IfG.CC -
Institute for eGovernment

Denmark, like most nations, has been affected by the financial crisis in recent years. Many years of growth have levelled out, while unemployment has increased and public finances have worsened. However, there are signs of improvement on the road ahead. In the wake of the financial crisis, the Danish government laid a new foundation in February 2010, focusing on renewed growth, with research, innovation and digitalisation playing a key role.

As part of the growth strategy, our research and innovation policies must respond to some serious underlying trends – declining growth rates, changing demographics and tougher global competition.

Insoweit sei es zu begrüßen, dass das Bundesverbraucherschutzministerium für das kommende Jahr 10 Millionen Euro an zusätzlichen Mitteln für die Breitbandförderung vorsehe. Die Mittel sollen durch die Gemeinschaftsaufgabe "Verbesserung der Agrarstruktur und des Küstenschutzes" (GAK) zur Verfügung gestellt werden. "Es ist gut, dass das Ministerium die Bedeutung des schnellen Internet erkannt hat. Es gehört zur Gleichwertigkeit von Lebensbedingungen, dass jeder Bürger und jedes Unternehmen Zugang zu schnellen Datenverbindungen hat", stellte Landsberg fest.

Wichtig ist, die Ländlichen Räume Ressort übergreifend als entscheidenden Wirtschaftsfaktor zu erkennen. "Dabei darf es aber nicht bleiben. Jetzt muss das Konzept umgesetzt und die nötigen Fördermittel, z.B. für den Breitausbau, bereitgestellt werden" sagte das Geschäftsführende Präsidialmitglied des DStGB, Dr. Gerd Landsberg, gestern (7. Mai 2009) in Berlin.

„Eine moderne Kommunikationsinfrastruktur, zu der auch eine breitbandige Internetverbindung zählt, ist für Städte und Gemeinden im ländlichen Raum ein wichtiger Standortfaktor. Das gilt für Bildung, Gesundheit und Arbeit gleichermaßen. Die Zukunft der Kommunen hängt ganz wesentlich davon ab, ob es gelingt, auch jedes Dorf und jeden Ortsteil an das Netz anzuschließen. Breitband ist die „Straße des 21. Jahrhunderts“ und genauso wichtig wie Wasser und Strom“, stellte Schramm fest. Er appellierte an Bund, Länder und die Anbieter von Infrastrukturleistungen weiterhin dazu beizutragen, die bislang aus wirtschaftlichen oder technischen Gründen unversorgten Gebiete in ländlichen Regionen an das schnelle Datennetz anzuschließen. Es gelte kommunikationstechnische Chancengleichheit zu schaffen. Ein generelles Kommunikationsinfrastrukturgefälle zwischen Ballungsräumen und ländlichen Gebieten sei nicht hinnehmbar.

The early signs of this development were already visible a couple of years ago when the economic crisis hit Spain and much of its young hi-tech talent was recruited by companies in Germany, as there was already a skills shortage here for jobs in companies which wanted to move into the digital economy.

Information and communication technologies (ICT) can be used as a strategic lever for socioeconomic development and as a competitive tool in an increasingly global and deregulated market.

The Awami League led ruling government had pledged to turn the country as a Digital Bangladesh during there election campaign in last year. ICT is the main tool of the government to fulfill their commitment of changing the old days and bringing new in that place. They have lots of opportunities to do in this field.

We achieved our independence through a war of liberation after a long stretch of movements and struggle in order to realize that dream.

Half of that dream has now materialized, but our struggle for freedom or economic emancipation is yet to be crowned with success.

The universal role of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is vital for socio-economic development of a developing country like Bangladesh. Availability of information helps increase productivity, ensures fair and competitive market and empowers marginal people. Digital technology makes doing things easily from any place -- using mobile phone as a medium of money transfer and payment of utility bills, for example.

Many government organisations boast success stories of automating internal processes such as human resource management and payroll processing, inventory management system, library management system, among several others.

Millions of dollars of hardware was procured to set up server rooms, some of them state-of-the-art rivalling those in developed countries. Software has also added to the ICT arsenal used for automating our government business processes.

The implementation plan has broken down the strategy in the Digital Britain final report into smaller projects and has set targets for each and identified who is responsible for leading them.

The current economic climate has made it increasingly clear just why a comprehensive plan to create a “digital Britain” is needed.

If we want to shorten the downturn and emerge stronger into the upturn, it is imperative that we cultivate the digital and communications industries, where there is a strong growth story and substantial opportunities to create revenue and jobs.

When Mrinalini Kaura, the principal of Venkateshwar International School (VIS) in Dwarka, New Delhi, heard of this concept, she did not think twice before digitising 45 classrooms. Barely a few months into revamping the classrooms, Kaura was so impressed with the results that she plans to implement it in the remaining 23 classes of her school.

Kaura says she sees digital classrooms as the way ahead for all schools because it makes both teaching and learning simple: Better assessment system, real-time paper evaluation and abstract concepts made easy to understand.

While addressing the joint session of Parliament and laying out the Narendra Modi government’s plan for the next five years, Mukherjee said:”E-governance brings empowerment, equity and efficiency. The backbone of my government’s new ways of working will be a Digital India…We will strive to provide Wi-Fi zones in critical public areas in the next five years.”

Considering the mobile phone surge in India, which boasts around 8-9 percent GDP growth, the performance of the broadband segment is dismal. Despite the known benefits of broadband, India had just 10.29 million broadband connections in the country at the end of September 2010. The main broadband growth is still coming from urban areas and the rural population is a neglected one.

The Indian broadband revolution has a history of more than six years. The revolution started following the announcement of a broadband policy in 2004 by the telecom regulator TRAI (Telecom Regulatory Authority of India). The Broadband Policy 2004 set a target of 20 million broadband subscribers by 2010. Thanks to our lack of focus, the country missed its 2010 target.