Bermuda Sun:
The island’s telecoms industry may not be perfect – but it’s getting better all the time.
Bermuda moved up five positions to 15th overall in the ‘Economist’ magazine’s e-readiness ranking, according to a government press statement.
This year’s ranking is only the second year Bermuda has been included in the ranking, and it’s the only dependents territory on the list.
Once again Bermuda placed third overall in the world in the category of Legal Environment – the category that measures effectiveness of traditional legal framework, laws covering the Internet and the level of censorship – just behind Hong Kong and Australia, the statement said.
The ranking evaluates the technological, economic, political and social assets of 69 countries and their cumulative impact on their respective information economies.
Each year, the e-readiness rankings methodology is modified to reflect the current ‘state of play’ in the development of Information Communications Technology (ICT) and its application in the economy, as well as the shifting influence of non-technical factors affecting its implementation.
“For next year, we hope to improve our ranking even further,” said Telecommunications and E-Commerce Minister Neletha Butterfield.
“This can be achieved through the continued hard work of [the ministry] that are working on several initiatives, including telecommunications regulatory reform, the revamping of the government portal, as well as community education in [information technology],” she added.
The study of 69 countries is a joint initiative between the ‘Economist’ and along with the IBM Institute for Business Value, built the rankings model.
The six categories in the evaluation include connectivity and technology infrastructure, business environment, social and cultural environment, legal environment, government policy and vision, and consumer and business adoption, the statement said.
Yes, so despite the fact that we are doing so well on the world stage, and things seem to be improving all the time, Government still thinks it is a good idea to totally shake up the Island’s reforms. Oh well, we shall see in due course the results.