Sustainable Development and
Information Technology
гн Can they go together?
by Wang Qiming
the Co-ordinator for
Sustainable Development Networking Programme in China
July 06, 2000
In the United Nations' years of work for development, a very
important step was taken 50 years ago, creating an Expanded Programme
of Technical Assistance (EPTA). This eventually led to establishing
the United Nations Development Programme and several other entities
and brought about increased efforts throughout the United Nations
system. Over the years, developing countries have benefited from
the United Nations system's efforts in terms of social, economic,
environmental and other advances. In fact, all countries have
benefited from the United Nations' contributions to a more peaceful
and better world.
In the case of China, it was only about 20 years ago that we
began to benefit from the presence of United Nations programmes.
When China decided to adopt the open-up and reforming policy in
the late-1970s, the first overseas loan to China was from the
World Bank. Since then, many technical assistance projects funded
by UNDP and others have helped China, giving positive and pragmatic
support to supplement domestic efforts in the pursuit of modernization.
Guided by domestic priorities, United Nations' assistance has
covered a wide area from education, agriculture, poverty, women,
energy and environment, to economic reform and governance improvement.
An important contribution made by the United Nations is support
to China's effort in approaching sustainable development. It has
always been our belief that development is imperative. Over the
past 20 years, China has successfully obtained rapid economic
growth by achieving the goal of quadrupling its GDP over the 1980
level. However, the first leap for China's modernization caused
many problems of environmental pollution. Of course, treatment
for pollution is needed. We have been doing so or, at the very
least, adopting legislation to regulate it in the past few years.
But, sustainable development 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 standard
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 ensured, 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 planned economy
to a market-oriented economy, and from quantitative to qualitative
growth). It is, therefore, our goal in China 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 also lift some 3.8 million people, who are 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 the conventional ones, and shall
focus on the advancement of science and technology. Much effort
is, therefore, placed on "revitalizing China through science and
technology 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.
UNDP has been providing us with useful assistance in our pursuit
of sustainable development. After collaboration with UNDP in 1994,
China released her national strategy for China's Agenda 21 - the
White Paper on China's Population, Environment, and Development
in the 21st Century - the first in the world for such integration
into national policy. In order to implement this, we have further
cooperated with UNDP in launching several successive projects
on integration of the concept of sustainability into each five-year
national plan for socio-economic development, and on the initiation
of local Agenda 21.
So far, UNDP and other United Nations agencies 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, as 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 the cause of the problem.
The lesson learnt from China is that, in order to thoroughly
tackle the 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! 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 conditional, 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 was not developing 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. Such minimal capability is neither economical nor
feasible for China's Internet industry to emerge into the large-scale
world market.
In China, another problem is that of language. Over 95 per cent
of the Chinese people neither speak nor read English. Therefore,
software applications must be made available in Chinese characters
for popularization. With Internet at present mainly in English,
this hinders the development in many countries. It was not until
1996 that Chinese characters were made possible for Internet transmission.
Even today, many software applications are still in English, particularly
the new products, (We still have no version of FrontPage, Dreamweaver,
Flash, Fireworks or Java Script in Chinese - these are all basic
tools for making Homepages.)
Although the further development of Internet has dramatically
reduced the price for connectivity, due to the constant updating
of hardware and software, the use of Internet remains very expensive.
For example, when problems were found in the Pentium III PC, such
that cookies could be used for "listening" to the transferred
information, the decision had to be made that all governmental
agencies must stop using PIII computers. When Windows Company
in China attempted to raise court cases against several agencies
for the so-called "illegal" usage of Windows software, the Government
had to turn to Linux, and develop Chinese versions of applications
based on Linux systems. Indeed, the Government is often in a dilemma
when making such decisions. It is often argued whether the development
of Internet should be given a free hand or be kept under a certain
control. Another hot topic of debate involves how to strike the
balance between the safety of using the Internet and the cost
of safety, as the Internet is vulnerable to attacks and viruses.
The problem of Y2K caused many people to worry about the reliability
of computers.
Despite such difficulties, China is making rapid progress in
using ICT for the promotion of development. The Internet has become
an important instrument of choice for the Government of China,
as the country moves from a rigid centrally planned economy to
a socialist market economy. The Government is fully aware that
ICT is indispensable to economic and social development. It was
not until April 1994 that China opened the first 64 Kpbs leased
line for full connection to Internet. Now, the Internet connection
has jumped to 8 Gbps. As of the end of 1997, there were only 1500
web sites and only 300,000 computers were connected to the Internet.
But by mid-2000, the number of connected computers had surged
to 6.5 million and over 16 million users were connected to the
Internet. In parallel to the Internet development, the development
of telephones, IP phones, and mobile phones has been dramatically
improved at such high speed that its growth is recognized as the
fastest rate in the world. At present, China has 160 million telephone
sets and 65 million mobile phone users, most of them being made
available in the last five years. Fees charged for the use of
Internet are also decreasing. Before 1997, it was high as the
equivalent of US$ 2.50 per 1 Mpbs; now, it is down to one-eighth
of that. Dial-up users can gain access to unlimited Internet use
for as little as US$10 per month, a price lower than in many developed
countries. For academic users, both S&T Network and Education
Network offer free- of-charge domestic information transfer within
China. Information transfer is only charged when the flow crosses
China's boundary; even then, only the cost of the higher flows,
whether in or out, is charged.
However, such development is not balanced. Beijing makes up 24
per cent of the Internet users and 32 per cent of the top domain
names, whereas Tibet only has three top domain names registered.
The 10 coastal provinces, representing 42 per cent of the population,
account for 71 per cent of Internet users. The seven most western
provinces, representing 20 per cent of the population, only account
for 5 per cent of Internet use. "Digital divide' not only occurs
between developed and developing nations, but also within the
developing countries. Evidently, great efforts need to be taken
to increase the connectivity with the rural and remote populations.
China has been making great efforts to catch up with the latest
information technologies and we would be very thankful for help
from the United Nations system. Unfortunately, we have not yet
received much assistance nor have other countries gotten much
of the United Nations' help to promote development with these
technologies. Although it is important to help in solving 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; it can help in improving governance; it can offer
better a chance for education in remote areas; it can provide
better technical solutions for environmental treatment.
One success story is the Sustainable Development Networking Programme
(SDNP), which has assisted 30 to 40 countries for Internet connectivity.
A small portion of seed fund from UNDP is helping to accelerate
Internet development in these countries. SDNP has helped China
build the very first node for China'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
10 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 in facilitating 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.
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 in
the developing countries on information technologies has 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 to improving modes of access, and 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.
So what can the United Nations do in terms of ICT for development?
Surely, the United Nations can play a role in better service for
technical assistance to the developing countries, addressing ICT
as an essential issue, along with other urgent issues. Using Chinese
expressions, it is time for the United Nations to move from being
a "fire brigade" and be also a "leading goat" of the knowledge
organizations for assisting "leapfrog" development in developing
countries. The United Nations can help for a more equitable share
of information; for coordination; for management and governance
of using Internet (for instance, the top domain names); for regulatory
frameworks improving intellectual property rights; and so on.
I could name much more that the United Nations can do. But the
most important things that the United Nations can do are to play
a better role to provide technical assistance to the developing
countries; to adopt a coherent strategy utilizing ICT and other
modern technologies; and to integrate these into current programmes.
In short, I believe that the answer to the question I proposed
earlier, as to how the problems can be solved for the long term,
lies in coupling sustainable development with information technology.
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