Daily internet in developing countries
Last summer I travelled to Nepal, India and Pakistan,
where I noticed Website addresses appearing in various
advertising media (press, posters). E-mail and Internet
are widespread ideas in their capital cities (in Kathmandu
alone, there are between 50 and 100 companies which offer
Internet connection payable by the minute, proving that
in spite of a small number of computers, there is always
a solution to get connected). Besides, since English is
just as well understood in these countries as it is in
France (much of the teaching is done in the language of
Shakespeare), perhaps some of them have a natural advantage.
To convince you, I advise you to go and test out the
site Planet Asia - http://www.planetasia.com (a base for
Indian electronic commerce) which is on a level with the
equivalent French sites ...
What are the openings for Internet in these countries
? Firstly, we must distinguish between countries such
as India, whose population is not far off the billion
mark, and which has significant economic muscle world
wide, and countries such as Nepal, which have only a few
million inhabitants, and a fragile economy.
India will progress to the promotion of its traditional
industries by Internet and will probably develop a powerful
Internet service industry (don't forget the Indian computer
technicians, among the best in the world, work as sub-contractors
for many American firms).
As far as Nepal is concerned, among the ideas which could
easily be exploited are tourism (the country has an impressive
cultural heritage), but also local crafts (textiles, sculpture,
carving), following the example of French regional products
which are easily exported by Internet.
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