"In 2020, the 46 LDCs had a combined population of 1.06 billion people and are highly vulnerable, with low levels of human development. And yet, geography, population size and income vary within the group, and these different conditions affect digital development.
National data infrastructure is an
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essential component for a digital economy, as it comprises the facilities for transporting, exchanging and storing data. There are significant gaps in national transmission networks, Internet exchange points (IXPs) and data centres. Coverage and density of national transmission networks are lagging in the LDCs. This has ramifications for Internet access and the quality of service. IXPs play a major role in lowering the cost of Internet access as well as reducing data exchange delay, yet 19 LDCs lack them. Furthermore, in those LDCs with IXPs, many of the facilities are not having the impact they should. Data centres, facilities to store data, are in short supply in the LDCs. There are less than 100 in the group, of which over a quarter are in Bangladesh. Eighteen LDCs do not have Internet-connected data centres.
Quarantine measures during the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in people around the world turning to online shopping. However, this was not possible for many in the LDCs, due to a lack of online shops, as well as demand-side constraints, such as awareness, distrust and payment methods. An encouraging initiative is the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) diagnostics and concrete recommendations for enhancing e-commerce in many LDCs.
The private sector is essential for boosting digital connectivity in the LDCs. Telecommunications in the LDCs are mainly operated by private companies, a reverse of the situation three decades ago. Yet most policy reports make scarce mention of the companies building the connectivity infrastructure in LDCs." (Introduction)
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"Mit Gerhard Maletzke verbindet mich, daß wir nicht aufhören können, unentwegt Neues anzufangen. Dabei sind wir immer zu weit vorneweg oder zu weit hinterher. Vor fünfundzwanzig Jahren, als noch keiner vor der Welt- und Medienmacht Asien zitterte, haben wir für die Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung das
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erste asiatische Medieninstitut (AMIC) in Singapur aufgebaut und betrieben. Zu früh. Und heute, wo Helmut Thoma durch marktkonforme Kaffeehaushauslyrik die Banalität seiner Betriebsziele überpudert, glauben wir weiterhin, daß Medien mehr können und mehr können müssen als die Zeit totzuschlagen. Zu spät. Aber auch zu früh, denn in wenigen Jahren werden einige der von uns ausgebildeten jungen Leute die Zerstreuungsdemagogen aus der Spur drängen zugunsten neuer Erbauungs- und Bedeutungsmedien. Dem spätverstandenen Voraus- und unprämierten Nach-Denken widme ich diesen Beitrag." (Einleitung)
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"This is the final report of the research commission "toward a Latin Audiovisual Space." The term "Audiovisual Space" marks the emergence of a new diplomatic vocabulary to indicate the rapid new developments of communication and information systems, particularly television, which demand new strategi
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es, policies and both national and international projects. "Space" indicates geographic boundaries which in this case includes countries speaking French and Spanish or some variation thereof. The report is in four parts: 1) an analysis of the imbalance of the international flows of culture, information, and communications; 2) a linkage between culture and industry to show the main tendencies in the restructuring of the international economy which condition to a large extent the search for audiovisual space; 3) an evaluation of efforts already undertaken to find potential partners and forms of cooperation not only between countries of the North and South, but also South and South; 4) a discussion of the contradictions of reconciling the conquest of foreign markets with the value of domestic expression of national individuality. In the introduction Nicholas Garnham points out this book's relevance to Anglo Saxon reades. He says, "It deals cogently with two of the central contemporary cultural debates, the future of European audiovisual culture and the New World Information." The authors reject the simplistic view that sees the "South as Good and the North as Bad." The individual histories of each country are considered on the recognition that cultural, like economic imperialism, works through the specificities of the local power structure." (Eleanor Blum, Frances G. Wilhoit: Mass media bibliography. 3rd ed. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1990 Nr. 711)
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