ICT as general purpose technology

In that sense I’m not optimistic. Because there is no wonder panacea that if you do that, that suddenly everything will start expanding and be different. It is not changing infrastructure. The problems with infrastructure are still there. The whole road system of Tanzania has been laid down by the Japanese. They came in and put in good roads. And seven years after they washed away, or much of it has washed away, and you have to start all over again. And here, creating a culture of maintenance, which is a cultural element, both of local people and of international organisations. The World Bank loves to fund big projects, investment projects, because they’re visible and they can go to their… whoever they talk to and say: “We built this big dam or this big road”, but new things is always nicer than putting money into the weekly or monthly upkeep of the old roads. Too much funds have been invested in new infrastructure. And this is not an ICT-question. This is another fundamental, and it’s a tremendous problem all over Africa, this non-maintenance of infrastructure. So that in itself will… Even though ICT affects many areas, and will make things more transparent; if you vote by computer, it’s harder to cheat than if you put your finger in a bottle of ink. And the transparency, yes, it’s true… but if these other things don’t change, then it won’t be something magical which starts off by itself.