Information and

Communication
Technologies: Results Profile

The World Bank helps developing countries

use information and communications
technologies (ICT) to improve access to
affordable connectivity, including broadband,
transform delivery of basic services, drive
innovations and productivity gains, and improve
competitiveness. Since 2007, the World Bank
Group has strengthened its support for public-
private ventures for broadband and high-speed
Internet, reducing retail prices and increasing
service use, in some cases by a factor of 10. Its
support for information and communication
technology sector reforms helped attract an
estimated US$30 billion in private investment
for mobile network infrastructure in IDA
countries.

Technological progress is a considerable

driving force behind economic growth. ICT
infrastructure in particular has attracted much
investment, and generated significant fiscal
revenues and employment opportunities in
developing countries. 
The number of mobile subscriptions in use
worldwide, both pre-paid and post-paid, has
grown from fewer than 1 billion in 2000 to over
6 billion now, of which nearly 5 billion in
developing countries.  The number of Internet
users in developing countries has also grown
close to twenty-fold. With Internet penetration at
a turning point, including in the least connected
region, Africa, and with over 91 percent of the
population in developing countries having
access to fixed or mobile telephone, ICT
networks now constitute a far-reaching service
delivery and citizen participatory platform. ICTs
can be used as a vehicle to increase
accountability, and to transform and extend the
reach of service delivery to the underserved in
an innovative, fast, and cost-efficient manner. 

QUESTIONS:
1.What does mean (ICT)?
2.Whom Helps the World Bank?
3.How can countries have economic growth?
4.How many the Mobile subscriptions in use
worldwide has grown since 2000 until
nowadays?
5.How many the internet users in developing
countries has grown?
6. What can Information and Communications

technologies (ICTs) be used for?