INFORmATION SOCIETY OUTLOOK

INFORmATION SOCIETY OUTLOOK ICT Indicators Newsletter VOLUME 1, ISSUE 2 - AUGUST 2011 Overview ICT Indicators Web Portal: http://indicators.ncb.mu Contents The second issue of this newsletter highlights the latest ICT Indicators in the field of ICT Infrastructure Readiness, ICT Market Revenue, ICT Culture Promotion and Public Access, ICT in Education and ICT Usage in Businesses. The National Computer Board (NCB) carried out a survey on ICT Usage in Businesses in 2010 for large establishments (employing 10 or more persons). The main objectives of the survey were to:- (a) measure the computerisation level. (b) measure the ICT spending. (c) assess the ICT infrastructure. (d) assess the ICT human resource profile and (e) assess the extent of e-commerce adoption. This newsletter also benchmarks Mauritius with African, Asian and European countries in the field of ICT Development using the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) ICT Development Index (IDI), the World Economic Forum (WEF) Networked Readiness Index (NRI) and the UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS) ICT in Education indicators. Key International Indices ICT Infrastructure Readiness 2 ICT Market Revenue 5 ICT Culture Promotion and Public Access ICT Usage in Businesses 7 ICT in Education 10 Components of IDI and NRI 11 6 ICT Development Index (IDI) The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) is using the ICT Development Index (IDI) as from 2007 [replacing the Digital Opportunity Index (DOI)] to measure the information society progress in countries around the world. The 2010 report covers 159 countries. The IDI for Mauritius improved to 3.44 in 2008 as compared to 3.30 in 2007. Although the IDI improved by 4.2 percent, the ranking for Mauritius moved to 72 nd position in 2008 as compared to 68 th in 2007. Mauritius ranked 2 nd in Africa in both 2007 & 2008. Sweden ranked first in both 2008 and 2007 and Korea was ranked third (first among Asian countries) in 2008. Source: International Telecommunication Union -Measuring the Information Society 2010 2008 2007 Country Index Rank Index Rank Networked Readiness Index (NRI) The World Economic Forum (WEF) Networked Readiness Index (NRI) measures the competitive advantages of ICT Development in terms of Environment, Readiness and Usage. The NRI covers more than 130 countries and the latest report in 2011 shows that Mauritius has made significant improvements in terms of rank and index. In 2011, Mauritius improved its ranking to 47 th position with an NRI of 4.03 compared to 53 rd with an NRI of 3.89 in 2010. The significant investment in enhancing the infrastructure in the ICT sector coupled with the increase in ICT penetration have helped the country to progress by 6 ranks with an increase of around 4% in the index. Source: World Economic Forum Global Information Technology Report 2011 2011 2010 Country Index Rank Index Rank More details at http://indicators.ncb.mu

1. ICT Infrastructure Readiness Total fixed telephone subscriptions 357,300 361,200 375, 363,600 387,700 The chart shows the level of fixed telephone line subscriptions for the period 2006 to 2010. There has been a continuous increasing trend from 357,300 subscribers in 2006 to 387,700 subscribers in 2010 with an annual average increase of 2.1%. An increase of 3.4% in fixed telephone subscriptions has been noted from 2009 to 2010. Source: Information & Communication Technologies Authority [ICTA] The graph shows that the number of mobile phones subscriptions has reached 1,190,900 in 2010; a 9.6% rise compared to 2009. The number of mobile phone subscription per inhabitants (Mobidensity) has reached 92.8% in 2010. Total Mobile phones subscriptions 1,190,900 1,086,800 1,033,300 A rising trend is also witnessed from 2006 to 2010; showing an annual average increase of 11.4%. 772,400 928,700 Telephone Traffic - outgoing mobile (million minutes) 853 1,105 1,350 1,563 1,703 This chart illustrates the volume of outgoing telephone traffic from mobile phones. A significant increase of 8.9% is noted when comparing the telephone traffic-outgoing mobile (million minutes) from 2009 to 2010. There is a more significant annual average increase of 18.9 % for the period 2006 to 2010. The volume of outgoing mobile telephone traffic increased by twofold for 2010 from 2006, indicating that the use of mobile phones is continuously increasing. 2

1. ICT Infrastructure Readiness telephone TRAFFIC (MILLION MINUTES) Fixed to Fixed Fixed to Mobile 1,055 972 874 762 714 327 330 325 332 328 The volume of telephone traffic from Fixed to Mobile has been almost stationary at the level of 325,332 million minutes during 2006 to 2010. However, a substantial drop of 9.3% (annual average ) is noted for volume of traffic from Fixed to Fixed for the period 2006-2010. A 6.3% decrease is also noted when the level for 2010 is compared to that of 2009. This decrease is mainly due to the high usage of mobile phones. The chart illustrates the continuous increasing trend of the total number of Internet subscriptions since 2006. Internet subscriptions reached the level of 284,200 in 2010 as compared to a level of 143,400 in 2006. There is an annual average increase of nearly 19% for Internet subscriptions, from 2006 to 2010. total no. of internet subscriptions 284,200 284,000 199,500 166,000 143,400 total Broadband Internet Subscriptions 258,500 251,800 157,300 119,000 87,400 The total number of broadband Internet subscriptions has experienced a significant increase of 60% between 2008 and 2009 (from 157,300 to 251,800). There was a further increase of 2.7% from 2009 to 2010, thus indicating that there were 258,500 broadband Internet subscriptions in 2010. Over the period 2006 to 2010, the rise for broadband Internet subscriptions is threefold and the annual average increase is 31%. Note: The ITU defines Broadband as a high speed connection of 256 Kbit/s and above in both directions. 3

1. ICT Infrastructure Readiness International Internet Bandwidth Incoming Capacity (Mbps) Outgoing Capacity (Mbps) 3,390 1,864 153 955 285 192 There was a significant increase of both Incoming and Outgoing capacity of International Internet bandwidth from 285 Mbps in 2007 to 3,390 Mbps in 2010, showing a 12-fold increase over that period. It is noted that the percentage increase of International Internet bandwidth stood at 95% from 2008 to 2009 as compared to 82% increase attained from 2009 to 2010. The level of Fixed telephone lines subscriptions per inhabitants reached the figure of 30.2 in 2010 from 28.4 in 2006. The annual average increase for the period was 1.5%. The number of Mobile phones subscriptions per inhabitants were 92.8 in 2010 as compared to 61.5 in 2006. There was a twofold increase in the number of Internet subscriptions per inhabitants from 11.4% in 2006 to 22.1% in 2010. The number of broadband Internet subscriptions per inhabitants reached 20.1 in 2010 from 6.9 in 2006, with an annual average increase of 31% over the period. Subscriptions per inhabitants Fixed Line Internet Broadband Mobile 61.5 28.4 11.4 92.8 81.2 85.1 73.4 28.6 28.6 29.4 30.2 13.1 15.7 22.2 22.1 6.9 9.4 12.4 19.7 20.1 Other Indicators Number of Mobile Internet phone subscriptions 61, 78,400 104,800 179,000 177,500 No of SMS sent (million) 738 881 855 1,123 1,204 4 Over the years, the number of Mobile Internet phone subscriptions has been continuously rising from 61, in 2006 to 179,000 in 2009. It is to be noted that the number of subscriptions has slightly declined to 177,500 in 2010. As at end of December 2010, the number of domestic SMS sent was 1,204 million; an increase of 7.3% compared to the volume as at 2009. A rise of 31.4% was registered from 2008 to 2009. 38 SMS per second were exchanged in 2010, compared to 36 SMS per second in 2009.

2. ICT Market Revenue Contribution to GDP, Value Added and Growth Rate of the ICT Sector The contribution of the ICT sector to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) was 6.4% for the year 2010 an improvement of 8.5% over 2009. The contribution for the year 2011 is expected to be around 7%. The Value Added generated by the ICT sector reached Rs 16.9 bn in 2010 compared to Rs 14.9 bn in 2009, yielding to a growth rate of 13.6% for the year 2010. Indicators ICT contribution to GDP (%) 5.4 5.4 5.3 5.9 6.4 Value Added (Rs M) 9,858 11,714 12,994 14,851 16,941 Growth Rate (%) 13.0 15.1 13.2 13.1 13.6 Source: Central Statistics Office (CSO) IT Enabled Services and Business Process Outsourcing (ITES- BPO) activities increased rapidly over the recent years to become a strong segment of the ICT Industry in Mauritius. The number of ITES-BPO companies increased from 90 in 2005 to 352 in 2010 at an annual average growth of 31%. These companies work mainly with export markets in France, UK, Canada and other Anglo-Franco markets. The ITES-BPO segment employed more than 12,000 people in 2009. It is to be noted that there are some 600 ICT companies operating in Mauritius of which 352 are involved in ITES- BPO activities. The others (inclusive of both small and large establishments) deal mainly with Hardware Assembly and sales, Networking, Multimedia Development, Software Development, Web-enabled services and consultancy. 400 350 300 250 200 150 companies in the exports of ict services 50 0 90 148 185 258 300 352 2005 Source: Board of Investment (BOI) Rs. Million 3,500 3,000 2,500 2,000 1,500 1,000 500 0 Exports of ict services 3,128 2,526 2,573 1,779 1,515 1,001 2005 Exports of ICT Services The graph depicts the exports of ICT Services for the period 2005 to 2010. The turnover generated for the year 2010 stood at Rs 3.1 billion compared to Rs 2.6 billion in 2009. The percentage increase was 22% between 2009 and 2010 which shows a net improvement over the period 2008 and 2009 where only a 1.9% increase was noted. The annual average growth from 2005 to 2010 stood at 26%. Source: CSO 5

2. ICT Market Revenue Turnover of Establishments in the ICT sector The table indicates the turnover of companies in the ICT sector for 2006 to 2010, categorised into 3 main activities, namely IT Hardware/ Software, IT Services & IT Enabled Services (ITES) and Telecommunications. Indicators (Rs Million) The turnover of all establishments for 2010 amounted to Rs 30,7 billion, leading to an increase of 8.5 % over the previous year. The average annual growth rate for the period was 13.6%. Breakdown by Segment of Activities The contribution of each segment of activities is equally shared (33%) in the total Turnover for the ICT sector. 3. ICT Culture Promotion and Public Access Computer Clubs Under the Community Empowerment Programme (CEP) of the NCB, 40 Computer Clubs are fully operational around the island (17 in Women Centres and 23 in Youth Centres) since February 2009. As at July 2011, over 250,000 persons have made use of these facilities free of charge. Cyber Caravans In the context of the World Telecommunication and Information Society Day held on the 17th May 2011, the NCB launched a third Cyber caravan. The Cyber Caravan project aims at providing IT facilities at the doorstep of the Mauritian community. ICT Awareness programmes and IC3 training courses are delivered in the 3 cyber caravans. As at July 2011, more than,000 people had benefited from such facilities, out of whom some 1,600 have followed the IC3 training courses. Public Internet Access Points (PIAPs) Source: CSO 77 PIAPs offering email and Internet facilities to the general public have been set up in Post Offices around the island. 5 Post Offices in Rodrigues Island are also equipped to offer email/internet services using the PIAP setup. 6 usage of net pcs in Women Centres No. of Women 4969 4582 3512 3656 Jan-Jun 09 Jul-Dec 09 Jan-Jun 10 Jul-Dec 10 The chart shows, on a half yearly basis, the number of women who have benefited from the Community Empowerment Programme (CEP). It is to be noted that 115 Net PCs have been installed in women centres and more than 16,000 women have used the free facilities between January 2009 and December 2010. In the context of the CEP, the NCB will further equip some 150 Social Welfare Centres, Community Centres and Day Care Centres with a total of 450 Net PCs. This project is supported by the Mauritius Telecom (MT) Foundation under its corporate social responsibility programme.

4. ICT Usage in Businesses percentage of businesses using computers 96.6 97.9 The chart illustrates the percentage of businesses making use of computers to run their day-to-day operations. It is observed that the level of computerisation among businesses in Mauritius reached nearly 98% in 2009. 91.4 91.4 2006 2008 2009 From 2008 onwards, Mauritius can be compared to high income economies as the computerization level reached over 95%. It is noted that a 1.3 percentage change is recorded from 2008 to 2009. This chart shows the level of computer usage in the 3 economic sectors. Percentage of Computer usage by industrial sector A general higher proportion of computer usage in the Secondary & Tertiary sectors is noted for both years 2006 & 2009 compared to the primary sector. 68.3 92.4 96.7 76.5 91.8 95.5 In 2009, a slight decline is observed at the level of computer usage in both the Secondary and Tertiary sectors. However, the primary sector has witnessed an increase from 68.3 percent in 2006 to reach nearly 77 percent in 2009, showing an increase of more than 12 percent over the past 3 years. 2006 2009 Primary Secondary Tertiary TYPES OF COMPUTER IN USE BY BUSINESS ACTIVITY 77.7 Laptops Servers PCS 92.3 97.2 94.9 95.6 90.5 92.8 96.9 This chart depicts the most common types of computers in use among businesses in 2009 across several business activities. The level of laptops usage is higher in the ICT and Financial sector with 95% and % respectively. 40.8 43.6 62.3 59.6 54.6 However, in the education sector, the usage of laptop remains low as compared to the % of PCs. It can also be observed that the preferred type of computer used in most the business sectors is the Personal Desktop. Education Hotels/Restaurants Manufacturing ICT Financial Intermediation 7

4. ICT Usage in Businesses percentage of usage & access of computer by business activities - year 2009 Hotels & Restaurants Manufacturing Education Wholesale & Retail Trade Public Administration ICT Financial Intermediation All Business Sectors 15.5 14.3 16 15.1 30.6 32.1 29.3 Access 55.5 57.6 55.1 58.3 55 Usage 80.9 80.5 92.9 86.5 This chart depicts the percentage of computer usage and access across several business activities in 2009. It is observed that the Financial sector has the highest rate for both computer access (93%) and usage (87%) among all business activities. The ICT Sector is ranked second with a computer usage of 80.5% and access rate of 80.9%. On the other side, there was a lower rate of ICT penetration and usage in the hotel industry (15.5% & 14.3%, respectively) and in manufacturing (16% & 15.1%, respectively). Internet & ICT Infrastructure in Businesses Percentage of Internet Penetration 2006-2009 Mode of Connection to Internet - 2009 96.7 Wifi MyT 0.3 0.4 90.4 WiMAX Emtel 3G ISDN 0.5 1.3 2.6 84.7 Optic Cable Cable Modem Analog Modem Frame Relay 2.8 3.1 7.3 9 2006 2008 2009 ADSL 90.7 8 In terms of Internet penetration within businesses the spread is close to 97% in 2009. A higher penetration rate of 6.3 percentage points is recorded for 2009 over 2008. This increase in Internet penetration shows that most of the organisations have adequate Internet infrastructure in place. In terms of mode of connection, ADSL remains the most preferred internet access type with nearly 91% of them using such technology. The other modes of connection follow far behind such as Frame Relay (9%) and Dial-up connection (7%). It is noted that wireless Internet is still low in businesses.

4. ICT usage in Businesses Percentage of activities for which companies access the internet for year 2009 Reasons for accessing government organisations websites Internet Banking 62.9 Others Legal Reference 8.3 6.6 Information about Goods and Services 69.6 Mailing online payments 22.3 Accessing Govt org websites 70.3 Online Form Filing Govt. Forms Request 35.5 52.2 Send and Receive e-mail 98.2 Information Search 79.9 The above chart shows the purpose of Internet access by businesses. It depicts that electronic correspondence (email) is the main reason as to why businesses access the Internet and accounts for 98.2%. The second main activity on Internet is accessing Government organisations websites (70.3%). Internet Banking has become an important part of the business activities with nearly 63% of the companies doing their transactions online. With the development of the Government Web Portal for Mauritius coupled with online services, it is noted that a high percentage of companies(80%) use the portal to search for information. The chart above reveals that more than 50% of companies access the government website in order to download online forms and 36% make use of the e-services facilities. Mailing online payments to government organisation is about 22.3%. NETWORK Infrastructure amoung Businesses 2001 2009 68% 37% 43% 24% 8% 12% 13% 18% Extranet WAN Intranet LAN In 2009, the implementation of Local Area Network (LAN), stood at 68% and was the most common technology in use in the economic sectors of Mauritius. The use of Intranet doubled from 2001 to 2009. Extranet technology is mostly used in the ICT and Financial Services sector. It increased from 8% in 2001 to 12% in 2009. 9

5. ICT in Education ICT infrastructure in schools for selected countries, 2008/2009 23 23 % of Schools with Broadband % of Schools with Internet 75 85 9 55 80 Botswana Mauritius Egypt Malaysia Singapore United Kingdom Source : UNESCO Institute For Statistics (UIS) Mauritius has a higher rate of penetration in terms of ICT infrastructure available in schools compared to other African countries. The percentage of schools having Internet access was 85% in 2008/2009 as compared to the 23% and 55% attained by Botswana and Egypt respectively. In terms of broadband penetration, Mauritius has a 75% penetration rate as compared to 23% for Botswana and 9% for Egypt. Singapore and Malaysia are the top two Asian countries with % ICT infrastructure available in schools. learners-to-computer ratio for Year 2008/2009 The Learners to computer ratio represents the number of students per computer. From the chart, Singapore and UK have the lowest learners to computer ratio of 5:1. Egypt Mauritius 20 56 Malaysia and Mauritius have ratios of 13 and 20 learners per computer respectively. The proposed One laptop per child project is likely to lower the learners to computer ratio for Mauritius. Malaysia United Kingdom Singapore 5 5 13 Source: UIS proportion of schools with computer and internet assisted instruction for year 2008 Schools with CAI Schools with IAI As per a study done by UIS, Malaysia and Sweden have a school population coverage of % for both Computer and Internet Assisted Instruction in 2008. 84.2 80.6 98 85.5 There were 98% schools with Computer Assisted Instruction (CAI) and 85.5% with Internet Assisted Instruction (IAI) for Mauritius. Corresponding figures for Tunisia were 84.2% and 80.6% respectively. 10 Tunisia Mauritius Malaysia Sweden Source: UIS Given its small size (both population and area), Mauritius can achieve % CAI & IAI in the forthcoming years.

6. Components of IDI and NRI for Mauritius International Telecommunication Union (ITU) ICT Development Index (IDI) Components of the ICT Development Index (IDI) The Index which captures the level of advancement of ICTs in countries worldwide, combines 11 indicators into a single measure. These are grouped into ICT Access, Use and Skills sub-indices. Access subindex: provides information on ICT infrastructure readiness and consists of 5 indicators as shown in the adjacent table. Although there was a loss in rank for indicators such as Telephone lines/ inhabitants, Mobile/ inhabitants and Proportion of Households with PC and Internet, Mauritius experienced an increase in the value of all five indicators from 2007 to 2008. Use subindex: provides information on ICT usage intensity and is based on 3 indicators. Mauritius lost 10 ranks for Internet Users/ Inhabitants, gained one rank for Fixed broadband/ inhabitants and lost 11 ranks for Mobile broadband/ inhabitants. However, the 3 indicators have increased in value from 2007 to 2008. 2008 2007 Access sub-index 4.19 66 3.96 61 Use sub-index 1.27 66 1.04 64 Skills sub-index 6.28 96 6.48 91 Skills subindex: are proxy measures adopted to more specific ICT-related skills and consists of 3 indicators. Source: Measuring the Information Society 2010, ITU There was a decrease in the ranking for both the Secondary and Tertiary enrolment as from 2007 to 2008. World Economic Forum (WEF) Networked Readiness Index (NRI) Components of the Networked Readiness Index (NRI) 2011 2010 The NRI which covers 138 countries consists of 9 indicators equally shared among 3 subcategories namely the Environment Index, The Readiness Index and the Usage Index. Mauritius improved its rank from 53rd in 2010 to 47th in 2011 where it is to be noted that the Environment Index progressed by 3.9 percent, the Readiness Index by 2.2 percent & the Usage Index by 5.6 percent. Regarding the Environment index, Infrastructure improved by 6 ranks. In the Readiness index, all sub-indices gained ranks ranging from 5 to 8. For the Usage index, government usage progressed by 5 ranks. Source: World Economic Forum Global Information Technology Report 2011 Environment Index 4.28 41 4.12 42 Readiness Index 4.58 46 4.48 45 Usage Index 3.23 76 3.06 75 11

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