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Connecting Developing Countries to the Information Technology Revolution

1996; Johns Hopkins University Press; Volume: 16; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1353/sais.1996.0019

1946-4444

Jean-François Rischard,

ICT Impact and Policies

Connecting Developing Countries to the Information Technology Revolution Jean-François Rischard (bio) The revolution in communication and information technologies, and the new economy that it is helping to unleash, is a double-edged sword for developing countries. New low-cost technologies offer developing countries unprecedented opportunities for rapid development, yet these technologies also raise the threshold of competitiveness. What is Happening Out There? The world has been hit by a wave of innovations, the likes of which occur, according to some observers, only once every three generations. Centered around telecommunications and informatics, these innovations are producing a real information technology revolution which is, in turn, setting off side revolutions wherever applications of these technologies have been developed and implemented. Industries transformed by these innovative technologies and their applications include biotechnology, robotics, miniature motors, software production, and high performance materials. Even the relatively more mundane field of transport has been revolutionized by the new containers, hub airports, and overnight shipping systems, made possible by the information technology revolution. [End Page 93] The on-going development and improvement of technologies indicates that the information technology revolution is still young. The following points support this idea that there is much yet to come: • Over the next 20 years, the cost of telecommunications may well drop to the point that it will become a virtually free commodity. In a recent study sponsored by the World Bank, the cost assumption for 2010 was on the order of 3 cents for a one hour transatlantic call. It is not implausible that by 2000, the cost of voice traffic through submarine cable links will already have dropped to one percent of its 1987 cost. • New data compression techniques and smart combinations of fiber and wireless communications will practically eliminate bandwidth constraints, and will knock connection costs down to a few dollars per station in about a decade. • A full transition to digitalization is still years away, but when it happens, and when near-universal networks serve the planet some 20 years from now, there will be a convergence of the telecommunication, computer, and media industries into what some have aptly called the “bits industry.” People in their homes will have the world at their fingertips on flat screens. As someone said, it will no longer be “Big Brother is watching you,” but “Big Brother is you, watching.” While the information revolution is still in its infancy, two features clearly indicate its future potency: First, whereas the industrial revolution transformed our understanding of human capacity in relation to energy and matter, the information technology revolution is transforming our understanding of human capacity in relation to time and distance. Second, the faster and more pervasive flow of information across the planet suggests that knowledge and information are destined to constitute a more important production factor than labor, raw materials, or capital. [End Page 94] These two features of the technological revolution are already visibly revolutionizing business practices and they promise a less visible, but still crucial, social revolution in the future. The Visible Revolution in Worldwide Business Practices The following five examples illustrate the impact of information technology on business: Accelerated, leaner, more standardized business processes: Just-in-time (JIT) production processes are spreading everywhere. Companies such as Toyota base all their operations on this principle, saving billions of dollars. Countries like Singapore essentially run their whole economy on a JIT basis. The Benetton company uses a combination of last-minute dyeing techniques combined with ultra-rapid communications to bring down its restocking time to less than two weeks— speeds unheard of even five years ago. Johnson Electric Holdings, in Hong Kong, can produce a new micromotor prototype ready for production just six weeks after getting the specs, and uses teleconferencing to keep the client informed throughout the process. Increasingly complex transnational business alliances: A Singapore firm uses Taiwanese capital to produce telephone sets in China for the US market, using Israeli technology. Such “value chains,” involving four to five countries or more, have become common, along with all manner of cross-border strategic alliances between firms. The number of such alliances has, in fact, tripled since 1990. Hypercompetitive purchasing worldwide: US department stores now purchase cotton shorts...