World Dialogue on Regulation

Relating to Heek’s Suggestion 4 about ‘incubating new enterprises’, I would include ‘incubating social enterprises and cooperatives’.

By way of example, Digital Divide Data in Cambodia (and now Laos) is the largest data entry employer in Cambodia, catering mainly to a US market. It is a social enterprise, totally committed to development goals (see www.digitaldividedata.org). Such enterprises have a specific development dividend beyond the conventional.

A further point concerns conditions for facilitating community driven ICT cooperatives. With low cost wireless and other technologies it makes sense for some poor communities in underserved areas to build their own service provision cooperative enterprises, providing low-cost telephony, ICT and internet access, even community radio and other services.