Germany will unveil plans to offer at least five developing countries aid to develop Internet services and telecommunications infrastructure, government sources said today.
The sources said the public-private aid programme would network countries in eastern and southern Africa and Southeast Asia with modern telecommunications systems.
The government and German industry are to decide which countries in the three regions are to receive the aid. The plans are to be announced at next week's Group of Eight summit in Genoa.
At their last summit in Okinawa in July 2000, the G8 club of the most industrialised countries and Russia pledged to combat the growing "digital cleft" between rich and poor states and to encourage development of the Internet worldwide.
On average, 28 per cent of the population in industrialised countries had Internet access last year. In developing nations, the rate was only 1.6 per cent.
Wealthy nations, which have 15 per cent of the world's population, also have 70 per cent of the world's mobile phone users. AFP