The report first summarizes the key findings from the following three studies in three provinces (Guizhou, Jilin, Shandong): (a) a demand survey to assess rural ICT access and attitudes; (b) a library study including scoping the status of ICT use in rural libraries; and (c) a limited impact...

Since the late 1990s access to information and communication technologies (ICTs) has seen tremendous growth driven primarily by the wireless technologies and liberalization of telecommunications markets. Mobile communications have evolved from simple voice and text services to diversified...

The case studies focus on specific attempts made by a number of small states to overcome the handicaps of their size and isolation and take advantage of growing opportunities for integration with their neighbors and with the rest of the world. Two policy issues have been of prime importance in...

In 2005, the World Bank Group (WBG) formally introduced the results framework in the country assistant strategy (CASs) as a key tool for improving the quality of the WBG's strategy in borrowing member countries, maximizing the development effectiveness of WBG assistance, and demonstrating...

This book aims to help policy makers take advantage of the opportunities presented by increased cross-border trade in information technology (IT) services and IT-enabled services (ITES). It begins by defining the two industries and estimating the potential global market opportunities for trade...

This book is a compilation of two recently completed works on the convergence of information and communication technology (ICT) (Singh and Raja 2008, 2009). Since then, convergence, the eroding of boundaries among previously separate ICT services, networks, and business practices, has...

Just as the steam engine was the driving force behind the Industrial Revolution, broadband Internet is today seen as critical to the transition to knowledge-intensive economies across the world. As a general purpose technology, broadband Internet is considered as a fundamental driver of economic...

The handbook consists of seven chapters and two appendixes that look at how broadband is defined, why it is important, and how its development can be encouraged. Throughout the handbook, broadband is viewed as an ecosystem consisting of supply and demand components, both of which are equally...

Over the last decade Latin America and the Caribbean region has achieved important progress towards the World Bank Group's goals of eradicating extreme poverty and boosting income growth of the bottom 40 percent, propelled by remarkable economic growth and falling income inequality. Despite this...

This guide provides practical guidance on program classification, that is, on how to define programs and their constituent elements under a program budgeting system. Program budgeting is the most widespread form of performance budgeting as applied to the government budget as a whole. The...