners who are interested in the wide range of issues that are vital to the use of ICT for development. The site is divided into sections that deal with different aspects that are key to achieving success in this area.

ICT Strategies
Telecommunications
Plug and Play infrastructure like IT Parks
Assisting businesses

e-Education
e-Health
e-Government

ICT Strategies

Here are examples of ICT strategies and policies adopted by different countries and states.

European Union Policies on the Information Society
The site presents the common approaches that need to be adopted by member countries for deploying new technologies to establish an information society. The site has documents dealing with legal issues, telecommunication policies and networks, standards, electronic commerce and data protection.
Hong Kong Information Technology Strategy
Presents an updated strategy for driving Hong Kong's development as a leading digital city in the globally connected world.
Indian state level ICT policies
Several Indian states have developed ICT policies. This site provides links to them.
Singapore IT 2000 Vision of an Intelligent Island
The IT Vision 2000 Plan formulated in August 1991 was one of the first plans on the pervasive use of ICT for better business performance and quality of life.
The United Kingdom's online strategy
Explains the UK government's online strategy to lead the knowledge economy revolution.

Telecommunications

International Telecommunication Union (ITU)
The ITU coordinates global telecom network and services. The ITU site features policy issues and standards relating to the telecommunication sector.
Convergence Issues
- European Commission green paper on convergence
  Deals with the emergence and far reaching implications of convergence in telecommunications, media and ICT sectors, and stresses the need for providing a coordinated approach towards an Information Society.
- United Kingdom green paper on 'Regulating communications: Approaching convergence in the Information Age'
  Lays down the UK Government's approach to regulatory issues that arise from convergence of information technologies.

Plug and Play infrastructure

Governments have facilitated the establishment of 'Plug and Play' infrastructure that enables companies to locate and rapidly commence their operations. 'Plug and Play' elements include for example, physical space, broadband connectivity and reliable power. New models of public-private partnerships have emerged in the provision of such infrastructure.

Here are some examples.

Assisting businesses

Here are some examples of policies, programmes and incentives for assisting businesses.

e-Education

Country initiatives

Increasing global connectivity is opening up new possibilities for delivering education over networks. Some countries are providing educational content on the web.

Virtual Universities

Virtual university initiatives will become increasingly important as global connectivity improves and telecommunication costs come down. Examples of virtual universities are:

Other initiatives

e-Health

Telemedicine

Telemedicine holds the potential to provide better health services to people in remote areas.

Health Information

These sites provide health information useful to medical professionals and the public at large.

e-Government

e-Government projects are making government information and services available over networks. Many governments have begun building web-enabled front ends for their existing activities. A number of requirements like political will, regulatory frameworks and management structures are critical for achieving success in e-government.

The ADB web site provides links to external sites that are not under its control. ADB is not responsible for the content of these sites.

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