UAE 25th worldwide in ‘network readiness’

Insead, the leading international business school, and the World Economic Forum (WEF), on Thursday released the 12th annual Global Information Technology Report (GITR) with the support of Booz & Company and Cisco. The new study focuses on "Growth and jobs in a hyper connected world". The report assesses the digital ecosystems of 144 developed and developing countries accounting for more than 98 per cent of the world's GDP. By ranking each nation using the Networked Readiness Index (NRI), the study examines how these markets leverage advances in information and communication technologies (ICT) to drive economic productivity and social development. The report ranks three GCC countries in the top 30 list globally for the second consecutive year, and another two in the top 40: Qatar (23), the UAE (25), Bahrain (29), Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (31) and Oman (40), demonstrating that they continue to embrace ICT to boost their country's competitiveness. In contrast, countries in the Levant and North Africa still lag behind and face challenges to fully leverage ICT. Jordan ranked (47), Egypt (80), Morocco (89), Lebanon (94) and Algeria (131). "Overall, the Mena shows stability, both in rankings and scores. However, the dynamics within the region seem to confirm that regional leaders keep moving ahead: Qatar and the UAE both moved up five ranks, reaching 23rd and 25th rank overall respectively, and Saudi Arabia continued its own move upward (also gaining three ranks, to reach 31st place)", said Bruno Lanvin, GITR co-editor and Executive Director of Insead European Competitiveness Initiative (IECI). "On the other hand however Bahrain (29th) lost two places and Egypt one (80th). Oman, Jordan and Kuwait remained at the same ranks as last year (40th, 47th and 62nd respectively)." The UAE has advanced five positions in overall ranking to largely compensate a fall in 2012 rankings and regain its competitive position in the Middle East. Currently, UAE ranks second in the Middle East, with Qatar leading by two spots. Most notably, the UAE ranks in the top ten on two sub-pillars - rising thirty spots in Government Usage to currently stand second to Singapore, and climbing 26 spots in Social Impact to place seventh. Fixed and mobile affordability represents UAE's most significant weakness with a 89th place ranking, as a by-product of high fixed broadband internet tariffs and relatively low competition. The affordability sub-pillar, which assess the cost of accessing ICT and the level of competition in the Internet and telephony sectors, represents UAE's most significant weakness with a 89th place ranking. Overall, UAE has achieved improved footing in eight of the ten pillars contributing to NRI rankings, in particular with respect to the overall network readiness and usage. "As part of the UAE's long-term strategy to diversify its economy, the government has continued to drive the development of the ICT industry decisively and to expand the use of ICTs to all segments of the economy and society (1st). Available government online services (9th), the online participation of citizens (11th) and the important rise in mobile broadband subscriptions (49th), have driven this rise in the rankings. However, the UAE needs to continue on this positive trajectory and expedite digitization efforts to climb the ranks and remain a competitive global ICT player", said Miguel Lobo, Associate Professor of Decision Sciences, Director of the Abu Dhabi campus. Overall despite the high fixed broadband Internet tariffs (99th), which may be affecting the number of broadband Internet subscriptions (52nd) the UAE's investments in increasing its ICT infrastructure, especially in terms of international Internet bandwidth (49th) and skills upgrading (25th), have provided the right conditions for a higher ICT uptake in the past year (23rd). Although the UAE continues to boast a very favourable business environment (17th) despite its excessive and cumbersome, complex process for enforcing contracts (137th), increasing the economic impacts of ICTs (28th) in terms of more innovation and higher-value-added activities will require higher levels of tertiary education (84th) and a consolidation of efforts to strengthen the national innovation system. The focus of this year's GITR report is on how digitisation can profoundly accelerate the rate of job creation by positively impacting enterprises at multiple functional layers. "As the spread and depth of digitisation increases globally, so does its role as a key driver of growth and source of national competitive advantage. Policymakers have focused until now on improving the reach and affordability of ICT services most recently facilitating, and even investing in, large-scale broadband deployment. Though important, this is just one part of the story," explains Bahjat El Darwiche, Partner at Booz & Company. "Policymakers in the future need to become digital market makers creators of a digital economy that p