Monday May 19, 2008
WCIT 2008: Using ICT to improve lives
KUALA LUMPUR: Chipmaker Intel Corp has teamed-up with Bangladesh-based Grameen Trust to form a business venture that will utilise ICT (information and communications technology) to address socio-economic problems among impoverished citizens.
Intel will provide the technology know-how while Grameen will bring its extensive experience in creating economic development and income-generation opportunities at the village level, into the collaboration.
According to Intel chairman Craig Barret, technology offers the means to scale-up efforts for global change and progress. “By creating buisness models based on ICT, as Intel is doing with Grameen, we can bring people the tools they need to improve their future,” he said.
Such tools are necessary if we want to eradicate poverty, offer better healthcare, and improve education among the impoverished.
Already, some remote villages can receive medical attention via the Internet while other rural communities can order medicine online instead of travelling 10km or more to a hospital.
The Intel-Grameen initiative will be launched in Bangladesh soon. It is based on the “social business” model created by Nobel Prize winner Dr Muhammad Yunus, who founded the Grameen Bank in 1976 to promote micro-financing and community development.
“Once we have this business model working in Bangladesh, we hope the success we achieve there can be applied to the rest of the developing world,” said Dr Muhammad in a videotaped presentation at WCIT 2008. — ZAM KARIM
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