Can ICT Promote Sustainable Development?

Presented by Wang Qiming

Director of Information Networking Division
Administrative Centre for China’s Agenda 21
Ministry of Science and Technology of China

Mr. Chairman, Distinguished Guests,

Nowadays, it is apparent that most developing countries are facing the challenge of
the “Digital Divide”. This is demonstrated by the data released by the OECD up to 2000,
the end of 20th Century; the gap between developed and developing nations is widening due
to a very simple factor, that is, the connectivity to Internet. Why has this caused such
disparity? If we ask ourselves the deep reason for the gap, the answer can probably be
attributed to the difference of development. To most developing countries, although it has
been over 300 years, industrialization is still the pursued goal. In our belief, therefore,
development is imperative.

We are behind developed countries in development. Is there any way that we can
achieve a “leapfrog” development to catch up with world prosperity? Or is there any
approach that we can choose to speed up our development without causing adverse impacts
to our social and environmental coherence? Over the past 20 years, China has
successfully achieved rapid economic growth by attaining the goal of quadrupling its GDP
from the level in 1980. However, the first leap in China’s modernization caused the
problems of environmental pollution and land degradation. We have learnt from our own
development experience that such progress can no longer be conventional with the focus
only on economic targets. To reach the goal of harmonious economic, societal and
environmental advancement, development must be managed by a comprehensive approach.
This is called sustainable development.

Sustainable development, however, is a complex matter. Let me give you an analogy.

In ancient China, there used to be a group of doctors traveling all over the place, providing
medical treatment for the poor. They held a simple belief that one who has pain in the head
needs to receive treatment in the head, while another who has pain the foot needs to receive
treatment in the foot. Later, they realized that headaches might, in fact, be caused by the
ailments of other organs, such that one might receive acupuncture on the foot for the
treatment of a headache.

China’s environmental problems, we believe, are associated with development itself.

For many years, in pursuing the goal of development, China adopted a largely quantitative
rather than qualitative approach. It was seen as virtually impossible to improve the living
standards of our people without a strong economy and advanced science and technology.
Unfortunately, we have learnt the hard way that, if the environment is degraded and the
natural resources are abused, then the rate of economic growth cannot be sustained, not to
mention be sustainable. We have seen that we must stop the damage that our
development has caused and make some fundamental changes.

After many hard struggles and intensive experimentation, the Chinese Government
and people, in line with our own needs for development, have chosen sustainable
development as part of the “two fundamental transitions” (that is, shifts from a planned
economy to a market-oriented economy, and from quantitative to qualitative growth).
Therefore, our goal in China is to revamp the economic structure; raise economic efficiency;
develop industries with high value-added production; use new technologies to transform
traditional industries that extensively consume energy and materials and pollute heavily; and
improve the ecological environment. In addition, we must lift some 30 million people, who
are still living in destitution, out of extreme poverty in the near future, and narrow the
disparity between the eastern and western parts of the country.

We can never solve the problem of environmental pollution without addressing the
core issue of development. This development shall be different in approach from
conventional ones, and shall focus on the advancement of science and technology. Great
emphasis is therefore placed on “revitalizing China through scientific and technological
advancement”, and on sustainable development - the two national strategies formed for
medium- to long-term development. These two strategies, which were approved by the
National People’s Congress of China in 1996, have become our top priorities for future
progress.

So far, the developing countries, with the help of United Nations and many other
international communities, have dedicated much effort to solving problems of poverty,
gender, environment, employment, and so on, greatly alleviating the pain and suffering of the
less fortunate. However, if you recall the analogy that I mentioned earlier, it is not enough
to give medical treatment to the head when you have a headache. We must try to attack
the problem from the root or cause.

The lesson learnt by China is that, in order to tackle environmental issue, the
approach to solve the problem must be diversified; however, the development issue should
be treated at first hand. Hence, when the developing countries face problems of poverty,
gender, environment, employment, and so on, we must focus our attention on two major
questions: (1) What is the cause of these problems? and (2) In what way can these
problems be solved for the long term?

As you know, we are now living in the “Information Age”. Modern technologies, such
as information technology, biotechnology, new materials and aerospace technologies, have
dramatically changed the way we live. Can information technology provide an opportunity
for sustainable development? Indeed it can! The rapid development of modern
technologies can provide an opportunity for the developing countries to catch up without
repeating the same problems that developed countries have encountered. Clearly, a
leapfrog development is possible if we, the developing nations, can seize the opportunity.
In China, we often refer to the “advantage of backwardness”. However, whether such
catch-up is achievable is very much dependent on taking appropriate measures for such
technologies to be rooted and localized in our developing-country homes.

Information technology, especially the Internet, is understood to originate from the

developed countries and, especially, the United States. But, in the past few years,
information and communications technology, or ICT, has been a pouring wave into the
developing countries. The developing countries have no other choice but to adopt such
technologies. Those who do not, risk being further and further marginalized. For
developing countries to survive and not be completely bypassed, we must grasp the
opportunity promptly and actively to avoid the build-up of new barriers.

For a long time, China did not develop Internet and communication technologies. It
was only able to buy and sell the products, or use limited knowledge in assembling
computers. Chips, routers, hubs, optical fibers, switchers, even twisted-pair wires had to be
imported. Although the further development of Internet has tremendously reduced the price
of connectivity, due to the constant updating of hardware and software, use of the Internet
remains very expensive. Such minimal capability is neither economical nor feasible for
China’s Internet industry to emerge into the large-scale world market.

This situation has been dramatically changed. China has been making great efforts
to catch up with the latest information technologies. Unfortunately, we have not yet
received much assistance, and nor have other countries gained much of the United Nations’
help to promote development with these technologies. Although it is important to help solve
the problems related to poverty, gender, education, or environment, it is more effective to
resolve the problems root and branch. Information technology can be incorporated into
such efforts. It is a mistake to believe that ICT can only be introduced once progress has
been made in tackling poverty. Information technology can assist poverty alleviation, help
to improve governance, offer better opportunities for education in remote areas, and provide
better technical solutions for environmental treatment.

The very nature of information technology advancement and the expansion of uses
and users are gradually leading to the recognition of critical “missing pieces”. To date,
much of the emphasis on information technologies in developing countries has been focused
on reducing physical barriers to communication. Less appreciated are the efforts needed to
develop content and to put in place the necessary capacity to manage both content and
connectivity. Similarly, much emphasis has been concentrated on development of
“information and information systems”, with relatively little attention paid to improving modes
of access, or providing mechanisms for enabling information users to utilize available data.
Turning data into accessible information and transforming the information into effective
“knowledge” for decision-making and operational uses are very important.
 One success story is the Sustainable Development Networking Programme (SDNP),
which has assisted 30 to 40 countries for Internet connectivity. A small portion of a seed
fund from the UNDP is helping to accelerate Internet development in these countries.
SDNP has helped China build the very first node for the country’s programme and has
facilitated a network among local communities. Guided by SDNP, the Chinese Government
has invested a large amount through a national science and technology programme to
encourage information-sharing. As a result, a substantial quantity of information,
contributed by ten ministerial information agencies, has become available on Internet
regarding China’s overall status in natural resources, environmental protection and natural
disasters. Furthermore, the study of policies for promoting data sharing has been
conducted, and these policies are in use among sharing agencies. For China, an important
role of the United Nations is to facilitate the development of information technology, using
local language, thus serving for the needs of local people. This clearly demonstrates the
benefits of applying ICT in speeding up development - surely it has wide implications.

Mr. Chairman, Distinguished guests,

So what can the South countries do in terms of ICT for promoting sustainable
development? Actually we are facing similar challenges such as insufficient financial
resources, lack of ICT infrastructures, poor in capacity building and many others. And we
have much in common with the country situation on ICT development. Surely, we can learn
a lot from each other about how to address ICT as an essential issue for development, along
with other urgent issues tackled by using ICT. To Chinese understanding, ICT shall be
placed as the driving force to take the lead for modernization of our economy and society.
ICT is like a “leading goat” for development. There are many reasons that South countries
should work together to bridge the “Digital Divide”. Internationally, we can exchange the
viewpoints of the state policy on ICT for development. Nationally we can teach to each
other the experience of best practices, promoting south-south technical cooperation, such as
training, case-studies, and even trading of ICT products. It is also the time for the United
Nations to help south-south cooperation for a more equitable share of information, for
coordination, for management and governance of using the Internet (for instance, the top
domain names), for regulatory frameworks improving intellectual property rights, and so on.
In short, I believe that the answer to the question I posed earlier, as to how the problems can
be solved for the long term, lies in coupling sustainable development with information
technology.