“E‐Commerce and Development”: Whose development?

Abstract

Now that we have exhausted the possible discussions on information and communication technologies (ICTs) and the role they could possibly play in the development process, the focus has recently shifted to e-commerce and development.All major funding agencies and research organisations are involved in examining this topic in some form or the other.Here in Germany we have also managed to join the wave and one development agency, focusing on education and training, has recently started offering a one year course on the topic to participants from the South (a project I am involved in).Apart from this, what is of interest in this short article is the latest UNCTAD report, E-Commerce and Development Report 2002, on which I have been asked to comment.Size-wise this report is much more manageable than the 2001 Report which was a few hundred pages long; moreover, it is well-written, -argued and -researched.One can possibly find no reason to criticise it in any way if, for instance, one keeps in mind the theme "ecommerce and the possibilities it offers more advanced developing countries".However, the report can be a disappointment as its focus is not necessarily on a majority of the developing countries (DCs) or on development as such.When I start reading something, I mostly do so if the topic, outlined in the title, interests me.I started reading this report with the hope of coming across pages dedicated to the role e-commerce can/could play in the development process of many DCs.Other than a few paragraphs mentioning development, there is no focus on the kind of development issues that I was searching for.The title is therefore misleading and should have more appropriately been "E-commerce and its economic possibilities for more advanced DCs" or maybe even better "emerging economies", as the "contents" do not apply to a majority of the DCs.The survey conducted for the 2001 Report had already concluded that e-commerce plays a minor role in the majority of the African and South Asian countries (and so does the 2002 Report) and the focus of the 2002 Report should have therefore been redirected to more advanced DCs.

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