Manila among top 25 ICT-savvy cities
MANILA, Philippines -- Swedish telecommunications equipment and
mobile services firm Ericsson recently ranked Manila as No. 22 of the top 25
largest cities in the world in terms of the ability to use information and
communication technology (ICT) to benefit business.
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| Roxas Boulevard in Manila, Philippines (Agustin Rafael Reyes/Flickr). |
In the release of Ericsson's third edition of Network Society
City report and Index, New York, Stockholm and London emerged as the top three
ICT-savvy cities in the ranking.
According to Patrick Regardh, strategic marketing head for
Ericsson global, individuals, rather than businesses or institutions, drive
development resulting from ICT maturity.
"We see the individual – rather than city institutions or
businesses – as the drivers of development resulting from ICT maturity.
Governments follow by adapting to citizens’ changing behavior, while businesses
primarily adopt ICT innovations to increase internal efficiency. More
importantly, government decisions help steer the business sector’s ICT
development. Therefore, changes in policy, regulation and planning, paired with
research and support for taking risks and funding, are some of the key factors
for driving progress. These factors are crucial in helping organizations of all
sizes to connect, collaborate and compete more effectively," Regardh said in a
statement.
According to the report, ICT leads to an increased number of
entrepreneurial opportunities, enabling new product innovations such as music
and video streaming, e-commerce and cloud services.
The report also indicated that ICT
improves access to markets by enabling entrepreneurs and specialized niche firms
to reach larger geographical markets.
And another positive note about ICT is that it reduces cost of
transactions between firms – for example by minimizing the need to be located
geographically close to suppliers, partners and customers.
Legardh in an interview said it is easy to compare a city to
another city than a nation to another nation comparing their ICT solutions. In
doing a city to city type, it is easier to recommend those that work to one city
to another city.
In explaining the positive correlation between ICT maturity and
economic development, Legardh shared a report issued by the Stockholm School of
Economics in 2012, where it was concluded that a "1 percentage point increase in
broadband penetration increases new business registration by 3.8 percent."
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Legardh said a city should be known for a few couple of things
since technology alone will not do it and a follow up is important.
For Manila, he advised to make the most out of it, referring
to collaboration between universities and industries and a review of its fiscal
and legal framework.
Legardh added school is an area where many changes can happen
in the near future. "Instead of future education, I call it future learning," he
said.
The complete list of the Top 25 ICT-Savvy cities according to
their ranks and scores, are: New York (52.1), Stockholm (51.9), London (48.7),
Singapore (48.1), Seoul (47.9), Paris (44.1), Tokyo (40.3), Los Angeles (38.2),
Sydney (31.7), Beijing (27.2), Shanghai (25.1), Moscow (24.4), Sao Paulo (18.3),
Istanbul (17.1), Mexico City (16.1), Delhi (15.4), Cairo (14.9), Buenos Aires
(14.2), Mumbai (13.1), Johannesburg (12.7), Jakarta (11.6), Manila (8.7), Dhaka
(6.7), Lagos (6.6), and Karachi (8.0).
A total of 28 indicators have been used to measure the total
benefits in the index for each city. The indicators can be categorized into two
dimensions: cities’ ICT maturity and benefits from ICT investments from both a
social, economic and environmental point of view.
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