The much expected Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Development Index has been released by the global telecommunication regulator, the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) with Korea scaling top of the ladder, while Nigeria is 122th among the selected economies as at 2010.
Apart from missing in the global ranking of Fixed (Wired)
broadband subscription by speed and selected economies within the period under
review, Nigeria came behind Ghana and India as well as Indonesia who ranked
120, 116 and 101 in that order.
However, with the Republic of Korea leading the pack on this
index released under a theme: Measuring the Information Society, ITU stated
that Sweden, Finland, Switzerland, United Kingdom, Japan, Austria, Germany,
United States and Canada.
The aforementioned were ranked 2, 5, 8, 10, 13, 14, 15, 17
and 26 in that order.
ITU said, the latest figures released at the weekend showed
that information and communication technology (ICT) uptake continues to
accelerate worldwide, spurred by a steady fall in the price of telephone and
broadband Internet services.
The new data, released in ITU’s flagship annual ICT report
‘Measuring the Information Society 2011’, ranked the Republic of Korea as the
world’s most advanced ICT economy, followed by Sweden, Iceland, Denmark and
Finland.
A key feature of the report is the ICT Development Index
(IDI), which ranks 152 countries according to their level of ICT access, use
and skills, and compares 2008 and 2010 scores.
Most countries at the
top, ITU noted the ranking were from Europe and Asia Pacific in addition to the
United Arab Emirates and Russia ranking first within their respective regions
and Uruguay coming highest in South America.
ITU measurement indicated that Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Viet
Nam, and Russia were some of the most dynamic countries between 2008 and 2010,
with all of them making substantial improvements in their IDI ranks.
“All countries included in the IDI improved their scores
this year,” ITU stated, which underlines the increasing pervasiveness of ICTs
in today’s global information society.
“While the IDI leaders are all from the developed world, it
is extremely encouraging to see that the most dynamic performers are developing
countries,” said Dr Hamadoun Touré, ITU Secretary-General.
He added that the ‘mobile miracle’ is putting ICT services
within reach of even the most disadvantaged people and communities.
“Our challenge now is to replicate that success in
broadband,” he declared.
ITRealms Online gathered that this report showed that while
ICT and income levels are closely related, getting the right public policy mix
could drive faster take-up and a number of countries, including Australia,
Japan, New Zealand and the Republic of Korea have higher IDI levels than their
income level would predict.
ITU also stated that the IDI combined 11 indicators into a
single measure that could be used as a benchmarking tool globally, regionally,
and at national level, as well as helping track progress in ICT development
over time.
“It measures ICT access, use and skills, and includes such
indicators as mobile cellular subscriptions, households with a computer, fixed
and mobile broadband Internet subscriptions, and basic literacy rates,” ITU
said.
For the first time this year, the report stated that the
IDI’s ‘ICT use’ sub-index grew more than the ‘ICT access’ sub-index, reflecting
the fact that many countries have reached saturation levels in terms of basic
ICT infrastructure and are becoming active ICT users.
Remmy Nweke
ITREALMS Online ... delivering news for ICT4D
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