Innovation and new technologies seem to be what is really
driving the world economy. Intellectual property and technology patents are hot
commodities that certain manufacturers will pay premium prices for. They invest
in these new technologies in order to provide us with the newest, fastest tool
that will improve our lives by making everything easier (ex. communication,
document sharing, up-to-date information for stock prices). The Digital Divide
is the gap between the countries that can afford this ICT (Information and
communications technology) and those who can’t. The countries that can afford
to invest in ICT have a substantially accelerated economic and social growth
than those who can’t. This means that there are regions that can’t afford to
invest in ICT and are falling behind at a rapid pace.
The article from The Japan Times, “New digital divide
threatens economic growth”, is an opinion piece bringing statistics from the
World Economic Forum’s Global Information Technology Report 2013 and simple reasoning
together in one short article. Mr. Bilbao-Osorio talks about how certain
countries have 90% of households with a computer and Internet connection. This
leads those developed countries to having over 100 ICT patents per million
populations in these countries. Why? Because quality ICT infrastructure and a
highly skilled workforce allows for the opportunity to play with ICT developments
and make improvements upon them. He
finishes the article by stating that there is no linear correlation between a highly
skilled workforce/quality ICT and positive social/economic growths. There is,
however, a minimum investment threshold in ICT and skill development that any
country should have in order to achieve positive economic and social growth. He
states, “…once this threshold is achieved, the return on such investment in ICT
skills and infrastructure becomes disproportionately higher as the economy
transitions to higher value-added activities” (Bilbao-Osorio, 2013) .
I agree with the content of this
article. I do believe there are many countries and regions that have fallen
behind in the Digital Divide. They lack the resources to invest in a strong ICT
infrastructure. They are crawling the economic incline that more developed
countries are sprinting up. It would be detrimental for these lacking countries
to just invest incredible amounts of money into a strong ICT infrastructure
because it won’t automatically reap economic growth. They need to invest the
minimum requirement in ICT and that will slowly create a skillful labor force
and technological improvements. As the technologies available to them grow at a
steady pace, so will a skilled labor force. Then new developments can be made. The country
can then begin to be part of the global marketplace. “Innovations often come
about when a skillful labor force gets to experiment with the latest
technologies and new materials” (Bilbao-Osorio, 2013) .
Reference:
Bilbao-Osorio,
B. (2013, 5 13). New digital divide threatens economic growth.
Retrieved 5 14, 2013, from The Japan Times:
