UNCTAD 'Digital Divide Broadening Commentary' Chapter 2

The actual links to the UNCTAD Information Economy Reports are at the bottom of this entry. It should be noted that UNCTAD chose to use a document format that cannot be copied and pasted.

Chapter 2 of the UNCTAD Information Economy Report 2007-2008 is entitled 'The ICT Producing Sector And The Emerging South'.

ICT Market Overview

UNCTAD has reported a general shift from the technology-oriented products in the 1990s to more commercially oriented products. World Information Technology and Services Alliance (WITSA) has reported an 8.9% increase in ICT related spending between 2001 and 2005 - 6.8% of the global GDP. That this percentage increase is so low when compared to the ICT access use numbers are closer to 20% in Chapter 1 of the report is certainly noteworthy - this could be a partial indication of how ICT is being used.

Examples used in this section include Costa Rica and Intel. Having been to Costa Rica in 2005, I did note that the criticism of this within Costa Rica I heard of this combination was that Intel brought in its own people and only used the space there. The study within UNCTAD's report states that the Intel's contribution to the GDP is 5%, yet does not note what I had heard. It is noted, however, that Intel's effect on the economy has adverse consequences as well - the 2001 global slump in technology apparently had an adverse effect on the economy because of Intel's part of the GDP.

The 'Contact Centers' of the Philippines - service centers used for a variety of things - are noted as being in growth. Interestingly, there is a 90% growth rate associated with Contact Centers in the Philippines.

ICT in some countries has lead to substantial telecommunications growth; Brazil, Mexico, Malaysia, Chile and South Africa are mentioned in this regard. This seems more of an affirmation than an observation.

ICT Sector Value Added

India, known worldwide as a contributor to ICT, has some sobering figures in this section. In 1999, India's IT related contributions to the GDP were 1.2%. In 2006, these services contributed to 5.4% of the GDP - an almost 5% increase in effect on GDP over a 6 year period. Whether this demonstrates a growing dependence or a growing level of income (or both) is difficult to say. As noted in the first section in the context of Costa Rica and Intel, this is not always a good thing.

Sri Lanka has seen a rising need for employment in the IT sector.

Lots of charts/graphs in this section, so it is worth taking a look at.

ICT Sector Employment

There is generally a positive growth in the ICT Sector when it comes to employment, which really should be no surprise as ICT usage worldwide increases. Lots of studies, charts and graphs are here to affirm this. The global distribution of electrical and electronic services 3d-pie chart is certainly of interest, demonstrating that China employs 35% of the global manufacturing employment worldwide as of 2004.

Gender trends are also mentioned in this section. Yes, more women.

Outsourcing is mentioned, but it is pointed out that there is no reliable information related to the impact of outsourcing. Job figure decreases are seen in countries that do outsource and job figure increases are seen in countries where outsourced work is sent to - something that should be rather intuitive, but some people apparently need to have studies on that to support it...

Trade And Investment in ICT Goods and Services

Lots of charts and graphs here. Major trends are pretty well displayed here, including importation of ICT goods which does seem linked to developed nation status. I'd offer that this is a poor measure of development since locally developed goods do not seem to be taken into account separately.

China and India get special mention in this section.

International and National Environment and Policy Making

This section has some pretty common sense statements about policy, and delves into ITA.

Conclusions and Policy Recommendations

• China, India and Mexico are considered as having a 'significant impact' the 'Global South' nations ICT.
• Suggestions related to WTO ITA have been made by some countries.

UNCTAD Information Economy Report 2007-2008 Overview (373 K)
UNCTAD Information Economy Report 2007-2008 (9.61 Megabytes)