UNifeed: WORLD BANK / CONNECTIVITY

WORLD BANK / CONNECTIVITY

A new World Bank report finds that access to mobile phones and the internet spurs economic growth. The new report highlights how crucial access to information is-as important as basic infrastructure like roads. WORLD BANK

Duration:02.51Date:29 June 2009

Categories:

WORLD BANK, ECONOMIC CONDITIONS,12.01.00, COMMUNICATION AND MASS MEDIA

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Full Script

STORY:  WORLD BANK / CONNECTIVITY
TRT: 2.51
SOURCE: WORLD BANK
RESTRICTIONS: EMBARGOED UNTIL 8AM JUNE 30, 2009
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS

DATELINE: RECENT/ WASHINGTON DC, UNITED STATES / FILE

SHOTLIST:

TANZANIA, FEBRUARY 2008

1.Wide shot, women in field
2.Med shot, people farming

INDIA, MAY 2008

3.Med shot, class with computers

LIBERIA, AUGUST 2007

4.Med shot, computers

ARMENIA, FEBRUARY 2009

5.Med shot, woman on phone

ROMANIA, NOVEMBER 2008

6.Wide shot, street

NIGERIA, APRIL, 2007

7.Med shot, farmers harvesting grain
8.Med shot, hoeing
9.Close up, grain in hand
10.Close up, grain in machine
11.Reverse shot, grain in machine

RECENT / WASHINGTON D.C.
 
12.SOUNDBITE (English) Christine Zhen-Wei Qiang, World Bank Group: 
“In developing countries, farmers are receiving updates crop prices on their mobile phones, public health officials can track medical inventories by text messages and women are empowered to make household and career decisions through on line information. And also entrepreneurs, they get licenses in a fraction of the time through applying through government websites.”

INDIA, APRIL 2009

13.Med shot, kids in class with computers
14.Med shot, kids in class with computers

LIBERIA, AUGUST 2007

15.Wide shot, in school
16.Close up, typing on a keyboard

TANZANIA, FEBRUARY 2008

17.Wide shot, cows

NIGERIA, APRIL 2007

18.Wide shot, village

RECENT / WASHINGTON D.C.

19.SOUNDBITE (English) Philippe Dongier, World Bank Group: 
“So it’s clear that the technology makes a difference not only in an urban, very modern context, but also in a rural area, for low income people.”

LIBERIA, AUGUST 2007

20.Wide shot, class with computers

MOZAMBIQUE, MARCH 2007

21.Med shot, class

RWANDA, APRIL 2007

23. Med shot, class
24. Pan, class

LIBERIA, AUGUST 2007

25. Wide shot, class with computers

ROMANIA, NOVEMBER 2008

26.Wide shot, class with computers
27. Close up, screen
28. Close up, kids in class

RECENT / WASHINGTON D.C.

29. SOUNDBITE (English) Philippe Dongier, World Bank Group: 
“Now that we know that this is a real foundation, like roads or electricity or water, this becomes one of the foundation infrastructures for a country. You want to roll that out even faster than the market would ordinarily and the role of the World Bank, and governments, is to provide catalytic financing to those parts that may be not be reached right now by the market alone.”

SRI LANKA, MAY 2008

30. Med shot, lady weaving

INDIA, MAY 2008

31. Close up, computer device

RWANDA, APRIL 2007

32. Wide shot, men in class
33.Med shot, fixing a computer

SRI LANKA, MAY 2008

34. Med shot, woman in radio station

RWANDA, APRIL 2007

35. Close up, kids with computers

INDIA, MAY 2008

36. Wide, street scene

STORYLINE:

The World Bank report shows that in developing countries, a ten percent increase in high speed internet access means 1.3 percent more growth.
Fast, reliable information via a mobile phone is changing centuries-old ways of doing business.

A farmer in Niger, for example, can get information on her phone that tells her where her grain will fetch the highest price.

SOUNDBITE (English) Christine Zhen-Wei Qiang, World Bank Group: 
 “In developing countries, farmers are receiving updates crop prices on their mobile phones, public health officials can track medical inventories by text messages and women are empowered to make household and career decisions through on line information. And also entrepreneurs, they get licenses in a fraction of the time through applying through government websites.”

Internet users in developing countries increased tenfold form 2000 to 2007 and four billion people use mobile phones even in the most remote parts of the globe.

SOUNDBITE (English) Philippe Dongier, World Bank Group: 
“So it’s clear that the technology makes a difference not only in an urban, very modern context, but also in a rural area, for low income people.”
But to unlock the internet, people have to be able to read and write. 
Dongier says people need basic skills, like literacy, and basic access, like broad band both areas in which the World Bank can help.

SOUNDBITE (English) Philippe Dongier, World Bank Group: 
 “Now that we know that this is a real foundation, like roads or electricity or water, this becomes one of the foundation infrastructures for a country. You want to roll that out even faster than the market would ordinarily and the role of the World Bank, and governments, is to provide catalytic financing to those parts that may be not be reached right now by the market alone.”

Not only can access to information increase growth in developing countries, like industry itself is ripe for expansion.

World Bank economists say, right now, businesses and governments are using less than 15 percent of the world-wide market for IT. They expect information to become a global business in itself.

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