Booz Allen Hamilton: Energizing the future of ICT in the Middle East (page 2 of 2)

Notwithstanding the fact that the region has entered rather late into the deregulation arena across various sectors in general and ICT related domains in specific, almost all countries in the region have the potential to move fast in setting their related agendas and enacting them, bridging in the process many of the present gaps. Some of the pioneering, though limited, initiatives in Jordan, Qatar, the UAE and Saudi Arabia are providing a favorable environment to facilitate the development and adoption of broader ICT services.

Treating ICT development as a national priority is a clear choice for all governments in the region. The how-to, however, remains elusive. There are three major efforts governments can undertake to implement an environment conducive to achieving convergence and improved ICT services for the general population:

Governments must adopt a holistic approach to ICT development with a focalization of responsibilities and resources.

While a focalized approach is not a panacea for ICT development in all markets, it does provide significant affinities for the Middle East context where ICT maturity of the private sector is still lagging.

Secondly, governments should pave the way through their deregulation approach to the convergence between telecommunications and media.

While telecommunications deregulation and liberalization is well underway across the region, the media sector in general and the broadcast segment continue to be over-regulated and monopolized by government agencies and other aligned groups. As the broadcasting media sector is being deregulated and proper legislative and regulatory structures are put in place, policy makers in the region should develop early on a viewpoint on how media and telecommunications are intersecting and how their regulatory modus operandi can support the emerging convergence. This could range from introducing transparent coordination mechanisms between media and telecommunications regulations to a full merger of the authorities overseeing these sectors.

Third, governments should apply a systematic approach to planning and measuring their ICT progress.

The framework to apply starts by creating a fertile environment. This encompasses the level of political leadership, regulatory openness, innovation, capability, IT skills in the population, and the cost and availability of access. The framework must then move to create the right level of readiness among the country's economic actors - citizens and residents, businesses and governments - to capitalize on the opportunities that a strong environment brings. The idea of readiness naturally requires an appropriate access device, be it a PC, a Digital TV or a mobile device, plus the skill and the will to use it for electronic exchanges. The development framework must then be complemented with targets related to uptake and use that describe the adoption of ICT enabled services, the volume and sophistication of use. Finally, yet importantly, the framework must conclude with the concept of impact, which would capture the degree to which adoption of ICT enabled services has changed the behavior of citizens or transformed their businesses.

"Governments implementing a highly structured program that incorporates these approaches will more than likely see positive results, especially in the areas of dissemination of new technologies to greater numbers of people than before," said Karim Sabbagh, Vice President, Booz Allen Hamilton. "ICT that is widely available will give Middle East economies the very element they need to maintain competitiveness in the near and long term future with technologically advanced economies throughout the world."

ICT remains in the near future an emerging field, where expertise is still developing and learning is intense. Middle East countries can therefore jump start their progress by adopting a focalized approach and creating ICT centers of excellence where students, champions, master-planners and developers can come together to realize the full benefits of this sector.