Pakistan: Huge task ahead for bottom-ranked country

Pakistan falls one place to finish last among resource and efficiency-driven economies on the Connectivity Scorecard 2010. The country’s performance on the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) front continues to be patchy.

Pakistan makes considerable improvements in the area of consumer infrastructure, where tele-density has increased to over 62% and there are nearly 100 million cellular subscribers. The country also performs relatively well in terms of provision of e-government services.

However, weak ICT investments by its enterprise sector appear to be Pakistan’s biggest challenge, with the country significantly lagging behind its peers in business infrastructure. In line with this trend, the country posts weak scores in business usage and skills. The country’s performance on government-related metrics is mixed, with the advantages of a respectable government infrastructure score offset by poor government usage and skills.

Pakistan faces big challenges: invest more in ICT, especially in enhancing broadband and internet penetration, and promote business investments in this area. The country is already witnessing a steady stream of investments flowing into the telecommunications sector and needs to build on the momentum to climb up the ranks.

Pakistan Connectivity Performance by Scorecard Component