This is a very interesting question. Before digging into details, we need to find out how ICT and economic development interact. That is "What Impacts What?"

Hi Khalid, you may want to take a look at the work that the International Development Research Center (IDRC) carried out in the field of ICTs for Development. There is plenty of case studies, a full book and short communication pieces you may want to take a look at. And you may contact the team directly in case you need anything more. Cheers!

http://www.idrc.ca/EN/Resources/Publications/Collections/ICT4D/Pages/default.aspx

Dear Khalid,

try the following articles, which deal with the application of ICT in developing contries. In my opinion, there are several hints in the articles / research papers, how to apply ICT in an appropriate way.

Also in my opinion, the current state of research clarifies, that the main stream of researching ICT is focussed on the frame conditions of developed countries. I guess, the cause of this circumstance is at first, ICT was developed, introduced and evaluated in industrialised countries and secondly, ICT is connected with a normative frame, consisting of western values and the idea, that economic growth has to work in the way, western-industrialised countries have gone. In the opposite, you have to consider, there's a great need to compare economic growth worldwide. It therefore follows that the appropriate conceptualization of ICT for developing contries has also to include the possibility to compare national economies worldwide. So far, a few general considerations, that are important from my point of view. Here are the articles:

Walsham, G. and Sahay, S. (2006): Research on information systems in developing countries: Current landscape and future prospects. Inform. Techno. Dev, 12: 7–24.doi: 10.1002/itdj.20020.

Ndou, V. (2004): E-Government for Developing Countries. Opportunities and Challenges. In: Electronic Journal of Information Systems in Developing Countries Electronic Journal of Information Systems in Developing Countries, Vol. 18, 1, 1-24.

Avgerou, C. (2008): Information systems in developing countries: a critical research review. In: Journal of Information Technology (2008) 23, 133–146 doi:10.1057/palgrave.jit.2000136

Addison, Tony and Heshmati, Almas (2003) : The new global determinants

of FDI flows to developing countries: The importance of ICT and democratization, WIDER Discussion Papers // World Institute for Development Economics (UNU-WIDER), No. 2003/45, ISBN 9291904775.

Aker, J.C. (2010): Dial “A” for Agriculture: Using Information and Communication Technologies for Agricultural Extension in Developing Countries.

Mukoko, B. (2012): Determinants of Computer and Internet Adoption and Use in

Cameroon. In: African Review of Economics and Finance, Vol. 3, No.2, 2012, pp. 96 - 128.

Chandrasekhar, C.P. (2001): ICT in a Developing Country Context: An Indian Case Study.

Wolf, S. (2001): Determinants and Impact of ICT use for African SMEs: Implications for Rural South Africa.

Matambalya, F. and Wolf, S. (2001): The Role of ICT for the Performance of SMEs

in East Africa. Empirical Evidence from Kenya and Tanzania.

Chinn, M.D. and Fairlie, R.W. (2006): ICT Use in the Developing World. An Analysis of Differences in Computer and Internet Penetration.

Avgerou, C. (2003): The link between ICT and economic growth in the discourse of development. Originally published in Korpela, Mikko; Montealegre, Ramiro and Poulymenakou, Angeliki (eds) (2003) Organizational information systems in the context of globalization. New York, USA : Springer, pp. 373-386.

Mansell, R. (2001): Digital opportunities and the missing link for developing countries. Oxford review of economic policy, 17 (2). pp. 282-295. ISSN 0266-903X

DOI: 10.1093/oxrep/17.2.282

Khorshid, M. and El-Sadek, A. (2012): A Multi-sector ICT Economy Interaction Model for Egypt: the Path to Information Society.

Richardson, J. (2009): Diffusion of technology adoption in Cambodia: The test of a theory. In: International Journal of Education and Development using Information and Communication Technology. (IJEDICT), 2009, Vol. 5, Issue 3, pp. 157-171.

Hamel, J.Y. (2010): ICT4D and the Human Development and Capability Approach:

The Potentials of Information and Communication Technology. Human Development

Research Paper 2010/37.

Last not least: There are many articles under the website of: United Nations Development Programme Human Development Reports, see: http://hdr.undp.org/en/search/node/ICT

So I hope my hints are valuable for your research project!

Good luck and kind regards!

Detlef

http://oxrep.oxfordjournals.org/content/17/2/282

http://ecomod.net/system/files/EcoMod_12_Motaz_Khorshid.docx

http://ijedict.dec.uwi.edu/include/getdoc.php?id=4281&article=720&mode=pdf

http://hdr.undp.org/sites/default/files/hdrp_2010_37.pdf

http://hdr.undp.org/en/search/node/ICT

Dear Khalid,

Although Detlef Brem has explained it in very detail but I would like to talk about another important issue, ICT does not guarantee that it has made the process effective but it only automates (speed up) the process. So, we can't say only implementation of ICT is the surety that economy of any country will be improved.

UNCTAD has a dedicated program on this issue. You can check its Science, Technology & Innovation and ICTs branch on:

http://unctad.org/en/Pages/DTL/Science-Technology-and-ICT-Branch.aspx

I would urge you to look a the literature from Economic History, in particular the work by Robert Fogel estimating the affects of the Railroad on U.S. economic development in the 19th century.  The U.S. at the time could be thought of as a developing economy, and the framework of "social saving' that Fogel identifies is a useful analytical technique that has been widely used to evaluate the effects of particular technologies on economic development in a number of contexts.

Here is a link to a brief discussion in Wikipedia with further references http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_savings

I think massive use of ICT is both a result of and a driving force of economic development. Whether it is more a result or a driving force is depending on the stage of economic development.

Taking China as an example: in the early stage of economic development, there was no such thing called ICT in China. The economic development making people became richer and richer and then started to purchase ICT products. Therefore, in the early stage of economic development, ICT was a result of economic development instead of a driving force.

In last decade or so, there has been a significant economic development in China and the demand of ICT related products has been increased. The investment to ICT and the economic contribution of ICT industry was increased too. Therefore, ICT was both a result and driving force of economic development.

In recent years, China is starting to invest in ICT (both hardware and software development) from both large and small companies. Taking mobile phones companies as example, you can see big giants, like Lenovo, Huawei and ZTE while you can also see many new and smaller companies, such as Xiaomi, Coolpad and many others. Therefore, in the later stages of economic development, ICT is more a driving force instead of a result of economic development.

Reading the discussion - few issues came to my mind. First - regarding such issues like detecting the impact of e.g. ICT on economic growth/development - I always recommend country-specific approach. Bearing in mind that countries vary essentialy in terms of e.g. culture, religion and predominantly - institution and legal regulations, it is highly questionable to test such impact - implementing panel regressions (with multiple countries included). And, above all, we shall remember that the 'Solow`s productivity paradox' may work also this time, and significant time delays may reveal regarding the impact of ICT on national economy. 

Important question. In my recent study based on Sri Lanka (which is developing country), I found that measuring the economic impact of ICT is quite difficult due to many reasons.

1. Lack of suitable criteria - It is questionable the suitability of the criteria and definitions used to measure the ICT  and economic impact. Eg. ICT literacy, usage

2. Not availability of Information - Many developing countries including Sri Lanka do not collect such information. Implementing a data base like OECD would be helpful in this.

3. Lack of willingness to reveal information - During my study, I found out that many organizations were not willing to provide information, because of the sensitivity of data and simply because of not interest in the out come of collecting data.

For developing countries, finding solutions for these would be very much beneficial.