Fuente: Gulfnews
Fecha: 16 de diciembre de 2004
Autores: Saifur Rahman

Digital divide will create new kind of poverty, says Badawi

Dubai : The Arab world will suffer serious consequences if it fails to take advantage of the new global economy, a Malaysian official said yesterday.

"The digital divide is going to create a new kind of poverty. Indeed, the Arab world is in great danger of falling further behind, if it does not allocate greater priority and resources to its education needs," said Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, Malaysia's Prime Minister.

"Today, information and communication technology [ICT] is the enabling tool for further growth. If you do not create sufficient human capital base to use ICT for growth, you are bound to lag behind," he said.

"Either adopt ICT and utilise it for growth, or be prepared to lag behind. Before long, you will realise, those who lagged behind you once, have left you behind."

He said the Arab world today faces many economic, social, political and security challenges.

"Economically, the Arab nations rank poorly in terms of overall competitiveness; only six out of 22 Arab countries appearing in the 2004 World Economic Forum report ranked within the top 20.

"This is an astonishing fact, considering that two-thirds of the world's oil supply a major source of economic wealth comes from this region," he said.

He said that because the region has been blessed with natural resources, it has concentrated only on a very narrow-based economy, focused on oil or tourism.

"The main economic focus is on selling oil and gas resources, and these may not last for very much longer unless immediate and effective measures are taken to address the situation," he said.

"The economic foundations of Arab society and civilisation will be gravely threatened once resources are depleted or as alternative forms of energy are explored and developed," he said.

"What were once considered the prime engines of growth and wealth creation are, to a large extent, no longer so," he said.

"The richest people in the world were once those who owned commodities like land, oil or capital. Today, the richest persons in the world are those who own systems, processes and technology.

"This shift in the drivers of growth and wealth creation from commodities to knowledge has profound implications for the economic and commercial strategies of all nations."

The importance of knowledge as a vital asset to the political, economic and social wellbeing of a nation is now well-documented, he said.

"At present, more than 50 per cent of the GDP in major OECD economies is based on the production and distribution of knowledge," he said.

"During the period 1960 to 1985, the Arab region surpassed all other regions except East Asia in terms of income growth. There was massive foreign investment, infrastructure development and expansion of education and health facilities.

"Poverty rates were reduced to the lowest levels in the world. The Arab world therefore achieved remarkable progress in the human development during this period," he said.

"The price of oil reached unprecedented heights, and functioned as the primary engine of growth and human development. This growth, however, could no longer be sustained.

"Oil prices began to fall, and together with other factors led to the decline of productivity and growth in the region.

"The Arab economies could no longer be commodity-driven.

"Further sustainable growth could only be possible through major economic and social reforms, and central to them was the need to seek new engines of growth," he said.

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-Bernama, 12 de enero de 2005. "ICT Literacy Will Be As Essential As Print Literacy Now, Says Hishammuddin".