Third world debt Vs Need for Technology :: Business and Management Studies

Third world debt Vs Need for Technology Background and underlying concepts: Many developing countries have very large debts accumulated since the 80’s, and the amount of money that they owe is quickly increasing dramatically. Trying to pay off these debts has become a serious problem for these countries, as they now owe money to commercial banks and also to organisations like the World Bank, and the International Monetary Fund, and to First World governments. During the last fifteen years around $1.3 trillion was paid by the third world countries to the developed countries in the form of loan repayments and interest on the loans. Every month around $12 billion is passed on from economically poor counties to the developed countries in debt servicing. In sub-Saharan Africa, some countries spend almost half their national budget on financing debt owed to the rich western nations. This is the reason why these counties cannot invest in technology to develop their own country. The technology market is vast industry that is always changing with time. It is estimated that around 5.5 billion people do not have access to technology such as the Internet, as computer are to expensive for these people. While over half of the UK households are online, only 0.1% of homes in Bangladesh and India have access to the Internet. As this was a huge concern a company based in India produce a low cost handheld computer named ‘Simputer’. The device would only cost around $240. The device would enable people or a village to access the Internet and perform transaction and any other information that would be accessible via the Internet. Villages tended to by these as it help educate the kids within these villages. Current Situation: Figures published by the World Bank shows that the total external debt per country is as follows. * Indonesia $132.2bn * India $104.4bn * Thailand $59.2bn * Malaysia $48.6bn * Sri Lanka $9.6bn * Somalia $2.7bn * Seychelles $560m * Maldives $270m The annual repayment cost for theses countries are as follows: * Indonesia $13.7bn * India $13bn * Thailand $17.9bn * Sri Lanka $653m * Maldives $20.8m In Africa the debt crises is so bad that around 315 million Africans live on less than $1 a day. The G7 minister are planning to cancel up to 100% of the debt owed, this would mean that around 37 developing counties would benefit from this proposed scheme. According to the JDC (Jubilee Debt Campaign), only $36.3bn, or less than 10%, of debt has been cancelled to date. Pakistan has paid off most of its debt that was owed to US. This was done the incentives given by the American government and its allies in