ICT in Sri Lanka: Local boon and international bane?

Internally, Sri Lanka’s Information and Communication Technology (ICT) industry comprising telecoms and computer sub sectors could be one of the success stories but internationally the country ranks far below the rest and worse had slipped in overall standing since 2002.
Despite massive expansion in telecommunication, especially mobile, Sri Lanka is ranked 100th place (out of 154 countries) in terms of ICT Development Index (IDI) released recently by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), in comparison to 97th in 2002.
This confirms that though there had been expansion domestically, the rest of the world and especially some select countries have achieved exponential growth.
The Index combines 11 indicators into a single measure that can be used as a benchmarking tool globally, regionally and at the country level. These are related to ICT access, use and skills, such as households with a computer the number of Internet users; and literacy levels.
Lanka’s lower ranking is despite the fixed telephone lines per 100 inhabitants increasing from 4.4 in 2002 to 14.2 in 2007; and mobile cellular subscriptions per 100 inhabitants increasing from 4.6 to 41.4. Proportion of households with computer in 2002 amounted to 1.3 whilst in 2007 it was 7.8 and households with internet were 4.1 in 2007 though there was no data in 2002. An indicator of concern is in the area of ICT education with the gross enrolment ratio at secondary level improving only to 88.5 from 86.0 in 2002 while at tertiary it remain stagnant at 5.3 between 2002 and 2007. The ITU report said that the while still rather low on overall ICT developments, countries such as Sri Lanka have considerably increased ICT access, but have yet to catch up on ICT use. ITU noted that the cost of making a phone call or surfing the Internet can influence the use of these technologies. The Report presents a new tool — the ITU ICT Price Basket — that measures and compares ICT prices across countries. It compares 2008 ICT tariffs in 150 countries.
In the ICT Price Basket 2008, Sri Lanka ranked 88. A comparison of ICT levels and ICT prices suggests a strong link between the two.
Lankan ICT industry analysts though noting the outcomes of the global report were of the view that the rankings would look favourable when 2008 data is captured. At least the mobile subscriber base is now over 10 million, confirming that every other person owns a mobile in Sri Lanka.
Sweden ranked at the top of the ICT Development Index followed by Korea and Denmark. Countries such as Maldives, Mongolia, Vietnam, Cuba, Libya are placed much higher than Sri Lanka in addition to having grown much faster. For example Vietnam was ranked 107 in 2002 had shot up to 92 in 2007.