Internet penetration into economies around the world has been shown to be spotty at best. Yet, electronic commerce has been identified as the engine behind the growth of wealth and social development. It is forecasted to remain a driving force behind economic growth in the foreseeable future. National leaders of the Big 8 conference in Okinawa, Japan in June 2000 were vowing to eliminate, or at least reduce the "digital divide" plaguing some nations limiting their economic development. This paper examines the effects of high technology on economic activity in nations around the world. It examines commonalities among nations, which remain economically and technologically backward and attempts to highlight the prerequisites to reaping the benefits of technology, specifically of information technology and electronic commerce. The authors discuss whether technologically backward regions should investment in high technology to leapfrog into the future and to sudden wealth.