All developing countries can begin to take part in the Information Revolution that is sweeping through the industrialized world. The initial investment is not large, according to Peter Knight, chief of the World Bank's Electronic Media Center.

The new technology can help leapfrog over some of the current stumbling blocks to development. The alternative is to fall even further behind in the creation of a viable economy and to become an ever more marginal player in world affairs, Knight says.

Question: Will the Information Age be of benefit to developing countries? Can they profit from it when sophisticated equipment and sophisticated skills are necessary for information technology?

Knight: The information revolution is really a two-edged sword. It offers tremendous potential for catch-up for countries that are able to surf (ride the crest of) this technological wave, which is really one of the great waves of the 20th Century.

Those that cannot ride the wave are threatened with falling far behind; and if they are far behind now, they will become further marginalized and left out. That is the greatest threat and the greatest opportunity in Africa, for example.

It is the least developed continent, the least connected continent, and it's lagging on virtually every development indicator. And yet what do these new technologies offer? They are bringing down the cost of storing, processing, and transmitting information, knowledge, even wisdom. That makes the world's knowledge base accessible to every person on this globe.

However, to mobilize the resources and the vision to "get on the wave," so to speak, requires visionary leadership, it requires international help, and it is not an easy thing to achieve.

Q: Are there examples of developing countries that have been able to take advantage of the information revolution?

Knight: In terms of the really revolutionary things, I don't think there are countries that have yet really done this. You can find pieces of countries where there are certain policies and programs that are exemplary of what could be done. But I don't think any of the least developed countries is mobilizing itself, trying to take advantage of the learning potential of accessing the world's knowledge base and building new learning systems, mobilizing international resources to help them do this, and then translating it into massive programs, community information and learning centers.

You have to understand that the Internet was not heard about a lot before the late-1980s, although it had been around before then. Now we've had this acceleration of connectivity. In Africa, only 13 sub-Saharan countries have a full Internet connection, and, for the most part, they are not very broad-based connections, the major exception being South Africa.

This potential is really looming up now, and we see the ability to use connectivity, electronic connectivity to connect people wherever they may be to the most advanced sources of knowledge and information.

Q: What prerequisites are necessary for a developing country to enter the information revolution? Isn't the information revolution for people who have technical skills?

Knight: We're talking about learning systems, and right now a lot of the learning systems are pretty primitive. With wireless technologies, meaning satellites and cellular telephone systems and so forth, there is the possibility of bringing the "world's knowledge base" even to remote, rural areas.

Now, how to get the right knowledge into the right minds, that's something that is an organizational problem. It's a political problem, it's a regulatory problem; it's more that than a technological problem or even a financial problem. Resources are likely to flow in this direction where there are, let's say, good business plans and investment opportunities.

I'm not trying to minimize the difficulties, but there is capital waiting to be invested in telecommunications systems that will bring down sharply the cost of access to information and knowledge.

Q: What can get the capital flowing into developing countries?

Knight: It really involves partnerships of all kinds. It's partnership between business and the public sector, which needs to establish a regulatory framework and what we call an "information-friendly environment" in which private capital can work. Business has to have an appropriate regulatory framework.

We in the World Bank are thinking about proposing a major international effort to work together with African leaders and people to develop what they call "Africa's Information Society Initiative." The initiative is a set of proposals, and a vision of the future that has been elaborated by African experts in Africa and which has been endorsed by ministers responsible for planning and development but which is a long way from being converted into reality.

It is an attempt to bring together the world's knowledge and financial technical and other resources to design and operate and implement the kind of revolution to help countries that are really badly lagging catch up. This is not a simple task, but it's one that is, I think, feasible. It's something that could mobilize attention, and there has been considerable leadership showed, for example, by South Africa.

Q: Has the Bank been lending specifically for Information Age projects?

Knight: That's something that's in evolution. I think the Bank is moving away from direct finance of telecommunications. It was never a very large part of our total, but I think the feeling in the Bank is that the private sector is the most appropriate source of funding for this, and that there is a lot of capital ready and eager to flow into investments in the telecommunications sector. Our goal is more to help develop what we call an "information-friendly environment," a regulatory framework that will encourage the flow of capital, both domestic and foreign, rather than retard it, as is the case in many countries today.

Q: What is the cost of information technology and training?

Knight: In the case of Internet connectivity, to get started, -- I'm not saying to build a whole national information infrastructure -- one doesn't need a huge investment. For less than the price of one MIG-29 or F-16 moderately well equipped, one can virtually put a connection into every sub-Saharan African country lacking one and provide training, free connectivity for a year or so, maybe do just about everything except pay the local staff.

So we're not talking about huge amounts of money. These investments can be made on the order of $500,000 to get started. It's not a national information infrastructure; that's going to be much, much more. But it's very important to get started and establish this connectivity and to start reaching out into the different application areas and get outside the national capital.

Q: Which countries have taken the lead in beginning to build an information infrastructure?

Knight: I have picked Brazil, Russia, and South Africa as three countries that have a tremendous potential. They have it for reasons sometimes that have more to do with military than with civilian reasons, but it's there, and there is an opportunity for conversion in building the 21st Century learning systems and telecommunications systems that could point the way for other countries. These countries could then be sources of support.

Jerry Stilkind writes on information and other global issues for the U.S. Information Agency.