Business news

MINSK, 22 November (BelTA) – Belarus is leading among the post-Soviet member states in the development of information and communications technologies. Since the last year Belarus has improved its ranking by five positions to occupy the 31^st spot on the ICT Development Index (IDI), according to the new report of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU).

According to the ITU report, Russia goes 43^rd in the ICT Development Index out of 175 countries, Kazakhstan – 52^nd , Azerbaijan – 55^th, Armenia – 71^st, Moldova – 68^th, Georgia – 72^nd, Ukraine – 76^th. Uzbekistan is 110^th and Kyrgyzstan is 113^th.

South Korea topped the ranking for the second consecutive year with 8.84 in IDI value. The top ten in the ICT development are seven EU countries, China and Japan.

The report says that 95 per cent of the global population lives in an area that is covered by a mobile-cellular signal and over 47% of the population has access to the Internet.

The 14th ITU World Telecommunication/ICT Indicators Symposium (WTIS-2016) took place in Gaborone, Botswana from 21 to 23 November. The 2016 edition of the Measuring the Information Society Report was released as part of the forum. The report reflects the level of ICT development in 175 economies worldwide. In the 2016 report, Belarus got 7.26 in IDI value and took the 31st position in the ranking.