Area Development Research Desk (4-1-2008)
E-readiness is a measure of the quality of a country's information and
communications technology (ICT) infrastructure and the ability of its
consumers, businesses, and governments to use ICT to their benefit.
When a country uses ICT to conduct more of their activities, its
economy can become more transparent and efficient. The e-readiness
rankings also allow governments to gauge the success of their ICT
strategies against those of other countries, and provide companies
wishing to invest overseas with an overview of the world's most
promising investment locations from the perspective of e-readiness. In
all, nearly 100 separate criteria, both qualitative and quantitative,
are evaluated for each country by the Economist Intelligence Unit's
team of analysts. These criteria are scored on their relative presence
(or lack thereof) in a country's economic, industrial, or social
landscape. The criteria are organized into e-readiness, such as the
connectivity environment, government investment and policy, and the
underlying social and cultural attitudes surrounding Internet adoption.
The categories, and the individual criteria within them, are weighted
according to our assumptions of their relative importance in fostering
the country's information economy. In this and previous e-readiness rankings, the Economist
Intelligence Unit has worked in cooperation with the IBM Institute for
Business Value. IBM provided valuable feedback on the building and
refinement of the rankings model and on the written analysis in the
report. The Economist Intelligence Unit, however, is entirely
responsible for the rankings and for the content of this white paper.
"The rankings illuminate the factors that are driving, or inhibiting,
countries' progress in using ICT to advance economic and social
development," says Peter Korsten, Global Leader of the IBM Institute
for Business Value. "Whether the countries are, as IBM defines them,
'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 this objective."
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