Section V: Other Countries' Strategies
72. In developing their meta-strategies for advancing into the Information Age Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, the United States and Ireland set as a priority ensuring that the widest possible range of citizens and locations could access the Internet and increase ICT skills. An example of this is the way the Australians, in their Building the Information Economy strategy, identified the first of ten priority areas as being the maximising of opportunities for all Australians to benefit from the online economy.33 This was seen as integral to the success of e-commerce and e-government, to securing a strong democratic, informed and inclusive society; avoiding a social polarisation between the so-called "information rich" and "information poor".34
73. The means the above countries are using to achieve their goals include:
- Supporting the provision of public/community access sites for training and use of ICT;
- Subsidising ICT training and equipment for people on benefits or low incomes;
- Promoting the development of national online content;
- Tax incentives to businesses who supply hardware and training to staff;
- Investments in widening the number of locations with high speed connectivity;
- Improving people's ability to access government online services;
- Partnerships with industry, communities and local government;
- Increasing competition and reducing the costs of services;
- Making spectrum available for new services.
74. The increase in the digital divide revealed by the United States Department of Commerce's latest study on Internet access, prompted the United States government last December to host a cross-sector Digital Divide Summit, led by the President, and to develop a comprehensive strategy to improve access and e-literacy.35
75. Canada's six-dimension national strategy "Connecting Canada", initiated to make Canada the most connected country in the world, includes providing all Canadians, including those in rural and remote areas, with access to the Internet, and Smart Communities, an integrated approach helping entire communities go online.36
76. The following quote captures the British view of the importance of widespread access and e-literacy.
"We could have a society divided between information haves and information have-nots. A society with a wired up superclass and an information underclass. An economy geared to the needs of some parts of Britain but not the whole of Britain. But the blessings of new technology give us the means to break down the walls of divisions and the barriers of isolation. ... Anyone left out of the new knowledge revolution will be left behind in the new knowledge economy ... The more individual talent we nurture, the more economic growth and prosperity we will achieve".
Gordon Brown, British Chancellor of the Exchequer37
77. The British Government has announced a number of initiatives centred around a public education programme to improve people's ICT skills including establishing 1000 ICT Learning Centres across the United Kingdom; discounting course fees by up to 80 percent for adults signing up to improve their basic computer skills; and funding an extra 50,000 free places for unemployed people, low paid workers, people with disabilities and single parents to attend IT introductory learning courses.38
78. While the Irish are less advanced in their efforts to ensure that all citizens have access to ICT and develop ICT skills, they are developing an integrated strategy targeting libraries, schools, post offices, community and voluntary agencies, and public commercial sites (cafes etc) as places for people to be able to access ICT.39
79. Their focus on addressing this issue is likely to increase given a recent study on IT skills shortage in Western Europe (see footnote 30) which forecasts the Republic having the fourth highest level of IT skill shortage in Western Europe by 2003.
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