BBC story on Mongolia communication.PDF

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News inVJtteo Newyddion HOEOCTH Nottciss

Thursday, October 14, 1999 Published at 12:09 GMT 13:09 UK

The cost of communication

By BBC News Online's Kate Milner

Communication has never been easy in Mongolia.

The country is nearly three times the size of France buthas a population density of 1.5/sq mile, one of thelowest in the world. The Internet seems the naturalanswer but the problem is less one of infrastructurethan the cost of getting online.

!lNFORMATIONRICH

• Introduction• The widening gap

Case studies

• Burkina Faso

The price to connect iscertainly out of reach for mostordinary people. One ISPcharges approximately £30($50) per month and thatdoes not include the cost ofthe phone call. The averageGDP per capita is £1,359($2,250).

MongoliaMoroccoUnited States

That's complicated by thegap between rich and poor.More than one third of thepopulation lives in poverty.Outside the capital

Ulaanbaatar, many areas still do not have telephoneaccess.

The Asia-Pacific Development Information Programme(APDIP), a United Nations-funded organisation basedin Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, is trying to help.

APDIP has launched Citizen Information ServiceCenters, where citizens in remote Aimags includingareas of the Gobi desert, can now connect to thecentral government, apply for grants on-line, receivenews, and obtain basic training in computing.

The first step was a summit designed to exploreopportunities through IT. APDIP also set up a cyber

». UN Human DevelopmentReport

» UN DevelopmentProgramme Info 21

>. World Bank InfoDev

tf African DevelopmentForum

fc. The first mile: Wiring theSouth and rural areas

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» PEOPLink

» NTIA report: FallingThrough the Net

» CIA World Faclbook:Burkina Faso

» African Virtual University

>. Virtual Souk

» Information andCommunicationTechnology. Mongolia

». Asia-Pacific DevelopmentInformation Programme

» The United Nations inMongolia

» Soros Foundation:Mongolia

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http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/special_report/1999/10/99/information_ri.../472445.st 07/05/2002

BBC News | Information rich information poor | The cost of communication Page 2 of 2

cafe in the UNDP building in Ulaanbaatar, to showpeople what technology has to offer.

"We want to involve ordinary people," he said. "If theycannot see the vision then we cannot make it work,"said Atsushi Yamanaka who works for the UNDP.

"Young people are the ones who have to create this.People are very eager to tap into new technology, butthey're not sure of how to best use it.

The programme's long-term aim is to encouragebusinesses and colleges to take up informationtechnology and to build a culture of open information. Ithas set targets for the next two to three years and isbuilding an action plan up to 2010.

But Mr Yamanaka said there were still problems inMongolia following the end of socialism and thecountry's first democratic elections in July 1990.

"Under socialism there was a train every few days, sopeople got letters every two days," he said. "Citizenswho had everything, all of a sudden they didn't haveanything. Now it can take two months for letters to getthrough.

"The people are suffering a lack of information and alack of basic services."

But even as new technology takes hold, those in powerin Mongolia still have doubts. Changing people'smindset is the hardest part.

"There needs to be a very top-level support." Said MrYamanaka. "Email is not seen as an official document.It's not like a paper agreement that you can sign andseal.

"The government is keen to use email but they ask,'What is its status, how official is it?'"

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http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/special_report/1999/10/99/information ri...7472445.st 07/05/2002