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more on 'Digital tax' gets African backing
From: David Farber <dave () farber net>
Date: Tue, 15 Mar 2005 06:53:44 -0500
'Digital tax' gets African backing By Reuters African leaders voiced support on Monday for a plan asking wealthy nations to tax their cities' investment in technology to buy mobile phones and computers for poor nations. The tax would feed a Digital Solidarity Fund, a United Nations-sponsored plan to use high-tech tools such as satellite telephones or the internet to promote economic development in areas that lack even the most basic infrastructure. Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika said the digital divide aggravated polarisation between wealthy and developing countries. "It is imperative that international measures be taken," Bouteflika told a conference in Geneva. The rich Swiss city was the first to adopt the plan, putting a one per cent levy on the profit made by the city's technology suppliers. The United Nations hopes that widening access within the developing world to information technology will help eradicate poverty and build stable democracies. Poor nations back that view. Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade said: "The only way to fill in the digital divide is to empower the South with information technology equipment, telephones, fax machines, the Internet and to ensure training on how to use them." The "digital" tax would be adopted voluntarily, with conference officials saying several cities were considering following Geneva's example. The fund was launched in 2003 in Geneva on the sidelines of a UN conference on spreading access to the internet and wireless communication. It has already accumulated $6.72m. Once more detailed guidelines are in place on how to use the fund, 60 per cent of its expected revenue would go to the world's 49 least-developed countries, 30 per cent to developing countries and 10 per cent to projects in rich nations. ------------------------------------- You are subscribed as lists-ip () insecure org To manage your subscription, go to http://v2.listbox.com/member/?listname=ip Archives at: http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting-people/
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- more on 'Digital tax' gets African backing David Farber (Mar 15)