Russia in Global IT Related Ratings
A chapter from 10th Annual Survey of the Russian Software Export Industry
Aug 26, 2013
For the last year, Russia improved its positions in the various global IT related ratings which reflect the level of IT development and usage, as well as conditions for conducting business. Similar processes are observed in the majority of IT-ratings for several last years, however for the first time there has not been noted any exception connected with deterioration of any of them.
In some cases negative publications in the mass media have been producing their impact on experts who created these ratings. Then they were partly guided by political stereotypes, maintaining political games and creating of Russia an image of the enemy. This orientation was partially enforced because Russian companies, universities and state structures were not always aspiring to provide all information that is necessary for analysts.
At the same time, movement up of Russia in world IT-ratings was not only caused by available real information about its development and about the carried-out reforms, but also by growing information openness of the Russian government bodies and of commercial structures. For example, just in a year Russia flew up 32 positions higher in the world rating of the Electronic government development (E-Government Survey 2012: E-Government for the People), having risen from the 59th to the 27th place. This rating was published by the United Nations. It reflects the readiness and the feasibility of the state agencies from 193 countries to use ICT to provide the state services.
Certainly, Russian government made some decisions that contributed to the increased use of IT and of the Global network in the interaction of various departments and the government institutions with the citizens. Particularly to be noted that a unified portal for the state services was created. However it is hard to say that it is already operating with the full functionality support. Many services are not transformed to the electronic form yet. The work is underway and there is a progress but that progress could not be so great in such a short term.
In reality Russia jumped from one category of countries of the rating to another – from countries with emerging economics to the economically developed countries – just in a year. Moreover, countries in this rating are ranged based on the weighed index of estimates on three main components (scale and quality of online services, level of ICT-infrastructure development and human capital) and it is hard to change them in a year to overtake about thirty countries. Apparently, this breakthrough was caused by efforts on the e-government programs that were undertaken in Russia within several years, but analysts got information about them and estimated results no earlier than a year ago.
In e-Government Survey 2012, Russia took the 37th place in the online services development, the 30th place in the level of the ICT-infrastructure development and the 44th place in the human capital development. All three indexes were improved for Russia.
Doing Business
Apparently Russia takes worst positions in the Doing Business rating which is compiled by the World Bank experts occupying the 112th place among 185 countries. However there was a step up by 8 places compared to the last year that testifies to a certain progress. It should be noted that the World Bank traditionally estimates the situation in Russia worse than other international organizations and sometimes predicted decline in the Russian GDP that was not confirmed by subsequent events. The Ministry of Economic Development of the Russian Federation considers that Russia should already take the 44th place in this rating. It may be realistically assumed that Russia’s position in the rating may be somewhere within 40th-60th places. Vladimir Putin, the incumbent president of Russia, demanded at the end of 2011 (then he held the position of the prime minister) that by 2020 Russia should move up in the Doing Business rating to the 20th place.
World Competitiveness Yearbook (by IMD)
In the World Competitiveness Yearbook 2013 published annually by IMD (International Institute for Management Development, Switzerland) Russia took the 42nd place among 60 countries, after having risen by six positions for the year. The researchers have noted the substantial achievements in the state of the economy. The rating is compiled based on statistics and on surveys of corporate leaders (4,200 people interrogated, including about 100 in Russia).
The main reason for the increase in the Russia’s rating position is the data on the employment – the country moved up by this parameter from the 27th to the 13th place. Experts also acknowledged the following strong or improving Russia’s indicators: low level of public debt, low personal income tax, stable interest rate, high level of employees’ education and qualifications. They also marked as weak or worsening indicators the following: imbalanced export, weak pension system, underdeveloped capital market, bureaucracy, low need of innovations. A number of demography and health care indicators were also mentioned (Russia is at the bottom by the ratio of elderly and of employable population, by the quality of life and by the level of health care).
Global Innovation Index
In the rating of the world’s most innovative states (which is compiled by the Bloomberg) Russia took the 14th place, having outstripped Canada, the UK, Australia and many other states. Totally 50 countries were included in the Global Innovation Index where information on 200 states and sovereign territories was analyzed. Analysts considered the following seven factors: R&D intensity, productivity, high-tech density, researcher concentration, manufacturing capability, tertiary efficiency and patent activity. The information was provided by the World Bank, the World Intellectual Property Organization, the Conference Board organization, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development and UNESCO.
comScore
According to the comScore report, Russia possesses the largest Internet audience among the European states and takes the third place by indicator of web page viewing from mobile phones (by the share of page views from all types of mobile devices).
IDI ("ICT Development Index")
Following the results of 2011, Russia moved up by 2 places in the ICT Development Index and took the 38th place, having closely approached to Portugal that occupies the row above.
The Web Index
According to The Web Index report 2012 (compiled by the World Wide Web Foundation organization), Russia took the 31st place by the level of the Internet development and usage. Every year Russia steadily improves its positions in this rating. Following factors prevent Russia from making a greater progress: low level of use of social networks and of the global network for health care information availability, low level of e-learning services, high level of cyber-crime and quite a low level of e-commerce development.
Networked Readiness Index
According to the annual report published by the World Economic Forum and INSEAD business school, Russia moved up by two places in the Networked Readiness Index 2013 (having overtaken China and other BRICS countries) and took the 54th place. To be noted that in 2010 Russia was on the 80th place only. This year the improvement of the Russia’ position is mainly explained by an increase in the number of Internet users and especially by an exponential growth of 3G-connections (the 20th place in the world).
National Cloud Computing Policy
Following the results of the analytical research on changes of different countries’ national policy in the sphere of cloud computing which was conducted by the Business Software Alliance (BSA) Russia took the 14th place among 24 world’s leading IT economies (a year ago Russia was on the 16th place). The global rating is headed by Japan thanks to adoption of the complex legislative initiatives to support e-commerce. Australia is on the second place, and the third place this year belongs to the USA which have moved Germany to the fourth position. BSA made an assessment of the national legislation and regulatory acts by seven different parameters that are critically important for development of globally integrated market of cloud computing.
Innovation Cities Global Index 2012-2013
In the rating of the world’s most innovative cities Moscow took the 74th place and St. Petersburg – the 84th place. Only 133 cities have been ranked there among 445 cities which participated in the rating. Except two Russian capitals the following Russian cities also participated there: Yekaterinburg, Kazan, Novosibirsk, Samara, Krasnoyarsk, Kaliningrad, Rostov-on-Don, Nizhny Novgorod, Perm, Saratov, Tomsk, Vladivostok, Omsk, Volgograd, Izhevsk, Barnaul, Orenburg, and Togliatti.
The Top 100 Outsourcing Cities
The ranking of cities pretending to be the best destinations for the software development outsourcing (organized by Global Services) included four Russian cities. All of them were present in thie listing a year ago. Only Moscow conceded its position and dropped from the 46th to the 56th place. St. Petersburg moved up from the 33rd to the 32nd place, Nizhny Novgorod – from the 63rd to the 62nd place, Novosibirsk – from the 97th to the 92nd place.
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In some cases negative publications in the mass media have been producing their impact on experts who created these ratings. Then they were partly guided by political stereotypes, maintaining political games and creating of Russia an image of the enemy. This orientation was partially enforced because Russian companies, universities and state structures were not always aspiring to provide all information that is necessary for analysts.
At the same time, movement up of Russia in world IT-ratings was not only caused by available real information about its development and about the carried-out reforms, but also by growing information openness of the Russian government bodies and of commercial structures. For example, just in a year Russia flew up 32 positions higher in the world rating of the Electronic government development (E-Government Survey 2012: E-Government for the People), having risen from the 59th to the 27th place. This rating was published by the United Nations. It reflects the readiness and the feasibility of the state agencies from 193 countries to use ICT to provide the state services.
Certainly, Russian government made some decisions that contributed to the increased use of IT and of the Global network in the interaction of various departments and the government institutions with the citizens. Particularly to be noted that a unified portal for the state services was created. However it is hard to say that it is already operating with the full functionality support. Many services are not transformed to the electronic form yet. The work is underway and there is a progress but that progress could not be so great in such a short term.
In reality Russia jumped from one category of countries of the rating to another – from countries with emerging economics to the economically developed countries – just in a year. Moreover, countries in this rating are ranged based on the weighed index of estimates on three main components (scale and quality of online services, level of ICT-infrastructure development and human capital) and it is hard to change them in a year to overtake about thirty countries. Apparently, this breakthrough was caused by efforts on the e-government programs that were undertaken in Russia within several years, but analysts got information about them and estimated results no earlier than a year ago.
In e-Government Survey 2012, Russia took the 37th place in the online services development, the 30th place in the level of the ICT-infrastructure development and the 44th place in the human capital development. All three indexes were improved for Russia.
Doing Business
Apparently Russia takes worst positions in the Doing Business rating which is compiled by the World Bank experts occupying the 112th place among 185 countries. However there was a step up by 8 places compared to the last year that testifies to a certain progress. It should be noted that the World Bank traditionally estimates the situation in Russia worse than other international organizations and sometimes predicted decline in the Russian GDP that was not confirmed by subsequent events. The Ministry of Economic Development of the Russian Federation considers that Russia should already take the 44th place in this rating. It may be realistically assumed that Russia’s position in the rating may be somewhere within 40th-60th places. Vladimir Putin, the incumbent president of Russia, demanded at the end of 2011 (then he held the position of the prime minister) that by 2020 Russia should move up in the Doing Business rating to the 20th place.
World Competitiveness Yearbook (by IMD)
In the World Competitiveness Yearbook 2013 published annually by IMD (International Institute for Management Development, Switzerland) Russia took the 42nd place among 60 countries, after having risen by six positions for the year. The researchers have noted the substantial achievements in the state of the economy. The rating is compiled based on statistics and on surveys of corporate leaders (4,200 people interrogated, including about 100 in Russia).
The main reason for the increase in the Russia’s rating position is the data on the employment – the country moved up by this parameter from the 27th to the 13th place. Experts also acknowledged the following strong or improving Russia’s indicators: low level of public debt, low personal income tax, stable interest rate, high level of employees’ education and qualifications. They also marked as weak or worsening indicators the following: imbalanced export, weak pension system, underdeveloped capital market, bureaucracy, low need of innovations. A number of demography and health care indicators were also mentioned (Russia is at the bottom by the ratio of elderly and of employable population, by the quality of life and by the level of health care).
Global Innovation Index
In the rating of the world’s most innovative states (which is compiled by the Bloomberg) Russia took the 14th place, having outstripped Canada, the UK, Australia and many other states. Totally 50 countries were included in the Global Innovation Index where information on 200 states and sovereign territories was analyzed. Analysts considered the following seven factors: R&D intensity, productivity, high-tech density, researcher concentration, manufacturing capability, tertiary efficiency and patent activity. The information was provided by the World Bank, the World Intellectual Property Organization, the Conference Board organization, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development and UNESCO.
comScore
According to the comScore report, Russia possesses the largest Internet audience among the European states and takes the third place by indicator of web page viewing from mobile phones (by the share of page views from all types of mobile devices).
IDI ("ICT Development Index")
Following the results of 2011, Russia moved up by 2 places in the ICT Development Index and took the 38th place, having closely approached to Portugal that occupies the row above.
The Web Index
According to The Web Index report 2012 (compiled by the World Wide Web Foundation organization), Russia took the 31st place by the level of the Internet development and usage. Every year Russia steadily improves its positions in this rating. Following factors prevent Russia from making a greater progress: low level of use of social networks and of the global network for health care information availability, low level of e-learning services, high level of cyber-crime and quite a low level of e-commerce development.
Networked Readiness Index
According to the annual report published by the World Economic Forum and INSEAD business school, Russia moved up by two places in the Networked Readiness Index 2013 (having overtaken China and other BRICS countries) and took the 54th place. To be noted that in 2010 Russia was on the 80th place only. This year the improvement of the Russia’ position is mainly explained by an increase in the number of Internet users and especially by an exponential growth of 3G-connections (the 20th place in the world).
National Cloud Computing Policy
Following the results of the analytical research on changes of different countries’ national policy in the sphere of cloud computing which was conducted by the Business Software Alliance (BSA) Russia took the 14th place among 24 world’s leading IT economies (a year ago Russia was on the 16th place). The global rating is headed by Japan thanks to adoption of the complex legislative initiatives to support e-commerce. Australia is on the second place, and the third place this year belongs to the USA which have moved Germany to the fourth position. BSA made an assessment of the national legislation and regulatory acts by seven different parameters that are critically important for development of globally integrated market of cloud computing.
Innovation Cities Global Index 2012-2013
In the rating of the world’s most innovative cities Moscow took the 74th place and St. Petersburg – the 84th place. Only 133 cities have been ranked there among 445 cities which participated in the rating. Except two Russian capitals the following Russian cities also participated there: Yekaterinburg, Kazan, Novosibirsk, Samara, Krasnoyarsk, Kaliningrad, Rostov-on-Don, Nizhny Novgorod, Perm, Saratov, Tomsk, Vladivostok, Omsk, Volgograd, Izhevsk, Barnaul, Orenburg, and Togliatti.
The Top 100 Outsourcing Cities
The ranking of cities pretending to be the best destinations for the software development outsourcing (organized by Global Services) included four Russian cities. All of them were present in thie listing a year ago. Only Moscow conceded its position and dropped from the 46th to the 56th place. St. Petersburg moved up from the 33rd to the 32nd place, Nizhny Novgorod – from the 63rd to the 62nd place, Novosibirsk – from the 97th to the 92nd place.
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