Uruguay leads for the seventh consecutive year the development of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in Latin America and ranks 42nd among 176 countries, industry sources reported Wednesday.
The International Telecommunication Union presented the Report "Measuring the Information Society 2017", which highlights the development of these technologies in the country, with respect to the measurement of the previous year and achieved a jump of six places worldwide.
The Uruguayan Agency for Electronic Government and the Information and Knowledge Society (Agesic) released this report, which is based on the ICT Development Index (IDI), a compendium of 11 indicators of access, use and skills.
In this regard, the study assesses that only six countries, including Uruguay, improved more than five positions between 2016 and 2017, so Uruguay reaches an IDI of 7.16, significantly higher than the world (5.11) and regional (5.21) average and close to the average of developed countries (7.52).
Other aspects mentioned in the report are the high adoption rates of fixed broadband, especially fiber optics, the improvement of international connectivity with the submarine cable system, and access to personal computers for all children in public education, Agesic points out.
"Uruguay has shown remarkable development over the last decade, especially in terms of universal access. Closing the digital divide has been a priority for the Uruguayan authorities, ensuring that the vast majority of households have access to broadband," the report concludes.
Behind Uruguay are Argentina (6.79), Chile (6.57), Costa Rica (6.44), Brazil (6.12), Colombia (5.36), Venezuela (5.17) and Mexico (5.16).
Source: EFE
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