The ICT E-volution - Bringing Information to Communications

The countries of the Middle East must seek the same success in developing their IT capabilities that they have achieved with communications.

In the past decade, countries in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region have come a long way toward developing their telecommunications sectors. The explosion of participation in the telecommunications market and the unprecedented growth of local players had scarcely been predicted by the most optimistic analysts even as late as 2002. Today, the countries of the MENA region are becoming active communications societies, or at least are well on their way toward doing so. Their appetite for communications services and technologies seems to know no limit.

Although success on the voice communications front has been phenomenal, efforts by countries to become active information societies as well, using communications tools to exchange knowledge, have not yielded the same results: The region’s appreciation of the Internet’s value remains limited, with relatively few active users. Countries’ many efforts to introduce e-applications (such as e-commerce, e-government, and e-banking) and to improve access to such applications have been impressive, yet uptake remains relatively low. As stakeholders assess the region’s accomplishments, they must view the challenges ahead through new lenses. The region’s communications societies must extend their goal to become active information societies as well.

Booz Allen Hamilton's Hana Habayeb and Karim Sabbagh are the authors of "The ICT E-volution – Bringing Information to Communications."

study posted April 2, 2008