The road less travelled : a critical reflection on infrastructure development in Africa from a perspective of the new economics of information
Year: 2011
Type: article
Abstract: Many developed countries claim today the status of knowledge societies, since they have \ninvested heavily in human capacity building as well as in the development of an efficient \ninformation infrastructure that is supported by a physical infrastructure comprising a \nnetwork of roads, railways, airports and harbours. For many countries on the African \ncontinent this has become a highway less travelled, as these countries lack efficient and \ncost-effective information infrastructure development. This goes (in many cases) hand in \nhand with an inability to benefit economically from the application of modern information \nand communication technology (ICT). However, it has become imperative that information \ninfrastructure investment should go hand in hand with aggressive physical infrastructure \ndevelopment. Africa will only bear the economic fruit of investment in information \ntechnology if it is supported by the further development of its roads, railways, airports \nand harbours. Without these there can be very little economic progress.
Authors: Marlene Holmner, Johannes Britz
Institution: University of Pretoria
Language: English
Topic: ICT Impact and Policies
Subfield: Economics and Econometrics
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2118881576