Bangladesh advances to 109th place in Global Networked Readiness Index

Bangladesh has advanced by 10 notches to 109th position on the Global Networked Readiness Index showing slight improvement in information and communication for social and economic gains.
Although the country’s ranking improved to 109th position this year from 119th position last year on the 143-nation list prepared by the World Economic Forum, its value or points increased slightly to 3.3 out of total 7 this year from 3.2 last year, shows the report of the WEF released late Wednesday.
The WEF said the developing and emerging economies were failing to exploit the potential of information and communications technologies to drive social and economic transformation and catch up with more advanced nations.
In the top 10, Singapore is followed by Finland, Sweden, the Netherlands, Norway, Switzerland, the US, the UK, Luxembourg and Japan, which has climbed an impressive six places year-on-year to 10th position.
In South Asia, Sri Lanka is in pole position advancing by 11 notches to 65th position from 76th position last year while Bhutan is in second position taking 88th place on the index.
India has been ranked 89th position, slipping by 6 notches from last year, Pakistan ranked 112th while Nepal has been ranked 118th.
In the Network readiness sub-sector of political and regulatory sector of
Bangladesh’s ICT sector, the country received only 2.6 value out of 7 taking a position of 135th among 143 nation.
The report noted that the difficulty in connecting the unconnected is that language and digital literacy levels in many developing markets remain very low, despite gains made over recent decades.
Indeed, based on an analysis of 2013 World Bank data, nearly 30 per cent of offline individuals in the countries examined are illiterate.
‘Although over 90 per cent of the offline populations in China and Mexico are literate, in Ethiopia, Bangladesh, and Pakistan that figure is less than 50 per cent.
‘And even if people are literate in the conventional sense, poor ICT literacy prevents more of them going online. Today’s devices may be much easier to operate than early personal computer,’ it said.
Globally, the index also suggests that the gap between the best and worst performing economies is widening.
Those in the top 10 per cent have seen twice the level of improvement since 2012 than those in the bottom 10 per cent.
‘This demonstrates the scale of the challenge facing  developing and emerging nations as they seek to develop the  infrastructure, institutions and skills needed to reap the full benefits of ICTs, as only 39 per cent of the global  population enjoys access to the Internet despite the fact that  more than half now owns a mobile phone,’ the WEF said.