Developing countries bridge the digital divide - News - Business

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This story was printed from ZDNet Australia.
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Developing countries bridge the digital divide

By James Pearce, ZDNet Australia
February 13, 2002
URL: http://www.zdnet.com.au/news/business/soa/Developing-countries-bridge-the-digital-divide/0,139023166,120263452,00.htm

Assistance is being provided to delegates from developing countries to attend the World Congress on Information Technology, being held in Adelaide from February 27-March 1.

Developing nations that are members of the World Information Technology and Services Alliance (WITSA) will be given assistance through the World Banks InfoDev program and the Federal Government's AusAid project. The assistance will cover all costs to attend the congress, including travel and accomodation.

-The benefits of these countries attending are enormous, such as improving trade opportunities and electronic business. Being able to meet and network with some of the greatest IT innovators and business leaders will provide a lot of ideas to take home," said John Gygar, the conference CEO.

-The challenge of overcoming the digital divide is one of the major themes of the congress, so this initiative is important to the program," he added.

Delegates have applied from Bangladesh, Mongolia, Zimbabwe, Nepal, Colombia, Ecuador, Romania, Thailand, Argentina, Poland, South Africa, Uruguay, Jordan, Bulgaria, Malaysia, the Philippines, Indonesia and Vietnam.