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Leapfrogging Technologies by Developing Countries
Anneke Zwart, Student (University), Netherlands, Member
Leapfrogging is a way for developing countries to benefit from earlier skills and advancements of the developed world by skipping altogether a technological stage. For example, many developing countries have implemented mobile technologies by going wireless directly while skipping 20th-century fixed-line technologies.
LIMITS OF LEAPFROGGING
However, there seem to be limits to the success of leapfrogging new technologies by developing countries. An example of a failing leapfrogging project can be found in Ethiopia, where the country aimed to provide all Ethiopian hospitals with internet connections. It turned out that the need to invest in more basic needs in hospitals made the project quite irrelevant at the time. As a result, the project was abandoned.
This example brings forward the following question: Should investments of developing countries rather be spent to the more basic needs that are often lacking in the developing world, such as schoolrooms, basic forms of infrastr (...) Read more? Sign up for free
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Rick Mueller
