IT competitiveness
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The American Chamber of Commerce in Ukraine has presented an analytical report titled “The Role of Information Communication Technologies (ICT) in the Improvement of Ukraine’s Competitiveness” in Kyiv, with the participation of Microsoft Corporation. The authors of this document believe that in the nearest future our country must extensively introduce IT solutions in all spheres of life. This will boost economic development and enhance the nation’s competitiveness.
According to Jorge Zukoski, president of the American Chamber of Commerce in Ukraine, global experience shows that countries with highly developed information and communication technologies are more competitive. ICT enhances economic progress and stimulates competition, resulting in economic development and promoting the improvement of education due to an information exchange, explained Zukoski. “Ukraine ranks 89th out of 139 countries of the world in the most recent Global Competitiveness Index, compiled by the World Economic Forum. The improvement of Ukraine’s position in this rating is currently our top priority,” he emphasized.
In order to strengthen Ukraine’s position, Microsoft has developed a special competitiveness program for central, regional, and local governments. “For every country we have developed definite suggestions, with regard to its peculiarities. The system of steps we offer is another set of measures Microsoft is taking to support Ukraine,” emphasized Orlando Ayala, vice president of Microsoft responsible for emerging markets.
As Ayala told The Day, the prepared plan is based on four principles: investments into the creation of electronic governance, the development of education, labor resources, and the creation of industry clusters in the sphere of information technologies. All in all, the program contains 10 recommendations: to appoint someone responsible for the electronic government system, to develop single standards for information exchange among various state agencies, electronic signatures, electronic government, the expansion of the access of comprehensive schools to the Internet, the increase of computer literacy starting at pre-school age, the development of innovative designs and researches via the creation of specialized clusters, with the participation of international and national IT companies, etc.
“Ukraine should decide how to use its achievements in education, since there are quite few countries in the world where the level of education is comparable with that in Ukraine as far as the command of English, natural sciences, and mathematics is concerned — and this is exactly what makes Ukraine unique among all the other new, emerging markets,” added Ayala and explained that these steps would guarantee Ukraine’s fast economic progress.
Serhii Tihipko, deputy prime minister, minister of social policy of Ukraine, who attended the presentation of the report and program, thus commented on what he had heard: “Speaking of the nation’s competitiveness, we mean an entire complex of conditions, which it is impossible to achieve by solving only one, two, or three separate issues. Today the factors influencing Ukraine’s competitiveness include electronic government, high on the list. Its introduction will become a powerful tool for fighting corruption.”
Having thus hinted at the upcoming introduction of electronic government, Tihipko added that the country also needed unified electronic circulation of documents between the central and regional authorities, as well as the digitization of administrative services for the population.
“In the EU today an average of 75 percent of all state services can be done electronically. This is a good landmark for Ukraine,” said Tihipko. Yet the deputy prime minister was not able to tell us exactly just how many administrative services an average Ukrainian citizen can receive electronically. He explained, however, that by 2015 (in accordance with the developed program) Ukraine has to digitize around 50 percent of all administrative services.
Yet meanwhile, according to Tihipko, within the framework of the joint World Bank project, the Ministry of Social Policy is completing the creation of a computer system which is to unite all the departments of the ministry to allow them to use integrated databases of welfare recipients. This is to speed up the process of granting welfare to citizens, as well as to automatize many procedures necessary for obtaining certain kinds of welfare.
“At present, the creation of the relevant software is done. Next year we are going to test the system and train the staff,” he explained to The Day. According to Tihipko, the computerization of the welfare sphere will be complete with the creation of a citizen’s welfare card. It will enable a person to receive information electronically, without struggling to get the necessary papers from various authorities. “Without integrated electronic databases this card is totally pointless,” believes Tihipko.
The Day’s FACT FILE
We would like to remind our readers that in the world competitiveness rating (World Competitiveness Yearbook 2011) Ukraine ranked 57th, outdoing Croatia and Venezuela, but few other. The count was held by four criteria: the state of economy, the efficiency of the government, the effectiveness of business, and the state of the infrastructure. In their turn, they were further split into more than 300 more specific indices. According to the data provided by the World Economic Forum, in the Technology Readiness Index Ukraine ranks 83rd out of 138, while in the Networked Readiness Index it is 90th.
