SA does well in e-Readiness rankings
These include its legal environment, consumer and business adoption of ICT, as well as government policy and vision around this centrally strategic industry to the country's economic growth.
The key findings are captured in the annual e-Readiness report produced by IBM, through its Institute of Business Value, and the Economist Intelligence Unit.
Key highlights indicate that South Africa ranks:
- First in Middle East & Africa (ME&A) on Legal Environment criteria i.e. the country's overall legal framework and specific laws governing Internet use (35th worldwide (WW))
- First in ME&A on Consumer and Business Adoption i.e. prevalence of e-business practices in the country like availability and use of e-commerce and online public services (35th WW)
- Second in ME&A on Government Policy and Vision criteria i.e. the extent to which the government proactively supports and drives the use of ICT (34th WW)
- Second after UAE in ME&A for its Connectivity and Technology Infrastructure i.e. availability, affordability and quality of telephone services, PCs, WiFi hotspots and Internet (40th WW)
- Second (after UAE) in ME&A on Business Environment criteria i.e. expected attractiveness of the business environment over the next five years (42nd WW)
- Fifth after Turkey, UAE, Jordan & Saudi Arabia on Social and Cultural Environment criteria i.e. preconditions of applying e-business including literacy, education, Internet experience, entrepreneurial attitude and innovation (53rd WW)
Overall, South Africa fell slightly in 2008 to 5.95 or four places to 39th position. To improve its e-Readiness position, the report recommends that South Africa makes strategic investments in infrastructure and encourages public-private partnerships to ensure progress and top quality.
"The rankings illuminate the factors that are driving, or inhibiting, countries' progress in using ICT to advance economic and social development," says Mark Harris, the Managing Director of IBM's Sub Saharan Africa region.
He explains that whether the countries are 'established leaders', 'rapid adopters' or 'late entrants', the public and private sectors must work together to promote the most effective use of digital technology toward the development objective.
"The Sub-Saharan African market holds enormous potential, with double-digit growth flowing from the development and expansion of telecommunications networks, power grids and transport infrastructure," Harris adds.
"Demonstrably, private and public sector investment in the region holds the key for transforming the ability of the market to competitively participate in the global economy."
E-readiness continues to advance across the globe. Indeed, the average e-readiness score of the 70 countries in this year's rankings rose to 6.39 (on a 1-10 scale), up from 6.24 in 2007. This overall progress, however, masks some backtracking among a handful of countries, notably within the top ten.
After four consecutive years as the world's most e-ready country, Denmark has fallen four places, as has Switzerland. Similarly, Finland has dropped three places and has been supplanted in the top 10 by Austria. The United States is now the global e-readiness leader, with a score of 8.95, followed closely by Hong Kong, which has advanced two places.
Maintaining the momentum of digital development is clearly quite tough. The aforementioned European ICT leaders have been unable, in some areas, to sustain the heady pace of development they had previously established. Both Finland and Denmark, for instance, were unable to maintain previous ICT spending levels or to improve upon (albeit impressive) public and corporate access to digital channels.
By contrast, those countries that have advanced in the top 10 – the US, Hong Kong, the Netherlands and Australia – have largely done so on the back of improvements in connectivity – both in fixed and wireless broadband access, as well as in their innovation environments.
"The world's most developed digital economies – and many less developed ones – continue to record impressive gains in broadening access to ICT and making digital services available to the population," says Robin Bew, Editorial Director of the Economist Intelligence Unit. "It is hard work to maintain this progress, however, and even the leaders have much to do to translate these gains into real economic and social benefits."
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