Country rises in ICT use ranking

THE PHILIPPINES has moved up in a World Economic Forum (WEF) ranking that measures the capacity of countries to use technology to improve economic growth and social well-being.

After staying in 86th over the past three years, the country climbed eight rungs to 78th out of 148 economies in terms of network readiness, according to the WEF’s 2014 Global Information Technology Report.

The network readiness index assesses how prepared an economy is to apply the benefits of information and communications technologies (ICTs) to increase productivity, economic growth, and the number of quality jobs.

The improvement in the Philippines standing was driven by good showings in the following subindices: environment (up one to 90th), readiness (up 38 to 81st), usage (up 15 to 76th), and impact (up 10 to 62nd).

The environment subindex evaluates the friendliness of an economy’s market and regulatory framework in supporting high ICT uptake levels.

The readiness subindex, meanwhile, looks at how prepared a society is make good use of an affordable ICT infrastructure and digital content.

The usage subindex assesses the efforts of individuals, businesses, and government to increase their capacity to use ICTs, while the impact subindex gauges the broad economic and social impact of such technologies.

“A significant improvement in the perceived efficiency in the country’s legal system and property rights protection drive the political and regulatory environment ... ICT readiness is the other area where the Philippines improves the most, thanks to a more affordable access to ICT infrastructure and better skills...,” the report said.

“Business usage is, as in many other Asian economies, at a more advanced stage than individual usage. Progress made in terms of economic impacts registered last year continues this year [and] the role of ICTs in fostering innovation by creating new products and services and organizational models is confirmed and contributes to this promising result.”

Finland topped the list for the second consecutive year, followed by Singapore, Sweden, the Netherlands, Norway, Switzerland, the United States, Hong Kong, the United Kingdom, and South Korea.

Chad ranked last.

Sought for comment, National Competitiveness Council (NCC) private sector co-chairman Guillermo M. Luz said: “I am quite optimistic that we will be in the top third by 2016 since the government last year made significant changes the way IT is procured by the government, leading to better systems in the government and more interoperability.” -- Daryll Edisonn D. Saclag

source: Businessworld