The World Economic Forum published their annual Global Information Technology Report 2016 where Pakistan has been ranked as the most affordable country when it comes to ICT services.
The report analyzed various indexes from a total of 139 global markets and compared them against each other. The ratings were based on the country’s financial condition, general environment and overall impact. In light of all this Pakistan was the country with the lowest price points.
However, these prices are not in relation to quality adjusted prices, the affordability indicators are measured according to ICT service and prices that serve as entry barriers for the masses, the report says.
Within the report there were many indicators forming the ’Network Readiness Index”. Countries were rated according to rating levels known as pillars. The pillars were added to the sub-indexes and the sub-indexes aggregated to the total if the network readiness index.
Even though Pakistan made it to the top for affordability, in other sub-indexes it ranked very poorly and was not in the top 100 for any of the other categories. Overall Pakistan ranked 110 out of 139 whilst last year it ranked 112.
Some of the categories that formed the ‘Network Readiness Index’ and Pakistan’s rating were as follows:
Overall in the Readiness Index it scored 110. The political and regulatory environment was 128. The business and innovation environment was 98, the infrastructure department was 126, affordability was 1, skills were 127, individual usage was 123, business usage was 101, government usage was 103, economic impacts were 105 and social impacts were 106.
