I saw a tweet and accompanying story this morning about Colombia’s potential as a leader in digital technologies. The implication is that the nation is primed to migrate much of its ICT infrastructure to the cloud – in a nation dominated by SMEs more than most – to take advantage of cloud computing and all that goes with it in building an infrastructure for the 21st century.
So I thought I’d take a look at how this country does in our research and rankings.
Colombia does OK in our rankings, just outside our “Goldilocks Zone” of countries that we view as truly dynamic in developing its ICT infrastructure and environment. It could do better with just slight tweeks in its commitment to ICT as a prime driver of economic and societal development.
Colombia is the largest country not named Brazil in South America, with about 47 million people and a per-person income that’s about 70% that of Brazil. Its overall economy is #31 in the world, very close to Thailand and larger than that of South Africa.
The country ranks 59th among the 103 nations we survey, again (and coincidentally) close to Thailand, slightly lower than Brazil and China, and slightly ahead of Kenya and India.
We measure ICT environments on a relative basis, adjusting several raw technology and socio-economic measures for per-person income and the local cost of living. Our aim is to show which countries are doing the most with what they have, to create a “pound-for-pound” ranking of these nations.
Potential is There
In addition to our overall and Goldilocks rankings, we provide a measure of “instant dynamism” that indicates how a country is progressing at the present moment. Separately, we factor in total population to measure the overall challenge each country faces in developing its ICT environment.
Colombia ranks 50th in the first of these measures – ahead of Brazil – and 42nd in the severity of its overall challenge. This is, again, ahead of Brazil but trails Mexico, Argentina, and Turkey.
This quick analysis tells us not to sugarcoat the news – Colombia is not among the world or regional leaders – but as the article I read states, is primed for great growth as it commits itself to developing its ICT infrastructure.
We are able to develop in-depth reports on this topic, and welcome any questions people may have.