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TechnologyDaily Mobile
Bridging The Digital Divide In Africa
by Danielle Belopotosky
Nortel Networks launched an initiative Tuesday aimed at bridging the digital divide between people who have technology access in the developing world with those who do not.
Under the Connecting Communities project, Nortel plans to select a community in Africa that lacks a sufficient wire-based or wireless communications infrastructure and then deploy wireless, high-speed Internet technologies in that community. The Ontario, Canada-based company will deploy wireless broadband in an effort to give those in remote communities gain access to new markets, educational opportunities and better healthcare.
"The developing world can benefit enormously from new communications technology," Nortel CEO Bill Owens said at a press conference in London. "It has the potential to enhance lives and change the socioeconomic profile of a region."
African countries have adopted wireless communications technologies at a higher rate than fixed-line networks. Nearly 70 percent of telephone subscribers in Africa connect wirelessly, according to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), which also said mobile-phone penetration has outpaced fixed-line subscriptions in 80 percent of African countries.
Nortel also is working in Angola to deploy its wireless CDMA technology to meet the demand for data services that enable telemedicine and Internet access.
Meanwhile, the ITU is holding a training workshop this week in Banjul, Gambia. The meeting will focus on how to position universal access service under the new telecom landscape and discuss funding challenges and technical solutions for its deployment.
Elsewhere in Africa, Botswana plans to establish two colleges of applied arts and technology in an effort to promote the arts through the use of information and communications technologies. Botswana's assistant education minister, Moggie Mbaakanyi, announced Tuesday that the schools will be built in the towns of Selebi-Phikwe and Oodi. "We would like to see Botswana one day breaking into the multibillion-dollar videogames [industry]," Mbaakanyi said.
Botswana's Trade and Industry Ministry launched an independent Web site last week. Trade Minister Neo Moroka said the site is essential to attracting foreign and domestic investment, as well as boosting Botswana's competitiveness in international markets.
And in Uganda, a hotline has been established to help abused children. Launched by Uganda Telecom, the German development cooperation and the Uganda non-governmental organization network for child rights, the toll-free hotline has been created for children who need counseling or to report child abuse.
Toward Open Markets And Online Publishing
European Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson issued a call Tuesday for a greater commitment by European nations to open their markets to trade so European Union nations can fully reap the benefits of globalization.
Speaking at an annual symposium on market access in Brussels, Belgium, Mendelson said, "The European economy stands or falls on our ability to keep markets open, to open new markets and to develop new areas where Europe's inventors and entrepreneurs can trade."
He also urged EU nations to strengthen intellectual property protections, pursue more balance in public procurement policies from countries that benefit from existing policies, and work to overcome trade barriers for European exporters.
On Tuesday, meanwhile, the European Commission issued a draft document that examines challenges confronting the publishing industry as the market moves toward the digital age. The action begins a two-month comment period on how to enhance the industry's competitiveness in the growing digital economy.
As in the United States, print circulation numbers are down in Europe. While subscriptions to online media continue to grow, with 10 percent of the market share, publishers have yet to develop and integrate an online advertising distribution model, according to the paper's findings.
The working paper sets out to study the advantages of e-business in the publishing sector, including cost savings and production efficiency, as well as the trade and revenue implications for online publications. It also considers whether copyright protections ought to be extended to digital content distributed online.
"The potential loss derived from piracy should, therefore, not only be analyzed in static terms," according to the paper.
"I expect that the outcome of this consultation will give the industry, but also the EU institutions and national governments, a precise picture of the economic situation of the publishing industry and the challenges it is currently facing," Information Society and Media Commissioner Viviane Reding said in a statement.
The commission will consider comments as it prepares a media policy agenda.
Australia Addresses Labor, Wage Concerns
Australian Prime Minister John Howard addressed the state of that nation's labor force Tuesday at the Australian Financial Review Conference in Melbourne.
Even though 400,000 new jobs were created in 2004 and Australia's unemployment rate is at a 30-year low, many industries still suffer a skills shortage. "We face a major public policy challenge to make our skills-development institutions more flexible and responsive to the needs" of Australian workers, he said.
To confront that challenge, Howard has adopted a national platform to promote vocational and technical training. He said the government will establish 25 Australian technical colleges aimed at areas of skill shortages, as well as training in specialized trade areas like science, math, technology, and small-business skills. He also proposed legislation to improve wage provisions for apprenticeships.
"I want to work cooperatively with the states and territories to ensure our federal system delivers in the best interests of the nation," Howard said.
Intellectual Property Leadership In Hong Kong
A State Department official on Tuesday urged the Hong Kong business community to become a leader in intellectual property protection.
"Hong Kong has shown how IPR protection -- through new legislation, law enforcement and increased public awareness -- makes good business and economic sense," said James Cunningham, State's consul general in Hong Kong.
Speaking at the American Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong, Cunningham said that while Hong Kong's "rule of law, personal freedoms and free flow of information make it a magnet for business," he warned against it from becoming "complacent" as China emerges as an economic stronghold in the region.
Meanwhile, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has projected that China is on its way to becoming the world's largest exporter by 2010, outranking the United States and Germany. In its first economic study of China, the OECD found that the Asian nation must restructure its government policies on company law, bankruptcy and property rights to foster a healthy private-sector environment.
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