Vasanthi Rajendran - Director ICD, Centre on Integrated rural development for asia and the pacific(cirdap)

Information and communication technology (ICT) can help developing countries tacklea wide range of health, social and economic problems. By improving access toinformation and by enabling communication, ICT can play a role in reaching MillenniumDevelopment Goals such as the elimination of extreme poverty, combating seriousdisease, and achieving universal primary education and gender equality.ICT is any technology that enables communication and the electronic capture,processing, and transmission of information. Radio, television and print media are vital inmany developing countries. In recent years ‘new’ ICT, such as mobile phones and theinternet (and associated applications such as ‘VOIP’, transmitting telephone calls over theinternet) have become available to growing numbers worldwide. The most rapid growth isin mobile phone usage. Total (fixed and mobile) telephone access in developing countriesincreased from 2% in 1991 to 31% in 2004. Internet usage has also grown rapidly: from0.03% of developing country inhabitants in 1994 to 6.7% in 2004.However, there are wide disparities between developing countries. The benefits of ICTare not fully realized in many countries: ICT is often out of reach of the poor and those inrural areas. This Paper discusses how this problem is being addressed by the countries inthe Asia – Pacific region especially in the CIRDAP Member countries, focusing on newICT such as internet and mobile phones.