An important outcome of the Fourth World Internet Conference, this book provides a comprehensive account of the status quo and trends in global Internet development. Covering network infrastructure, information technology, digital economy, e-governance, cyber security, and international cyberspace governance, it presents the Global Internet Development Index System to assess the Internet development of various major countries and emerging economies.

Why are carefully designed, sensible policies too often not adopted or implemented? When they are, why do they often fail to generate development outcomes such as security, growth, and equity? And why do some bad policies endure? World Development Report 2017: Governance and the Law addresses these fundamental questions, which are at the heart of development. Policy making and policy implementation do not occur in a vacuum. Rather, they take place in complex political and social settings, in which individuals and groups with unequal power interact within changing rules as they pursue conflicting interests. The process of these interactions is what this Report calls governance, and the space in which these interactions take place, the policy arena. The capacity of actors to commit and their willingness to cooperate and coordinate to achieve socially desirable goals are what matter for effectiveness. However, who bargains, who is excluded, and what barriers block entry to the policy arena determine the selection and implementation of policies and, consequently, their impact on development outcomes. Exclusion, capture, and clientelism are manifestations of power asymmetries that lead to failures to achieve security, growth, and equity. The distribution of power in society is partly determined by history. Yet, there is room for positive change. This Report reveals that governance can mitigate, even overcome, power asymmetries to bring about more effective policy interventions that achieve sustainable improvements in security, growth, and equity. This happens by shifting the incentives of those with power, reshaping their preferences in favor of good outcomes, and taking into account the interests of previously excluded participants. These changes can come about through bargains among elites and greater citizen engagement, as well as by international actors supporting rules that strengthen coalitions for reform.

This book provides a comprehensive review of China’s Internet development in the past 23 years since the country’s first access to the Internet, especially since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China. It offers a systematic account of China’s experience in Internet development and governance, and establishes and presents China’s Internet Development Index System, covering network infrastructure, information technology, digital economy, e-governance, cyber security, and international cyberspace governance.

This book systematically reviews world Internet development over the past 50 years, and comprehensively discusses the great contributions it has made to economic and social advances. Further, it describes the development, status and trends related to the Internet in major countries around the globe in 2019, and provides an in-depth analysis of the latest conditions, dynamics and development trends in key areas, including information infrastructure, information technology, digital economy, digital government, Internet media, cyberspace security, and international cyberspace governance. Moreover, the book further modifies and enhances the Global Internet Development Index System, in order to better show the Internet development strengths and advantages in various countries, and to reflect the global development trends more comprehensively, accurately and objectively. This book reviews the significant developments and summarizes the lessons learned as well as the future challenges. From a global perspective, it offers a vision of building a community with a shared future in cyberspace based on the new concepts, new ideas and new achievements of various countries participating in cyberspace development and construction. As such it is a valuable reference resource for anyone working in Internet related fields, such as those in government departments, internet enterprises, scientific research institutions, colleges and universities wanting to fully understand world Internet development.

This book is an important outcome of the Fifth World Internet Conference. It provides a comprehensive account of the new trends and highlights of global Internet development over the past year, covering network infrastructure, information technology, digital economy, world internet media, cyber security, and international cyberspace governance. This year, the book improves the Global Internet Development Index System and adds more countries into the assessed list, in order to reflect more comprehensively, objectively and accurately the general situation of the world Internet development and thus to provide reference for all countries in promoting Internet development and governance.

Work is constantly reshaped by technological progress. New ways of production are adopted, markets expand, and societies evolve. But some changes provoke more attention than others, in part due to the vast uncertainty involved in making predictions about the future. The 2019 World Development Report will study how the nature of work is changing as a result of advances in technology today. Technological progress disrupts existing systems. A new social contract is needed to smooth the transition and guard against rising inequality. Significant investments in human capital throughout a person’s lifecycle are vital to this effort. If workers are to stay competitive against machines they need to train or retool existing skills. A social protection system that includes a minimum basic level of protection for workers and citizens can complement new forms of employment. Improved private sector policies to encourage startup activity and competition can help countries compete in the digital age. Governments also need to ensure that firms pay their fair share of taxes, in part to fund this new social contract. The 2019 World Development Report presents an analysis of these issues based upon the available evidence.

This book systematically reviews the development process of the world Internet and comprehensively reveals the great contributions of the Internet to economic development and social progress. The world today is marked by changes unseen in a century, and Internet development is facing new opportunities and challenges. In 2020, the COVID-19 epidemic broke out and spread at the global scale, which enormously impacted the global economy and society. Internet played an increasingly important role. Meanwhile, based on the development status of the global Internet, this book fully reflects the development process, status and trend of the world Internet in 2020, systematically summarizes the development status and highlights of the Internet in the major countries around the world, and makes an in-depth analysis of the new conditions, new dynamics and new trends of the development in the key Internet fields; the contents cover the information infrastructure, information technology, digital economy, digital government, internet media, network security, and international cyberspace governance, and other aspects. Moreover, this book further adjusts and enriches the development index systems of the world Internet, in the hope of better showing the development strength and development advantages of the Internet in various countries, and reflecting the overall development trend of the world Internet more comprehensively, accurately and objectively. From an objective perspective, this book collects the latest research results in the global internet field, featuring comprehensive contents and highlights; from a historical perspective, this book reviews the significant development process of the global internet, summarizes the experience and faces the future; from a global perspective, this book tries to construct the cyberspace community with a common future based on the new concepts, new ideas and new achievements of various countries in participating in cyberspace development and construction. This book provides an important reference value for employees in Internet fields, such as government departments, Internet enterprises, scientific research institutions, colleges and universities, to fully understand and master the development of the world internet.

This book is an important outcome of the Fifth World Internet Conference. It provides a comprehensive review of China’s Internet development, especially the new practice and achievement in 2018. And it offers a systematic account of China’s experience in Internet development and governance. This year, the book improves China’s Internet Development Index System, optimizes the algorithm model, and enhances data collection, to assess and reflect Internet development more comprehensively, objectively and scientifically.

Every year, the World Bank’s World Development Report (WDR) features a topic of central importance to global development. The 2018 WDR—LEARNING to Realize Education’s Promise—is the first ever devoted entirely to education. And the time is right: education has long been critical to human welfare, but it is even more so in a time of rapid economic and social change. The best way to equip children and youth for the future is to make their learning the center of all efforts to promote education. The 2018 WDR explores four main themes: First, education’s promise: education is a powerful instrument for eradicating poverty and promoting shared prosperity, but fulfilling its potential requires better policies—both within and outside the education system. Second, the need to shine a light on learning: despite gains in access to education, recent learning assessments reveal that many young people around the world, especially those who are poor or marginalized, are leaving school unequipped with even the foundational skills they need for life. At the same time, internationally comparable learning assessments show that skills in many middle-income countries lag far behind what those countries aspire to. And too often these shortcomings are hidden—so as a first step to tackling this learning crisis, it is essential to shine a light on it by assessing student learning better. Third, how to make schools work for all learners: research on areas such as brain science, pedagogical innovations, and school management has identified interventions that promote learning by ensuring that learners are prepared, teachers are both skilled and motivated, and other inputs support the teacher-learner relationship. Fourth, how to make systems work for learning: achieving learning throughout an education system requires more than just scaling up effective interventions. Countries must also overcome technical and political barriers by deploying salient metrics for mobilizing actors and tracking progress, building coalitions for learning, and taking an adaptive approach to reform.