By Peter Ford, Director, IBSG Service Provider

Service providers in developing countries have the potential to kick-start economic growth by helping small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) take advantage of information and communications technology (ICT), especially cloud services. The “greenfield” nature of ICT in many emerging economies creates the opportunity to “leapfrog” to cloud computing.

For some time, governments have recognized the role of broadband in supporting economic development. The World Bank states that for every 10 percent of broadband penetration in a developing economy, there is typically a 1.38 percent increase in GDP.

Each year, there have been tangible improvements in broadband networks across emerging markets. However, in Read More »

Tags: #economic growth, brazil, broadband penetration, China, Cisco, cloud, digital divide, economic development, emerging countries, France, IBSG, india, mexico, Russia, Service Provider, smb, SP, United Kingdom, united states

I never thought of paint as being an important part of the engine of commerce.

That is, until I met Ueli Frei, who heads FUNDES International, an NGO that fosters economic growth among micro-businesses in Latin America. His team helped a group of independent “mom and pop” drug stores band together and operate, in many ways, as a single retailer.

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Tags: africa, DirectTV, documentary, economic development, economics, Network Effect, ShortsTV, telecom network, telecommunications, U-verse, vni

If you missed BIO 2012, you missed a lot.  The public and private sector came together this week on Boston to examine innovation opportunities to promote economic growth through collaborative research and development projects.  The event drew 16,505 industry leaders from 49 states and 65 countries.  Boston was host to universities, researchers, state, local and federal government economic development representatives, clinicians and private industries.  This was science at its best at a truly global event.  Discussions around where the biotech industry is going and how pharma is changing took center stage most of the week.

A positive trend was noted in a special state of bioscience development report that analyzes state and national biotech employment patterns. Despite job losses in the U.S. private sector, it showed that US biotech industry actually added jobs between 2001 and 2010.  Throughout the week multiple conversations and meetings took place discussing how the ability to collaborate was a key element to attracting biotech projects.  Many countries visited the Cisco booth to discover what they needed to do to create an infrastructure to welcome biotech development. How can governments work together with biotech companies to produce and atmosphere that welcomes and fosters innovation?

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Tags: #economic growth, biotech, economic development, healthcare, innovation, private sector, public sector, research, university

The basic concept of an electrical power grid has matured from the early stand-alone distribution systems that serviced a limited geographic area to a more expansive and far-reaching regional network that incorporates multiple areas. In practice, the uninterrupted access to sources of electric power became a key ingredient of the economic development advances that were made possible during the Industrial Age.

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Tags: economic development, Energy/Utilities, Green Technology, Smart Grid

By Howard Baldwin, Contributing Columnist

When it comes to proving the benefits of broadband deployment, we frequently focus on the macroeconomic issues – the big-picture impact of infrastructure and access to high-speed networking. But the Internet Innovation Alliance and the Small Business Entrepreneurship Council (SBEC) recently looked at broadband from a microeconomic standpoint.

In their report, Start-Up Savings: Boosting Entrepreneurship through Broadband Internet, jointly issued last month, they calculated how much small businesses can save by conducting their administrative activities online. The answer: a  substantial $16,550.52.

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Tags: broadband, economic development, entrepreneurs, small business, smb, SME