How Can Bolivia Improve Its NRI Score - Case Study Example

Recommendations: How Can Bolivia Improve Its NRI Score? I.D. of the Recommendations: How Can Bolivia Improve Its NRI Score? Write a paper that uses the Global Information Technology Report 2012 and furnish recommendation detailing three steps that a selected country with a score less than 3.0 for networked readiness should take to improve its score. Section 1: Introduction The World Economic Forum and INSEAD (2012) have compiled and published the Global IT Report 2012. In this report, the authors use Networked Readiness Index or NRI, which is primarily targeted at evaluating a country’s IT infrastructure and business environment. The present research paper is based on the Global IT Report 2012. It aims to review the situation of a specific country with an NRI score below 3.0. The paper also recommends measures that can improve the selected country’s current situation. These measures consist of three major steps, which can transform the country’s economy by building its IT infrastructure as strong as to provide support to other industrial sectors and production facilities too. Section 2: Background The country selected for the purpose of this research paper is Bolivia, which is located in Latin America. It has low human development index and a small Gross Domestic Product (GDP). As of 2001, the country had only 0.38 research professionals per thousand of its labor force. (Villavicencio and Zamalvide, 2008) The Global IT Report of 2012 reveals that Bolivia has a score of 2.9 as per the Networked Readiness Index (NRI) (World Economic Forum and INSEAD, 2012, p. 188). It has obtained a rank of 127 out of 142 countries on the overall performance parameters of NRI. Some tacit realities regarding Bolivia Studying the data regarding “Business and innovation environment” (World Economic Forum and INSEAD, 2012, p. 188), one must admit that the country lags behind in the number of students receiving tertiary education and quality of management schools. Over a scale of 1 (worst) through 7 (best), the country scores only 2.9 in availability of venture capital that might help to start new businesses. Further, due to regulatory complexities, it takes over four months to start a new business in the country! (See Figure – 1) Figure – 1: Extract from NRI report on Bolivia showing the situation of business and innovation in the country (World Economic Forum and INSEAD, 2012, p. 188) However, in evaluating the social environment, it is interesting to note that although the state of higher education is not good in the country (Villavicencio and Zamalvide, 2008), mobile phone subscription rates are relatively high. According to the Global IT Report of 2012, there are 72.3 mobile phone subscriptions among every 100 persons (Bolivia’s ranks 105 according to this indicator). On the other hand, broadband Internet subscription rates are extremely low along with a poor “Firm-level technology absorption” rank of 139 (World Economic Forum and INSEAD, 2012, p. 188). (See Figure – 2) Figure – 2: Bolivia’s standing as per the parameters of individual usage and business usage (World Economic Forum and INSEAD, 2012, p. 188) Regarding the situation of governance, Bolivia must overcome lots of challenges. Examining the list of countries according to the situation of the “Laws relating to ICT” (World Economic Forum and INSEAD, 2012, p. 325), one can find that the developed countries which have high NRI ratings demonstrate promising statistics. As per the cumulative scores of networked readiness indices, Sweden, Singapore, and Finland occupy the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd positions respectively. And regarding implementation of the laws relating to ICT, these economies again occupy the 1st, 2nd, and 6th positions respectively (see Figure – 3). Figure – 3: Ranking the countries according to their law and order situation regarding the IT industry (World Economic Forum and INSEAD, 2012, p. 325) Unfortunately, Bolivia has 119th rank in this list. Although this rank is better than the country’s overall NRI rank of 127, Bolivia’s leftist regime may attract international criticisms due to controversial geopolitical decisions. Of late, Bolivia is increasing its intimacy with Iran (which is facing international sanctions) and has emerged as an ally of Venezuela (which is critical toward market economy) (Goforth, 2011). Section 3: Topic Analysis The Global IT Report 2012 presents a comprehensive evaluation of a country’s infrastructure and business situation with special reference to ICT. This evaluation is also based on holistic socio-political and economic parameters. In the context of a country like Bolivia, the Report helps a researcher to recommend certain steps to improve its IT industry. Recommendations: Step 1 The Bolivian political authority must improve the laws relating to ICT with the particular focus on research and development and adjust its budget allocations accordingly. During the background analysis of the Bolivian case, it has been already noted that the country considerably lags behind in implementing optimal rules and regulations related to ICT. Similarly, the countries which have been ranked lowest in the NRI list, also demonstrate similar statistics. For example, Haiti, which has the 142nd or last rank in the NRI list, occupies the 139th position in the list of the countries that shows the situation of enactment and enforcement of ICT laws (World Economic Forum and INSEAD, 2012, p. xxiii, p. 325). Contextually, Dutta and Bilbao-Osorio (2012) state that Bolivia (127) considerably lags behind all of its major Latin American neighbors like Chile (39), Brazil (65), Colombia (73), Peru (106), and Venezuela (107) although there are shared economic and social issues like poverty, illiteracy, colonial past, etc. Moreover, according to Goforth (2011), the present Bolivian government has increased its defense spending and choosing international players like Venezuela and Iran to partner with. Such defense and foreign policies may create problems and attract international trade embargo, sooner or later. However, a strong point of the Bolivian government is that it has prioritized ICT. This fact is not sufficiently reflected in NRI ranking. But studying the statistical intricacies, a rating of 3.4 regarding “Gov’t prioritization of ICT” (World Economic Forum and INSEAD, 2012, p. 374) appears to be relatively better as compared to the international mean value of 4.6. Obtaining better networked readiness scenario necessitates absorption of new technologies. New technologies are developed in laboratory environment and implemented in operational setting, a process known as technology transition (O’Brien et al, 2011). For example, induction of technologies such as web analytics combined with data mining can be regarded as technology transition in the realm of e-commerce operations (Domingos and Richardson, 2001). If the Bolivian government increases its expenditure on IT research and development instead of buying arms, it can facilitate technology transition and improve the country’s business environment as a whole. Recommendations: Step 2 The situation of IT infrastructure and digital content in the country should be made better. Improved research and development capabilities are essential but not enough to bolster scope of business, improve management institutions, and ensure increased enrolment in higher education. If that were the case, major military and nuclear powers like India (69) and People’s Republic of China (PRC) (51) would have been among the top ten NRI rankers. Therefore, in order to improve the NRI ranking, a country must embark on holistic development. In the case of Bolivia, its IT infrastructure and digital content scenarios are the major weak points. (World Economic Forum and INSEAD, 2012) From this perspective, the example of Croatia appears to be very useful. With an NRI value of 4.22, Croatia ranks 45th (higher than even the major world economies like Brazil and PRC) with an infrastructure and digital content sub-index value of 4.7. (World Economic Forum and INSEAD, 2012, p. 206) Although a turbulent recent history of civil war haunts the country, it has emerged relatively successful due to its organized policy making on the part of the government. Croatian policy makers today seek to establish the elements of risks, costs, advantages, disadvantages, and time constraints for every IT enterprise individually so that the specific and “right strategy” for technology transition and business upgrades can be formulated (Svedek et al, 2011, p. 4). The Croatian government has also established dedicated organizations like e-Croatia to oversee the improvement process of the country’s IT infrastructure and handle the critical issues like migrating from IPv4 to IPv6 (Svedek et al, 2011). Likewise, Mauritius has also significantly progressed in developing its IT infrastructure. The Mauritian government’s initiatives like i-Mauritius dedicated to improve the country’s IT infrastructure have become a good illustration for other developing and underdeveloped countries (Dutta and Bilbao-Osorio, 2012). Recommendations: Step 3 It is too early for Bolivia to have a highly skilled workforce that can carry out the tough job of technological transition rapidly enough. However, before it is too late to have trained man power even in the next twenty years, Bolivia must concentrate on IT education and training. Availability of skilled manpower in the ICT sector is a significant issue in Bolivia. The country ranks 122nd in quality of management institutions, 106th in quality of education system and 117th in quality of science and mathematics studies. However, the country’s adult literacy rate is relatively better (82nd position with 90.7% literacy rate). (World Economic Forum and INSEAD, 2012, p. 188) Contextually, Villavicencio and Zamalvide (2008) point out that with the reforms of 1998, the National Council of Science and Technology emerged as a commendable initiative to encourage technical education. In 2001, the Technological Bank of Bolivia and the Bolivian System of Innovation were established. However, these activities were not sustained for a longer time. (Villavicencio and Zamalvide, 2008) In order to absorb new technologies and standardize the IT infrastructure, an advanced educational system at the tertiary level must be established (Thomas et al, 2012). According to Yu and Zhuang (2011), levels of poverty have an inverse relationship with educational expenditure on the part of the government. Using lifecycle approach to understand the process of technology transition, it is further established that research and development cannot be accomplished without educated professionals who would be able to support testing and training in operational environments too (Forrester, 2003; also see Figure – 4).Consequently, scientists like Brahma et al (2009) and Yan (2011) are of the opinion that high level and continuous education and training are necessary to improve an organization’s or country’s performance in the fields like network security, e-commerce, e-management, e-education, etc. Figure – 4: Lifecycle approach applied to technology transition by O’Brien et al (2011, s. II) showing several discontinuous phases. The situation of basic education is rather satisfactory in the country with literacy rates reaching up to 90.7%. Therefore, Bolivia must devise a tertiary level technical education program as early as possible so that in the next twenty years, the country can generate a sufficiently skilled manpower. A preliminary step in achieving this is to improve the management education colleges and allow the private organizations to invest more in the education sector. Section 4: Conclusion The business environment of Bolivia is not appreciably amicable to the IT industry. Bolivia’s effort to improve its infrastructure and win over foreign investors will need three main kinds of system reforms. Firstly, it should improve its governance, foreign policy and defense policy. Secondly, it should better its IT infrastructure through large scale technology transition. Thirdly, it should devise a higher education program with proper ICT training and research facilities. References Brahma, S., Gers, J., Girgis, A. A., Horowitz, S., Hunt, R., et al. (2009). The Education and Training of Future Protection Engineers: Challenges, Opportunities, and Solutions. Power Delivery, IEEE Transactions on, 24(2), 538-544. Domingos, P. and Richardson, M. (2001) Mining the network value of customers. In: Proceedings of the Seventh ACM SIGKDD International Conference on Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining, KDD-01, San Francisco, USA, August 2001. New Jersey: ACM, pp. 57–66. Dutta, S. and Bilbao-Osorio, B. (2012). Execrative summary. In: Insight Report: The Global Information Technology Report 2012: Living in a Hyperconnected World. Geneva: World Economic Forum, pp. xi-xix. Retrieved on Feb 16 February 2013 from http://www3.weforum.org/docs/Global_IT_Report_2012.pdf Forrester, E. (2003). A lifecycle approach to technology transition. News at SEI, 2003 (September Issue). Pittsburgh, Carnegie Mellon University: Software Engineering Institute. Retrieved on Feb 17 2013 from http://www.sei.cmu.edu/library/abstracts/news-at-sei/feature43q03.cfm Goforth, S. (2011), Axis of Unity: Venezuela, Iran and the Threat to America, Washington D.C. and Poole Dorset: Potomac Books. OBrien, B. F., DAmico, A., & Larkin, M. E. (2011). Technology transition of network defense visual analytics: Lessons learned from case studies. In: IEEE International Conference on Technologies for Homeland Security (HST), 2011. New York: IEEE, pp. 481-486 Svedek, V., Dobrijevic, O., Matijasevic, M., Golub, I., & Stivojevic, T. (2011). Towards assessment of IPv6 readiness, deployment and transition plans in Croatia. In: 19th International Conference on Software, Telecommunications and Computer Networks (SoftCOM), 2011, New York: IEEE, pp. 1-7 Thomas, A. M., Shah, H., Moore, P., Rayson, P., Wilcox, A. J., Osman, K., et al. (2012). E-Education 3.0: Challenges and Opportunities for the Future of iCampuses. In: Sixth International Conference on Complex, Intelligent and Software Intensive Systems (CISIS), 2012. New York: IEEE, pp. 953-958 Villavicencio, D. and Zamalvide, M. (2008). The Republic of Bolivia. Paris: UNESCO. World Economic Forum and INSEAD. (2012). Insight Report: The Global Information Technology Report 2012: Living in a Hyperconnected World. Geneva: World Economic Forum. Retrieved on Feb 16, 2013 from http://www3.weforum.org/docs/Global_IT_Report_2012.pdf Yan, Y. (2011). The impact of education on economic growth in China. In: International Conference on e-Education, Entertainment and e-Management (ICEEE), 2011. New York: IEEE, pp. 202-204 Yu, C., & Zhuang, T. (2011, May). Empirical analyses of the relationship between financial education expenditure and poverty population—Taken Sichuan province as an example. In: International Conference on E-Business and E-Government (ICEE), 2011. New York: IEEE, pp. 1-6 Read More