US: The United Nations has launched an interactive map of the information superhighway to show policy makers and investors the location of the missing links in the digital divide in the Asia-Pacific region.
“In Asia and the Pacific, what we call the ‘digital divide’ is in fact an income divide, a gender divide, an education divide and a knowledge divide,” said Noeleen Heyzer, Executive Secretary of the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific, which released the maps jointly with the UN International Telecommunication Union (ITU). The ITU Interactive Terrestrial Transmission/ESCAP Asia Pacific Information Superhighway Maps aims to play an important role in efforts to bring affordable information and communication technology (ICT) and broadband connectivity to all.
ITU Secretary-General Hamadoun Touré said the maps will empower network planners, policy-makers and regulators from developing countries, and provide a “powerful tool” to assess marker opportunities.
Source: UN
