We deal with a subset of ASEAN countries, the most prosperous among them being Thailand. So I looked at the performance of the not-so-rich ASEAN in the ICT Development Index.
Thailand has advanced from 91st place in 2012 to 81st in 2013. Very significant.
Then comes Viet Nam (101; down two places from 2012), Philippines (103; down one place), Indonesia and Cambodia holding steady at 106 and 127, respectively; Laos, down four to 134; and sadly Myanmar at 150, two places down from the last place in the region it held in 2012 — 148.
Hopefully, we will have some explanations as to why Thailand is the only country in South and South East Asia that has shown a dramatic improvement and why everyone else is running in place or falling back. The short answer can be given right now: in comparative rankings, progress is not enough; one must progress more than one’s peers. That seems to be the problem for all these countries.
The Myanmar numbers are from before the liberalization took effect; we expect to see some positive movement from Myanmar by this time next year.
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