Arab Knowledge Report 2009: Towards Productive

countries and the Arab countries. Thecircles show the world average and averagerates of internet use for some regionalgroupings based on income and accordingto their position on the scale of theHuman Development Index (HDI). Thisfigure suggests that the increase in averageper capita income in the Arab region maynot have stimulated internet use to theextent that comparable increases in averageper capita income have done globally. Thismust be due to the extent to which digitalcontent in Arabic meets the requirementsof the Arab countries’ citizens andinstitutions. It is also worth pointingout here the low level of internet use bybusinesses in the Arab countries and thesmall number of schools able to accessthe net. Despite some of these countriesbeing in the top third of countries inthe world with respect to a number ofICT indicators–such as mobile phonepenetration, numbers of computers, andcosts of internet access–the Arab countrywith the highest levels of internet useplaces only thirty-eighth with respect tointernet use by businesses (see StatisticalAnnex/ICT).Figure 4-4 shows the existence of adouble divide in internet bandwidth 5between the Arab countries on the onehand and between them and higher middleincome countries on the other. In general,communications networks capable ofaccessing internet services in Arabcountries are still of low specification. Forexample, internet users in a number ofadvanced countries like the US, Canada,the UK, Singapore, and Japan can accessinternet services at speeds that reach orexceed one billion kilobits (kb) per second.By comparison, in most Arab countriesthe connection speeds of the networksin use range from 128kb to 1024kb persecond.The cost of internet access influencesthe nature of internet use, especially in lightof the rise in cost of basic commodities andthe fall in real income. Figure 4-5 depicts thecost of internet access in the Arab countriesfor which data is available as well as theworld average and that of some groupsSome Arab countriesare in the top thirdof countries in theworld with respectto a number of ICTindicators, but theArab country withthe highest levels ofinternet use ranksonly thirty-eighth withrespect to internetuse by businessesFIGURE 4-4Bandwidth of global internet access for the Arab world and selected non-Arab country groupsBandwidth (bit per person)19001800170016001500140013001200110010009008007006005004003002001000QatarUAEBahrainKuwaitMoroccoOmanLebanonTunisiaJordanDjiboutiEgyptSaudi ArabiaMauritaniaSudanAlgeriaSyriaYemenUpper middle income countriesLower middle income countriesLow income countriesWorldSource: World Bank database, Knowledge Assessment Methodology (KAM), http://info.worldbank.org/etools/kam2/KAM_page5.aspINFORMATION AND COMMUNICATIONS TECHNOLOGIES IN THE ARAB COUNTRIES147