A mere five Middle East countries appeared on the World Economic Forum (WEF)’s recently released International Networked Readiness Index. Out of the five economies, Jordan was the highest ranked, placing 46th out of 102 nations.
The list appears in the forum’s latest Global Information Technology Report, published in cooperation with INSEAD and the World Bank’s infoDev. Other nations from the Middle East that were placed include Turkey at 56, Morocco at 64, Egypt at 65 and Algeria at 87. Israel was also ranked at 16.
Missing from the index is the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the highest ranked Arab nation on the newly released 2003 Global Digital Access Index (DAI) prepared by the International Telegraph Union (UTI). The UAE ranked 34th on the DAI out of 178 economies followed by Bahrain at 42nd place on the global index. Not far behind are Qatar and Kuwait, also not mentioned on the WEF index.
The WEF Networked Readiness Index examines the readiness of economies according to three dimensions: the general macroeconomic and regulatory environment for information and communication technology (ICT), the readiness of the three key stakeholders, individuals, businesses and governments to use and benefit from ICT, and their current usage of ICT. — (menareport.com)
© 2003 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
