Belarus confirmed the status of regional leader in the development of information and communication technologies and maintained its position in the world rating of the International Telecommunication Union.
The International Telecommunication Union has published the annual report Measuring Information Society Report, which assesses the development of ICT in the member states of the Union. The leader of the rating was Iceland. Also in the top five are the Republic of Korea, Switzerland, Denmark, and Great Britain. Belarus, as in the previous report of 2016, ranks 32nd and is the leader in the development of ICT in the CIS region. Belarus is also ahead of a number of European countries - Lithuania, Latvia, Czech Republic, Italy, Poland.
In comparison with the previous year, Belarus has managed to make progress on the sub-index of access to ICT (+3 items), the subindex of ICT use (+2 positions), and to maintain its position among the world leaders in terms of human development (5th place). The report notes that due to sophisticated and progressive policy in Belarus, a developed infrastructure has been created that makes it possible to provide the population with quality and affordable fixed and mobile broadband Internet access services.
According to the forecasts of the International Telecommunication Union, the successful implementation of the state program for the development of the digital economy and the information society will help to consolidate and improve the position of Belarus in the ITU rating by further deploying LTE networks in the country's regions, developing fiber-optic networks, satellite communications, digital television and cloud technologies.
In 2018, the methodology for calculating the index of the development of the information and communication infrastructure will be substantially revised taking into account the current trends in the development of ICT.
Source: BelTA