DOHA, Mar 10:–Investments in information and communication technologies (ICT) in developing countries will reach 100 billion dollars annually over the next five years, the World Bank said in a report released yesterday, reports AFP.

The report, titled "The World Bank's Information and Communications for Development 2006," also urged developing countries to involve the private sector in providing information and communication technologies.

"The report shows that completing the transition to well- regulated and competitive service provision remains the foundation of exploiting ICT for development," the World Bank's Mohsen Khalil told a news conference on the sidelines of a conference on telecommunications development in Doha.

"But there is still some way to go considering for example that nearly half of the world's countries retain monopolies on fixed local and international service provision, making the costs of Internet connectivity exceedingly high and unaffordable", said Khalil, director of the World Bank Group's Global ICT Department.

The report said that the opening of the ICT sector to private capital brought an influx of foreign investment into developing countries.

According to the report, foreign investments in 122 of the 154 developing countries jumped from two billion to 35 billion dollars annually between 1990 and 2003.

It expected investments in ICT in developing countries to shoot up to 100 billion dollars annually over the next five years.

The report also said that a World Bank study in 56 developing countries showed that firms using ICT were growing faster, investing more and making more profits.

The report was released on the sidelines of the conference on telecommunications development which opened Tuesday with the ambitious goal of helping to bridge the digital divide between the northern and southern hemispheres.

More than 1,000 delegates from 198 countries are meeting until March 15 in Doha to discuss how to connect the entire world with voice and data technologies by the year 2015, which is a goal of the UN's International Telecommunications Union (ITU). The ITU has co-sponsored the Doha meet with the Qatari government.