Zimbabwe, the country that leads all of South Asia according to the ITU, is not in the top- 70 that is provided. Nigeria, on the other hand, is just behind Sri Lanka, at 62. Unless some action is taken, next year, both Nigeria and Pakistan will be ahead of Sri Lanka.

PRESS RELEASE Asian Countries Advance in the Economist Intelligence Unit’s 2007 E-Readiness Rankings, as the Goalposts of Digital Leadership Shift

E-readiness continues to improve around the world in 2007, but achieving it is becoming more complex. To reflect this, the Economist Intelligence Unit has “raised the bar” of e-readiness by modifying its ranking methodology. This change in methodology, along with underlying improvements in individual countries, has led to changes in the league table. Several countries, particularly in Asia, have seen their positions improve, while others have experienced (mostly slight) declines. At the same time, the fundamental tenets of e-readiness remain unchanged, and the leaders in 2006 are still leaders today — nine of last year’s top ten countries remain in that bracket.Denmark and the US retain their number one and two spots in the rankings (with Sweden also tied for 2nd), but Hong Kong (4th), Singapore (6th), South Korea (16th), Taiwan (17th) and Japan (18th) have experienced a boost in 2007 in both scores and ranks. This is due in no small part to their governments’ vision and commitment in pushing digital development, and to continued progress in adoption of broadband and other advanced infrastructure.

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This particular report also ranks countries by something called the ICT Opportunity Index. According to this ranking, Zimbabwe (Rank = 127) has greater ICT opportunities than Pakistan (139), India (133) and Sri Lanka (128).

Readers of this website are generally aware of the rapid growth of telecom in these three countries, and India is pretty much a brand name for ICT these days. How Zimbabwe, with one of the worst records of misgovernance in the world can do better than these three countries is a subject worthy of debate.

For the record, Zimbabwe was heading for 1500% inflation in January 2007 according to African sources, and its diplomats had not been paid for months. The telecom sector in Zimbabwe seems to be in crisis as well.

So, the question are, is the ITU’s ICT Opportunity Index flawed? If yes, how? If not, should Pakistan, India and Sri Lanka strive to emulate Zimbabwe’s monetary and telecom regulatory practices?