The development of an infrastructure for information and communications technology (ICT) must be a top priority for developing and emerging economies, says the World Information Technology and Services Alliance (WITSA).
WITSA Chairman Dato' Dan E. Khoo told an audience of world ICT leaders, senior government officials and policy makers that ICT can only drive an economy and enable its industries and society provided there is an infrastructure with broadband capacity in place.
Otherwise, developing countries could lose out on the business opportunities and socio-economic benefits of ICT.
"Putting in place a comprehensive ICT infrastructure must be ranked highly among national development priorities in the developing and emerging worlds," said Khoo during his speech at the opening ceremony of the Global Public Policy Summit (GPPS 2009) held here.
With this in mind, he urged the audience to exert their influence with their respective governments about the benefits of building out the ICT infrastructure through pro-competitive market policies and sound investments.
A signature event of WITSA, GPPS brings together prominent executives and policy makers for the purpose of examining policies that affect the global development and adoption of ICT.
Khoo stressed that long-term solutions for economic growth lay in the development and adoption of ICT, which he added could drive an economy towards transformative growth, enhance industry efficiency and output, as well as offer society greater access to opportunities for improving their quality of life, including knowledge and skills acquisition.
He said: "As an industry, ICT has the potential to build lucrative businesses and create new jobs. It is essential to the development of a knowledge economy that offers value-added products and services to the world."
"As an enabler of other industries, ICT can raise productivity and efficiency in all economic sectors. Industries that leverage ICT tend to achieve much higher growth rates than those that don't."
"It also transforms our lives for the better through such ways as extending accessibility to education, revolutionizing community networking, enhancing healthcare services, improving public safety, extending opportunity distribution, promoting culture and leisure and other components of the quality of life."
ICT, he said, is also the key to capitalizing on short-term opportunities arising from arbitrage and medium-term opportunities via aggregation and the reduction of imbalances.
About WITSA
Founded in 1978, the World Information Technology and Services Alliance (WITSA) is a leading consortium of ICT industry association members from nearly 70 economies around the world. WITSA's members represent more than 90 percent of the world ICT market.
As the leading recognized voice of the global ICT Industry, WITSA aims to drive transformation and grow the industry. WITSA believes ICT is the key driving force to enable governments, businesses and societies for global development and economic growth.
WITSA is dedicated to the following:
- Advocating international public policies that advances the industry's growth and development;
- Facilitating international trade and investment of ICT products and services through our global network of contacts;
- Promoting industry cooperation and strengthen our national associations through the sharing of knowledge, experience, and critical information;
- Publishing global ICT research through WITSA Digital Planet;
- Awarding signature events, World Congress on Information Technology (WCIT) and Global Public Policy Summit (GPPS) to different host countries around the world; and
- Organizing and hosting the Global ICT Excellence Awards to recognize the most outstanding ICT users.
For more information on WITSA, please visit
www.witsa.org.Source: WITSA
Contact: WITSA
Gary Chiew
gary@witsa.org
Tel: +603-8320 1898
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