...the top ICT-savvy cities

Manila among top 25 ICT-savvy cities

 

By Tam Noda

philstar.com

November 25, 2012

 

 

 

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.

 

 

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."

\

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.