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Grameen Generates New Technology Markets
By William New
At least one international nonprofit organization is demonstrating to the world how to dramatically increase the number of Internet users in the world. Grameen Foundation USA, in collaboration with its partners in Bangladesh and elsewhere, is bringing the rural poor online by combining microcredit infrastructure with current technology, particularly wireless technologies.
On Monday, the foundation announced the new Grameen Technology Center, established with support from the Craig and Susan McCaw Foundation. The center will develop programs and form partnerships to provide useful technology to the poor in Bangladesh, as well as replicate the program in other parts of the world.
The center has ambitious goals for the first five years. It aims to use wireless technology to create management information systems in an effort to cut paperwork by 50 percent for microcredit loan officers. Grameen alone has 8,000 such loan officers. Its global network includes more than 100 microcredit programs in 40 countries.
The center also hopes to see the systems adopted by at least 10 microcredit programs serving some 4 million families living in poverty. Grameen also will try to replicate a prototype of its digital services project in rural Bangladesh and establish the project in at least 500 villages. These projects would be owned and profitably operated by the poor, the group says.
Grameen plans to facilitate the adoption of the digital services project in at least five other developing countries and establish, with joint venture partners and financing, at least three projects on the scale of its existing mobile-phone project in developing countries other than Bangladesh.
A Vision Of Helpfulness
The Grameen Foundation is part of a network, including Grameen Bank, created in 1976 by professor Muhammad Yunus. The bank has grown to provide collateral-free loans to more than 2.3 million borrowers in Bangladesh, 94 percent of them women. Some 70 percent have lifted themselves out of poverty since joining the program.
The GrameenPhone project provides mobile phones to micro-businesses in rural Bangladesh, allowing them to make small payments over time. GrameenPhone has established a wireless telephone network using Global System Mobile (GSM) technology that will be nationwide in scope, reaching an estimated 500,000 subscribers by 2006.
Another affiliate, Grameen Cybernet, already is the largest Internet service provider in Bangladesh. Grameen is establishing relationships with a number of technology-based companies, including Telenor, Microsoft, Siemens and Hewlett-Packard.
Smart Cards For The Poor
The Grameen organization also works outside Bangladesh. An institution in India called Swayam Krishi Sangam is using a Grameen Bank methodology to help one of the country's most destitute regions. Under the smart-card project, each loan officer will have a handheld terminal that will download information from branch offices, eliminating the need for handwritten paperwork.
Each borrower will have a smart card that electronically holds member information and a record of transactions. At weekly meetings, client smart cards will be inserted in the terminal and transactions will be updated in both the card and the terminal. The loan officer later will upload the information to the branch computer. The institution projects reduced operating costs to each branch by 18 percent, or $5,000 per year, Grameen said.
India To Push Neutral Technology
Meanwhile, a committee of representatives from government, industry and police in India this week came to the conclusion that regulations governing the Indian Information Technology Act should be technology neutral.
The so-called Cyber Regulatory Advisory Committee on Sunday finalized the regulations governing the rules of the IT Act, the Indian Financial Express reported. The committee also agreed to make sure subscribers' interests was paramount.
European Council Nears Copyright Approval
The European Council is heading to agreement on the amended version of the copyright directive passed by Parliament, according to a private-sector source in Brussels.
The council, which represents the 15 European Union member-states, could reach agreement in the next few weeks, possibly on March 29. The directive then would have to be translated into the 11 EU languages, the source said.
EU Calls For Proposals On Electronic Content
The European Union has issued a call for proposals on the various components of its "eContent" program that aims to get more European digital content on global networks.
The program, launched last year, has three themes. First, it seeks to improve access to and expand the use of public-sector information. Second, it aims to enhance content production in a multilingual and multicultural environment. The third aspect is increasing the "dynamic" of the digital content market by bringing digital content markets and capital markets together and disseminating results.
Proposals for demonstration projects are due by June 15, while proposals on the separate phases will be accepted on a rolling basis until December 2002.
European Telecoms Urge Hands-Off Approach
Heading into this week's EU summit in Stockholm, Sweden, an association of the 44 largest telecommunications companies called on the 15 EU governments to lay off the regulations and harmonize their telecom regimes.
In a Tuesday statement, the European Public Telecommunications Network Operators' Association (ETNO) said it backs the European Commission's e-Europe initiative but identified several risks in the implementation of it. ETNO said competition could be hurt by commission proposals such as its draft framework directive and its directive on access and interconnection, which the group fears could lead to too much regulation of existing technologies and deterrence of future investment.
ETNO also called for safeguards against arbitrary decisions by national governments if the European Commission is not given veto power to back the harmonized European approach. The group also seeks limited government interference in the market and the use of adequate security technology to protect e-government services.
Canada May Get Tough On Cyber Stalkers
Legislation introduced in the Canadian Parliament last week would place severe prison sentences on cyber stalkers who lure children and access child pornography through the Internet, according to the Ottawa Citizen. The provision is included in a larger bill to make changes in the country's criminal code.
In other Canadian high-tech news, Alberta's lower personal and business taxes are leading tech firms to locate there in what amounts to a boom, the Financial Post reported. The western province's high-tech industry, which includes a large Nortel facility, now employs nearly 90,000 workers. The information stems from an Alberta technology report created by Ernst and Young, and Ipsos Reid.
However, a quarter of respondents to a survey cited a lack of government support for technology companies in Alberta compared with other provinces.
Group Targets Worker Shortage In Asia-Pacific Region
The telecommunications and information working group of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) made several decisions in its meeting in Canberra, Australia, last week. Among other things, the group agreed to establish targeted training projects using new technologies aimed at the IT skills shortage in the Asia-Pacific region.
The working group also recommended that APEC, which includes the United States, adopt "strategies to overcome problems of access and affordability for their respective populations," according to a release from the event. The member countries agreed to encourage moves to improve network access, especially in underserved urban, rural and remote areas.
The group also called for measures to promote small business use of electronic commerce.
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