Developing Nations Seek to Reduce Digital Divide

By an IPS Correspondent Reprint | | Print |

UNITED NATIONS, May 18 2017 - As the international community takes rapid strides in the world of high technology, there is a growing “digital divide” between developed and developing countries.

As a result, the ability of developing countries to sustain healthy levels of sustainable growth has been affected by the lack of adequate technology infrastructure.

Speaking on behalf of the Group of 77, joined by China, a delegate from Ecuador underlined the importance of promoting the development and use of information and communications technologies (ICTs) in strengthening infrastructure, as well as capacity building.

This, in effect, includes rapid universal and affordable access to the Internet, the G77 delegate told the General Assembly’s High-Level meeting on Innovation and Connectivity.

He pointed out that the spread of information and communications technology and global interconnectedness has great potential to accelerate human progress, to bridge the digital divide, and to develop knowledge societies, as scientific and technological innovation does across areas as diverse as medicine and energy.

However, inequality on innovative capacity, connectivity and access to technology, including information and communications technology, are prevailing conditions within and among countries, he noted.

Unless there are concrete mechanisms for the transfer and diffusion of technology, one of the most transformative means to implement sustainable development, “we will never achieve the full implementation of the Addis Ababa Action Agenda and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development,” he warned.

The Group of 77, joined by China, renewed its commitment to work in a constructive manner in the field of ICTs.

“Let’s take this occasion to exchange views and suggest concrete actions to reduce the digital gap for the benefit of all,” he declared.