U.N. names Costa Rican to new technology post

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) -- U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan on Monday appointed the former president of Costa Rica, Jose Maria Figueres, to lead its effort in bringing the latest communications technologies to the undeveloped world.

Figueres, who promoted the use of digital technologies to help develop his country, will head the Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) Advisory Group, made up of technology experts from both the public and private sector.

The advisory group, created in response to the growing "digital divide" between rich and poor nations, will work through the beginning of 2001 to map out areas where the public and private sectors can introduce the latest communications technologies to the undeveloped world.

From an economic standpoint, Figueres said the undeveloped communications markets were vastly greater than those in the developed world, about an 80 percent to 20 percent split, and that the private sector would be making "an upfront investment in developing markets of the future."

"It is a tremendous opportunity for a win-win situation between the public and private sector," Figueres said via a video teleconference from Geneva to reporters in New York.

Figueres, mindful that introducing the new technology could be construed as globalization run amok, said the purpose was to extract value out of the technology rather than simply extract value out of the people that use it.

Public sector participants hail from Brazil, China, Estonia, Russia, Spain and the United States, among others.

Participating corporations include Cisco Systems Inc., maker of communications networking equipment; computer equipment maker, Hewlett-Packard Co.; and Finnish cell phone maker Nokia.

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