Vietnams Position on 2008 International ICT Map to be Improved

Annually, international organisations all have rankings related to Information and Communications Technology (ICT) development for nations. Through these rankings, the position of individual nations with Vietnam included on the world ICT map during the past year can be imagined. The report “the position of Vietnam on the 2008 global ICT map” will analyse Vietnam’s position, based on information from the criteria of some organisations, such as the Knowledge Index (KI) and Knowledge Economy Index (KEI) of the World Bank, the Networked Readiness Index (NRI) of Global Economic Forum, E-readiness Index of the Economic Intelligence Unit, E-government Index of UNPAN and the rate of piracy of BSA and ICD.

 

These are indices which are annually announced by World Bank Institute. In 2008, these indices were announced in March 2008.

 

Nowadays, knowledge is considered an important source for economic development. These indices compare countries in the global knowledge economy. The Knowledge index (KI) is judged on the basis on three criteria: education and training, innovation rate and the Information and Communication Technologies rate (ICT).

 

Education and training is judged on the basis of three components: the result of adult literacy; the rate of secondary enrolment and the rate of students continuing their training after high school.

 

The innovation rate is judged via the value of technology transfers per one million citizens; the number of patents per one million citizens and the number of articles on technology which get announced per one million citizens.

 

ICT is measured via three factors: the number of telephones per one thousand citizens, the number of computers per one thousand citizens and the number of Internet users per one thousand citizens.

 

The Knowledge Economy Index (KEI) is measured with a focus on the KI and environment and policies on doing business which include such basic criteria as tariffs and non-tariff barriers, regulated qualities and the rules of law.

 

The country with the best figures is marked at 10 points and the worst 0 points. 10 percent of the best nations have 9 and 10 marks, 10 percent of following nations are given 8 and 9 marks etc. This assessment approach is regarded as KAM (Knowledge Assessment Methodology) by the World Bank.

Based on the marks of each nation, the World Bank Institute sets up a global knowledge economy map. During the past few years, Vietnam has belonged to the group of countries with marks ranging from 2 to 4 points.

 

If in 2007, the indices in Vietnam all fell below 3.0, in 2008 they rise to above 3.0, making an improvement though not yet significant. KI and KEI of Vietnam in 2008 are as following:

KEI: 3.17, ranking 96/140 countries (2007: 2.69, ranked 99/132)

KI: 3.27, ranking 96/140 countries (in 2007: 2.82, ranked 95/132)

 

According to the World Economic Forum (WEF), NRI is the preparation rate of a country or a community to participate in and benefit from ICT’s achievements. This index is announced by the WEF in its annual  Global Information Technology Report (since 2001) and is a composite of three components: the environment for ICT offered by a given country or community, the readiness of the community’s key stakeholders (individuals, businesses and government) to use ICT, and finally, the use of ICT amongst these stakeholders. In 2002, only 75 countries got ranked, in 2003, 82 countries, in 2004, 102 countries, in 2005, 104 countries, in 2006, 115 countries, in 2007, 122 countries and in 2008, up to 127 countries.

 

According to Global IT Report 2007-2008 which was announced in April 2008, Vietnam ranked 73 with 3.67 points. Therefore, compared to being 82nd out of 122 countries, this year Vietnam has jumped up nine places, with its mark going from 3.40 to 3.67. This is the highest result Vietnam has gained after falling for two years.

 

Topping the list is Denmark. In the top ten countries, South Korea takes ninth place, ten places higher than in 2007.

 

This annual ranking is co-organised by the Economist Intelligence Unit (which belongs to The Economist magazine in the U.K) and the IBM Institue for Business Value. The rankings are announced in the report E-readiness Ranking 2008: Maintaining Momentum. In 2008, the indices of all countries get increased and the digital divide among them continues to narrow.

 

This year, Vietnam ranks 65/70 – maintaining its position of 2007. Its position in 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2007 was 56/60, 56/60, 60/65, 61/65, 66/68 and 65/69, respectively.

 

The E-government Index measures the capability and readiness of each nation in establishing its own e-government based on its ICT background for development. Capability is assessed via the finance investment rate, infrastructure, human resource endowment, policies, organising and management. Readiness is assessed through the ability to provide information and knowledge to citizens and enterprises. This index is measured and shown through three basic criteria: the web measure index, telecommunications infrastructure index and the human capital index.

 

A report by UNPAN announced in March 2008 shows that Vietnam’s e-government index has seen a significant increase, from 0.364 in 2005 to 0.4588 in 2008. Vietnam ranks 91^st up by 16 places compared to previous years.

 

In the region, Vietnam ranks 6^th, trailing after Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines and Brunei. Indonesia falls behind Vietnam.

 

As usual, in May 2008, the Business Software Alliance (BSA) and International Data Corporation (IDC) announced their report on software piracy in 2008. This is the year that Vietnam is judged to have decreased its piracy rate remarkably. Among the 108 countries on the list, 77 nations have seen their rates decrease and only 8 countries have had their rate go up.

 

Vietnam’s piracy rate this year is 85 percent, three percent lower than that of previous year. As such, after three years, Vietnam has got its rate gone down by seven percent and from the country topping the list of those with the highest piracy rates. Vietnam has stepped out of the list of the nine “leading” countries. Iraq and Vietnam hold 10^th and 11^th place, respectively. The BSA assesses that Vietnam’s rate would have gone down to 81 percent if its computer market had not witnessed an increase as fast as last year. Despite the decreased rate, the value of piracy amounts to US$200 million, more than double the number of previous year.

 

 

Criteria	Organization	Place/number of countries	Increase/decrease against 2007
KI/KEI	World Bank	96/140	+3
Networked Readiness Index (NRI)	World Economic Forum	73/127	+9
E-readiness Ranking	EIU	65/70	Stays the same
E-Government Index	UNPAN	91/182	+16
Software piracy rate	BSA & IDC	10/108	+5