When you see Kofi Annan, Secretary General of the United Nations, a predominantly political international body, personally attend IT seminars, congresses and conferences you realize that IT is truly a global issue (as if there was a doubt). The minds of the world’s leaders have met and they have all reached the belief that this phenomenon serves to bestow upon humanity a better tomorrow. This unanimous decision also alludes to a new round of competition in the international arena. These new rivalries will no longer take a military, political, or even economic form; rather they will be embodied in IT and Information Communication Technology (ICT). He who wields the most IT and ICT is the most powerful. Since the end of World War II and the 1950s science, technology and minds have become the most strategic resources of any country. What we see today as Europe (especially France, Germany, England and Italy) and America is the construction of elite groups during the decades following WWII. Since the educated and elite have been running countries the world has seen fewer wars, and has witnessed the end of the Cold War and its subsequent disarmament and the IT boom of the 1990s. The world is still in hot pursuit of these developments.

How hot is this pursuit you ask? Just consider the growth of the internet from 1997 to 2002. In 1997 only 82 million people were connected to the web. Come 1998 and that figure has risen to 111 million, 1999 – 141 million, at the turn of the millennium 177 million were connected, by 2001 231 million were connected and at the end of 2002 the World Wide Web had a whooping 316 million users worldwide. Another statistic worth mentioning is the relationship between IT investment and gross domestic production (GDP). Whenever investments take place in the IT sector the GDP experiences a disproportionate boost of 70% more than the invested amount. IT is also a great job-creator. It not only creates jobs quickly, but also creates them in great numbers.

These statistics have contributed to the push seen in the last two decades for the establishing of development centers in countries like France and China in order to attract IT elites. This has led to the brain drain experience in the 1990s which has dealt a severe blow to the elite-owning countries –and was continuously exacerbated until 2000. These development centers would attract bright minds with a knowledge that was about to bud as a technique, which would be immediately applied to industry, economy, culture or where ever it could be applied. Suddenly these people were worth millions of dollars for the countries they immigrated to. For example Canada had 400,000 elites in 2001 which were worth $400 billion –a handsome figure indeed. These development centers were set up in China, France, England and Japan by companies that employed the immigrants in their IT departments. Today China has some 105 development centers while Iran has only one.

So investment in IT increases a country’s per capita income and GDP, creates new job opportunities and gathers elites that are a country’s most valuable asset. The strategic policy the world pursues today is to expand and upgrade its human resources, which is possible mainly through IT and ICT. In America for example, since the 1980s and 90s these IT-centered upgrades have been implemented in their macro –rather than micro– policies. The official line was that if any development is to occur in the U.S. it is only possible through IT. Previously IT development was considered an advancement in electronics and industry, but today its stretches through all sectors to an extent that in the 1990s America claims that IT constitutes part of its national security considerations. This indicates the value powerful countries attach to this phenomenon.

But to cite an example from the developing countries we can turn to Malaysia, who has centered its national socioeconomic policy on IT since 1995. This indicates the progress they have made in educating their population and in norm and culture creating. Activities in Iran, in contrast, have all been periodical and case specific. There has been no comprehensive national plan rather it has been a single company, a newspaper, an executive body or a university. Different organs have taken their own decisions and have often moved parallel with each other, both doing the same work and ending up in the same place (rather than their efforts having a cumulative effect).

In 1995 Iran should have educated 3% of its society, 5% of its companies, 10% of its government bodies and universities to use IT. But what really happened was a university professor educated abroad or an enthusiastic graduate or a leading merchant or businessman who has seen the system at work elsewhere would start applying IT because of his\her personal experience. This in turn led to the emergence of a few digital companies and the offering of computer courses and gradually the utilization of the internet. All of this was happening without a national plan, but the need for one was being increasingly felt –not on a national level but on a personal, professional and economic level. This led to the codification of a process that consisted of three levels: populace education, foundation creation and application.

After WWII when Europe created its development centers, these centers were made up of three groups: elites, policymakers and executives. The elites would say what knowledge, ideas and strategies they had; the policymakers would lay out these statements in the form of policy and plans while the executives would publicize and implement them. In effect this educated the populace. However, foundation creation was more than just setting up networks and facilities and included the enactment of rules and regulations, laws and legislation. While the populace is being educated new laws must be enacted to implement the education. At the application level ideal companies and communities are identified as well as allowing for such things as borderless networks, virtual medical treatment, multi-purpose identity cards and paperless schools. When this three level process is successfully applied an electronic society will emerge. In such a society everything you use in your day to day life will have an electronic feature: e-banks, e-mail, e-commerce, e-libraries, etc.

All this amounts to an opportunity for countries like Iran, but also a threat. The threat is that if we do not embrace an e-society our elites will go elsewhere and we will continue to experience the current crippling brain drain.

Nowadays any Iranian graduating with a degree in electricity, electronics or computers will be immediately employed and there will still be a 25% shortage of workers. This shortage is further exacerbated by the foreign electronic market that attracts Iranian workers abroad. This is still happening despite the fact that Iran has started to implement the "three level process" through the Ministry of Post, Telegraph and Telephone. Iran now has a comprehensive IT plan which addresses its policies, resources, responsibilities, plans and challenges. Obviously some of these policies and plans need to be enacted and embodied in legislation, and this is where Parliament comes into it. The government in its 2002-2003 budget allocated a considerable amount for the creation of internet networks in Iran and did the same in its 2003-2004 budget with a higher figure. It is now mandatory for universities, scientific and cultural centers to be connected to the internet. This means that the required education, facilitation and financing will also be met by the government.

The government will soon be having a few bills for IT purposes before parliament. Parliament has established committees and specialized commissions to address these very concerns and the Management and Planning Organization has been in contact with the Ministry of Science to develop jobs consistent with new technologies. There is also a fund allocated for the establishing of European-style development centers which, as mentioned before, will create jobs, attract elites and bring new IT. At the moment the market desperately needs an IT trained workforce and no matter how many apply, there will still be more positions to be filled.