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200 richest people can eliminate world's illiteracy: UNDP

ISLAMABAD: The assets of the world's 200 richest people are more than the combined income of 41 percent of the world's population, notes a United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) report.

A yearly contribution of one percent of their wealth, or $8 billion, could provide universal access to primary education for all, it said.

Multinationals now dwarf some government in economic power. In 1997, Ford Motor Company's sales totalled $147 billion, while the 1997 GDP of South Africa was $129 billion and the GDP of Malaysia was $98 billion.

The developing countries have 80 percent of world's population but account for less than 20 percent of global GDP, it observed.

Foreign direct investment topped at $400 billion in 1997, but 58 percent of it went to industrial countries, 37 percent to developing countries and only 5 percent to the transition economies of central and eastern Europe, it said.

Production losses resulting from the East Asian financial crisis and its global repercussions have been projected to reach $2 trillion over the period from 1998 to 2000. The crisis has resulted in millions of people losing their jobs.

Nevertheless, in East Asia per capita incomes today are at least seven times of what they were in 1960. But in sub-Saharan Africa and many least developed countries, per capita incomes are lower than they were in 1970, the report pointed out.

According to UNDP, Internet is the fastest-growing tool of communication ever. It took 38 years for radio to make 50 million users, while it took 16 years for personal computers (PCs), 13 years for television and four years for the Internet.

The number of Internet hosts Ñ computers with a direct connection Ñ rose from less than one million in 1988 to more than 36 million in 1998.

More than 143 million people were estimated to be Internet users in mid-1998 and by 2001 that number is expected to be more than 700 million.

Telephone, e-mail and the Internet give small businesses access to markets and bring much needed savings in cost and time.

The electronic commerce (e-commerce) is booming. The market was valued at $2.6 billion in 1996, and by 2002 it is expected to be more than $300 billion.

By 1998, the top 10 pesticides producers controlled 85 percent of a $31 billion global market, the UNDP noted.ÑAPP