This advanced Information and Telecommunications system is intended to replace the current malfunctioning system, which is based on mass production and mass consumption. The new system will lead to a wave of reforms, which may be collectively referred to as a “digital revolution,” that will broaden economic frontiers, eliminate the need for high-cost structures, revitalize regional societies, and enable people to live more freely and affluently.
The recent global increase in the use of the Internet and electronic mail, the spread of portable remote information terminals such as mobile phones, and the emergence of global mobile radio communication systems, networks for various sectors of the economy and society are appearing and expanding at a rate that was not foreseen. “We are in the midst of a paradigm shift that will create a whole new set of values. In order to solve this problem, and hoist the country on the path of greater technological and overall socio-economic development as well as create a new lease of life for the citizenry, a planned increase in penetration of telecommunications services has been seen as a welcome development for national growth.
It will be virtually impossible for any group of people to define their collective identities or make decisions about their common and binding interests, without communications. Communication networks make society a reality. It makes it possible for people to cooperate, to produce and exchange commodities, to share ideas and information and to assist one another in times of need. The advance information and communication society with a new socio-economic system whereby the people can realize free creation, circulation and sharing of information and knowledge (the products of human intellectual activities) and harmonize daily life, culture, industry, economy, nature and the environment. Science and Technology have become critical factors of economic and social development.
Through their application, it has become possible to harness the forces of nature and to transform the raw material resources with which nature endows man into goods and services for better quality of life. Indeed, the extent to which a nation is committed to this awareness and integrates science and technology practice into the socio-cultural activities of its people marks the difference between developed, developing and under-developed nations. The developed world has attained technological sophistry, by exploiting science and technology to create wealth, save human energy and provide technical services.
A country like Japan which has very little natural resources but depends on importation of raw materials from other countries has, through efficient application of science and technologies transformed these materials into goods and services and now dominate world markets. On the other hand, the developing countries have economies which are very dependent on the industrialized world, because they have not on their own been able to adequately use science and technology to exploit their natural resources. They possess abundant resources but lack adequate scientific and technological know-how to transform them into goods and services.
