3.3 The Digital Divide & Developing Countries protection and technological innovation. These investments are in addition to the signifi cant invest-ments already being made in next-generation mobile What are the major implications of economic stimu-lus and fi xed broadband infrastructure. plans for developing countries? Developing coun-tries have proved vulnerable to the knock-on effects Malaysia launched a RM 7 billion (US$ 1.93 billion) stimulus plan of about 1% of GDP on 4 November 2008 in response to the crisis for projects with high multiplier effects including housing, transport in-frastructure, on the economic slowdown through several chan-nels – not only from the impact of job losses, but also from declines in exports, reductions in Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), falls in local stock mar-kets public amenities, schools and hospitals. The construction sector has benefi ted the most from the stimulus plan.62 In March 2009, this stimulus was enhanced by a second tranche of RM 60 billion (US$ 16.54 billion), equivalent to almost 9% of Malaysia’s GDP, to be implemented over 2009-2010. This plan includes RM 15 billion (US$ 4.14 billion) in fi scal injections, RM 25 billion (US$ 6.89 billion) in guarantee funds, RM 10 billion (US$ 2.76 bil-lion) and collapsing global demand for commodities. According to the World Bank, the reserves of some developing countries have now reached worryingly low levels (Figure 7), suggesting that some countries have limited resources to respond to the recession. Nevertheless, some countries have launched impres-sively large stimulus plans, including Chile, China and Malaysia. for equity investments, RM 7 billion (US$ 1.93 billion) for private fi nance initiatives and RM 3 billion (US$ 0.8 billion) in tax incentives. Malaysia’s investments focus explicitly on housing, transport infrastructure and skills.63 ICT investments are not specifi cally included, probably because Malaysia has already invested heavily in universal access to ICTs over the last two decades. China’s stimulus plan of US$ 585 billion or 19% of GDP announced in November 2008 is large and aggressive. It will be used to ease credit restrictions, spend on agriculture, healthcare and social welfare services and launch an infrastructure spending pro-gramme covering ten areas, including the construc-tion of new railways, projects aimed at environmen-tal 53