The Role of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in the Socioeconomic Development of Commonwealth of Independent States

Abstract

Since the early 1990s, international development organizations, such as the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, and International Telecommunications Union (ITU) have contended that investment in Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) is essential for development of poor nations. However, dissenting voices of developmental researchers from all over the world argue that developing countries ought to focus their attention on building schools, delivering basic medical services, electricity, and clean water instead of wasting their constrained financial resources on building expensive ICT infrastructure. This thesis hypothesizes that ICT investment significantly contributes to socioeconomic development. The hypothesis is tested by empirical investigation of the relationships between ICT investment and the Human Development Index (HDI) of nine Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) countries. The thesis utilizes econometric regression analysis to help unravel the multifaceted relationships among the variables of ICT investment and HDI in the target countries. The findings provide evidence that advancement of ICT can significantly increase development under certain institutional conditions. Since the international organizations actively support technological advancement through the so-called "ICT for Development" (ICT4D) projects, and since there are apparent concerns about the credibility of such initiatives, it is hoped that the findings of this thesis would constitute a significant contribution to the debate on the role of ICTs, providing a basis for future research, and allowing the ICTs to attain a more concrete place in development discourse.