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Friday, 12 April 2013 01:16 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
Sri Lanka has improved its position by two places in the recently published Global Network Readiness Index (NRI) which measures a nation’s or community’s degree of preparation, to participate in and benefit from ICT developments which happen to be the driving force in today’s world.
The NRI featured in the Global Information Technology Report (GITR) 2013, published by the World Economic Forum, establishes an international framework by which the performance in networked readiness of a large number of economies/countries can be assessed and benchmarked against one another over a period of time.
With the two-place improvement, Sri Lanka at 69th place out of 144 countries surveyed trails its neighbor India by just one rank although the score remained same as last year at 3.88. Sri Lanka and India are the only two countries in the South Asia Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) group to rank higher than the 100th mark. Other SAARC members are below the 100th mark of the NRI with Pakistan down by three at 105th, Bangladesh at 114th, and Nepal at126th.
This year’s Global Information Technology Report, focusing on ICTs for growth and jobs, places a spotlight on the role that technology can have in economic growth and employment.
Sri Lanka scored very high in the affordability measure with mobile cellular tariffs ranking at 5th place based on purchasing power parity and second for fixed broadband.
However Sri Lanka ranked low in internet and telephony completion at 129th.
In the Political and regulatory environment category, Sri Lanka ranked 25th for the effectiveness of national parliament as law-making bodies and ranked around the mean at 56th place for the independence of the judiciary from influences of members of government, citizens or firms.
Sri Lanka ranked at 33rd place for the efficiency of legal system in settling disputes while ranking at 34th for efficiency of legal system in challenging regulations.
Although ranked high overall, Sri Lanka’s internet access at home was poor placing at the 104th place out of 144 countries and only 5.9% households were with Internet access at home.
Finland reached the top of the NRI rankings for the first time, due to improvements across the board while Singapore remained second overall, slightly improving its score.
The United Kingdom climbed up three notches, placing at 7th and posting the biggest rank improvement among the top 10 economies while the United States slipped to ninth place, its worst showing since the start of the ranking in 2001.
