World Economic Forum
ranks Pakistan at 102, dropping 14 points on the Global Information Technology
Report 2012.
Mishal Pakistan in partnership with the Center for Global Competitiveness and Performance, World Economic Forum releases Pakistan’s ranking on the Global Information
Technology Report, measuring the Network Readiness Index of 142 economies over
10 different pillars.
The lack of seriousness
from the government of Pakistan reflects in the 11th Global
Information Technology Report 2012 of the World Economic Forum. According to
the Report, the Ministry of Telecom and Information Technology being headed by
Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani, Prime Minister of Pakistan; shows lack of efficiency
and poor governance at the part of the Government of Pakistan.
Despite
efforts over the past decade to develop information and communications technologies
(ICT) infrastructure in developing economies, a new digital divide in terms of
ICT impacts persists, according to the latest rankings of The Global
Information Technology Report (GITR) 2012: Living in a Hyper connected World,
released today by the World Economic Forum. The GITR indicates Pakistan’s
challenges and opportunities on 10 different pillars, where Pakistan has not
been able to show any remarkable improvements in the previous year.
Pakistan lost its competitive advantage on the fixed broadband internet tariffs,
where it dropped the ranking from 36 in 2011 to 79 in 2012, which means
residential monthly fee in terms of purchasing power parity (PPP). The extent of
information and communications technologies improving access for all citizens
to basic services (health, education, financial services, etc.) also took a dip
to 113 with losing 30 points from last year. Government prioritizing of ICT
also achieved a rank of 103 from 83 last year, making a variation of 20 points.
A serious concern and bottleneck on Pakistan’s business and entrepreneurship
initiatives have been identified by the GITR on Pakistan’s policies on the tax
regime introduced in 2011, this actually sum of profit tax, labor tax and
social contributions, property taxes, turnover taxes, and other taxes, as a
share (%) of commercial profits, Pakistan stood 58 this year from 39 last out
of 142 economies in the world. The GITR also identified that the extent of
information and communication technologies creating new organizational models
are also weakening in Pakistan, going 81 from 63 last year.
However, Pakistan improved its competitiveness in certain areas
including, efficiency of the legal system in challenging regulations, where
Pakistan improved from 95 in 2011 to 79 in 2012 out of 142 countries. The
judicial independence was also highlighted as one of the advantages in
Pakistan, where the improvements were made on 11 points, thus ranking Pakistan
at 62 in the world. The effectiveness of the law making body has also improved
9 points, with a ranking of 93 this year. The quality of education system and
the capacity for innovation also shows improvement of 7 points each ranking at
79 and 51 respectively.
On the ten pillars of the Global Information Technology Report (GITR)
2012 out of 142 countries Pakistan scored as follows: on the 1st
pillar; Political and regulatory environment (110), 2nd pillar;
business and innovation environment (96); 3rd pillar, infrastructure
and digital content (108); 4th pillar doing well on the
affordability pillar (26); 5th pillar; Skills (129), 6th
pillar; individual usage (104); 7th pillar; business usage (96), 8th
pillar; government usage (103); 9th pillar; economic impacts (94)
and on the 10th pillar; of social impacts (99).
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| Pakistan's Ranking on the Global Information Technology Report 2012 |
Sweden stood (1st)
and Singapore (2nd) top the rankings in this year’s report in leveraging
information and communications technologies to boost country competitiveness.
Switzerland (5th), the Netherlands (6th), the United States (8th), Canada (9th)
and the United Kingdom (10th) also show strong performances in the top 10.
However, ICT
readiness in sub-Saharan Africa is still low, with most countries showing
significant lags in connectivity due to insufficient development of ICT
infrastructure, which remains too costly, and displaying poor skill levels that
do not allow for an efficient use of the available technology. Even in those
countries where ICT infrastructure has been improved, ICT-driven impacts on
competitiveness and well-being trail behind, resulting in a new digital divide.
Despite
improvements in many drivers of competitiveness, the BRICS countries– led by
China (51st) – still face important challenges to more fully adopt and leverage
ICT. An insufficient skills base and institutional weaknesses, especially in
the business environment, present a number of shortcomings that stifle
entrepreneurship and innovation.
With a record
coverage of 142 economies worldwide, the report remains the most comprehensive
and authoritative international assessment of the impact of ICT on
competitiveness and the well-being of nations. After a two-year review process,
the Networked Readiness Index (NRI) featured in the report has evolved to
ensure that it captures the main drivers of a rapidly changing ICT industry and
remains relevant for public- and private-sector decision-makers.
Established in 2003, as a social enterprise,
Mishal has recently being signed as the country partner institution of the
World Economic Forum’s Center for Global Competitiveness and Performance. The
Data on Pakistan for the for Global Competitiveness Report for 2012-13 and the
Global Information Technology Report 2013 is being collected through the
Executive Opinion Surveys.
Mishal is at the forefront of devising and
delivering communication solutions for a cross-section of stakeholders and is
actively pursuing and supporting initiatives to improve the state of media and
journalism in Pakistan. Mishal has recently launched Pakistan’s first journalism
awards to create media diversity and to promote journalism across all platforms
of media delivery mechanisms, including print, television, radio and the
internet journalism.
Mishal has undertaken the task to build the
capacity of press cubs and journalist associations in Pakistan by creating a
learning platform for the media and journalists across Pakistan. The initiative
is building the capacity through interactive workshops, conferences,
collaborative thinking and knowledge sharing. It is also focusing on improving
the competitiveness of the media by creating competition amongst the various
verticals through media and journalism awards for the professionals in the
field of communications by creating a national knowledge grid.
The World Economic Forum is an independent
international organization committed to improving the state of the world by
engaging business, political, academic and other leaders of society to shape
global, regional and industry agendas.
Incorporated as a not-for-profit foundation in
1971, and head-quartered in Geneva, Switzerland, the Forum is tied to no
political, partisan or national interests.
