Business news

MINSK, 15 November (BelTA) – Belarus has confirmed its status as the regional leader in the development of information and communication technologies. The country has managed to keep its current position in the 2017 Global ICT Development Index of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), BelTA has learned.

The ITU has just released the annual Measuring Information Society report, which evaluates the development of information and communication technologies in the ITU member states. Iceland tops the chart. The top 5 countries also include South Korea, Switzerland, Denmark, and the UK.

Just like in the previous year’s report Belarus is ranked 32^nd and is the CIS leader in the development of information and communication technologies. Belarus is ahead of a number of European nations, too — Lithuania, Latvia, Czechia, Italy, and Poland.

Belarus has managed to improve its subindex measuring access to ICT by three points and the subindex measuring ICT use by two points. Belarus remains one of the global leaders in the development of human potential (5^th). The report indicates that thanks to the wise and persistent policy Belarus has created a well-developed infrastructure, which allows providing quality fixed and mobile broadband Internet access to the population.

The ITU expects the successful implementation of the government program on developing the digital economy and the information society to allow Belarus to improve its standing in the Global ICT Development Index by further rollout of LTE networks in the regions, by expanding the reach of fiber optic networks, satellite communication, digital television, and cloud computing technologies.

According to the source, the Commonwealth of Independent States is the second region out of the planet’s six geographical regions judging by the average information and communication infrastructure development index. The CIS is behind Europe and is ahead of the American region, Africa, Arab nations, and the Asian-Pacific region.

In 2018 the methods used to calculate the Global ICT Development Index will be considerably revised taking into account modern trends in the development of information and communication technologies.