UAE leads region in ICT readiness

Dubai - The UAE government is leading the way to greater digital connectivity

The UAE continues to lead the Arab world in terms of networked readiness with a global 26th ranking, according to the World Economic Forum's Global Information Technology Report that named Singapore as the highest-placed country in the world when it comes to networked readiness.
"The UAE government is leading the way to greater digital connectivity (second in terms of government usage), providing a consistent vision for the sector and achieving success at promoting it (first on both indicators)," WEF said in its latest report.
In the UAE, individual usage has also further improved (19th, up one spot) especially in terms of mobile broadband subscriptions and households with Internet access, although other important ICT services are not yet widely available, said the report.
The WEF report noted that in 2014, fixed broadband subscriptions in the UAE were still 11.6 per 100 people.
"Businesses' adoption of and the economic impacts of ICTs have been improving in recent years, but a gap still exists with most advanced economies in this area. However, patent activity, both general and ICT-related, remains relatively low."
The UAE was followed on the networked readiness index by Qatar (27th), Bahrain (32nd) and Saudi Arabia (33rd) while Kuwait (61st) was one of the world's biggest improvers, up by 11 places on the previous list.
"Kuwait's gain is supported by substantial improvements in particular in Readiness, Usage, and Impact," WEF said.
"Saudi Arabia climbs up two positions to 33rd this year. The government is leading the way to increased networked readiness, promoting ICTs in the country; however, individual usage (21st) and business adoption (42nd) are still lagging behind."
Globally, Singapore is followed by the Netherlands, Sweden, Finland (which topped the ranking in 2014) and the US respectively in the second, third, fourth and fifth rankings.  
"On average, this group of high-achieving economies at the pinnacle of the report's Networked Readiness Index (NRI) economic impact pillar scores 33 per cent higher than other advanced economies and 100 per cent more than emerging and developing  economies," said the report.
Making up the rest of the top 10 were Switzerland, the United Kingdom, Luxembourg and Japan. According to the report, Europe remains at the technology frontier, with seven of the top 10 NRI countries.
"Networked readiness continues to improve almost everywhere in the world, with a clear upward trend in mean country performance across all regions; however, convergence within regions is far from being the norm," said the report.
India has slipped down two positions to an overall rank of 91, despite improvements in its political and regulatory environment and in its business and innovation environment. Although India's absolute score has changed only marginally in recent years, the drop can be attributed in part to the fact that other countries are moving ahead at higher speeds.
In addition, lack of infrastructure and low levels of skills among the population remain the key bottlenecks to widespread ICT adoption, especially in terms of individual usage.
Of the large emerging markets, Russia remains unchanged at 41st position. China comes next, moving up three places to 59th. South Africa improves markedly, climbing 10 places to 65th, while Brazil partially recovers from a previous downward trend to 72nd this year.
Leading the developing Asian economies in 2016 is Malaysia, which continues to perform strongly and moves up one spot to 31st position overall; this performance is supported by a government that is fully committed to the digital agenda. The top five in the region in terms of overall ICT readiness remain China, Malaysia, Mongolia, Sri Lanka, and Thailand, unchanged from 2015.
- issacjohn@khaleejtimes.com