How can developing countries ensure that they are not marginalized by the accelerating global rate of innovation in information technology? Some developed nations are confident of remaining at the forefront of accelerated change and steadily increasing their competitive advantage.
How can we participate globally without merely opening up our markets for the penetration of foreign products and thus increasing our dependency on the developed world? We must ensure that international laws support interchange and not protectionism. Where trade laws open borders to the flow of products they should also open borders to the development and flow of applications and content.
Laws for granting protection should not favour big companies above small ones nor developed countries over underdeveloped ones. There should be a careful balance between the interests of the stakeholders: we must reward innovation while allowing fair competition, interoperability of software, and open accessible systems and interfaces.
Intellectual property rights must empower developing countries to develop their own applications and content according to their needs. It is necessary to go beyond the global adoption of IT infrastructure. Developing countries must be empowered with a capacity for information technology innovation and development.