Section 2 | FOUNDATIONAL FACTORS THE NATURAL ENVIRONMENT The climate and natural resources found in Myanmar affect digital divides in several ways. First, the isolated and mountainous terrain that forms the northeastern border with China and eastern border with Thailand has fewer cell towers and requires more costly investments to lay fiber-optic cables, decreasing access.76 Negotiations to build new ones must be undertaken with armed groups that have controlled parts of the area for decades, and which are run by men (with a few notable exceptions77) primarily interested in lucrative cross-border trade and content with telecom services from Chinese providers.78 Second, GoM revenue streams are closely tied to natural resource industries such as jade, copper, timber, natural gas, hydro-power, and narco-trafficking. These industries thrive in the conflict-affected border regions and feed corrupt patronage networks that depend on relationships developed under the military regime (see text box).79 While women’s meaningful access to ICTs per se is not likely a threat to these billion-dollar empires, such vested interests are competitors for lucrative infrastructure contracts and kickbacks in rural and conflict-affected border areas, and thus represent potential obstacles to closing the rural/urban divide that forms a large component of the gender digital divide in Myanmar. “Global Witness estimates that the value of official jade production in 2014 alone was well over the US$12 billion indicated by Chinese import data, and appears likely to have been as much as US$31 billion. To put it in perspective, this figure equates to 48% of Myanmar’s official GDP and 46 times government expenditure on health. Clearly, if openly, fairly and sustainably managed, this industry could transform the fortunes of the Kachin population and help drive development across Myanmar.” —Jade: Myanmar’s “Big Secret,” 2015 More generally, the fact that 70 percent of Myanmar’s population is rural means that real and perceived benefits from access and digital skills are closely linked to agricultural livelihoods. Gender differences in access, skills, and use of ICTs will increasingly affect rural women, including access to market and transportation information and better extension and financial services that may positively affect their income and resilience to climate change. For example, use of ICTs in isolated mountain communities to leverage proximity to major markets within Myanmar as well as in Thailand and China could benefit everyone, from Myanmar Centre for Responsible Business, Institute for Human Rights and Business (IHRB), and Danish Institute for Human Rights (DIHR). Myanmar ICT Sector-Wide Impact Assessment, September 2015. 77 Jessica Harriden, The Authority of Influence: Women and Power in Burmese History (Copenhagen: NIAS Press, 2012). 78 Fisher, Drugs, Money, and Wildlife. 79 Global Witness, Jade: Myanmar’s “Big State Secret” (London: Global Witness, October 2015). 76 “To improve rural access to ICTs, better coordination among government ministries is needed - for example, when new roads are built, high speed fiber optic lines should be laid.” —Urban CSO representative Ending the Gender Digital Divide in Myanmar: A Problem-Driven Political Economy Assessment | 28