The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states rank differently and somewhat distantly from each other when it comes to information and communication technologies (ICT). Certainly, this tendency partly reflects the way member states address opportunities and challenges.
This phenomenon is evidenced in the recently released The Global Information Technology Report 2013. The World Economic Forum (WEF) issues the annual report in partnership with INSEAD, a premier business school.
The report ranks reviewed countries on the basis of their achievement on the Network Readiness Index (NRI), in turn derived from performance of ranked countries on 10 pillars generated through four sub-indexes. These sub-indexes comprise of
- environment (political and business conditions)
- readiness (infrastructure, affordability and skills),
- usage (individual, business and government) and
- impact (economic and social).
Much to its credit, the study is noted for being uniquely comprehensive by combining hard data such as number of personal computers and internet penetration rate with soft data like views expressed by executives and practitioners.
Amongst other things, the report shows Qatar overtaking Bahrain to take the lead position in the Arab world at large with regard to network readiness. In fact, Qatar has advanced by five notches to reach ranking number 25 globally.
The achievement serves as testimony of the right policy of emphasising education, as demonstrated in setting up of the Educational City. Established in the late 1990s, the scheme boasts a number of renowned international, primarily American universities such as Carnegie Mellon, Texas A&M and Virginia Commonwealth, Northwestern and Georgetown to name but a few. These institutions are credited of contributing towards Qatar’s achievements through focusing on learning resources.
Similar to Qatar, the UAE advanced by five notches to arrive at number 25 worldwide, clearly ahead of several EU member states. To be sure, both Qatar and the UAE are ranked ahead of France, Ireland and Malta and numerous other EU countries.
For its part, Bahrain saw its regional lead eroding mainly due to sustained progress made by Qatar and the UAE. In reality, Bahrain’s ranking fell by two notches to number 29 in the new report, thereby occupying the third place amongst GCC and Arab countries.
Undoubtedly, Bahrain’s strengths include financial market sophistication, as evidenced by the financial services sector comprising nearly one quarter of the country’s gross national product or GDP in constant terms. Other qualities entail sophistication of the country’s local human resources, in turn noted for embracing the latest technological advances for reasons including politics.
Sadly, Bahrain’s retreat represents only the latest in a series of setbacks, partially as a consequence of socio-political tensions ever since February 2011. In addition, Bahrain dropped 15 places at The Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Index 2013, another report issued by WEF. The same report considers the UAE as the leading Arab country on the basis of available choices of air travel and hotels.
Back to the technological readiness study, Saudi Arabia’s ranking improved by three notches to rank 31 on the index, ahead of EU members Portugal, Cyprus and Spain. Yet, Oman and Kuwait maintained their positions at ranking numbers 40 and 62, respectively. But for Kuwait, GCC countries would have confined to the top 50 places worldwide.
Needless to say, GCC countries have the capacity of further advancing their ranking on NRI partly due to the demographic factor. The region’s youth, in turn making up half of the population, have appreciation for technological gadgets.
What’s more, many are prepared to spend in order to attain the latest technological tools. As such, the future looks bright for GCC states with regards to ICT.
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Autor(en)/Author(s): Dr Jasim Ali, The writer is a Member of Parliament in Bahrain.
Quelle/Source: gulfnews, 12.04.2013
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