Jordan Times
Thursday, May 8, 2008

Kingdom’s ranking on ICT index up

By Mohammad Ghazal

AMMAN - The Kingdom jumped 10 places on the world's information and communications technology (ICT) readiness index, ranking 47th out of 127 countries, according to the Information Technology Report for 2007/08.

Last year, the country ranked 57th on the index, which measures the level and sophistication of the knowledge economy and the studied countries’ capacity to generate technology or absorb and adapt it to meet national needs with the aim of improving their competitiveness.

At the Arab level, Jordan came behind the UAE, which ranked 29th, Qatar (32nd) and Bahrain (45th). Meanwhile, the Kingdom surpassed Saudi Arabia (48th) and Oman (53rd), which were included in the ranking for the first time.

The report also indicated that Qatar and Kuwait have moved up four places each on the index and Bahrain six, compared to last year.

"The countries ahead of us are there maybe because of the rapid liberalisation of the telecom sectors where new services such as 3G have already been introduced," commented Marwan Juma, chairman of the Information Technology Association of Jordan (int@j). He added: “But in terms of… the availability of local talent, Jordan remains way ahead of the named countries.”

According to the report, conducted by World Economic Forum and INSEAD, one of the world’s leading business schools, each economy is benchmarked against three dimensions: market environment, the political and regulatory framework and the quality of available infrastructure.

To enhance the country's position in the world of information and communications technology, public and private sector leaders of the ICT industry launched a four-year strategy in July last year to help revive the sector and enhance its competitiveness.

The national ICT strategy, the outcome of joint efforts by int@j, the Ministry of Information and Communications Technology and the Telecommunications Regulatory Commission, seeks to increase the number of people who use Internet up to 50 per cent from the current 20 per cent.

It also eyes increased employment in the sector to reach 35,000 jobs from 16,000 presently. In addition, it aims to double the sector's revenues, which stood at $1.5 billion in 2007, by 2011.

Soumitra Dutta, co-author of the report, dean of external affairs at INSEAD, said: “As a region, the Middle East has made the highest progress in networked readiness over the last seven years with the number of Internet users in the area soaring by more than 600 per cent, three times the world’s average increase.”

"The Middle East’s upward move in technological competitiveness is actually spearheaded by the Gulf Cooperation Council’s rapid economic growth," she added.