Russia ranks 77th of the 138 countries listed in the latest Networked Readiness Index compiled by the World Economic Forum, up three positions from 80th in the index’s 2009 edition. The index is a component of the Global Information Technology Report published annually by the Forum.
Some of Russia’s closest neighbors in the ranking are Kuwait, Gambia, Mexico, and the Dominican Republic.
Sweden, Singapore, Finland, Switzerland, the United States, Taiwan, Denmark, Canada, Norway, and South Korea lead the ranking.
The assessment criteria for the index include market environment, political and regulatory environment, infrastructure environment, and ICT usage by individuals, businesses, and government bodies. In addition, a 20-variable “readiness subindex” gauges “the preparation and willingness [of individuals, businesses, and government] to use technology in their day-to-day activities and transactions.”
Russia, a world leader in mobile phone subscription
Among improvements in Russia, the report cites “a fairly ICT-conducive infrastructure ([ranking] 42nd), built on the country’s satisfactory educational and research base together with rather high levels of individual readiness (59th) and usage (55th).”
Particularly honorable is, of course, Russia’s rate of adult literacy (99.5%, ranking 10th) and its rate of tertiary education enrollment (77%, 12th), but the country also ranks high in such categories as mobile phone subscriptions (163 per 100 inhabitants, 9th) and national office patent applications (180.5 per million population, 79th).
According to the report, enforcing a contract in Russia takes 281 days—a commendable record (10th) compared to most countries.
Among Russia’s “problematic features” are “extremely poor market (118th) and regulatory (111th) environments and low levels of ICT readiness (90th) and usage (72nd) by the business sector.” Moreover, ICT readiness (89th) and usage (96th) levels in the government are “a reason for concern” due to their low priority in the government agenda.
A poor government record
According to Alexander Chachava, president of Leta Group, the government’s poor record in IT readiness and usage can be explained by corruption. He told Kommersant, a Russian business daily, “The corrupt state sector opts for IT solutions that correspond to its interests, not to appropriate realities.”
Leta Group is a management company operating in the IT sector.
A source at Rostelecom, the national telecommunications operator—and the main provider of IT services to government organizations, agreed with the report’s general conclusions but underlined that IT usage is increasing quickly in government bodies. “In our portfolio, the proportion of complex IT projects increases year after year, while simple, traditional IT solutions are less and less in demand,” the source told Kommersant.
Last year, the Russian government created a federal program named Information Society 2011–2020. The program has dozens of objectives, which include developing the following systems and solutions: a unified government services portal, an infrastructure for a universal electronic card, a unified system of classifications and directories for the federal and local governments, and IT solutions for state purchasing.
To achieve these objectives, the federal government has budgeted 88.03 billion rubles (approx. $3 billion) over 10 years from its own resources in addition to other sources of financing.
These amounts appear insufficient, however, at least for certain parts of the program. For example, a mere 476 million rubles (approx. $16 million) is to be spent over three years to develop a national cloud-computing platform, which is far below the amounts invested in more advanced countries, reported East-West Digital News recently.
