Poverty does not simply affect matters in the material world but also in the digital world. Filling the "digital gap" has been a challenge in efforts to lift global poverty, says an article of People's Daily. Excerpts:

The International Telecommunication Union's latest report shows about 4.5 billion people, two thirds of the world's population, cannot use the Internet, thus creating a "digital gap".

This gap brings about challenges for developing countries, causing them to be weaker in the international market. Also, more and more people exist in an informational dark age, which makes money-making opportunities harder to come by.

The unfair distribution of global wealth creates an unfair distribution of information around the world. Poverty does not only mean the lack of material wealth, but also the lack of information. The widening digital gap will aggravate the difficulty for developing countries to pursue sustainable development.

In recent years, the international community has made remarkable progress in lifting poverty in less-developed countries. The International Monetary Fund and World Bank even plan to eliminate extreme poverty by 2030.

Poverty in the information and communication fields must be addressed around the world in order to empower less-developed countries and give them the tools to stand on their own.

Countries of thriving economic status should stop marginalizing impoverished countries and monopolizing information, and the world should begin to work together to diminish the digital gap.