Delegates attending the Boao Forum for Asia (BFA) in south China's Hainan Province agreed Saturday that the digital gap between the developing and the developed countries must be closed as soon as possible.

Wu Jichuan, China's minister of the information industry, said that the national treatment, market access and fair play stipulated by the World Trade Organization will not be truly materialized unless the disparity between the rich and the poor stops widening.

Wu called on the developed countries, in a panel discussion held by the BFA on Asia's digital future, to truly reach out to the less-developed nations, and help them set up their own appropriate information infrastructure.

Lee Soo-sung, Former prime minister of the Republic of Korea, said that he believed that a feasible national strategy is crucial to the quicker completion of a country's industrialization and information network.

He said that Asian countries should increase their technical innovation capabilities and enlarge their information industry input.

Thanks to the close historical and cultural connections among Asian countries, Lee said, the sharing of digital technologies and exchange of up-to-date information is possible.

Parappil Rajendran, director of the India-based NIIT Company, said that the unswerving innovative spirit of entrepreneurs and the non-intervention policy of the Indian government have promoted the development of India's new and high technology sector.

Ernest Wilson, of the University of Maryland in the US, said that, to complete the transition from the traditional economy to the high-tech-fueled new economy, developing countries must also focus on the reform of the social management structure, the establishment of a more transparent market allowing equal competition, technical training and basic education

(China Daily April 14, 2002)