The digital divide, the gap between people with access to global telecommunications and those without, is at the centre of attention of the Asian governments.
Some researchers argue that the digital divide between the North and the South is a serious issue.
In addition, we need to consider various gaps among advanced countries and also within each country. Others insist that the digital divide issue should be discussed with regard to social classes across national boundaries and not between countries or between the North and the South. In China, for example, the number of regular Internet users, currently nearly 20 million, is doubling every six months. According to the International Telecommunications Union, fewer than two in ten thousand Cambodians and Vietnamese use the Internet, while nearly 3,000 out of every 10,000 Singaporeans do so. Even more sobering is the fact that of the more than 300 million people connected to the Web in the world today, only 3.2 million, or less than 1 percent, are in Southeast Asia.