OECDIT ICT for Developing Countries
Mobile Phone, Internet Can Improve Accessibility
By Mouhammad Nuh
Minister of Communication And Information Technology
The Republic of Indonesia
There are three fundamental roles for the Internet in the economy. First, by using the Internet, the time and cost of transactions as well as production can be compressed. It would be virtually unimaginable to calculate the time and cost of communication and coordination if they were executed without the Internet.
Communication and coordination is very essential for the purpose of productivity since it is the base of a global supply-chain based economy. The saving in time and cost offered by the Internet definitely increased the Total Factor Productivity (TFP) of an individual, organization and even country by a significant number, which can be as high as 40 percent according to some studies. The increase in productivity will definitely improve the competitiveness, which in turn can augment the market in global economy. As shown by a recent study, productivity is the main determining factor of nation prosperity.
Second, by using the Internet the process of collection, organization and dissemination of information can be simplified by transforming the information into digital contents. With the Internet, the available digital contents can now be accessed by anyone at anytime from anywhere using any kind of devices.
As the Internet eliminates the distance barrier, information is rendered ubiquitous. Such a possibility is imperative in promoting creativity to a larger audience so it can reach critical mass and have an impact on the economy of a country. Using the information available on the Internet to find ``unprecedented and feasible ideas'' can shorten the learning curve
Information can be exploited to obtain knowledge; knowledge can be employed to acquire an understanding of a certain problem or demand, which in turn can be utilized to create unprecedented and feasible ideas. Design, production, and marketing of goods and services then can be carried out based on these new creative ideas. Therefore the quantity of digital contents plays an eminent role to make the Internet have a suitable impact on the economy.
Third, the Internet can be used to establish networks of online users who can utilize the networks to collaborate with each other to develop synergies. Internet, as the name suggests, becomes a ``pou sto'' tool for collaboration of online user in participative web schemes.
In any such scheme, anyone can be the producer, the source or the supply as well as the user, the sink or the demand which in turn will drastically increase the synergy and collaboration created.
Synergy can be developed among users without the constraint of size, distance and finance barriers. According to research, the impact of such a network is proportional to the square of the number of participants (which is well-known as Metcalfe Law). Therefore it is necessary to increase the number of Internet users so that it can reach a critical mass for the Internet to have an impact to the economy.
As a conclusion to these observations, I presume that for the Internet economy to play a prominent role in a country economy, we need to make the number of Internet users and digital content large enough. In developing countries such as Indonesia, government intervention is still needed to reach the above objectives. Therefore one mission of the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology of Republic of Indonesia is to increase information accessibility. The Internet is of course one of the most efficient means to accomplish such an onerous mission.
Indonesia is a big country with all kinds of diversity ― geography, ethnic, religion, culture, language, education, and income. The archipelago of Indonesia is a gift from God and also challenges the people to congregate such diversity into unity. With approximately 17,000 islands, there is a natural difficulty to provide information access to connect every region and person in Indonesia. Information access is still a problem in which government has endeavored to solve by implementing several programs.
I dare to say that if someone can solve the problems faced by Indonesia, then he or she is the dark horse for solving the problem currently faced by the world at large.
Considering those difficulties, however, we have been able to reach a penetration of fixed access at around 10 percent and of mobile phones at around 40 percent, Internet users at about 12 percent with 8,000 Internet kiosks. Unfortunately, 70 percent of all Internet users in Indonesia are still concentrated in only a few big cities.
This is the challenge for the government of Indonesia to increase the tele-density and to provide comparable infrastructure in the diverse regions of Indonesia to narrow their digital divide. Two flagship programs have been launched concerning infrastructure availability.
I enthusiastically hope that this forum could deliver innovative, useful and effective solutions, and applications of Internet to develop countries economy, especially for developing countries. Once again, on behalf of the government of Indonesia, I would like to thank the UNAPCICT and other institutions, companies and organizations for facilitating this important forum. I am confident that with valuable contributions from the distinguished speakers and panelists this forum will come up with a concrete outcome towards developing countries' needs in using the Internet as a vehicle to reach national prosperity through the Internet economy.