Factors affecting ICT expansion in emerging economies: An analysis of ICT infrastructure expansion in five Latin American countries
✍ Scribed by Ojelanki Ngwenyama; Olga Morawczynski
- Publisher
- Taylor and Francis Group
- Year
- 2009
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 336 KB
- Volume
- 15
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0268-1102
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
✦ Synopsis
High-quality information and communication technology (ICT) infrastructure is essential for developing countries to achieve rapid economic growth. International trade and the structure of the global economy require a level of integration that is achievable only with sophisticated infrastructure. Since the early 1990s, international institutions have been pushing developing nations to deregulate and heavily invest in ICT infrastructure as a strategy for accelerating socioeconomic development. After more than a decade of continued investments, some countries have still not achieved expected outcomes. Recently, the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) has called for empirical research to assess the performance and impact of ICT expansion in developing countries. In this article, we respond to this call by investigating factors affecting the efficiency of ICT expansion in five emerging economies in Latin America. Our findings demonstrate that deregulation is not enough to effect efficient ICT expansion, and we argue that existing conditions (economic factors, human capital, geography, and civil infrastructure factors) must also be considered. We conclude by asserting that policy makers can more easily realize socioeconomic development via ICTs if they consider these conditions while cultivating their technology strategies.