Третя Міжнародна Конференція «Економіка Балкан та країн Східної Європи»

FORMATION OF INFORMATION SOCIETY: STATISTICAL PROFILES AND STAGES OF DEVELOPMENT

ABSTRACT

New technologies and scholarships have expanded access to the information worldwide. That has created new markets, new kinds of business, new logistics networks and new methods of business dealing. The base of such systems is Information-Communication Technologies (ICT) and the intellectual capital. “The Information Economy Report” published by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) says that ICT is the general technology universally impacting the economy. It introduces new ideology in economic activities, essentially changing the approach towards technology usage for development. This stage of socioeconomic development was called the Information Society.

Standard statistical indicators were insufficient to evaluat its development, so it was proposed to calculate the composite ICT Development Index (IDI). It contains 46 indicators, divided into 3 groups, which are related to ICT access, use and skills. These indicators forme the basis of Information Society’s statistical profiles.

IDI ranges from 0 to 1. Top ten countries are headed by Sweden for the second year in a row. Its IDI is 7.85, with a minimum of 0.79 in Chad. Among CIS countries, Russia is leading. It takes 48th place (IDI=4.54), followed by Belarus (55, IDI=4.07), Ukraine (58, IDI=3.87), Kazakhstan (69, IDI=3.47) and Moldova (73, IDI=3.37).

A closer look at the IDI sub-indices shows that the growth of IDI is due to progress of ICT-use in developed countries, and of ICT-access in post-Soviet countries. On the one hand, this could be explained by the model of index  constructing: firstly ICT infrastructure is created, then the intensity of its use increases, then there is the effect of ICT.

On the other hand, ICT-access and use are directly influenced by their value. People in developed countries spend only 1.5% of their income on ICT services, while residents of our region - nearly 10%. However, the relationship between ICT development and income in CIS countries is quite weak compared with European, the Asian and Pacific or American ones. This indicates that prices are a significant factor of ICT development only if they fall below a certain level, making ICT services affordable for the majority of the population. Nevertheless, the levels of IDI in Ukraine, Belarus and Moldova, is higher than expected, given the per capita income in these countries. This indicates that national strategies can facilitate the introduction of ICT in these countries and contribute to the intensification of their transition to Information Society.

Such strategies should be consistent with the current level of ICT implementation in the country, as well as with the priority aims and objectives of a particular phase of the Information Society. To formalize these goals, the author proposed Kohonen maps.

According to the model, Ukraine is on the 4rd of six stage of the Information Society. So efforts must be directed at the E-Commerce Regulations, E-Payment Systems development, increasing security of transactions and services.

KEYWORDS
Information-Communication Technologies, Information Society, Kohonen maps.

jel CLASSIFICATION codes
C45 O38