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Opening Trade Doors To Russia
by William New
President Bush this week elevated the accession of Russia to the World Trade Organization as a priority following a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Bush stopped well short of putting the accession efforts on a timeline but vowed to push Congress to drop a requirement that U.S. lawmakers hold an annual vote on normal trade relations with Russia.
The economic ties between the two nations "will expand significantly as Russia opens to the world economy and qualifies for membership in the World Trade Organization," Bush said. "I assured the president that I will continue to work with Congress and [am] firmly committed to remove Russia from the provisions of the Jackson-Vanik amendment." That amendment to the 1974 Trade Act requires the annual vote on trade relations for certain countries.
Putin did not mention WTO accession or the U.S. congressional vote but highlighted the importance of an economic basis for political dialogue and cooperation between the United States and Russia, as well as the establishment of an "appropriate" investment climate. For both leaders, trade took a back seat to security and foreign policy issues.
Before the summit, the Russian-American Business Council delivered a report on progress in improving conditions for bilateral trade. The report urges the U.S. and Russian leaders to provide "still stronger political backing of the fast-growing bilateral business cooperation between the two private sectors."
It also urges congressional elimination of the Jackson-Vanik provision and for progress in areas such as intellectual property rights, export duties, investment policies, e-commerce and high-technology and visas.
An Investment In Research And Education
A committee of the Higher Education Funding Council for England announced that it is investing about $6 million in an initiative to put the nation's research and education network into a consortium on an international, ultra-high-bandwidth optical network. The U.K. network, known as JANET, currently connects more than 700 organizations, such as all U.K. universities and colleges, and involves hundreds of thousands of computers.
Under the initiative, Britain will join the United States, Canada, the Netherlands, Switzerland and the Nordic countries. The transition to the advanced optical network will "radically transform the landscape of the information economy," the council said in a statement.
In other U.K. news, a backlash has erupted in the United Kingdom against the transfer of "back office" communications jobs to India, an increasingly popular practice of the telecommunications industry. The draw is India's low labor costs and highly skilled workforce.
The British Communications Workers Union has threatened to strike if the dominant U.K. telecom company BT Group proceeds with the creation of a customer-service call center in India, BBC News reports. BT has said that no U.K. jobs would be lost to the center, but the union estimated a loss of as many as 200,000 jobs over the next five to 10 years.
In New Zealand, meanwhile, experts from the U.S. National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC) filed comments with the New Zealand Commerce Commission on "unbundling" the local telecommunications network. The paper argues that unbundling telecom services reduces inefficiencies and increases competition, but it also outlines barriers to outside competitors entering the nation's local telecom market.
First Commercial European 'Blog' Launched
Three former dot-commers last week announced the launch of Europe's first commercial service for Web loggers, or "bloggers," Reuters reports.
Blogs are online forums for unfiltered news and opinion written by journalists and others. They have become more popular -- especially since the war against Iraq, during which one blog presumably created by an Iraqi citizen sparked lots of interest -- and are attracting entrepreneurs.
The new European venture, called 20Six, went live last week in Britain Germany, France and the Netherlands. It will charge users for services such as Web-site hosting and extra memory for large blogs. The company is seeking to sign contracts with mobile-phone operators to allow users to send messages directly to Web sites.
In other European news, Mihaly Jambrik, Hungary's minister of informatics and communications, last week launched a technology center in Tyson's Corner, Va. The center is aimed at helping increase Hungarian exports of products and services with a high knowledge content developed by small and medium-sized companies. A key role will be to find business contacts in the United States.
Tech Focus In Africa Intensifies
An initiative of Canada's International Development Research Center has announced its first research and development grants for information and communications technology in 2003-2004. The grants are available to institutions in developing regions of Africa.
The main objective of the grants is to promote the tech research environment in Africa. The program of the Acacia Initiative hopes to build research capacities and accelerate the use of technologies for development in the region. It is aimed at encouraging original and innovative solutions to development problems, and at building a body of knowledge on the impact of technologies on the development of African communities, Acacia said.
The deadline for proposals is Sept. 1, with the awards to be announced by December.
Separately, the Social Science Research Council has posted two new papers addressing information technology issues in the developing world. One paper looks at "open source" software -- for which the code can be manipulated freely -- in developing countries. The other examines the use of information and communications technology in Congo.
A group in Africa, meanwhile, is increasing its efforts to boost the adoption of open-source software in that region. Experts from the Free Software and Open Source Foundation for Africa (FOSSFA) have been invited to participate in and present papers at various global events, the group said.
Leading Economist Discusses Arab Initiatives
World Economic Forum founder and President Klaus Schwab this week spoke on the Arab-language television channel Al-Jazeera and told of hopes for forum initiatives, including one to bring technology into the classrooms of Jordan.
Schwab touted the forum's annual meeting, which is being held in Jordan, and the positive impact it could have on the region. He said the potential of the Arab world is shown by the fact that it represents 7.5 percent of the world's population while only contributing 2.5 percent of global economic production.
Korean Online Music Operators To Charge Fees
Many of the biggest online music sites in South Korea have decided to begin charging fees for streaming music in July. The move is considered a turning point for an industry that has been unable to resolve a dispute over copyrights for digital music, the Korean Herald reports.
The Korean Association of Phonogram Producers and nine online music providers agreed to begin collection of full payment for content services. Until now, streaming Web sites have been labeled by the recording industry as "illegal operators."
The country's largest music site, Bugs Music, declined to join the group, arguing that the choice to introduce a paid-content service should be left to each operator. But Bugs, with about 50 percent of the Korean market, said it plans to introduce fees eventually.
Korea is a world leader in high-speed Internet networks, with more than 10 million subscribers connected to always-on broadband networks.
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