Diana Battaggia UNIDO ITPO Italy
ICT COme mOTOre DI CresCITa NeI PaesI IN VIa DI sVIlUPPO (ICT aS a MaIn drIvEr for dEvElopMEnT)
sommario Con questo articolo la Direttrice dell’UNIDO ITPO Italy, D.ssa Diana Battaggia, ha voluto evidenziare come UNIDO, l’Organizzazione delle Nazioni Unite per lo Sviluppo Industriale, riservi grande attenzione alle tematiche legate all’ICT nei Paesi in Via di Sviluppo. La convinzione, infatti, è che le Tecnologie dell’Informazione e della Comunicazione rappresentino un acceleratore dello sviluppo economico, soprattutto nei paesi caratterizzati da un’economia in transizione. In questo contesto, vengono illustrati i progetti più importanti attivati o supportati da UNIDO a beneficio dei Paesi in Via di Sviluppo.
1. Introduction 1.1 UNIDO’s strategy: “building e-competence” Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are the driving force of industrial development in virtually all countries. They shape the economic globalization process and play a leading role in creating employment, income and value added services as well as being the seedbed for developing and testing entrepreneurial talent. The challenge for emerging economies is to combine SMEs’ employment potential with increasing productivity and competitiveness. This can be achieved through an environment that facilitates growth, including easy access to business information and ICT. When used by small businesses, ICT can: • spur innovation and entrepreneurship; la Comunicazione 2012
a bstract In this paper, Ms. Diana Battaggia, Head of UNIDO ITPO Italy, summarizes United Nations Industrial Development Organization’s (UNIDO) involvement in ICT issues in developing countries. Information Technology could be an economic development booster, most of all in transition economy countries. This paper mentions some of the most important ICT projects, benefitting developing countries.
• increase productivity and efficiency of business operations; • provide relevant business development services; • facilitate linkages to local, regional and international markets; • enable access to new technologies and sources of finance. In most developing countries, however, SMEs are challenged by inadequate ICT access. In fact, ICT penetration is low, expensive and ICT services are not provided in an integrated manner. Barriers to SMEs include: • lack of affordable access to ICT due to high costs of quality hardware software and broadband Internet; • lack of ICT knowledge, basic ICT literacy and computing skills; • lack of tailor made ICT solutions that meet local needs.
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