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THE
AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL UNIVERSITY
Why this research ?
School of Accounting and Business Information
System
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Why this Research ?
Digital divide among the LDCs appear to be
widening despite of globalization and initiatives at national and
international level, which are failing to keep pace with the growing
ICT race of developed/ OECD countries. ICT transfer and adoption as
a whole has been quite slow into many LDCs. Only few out of 50, are transforming to transition economies and are
surging ahead whereas maximum are lagging far behind, most of which
are located in sub Saharan Africa and parts of Asia (south Asia)
(Rice, M 2003, p-74). Combined with many other factors typical to
LDC environment and specific to respective countries, ICT adoption
and implementation has become a complex issue in these countries.
May be because of this reason a generalized theory or model
explaining the issue is yet to be seen. Whatever complexity it has,
understanding of this problem and in depth study has become
essential, as the need for ICT adoption reached to a critical
juncture and turned to be an important agenda for these countries to
survive in this modern economy.
Adoption of ICT in LDCs
could yield significant benefit in improving the economy and likely
to sort out many of the deep-rooted problems like
transparency, governance in the public sector administration. A
clearly defined Information System could also play an integral part
in improving business activity and international competitiveness
with other nations (OECD, 2003).
The public sectors,
especially in LDC play the leading role, being the
largest user of computers and through its policies and regulations
are able to exert the greatest influence on the diffusion of ICT
throughout the country (e.g., Flamm, 1987; Lewis and Smoff, 1992;
Nidumolu and Goodman, 1993). Thus it can be argued that adoption and
implementation of ICT in public sectors/ government organizations
will pave the way for ICT diffusion in the country as a whole.
From the researcher’s
personal experience of working in ICT sector of an LDC, it was
observed that, most of the public sectors hardly use IT to
ease their job and to reach near to the citizen, as such the
difference between government and citizen are always increasing
resulting in bureaucracy and lack of transparency. The
legacy system of having a long queue for hours together to collect a
government form is still a regular picture in an LDC environment.
Lack of correct knowledge and vision in this area were badly felt
in different levels. The big picture involving IS implementation was out
of focus. As such a long term strategic direction was felt
necessary.
“Over the last few years, a wide consensus has
emerged on the potential of information and communications
technologies (ICT) to promote economic growth, combat poverty, and
facilitate the integration of developing countries into the global
economy. […] First, our efforts must be based on the real needs of
those we are seeking to help. They must be fully and genuinely
involved.”
UN Secretary-General
Kofi Annan, General Assembly 2002
"Information and communication technology (ICT) is quickly changing
the world, creating distanceless, borderless world of instantaneous
communications. Increasingly, it is becoming less and less costly. I
saw an opportunity for the poor people to change their lives if this
technology could be brought to them to meet their needs."
-
Dr Muhammad Yunus, Nobel Peace laureate 2006
"In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice. But,
in practice, there is"
--
Jan
l.a. van de snepscheut
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