Seychelles at the top spot of the African continent on ICT Development |19 July 2010

This is mainly in view of the fact that ICT plays an increasingly prominent role as a key enabler of sustainable growth, given that it has become an essential element of the infrastructure underpinning competitive economies. 

During the recent economic turmoil the ICT sector has done well compared to other sectors. A position supported by the International Telecommunication Union in its latest publication titled “Measuring the Information Society 2010”, where it is stated “despite the recent economic downturn, the use of ICT services, such as mobile phones and Internet continues to grow worldwide.  This has been the case in Seychelles too. According to statistics collected from the telecommunication operators, by the end of 2009, there were 110,668 mobile subscriptions, corresponding to 126.77% per 100 inhabitants, which is on par with penetration in developed countries. Indeed, mobile penetration in Seychelles has more than doubled since 2005. Internet penetration has also continued to increase but at a much slower pace. To date the number of Internet subscriptions exceeds 7,000.

According to the said publication, out of the 159 countries surveyed, Seychelles has been ranked 66, giving Seychelles the top spot on the African continent, ahead of counties such as South Africa and Mauritius.
In order to measure the uptake and the usage of ICTs worldwide, the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) use ICT Development Index (IDI). The IDI is a composite of index made up of eleven indicators, such as ICT access, use and skills, and includes such indicators as households with a computer, the number of fixed broadband Internet subscribers, and literacy rates. A summary of this report can be viewed at the following URL.
http://www.itu.int/newsroom/press_releases/2010/pdf/PR08_ExecSum.pdf.

Seychelles achievement comes at the time when the world economy begins to recover from one of the worst economic crisis in decades and the country is going through an economic reform programme.  Our country’s remarkably progress has not gone unnoticed, the country features in the May edition of ITU News publication under country focus, titled “Seychelles leads Africa ICT development”. (http://www.itu.int/net/itunews/issues/2010/04/43.aspx)

As ICT continues spreading its revolutionarily power to modernize economies and societies, and improve living conditions and opportunities around the world, it is therefore imperative that shortcomings, such as high costs of certain ICT services be addressed. It is important to note that high costs of ICT services are often a major barrier to uptake of such services. 

Broadband Internet is one of these services. More and more governments around the globe have recognized importance of widespread deployment of ICT services, especially broadband Internet to their citizens. Countries like Sweden, South Korea, and Singapore, to mention a few, with high broadband penetration are using their broadband infrastructure as a tool for public service, particularly in health, education, employment and social integration.

Alike many other countries, both develop and developing, Seychelles has to take steps to fully leverage ICT and to reap its many and diverse economic and social benefits. It is encouraging to see that, in Seychelles, broadband has been recognized as a national imperative. Testimony to this is the Government’s decision, in partnership with the private sector, to link the country to one of the regional fibre-optic submarine cables in the not too distant future. This, without any doubt will be a major step in boosting communication between Seychelles and the rest of the world.  However, the broadband infrastructure alone will not suffice, the Seychellois people will need to have access to timely and affordable broadband in order to make use of more bandwidth-intensive applications such enterprise-class home offices, high-speed sharing of large files and Internet Protocol Television (IPTV). This, in turn will allow the country to reap the benefits of sustainable competitiveness.

Contributed