News Aug 23, 2000

Juergen Daum’s News Service about New Economy Management Best Practice

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‘e-readiness’ gap in many country threatens worldwide economic growth

News categories: enterprise and business strategy, e-commerce, digitizing the New Economy enterprise / Information Technology

A study published this August and prepared by McConnell International LLC, a new Washington-based consultancy owned and managed by the former leader of the International Y2K Cooperation Center, revealed, that the not satisfying ability of 42 key growth countries to participate fully in the digital economy will threaten the world economy to stagnate.

The report examined the 42 countries for what the authors called “e-readiness”. Each country was rated based on five categories: the availability and access to networks; government and industry leadership in fostering electronic business and electronic government; the strength of laws protecting intellectual property rights; the availability of workers to support electronic business; and the electronic business climate.

The results show that the “e-readiness” situation in the 42 countries, including Argentina, China, Italy, Spain and South Africa, is more serious than the year 2000 (Y2K) problem turned out to be. McConnell International is concerned, that the technology-led growth of the global economy is at risk unless countries take prompt action.

Countries chosen for the study are those where information technology industry leaders are looking to expand, and whose success is the most critical to achieving the next phase of global economic growth. The 42 countries comprise nearly three-quarters of the world’s population and produce one-quarter of global goods and services. The study clearly demonstrates, that the world is becoming a “global village”, where everyone depends on each other. Leading and developed countries can not just lean back, they have to make sure, that other countries are on track – otherwise a slashing global economy will hurt them as well.

The report recommends countries to invest in education, deregulate their telecommunications industries (“you can not be a leader of the Internet economy when you are 41st in the world for (phone) lines per household”), improve the transparency of their governments, foster competition, promote wireless Internet access, enforce regulation and open up their financial structures. The 42 countries rated are Argentina, Brazil, Bulgaria, Chile, China, Costa Rica, Czech Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, Estonia, Ghana, Greece, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Italy, Kenya, Latvia, Lithuania, Malaysia, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Saudia Arabia, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Taiwan, Tanzania, Thailand, Turkey, Ukraine, Venezuela and Vietnam.

full report at www.mcconnellinternational.com

©2000 Juergen Daum. All rights reserved.
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