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Nigeria, 24 Others Account for 78 Percent of Global GDP(AllAfrica Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Nigeria has been listed among 25 developing and emerging countries of the world seen to be accounting for 78 per cent of global Gross Domestic Product (GDP). According to Huawei's Global Connectivity Index (GCI), which tries to correlates country's connectivity with their GDP, ranked Germany in the first spot, with USA; UK; Chile and Japan following respectively in the top five positions. The last eight countries in order of positions include South Africa; Saudi Arabia; Egypt; Kenya; Philippines; Indonesia; Bangladesh and Nigeria. The study, which was unveiled yesterday, at the yearly congress of Huawei in Shanghai, China, disclosed that these countries also accounted for 68 per cent of global population, with focus on 10 industries, including finance, manufacturing, education, transportation and logistics. According to Chief Strategy and Marketing Officer, Huawei, William Xu, said the GCI study found that country connectivity correlates with GDP, with the firm's analysis of 16 indexes showing that for each GCI percentage point increase the GDP per capital increases 1.4-1.9 per cent, relatively higher for emerging countries. Among the countries surveyed, Xu said Germany ranked first due to its strong commitment and ongoing investment in Information and Communications Technology (ICT) development, resulting in a market with competitive vitality. The study also found that developing countries have also started to accelerate growth by investing strategically in ICT capabilities. According to him, the GCI report showed developing countries such as Chile, Kenya and Egypt had the highest growth momentum. He explained that through centralized planning, potential connectivity can be fully leveraged and ICT capabilities will support positive growth of national economies. In the report, Huawei forecasts that by 2025, as many as 100 billion connections will be generated globally, 90 per cent of which will come from intelligent sensors. This increase, the firm said will be attributed to enterprises becoming enabled by the Internet, adding that by leveraging connectivity to streamline business processes, reduce costs and improve efficiency, enterprises will drive innovation and move the focus from a consumer driven internet to an industrial one. Besides, the report looked at how different enterprises invest in and gain value from ICT to further identify why some industries are undergoing a digital transformation and some aren't. In this process, the report was able to allocate each industry to one of four quadrants, transformers; strategists; tacticians and stragglers. It identified that transformers regard ICT as a core driving force for business transformation and continuously invest and proactively reshape their ICT business models. Industries such as finance, education, oil and gas and manufacturing demonstrate ICT enabled transformation. With 71 per cent of finance enterprises indicating their ICT investment will increase by more than five per cent over the next two years, it is the highest-ranking industry for development. The GCI reports that 65 per cent of enterprises plan to increase their ICT investment over the next two years. Going further, the Huawei's GCI study noted that mobile broadband, cloud computing, Big Data and the Internet of Things (IoT) are the four technological engines that most enterprises aim to focus on when completing ICT enabled transformation. Huawei forecasts that by 2020, global ICT spending will increase to approximately $5 trillion. Today, ICT technologies based on connectivity remains significant as a support system, but this traditional role is giving way as ICT becomes increasingly integrated with production systems, driving value creation. Connectivity has become a new factor for production in addition to land, labor, capital, and technology. William Xu added, "It is our hope that the GCI will not only indicate ICT investment and development in various countries and industries but, more importantly, serve as a reference for industry policymakers and enterprise decision-makers. Looking ahead, Huawei will continue to work closely with industry partners to facilitate closer connections between people and people, people and things, things and things, creating a Better Connected World." Copyright The Guardian. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). |