How Rapidly Advancing Nations Can Prosper In The Information Age: Leveraging Information And Communications Technologies For National Economic Development

Globally, the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) continues to rise sharply. The overview of this series, "How nations thrive in the Information Age," describes research findings where the world's nations occupy one of three tiers: the most advanced "Established Leaders," the heterogeneous middle tier of "Rapid Adopters" and the "Late Entrants". This paper highlights the opportunities for Rapid Adopter nations to become more competitive in the world economy. Countries in this tier need to work toward liberalizing their market regulation and implementing flexible labor practices to enable faster ICT diffusion. Focus of ICT needs to move from improving connectivity to increasing uptake of online services by citizens and businesses.