DEVELOPMENT OF ICT BUSINESSES PROBLEMS IN BELIZE ARE GOVERNMENT CONTROLS - 2012-.

REPORT IDENTIFIES BELIZE PROBLEMS WITH LACK OF DEVELOPMENT AROUND ICT TECHNOLOGY. TWO ITEMS STAND OUT. 1) LACK OF INFRA-STRUCTURE DEVELOPMENT, MAINLY IN SPEED, CAPACITY, LOCAL COST, AND RURAL DISTRIBUTION OF ICT SERVICE. 2) LACK OF FAVORABLE BUSINESS CONDITIONS FOR ENTREPRENURIAL DEVELOPMENT. START UPS, ARE TAXED, LICENSED AND SQUEEZED OUT OF BOOT STRAP BEGINNER BUSINESSES, BY BUREAUCRATIC REGULATORY RED TAPE.


Despite Latin America continuing to lag behind in terms of ICT and technology adoption, Barbados, Puerto Rico, Chile and Uruguay stand out as regional leaders, according to the World Economic Forum's (WEF) 2012 global information technology report.

Among the least prepared countries in the region highlighted by the report include Haiti, Nicaragua, Bolivia, Suriname and Belize.

Latin American countries face a variety of different challenges related to ICT development; however, a number of shared factors - such as insufficient investment in ICT infrastructure development, a weak skills base and unfavorable business conditions - contribute to the regional lag of technology adoption.

CHILE

Chile benefits from a robust environment for innovation and well-functioning legal framework, but ICT development is hindered by the lack of a skills base to fully optimize the use of ICT as well as by the excessively high cost of access, WEF notes.

URUGUAY

The country has recognized the importance of ICT, a process which has been lead by the government.

Uruguay received a US$10.8mn IDB loan in October last year to improve the quality of e-government services and simplify procedures for citizens and businesses.

In addition, Uruguay has good ICT infrastructure and wide access in schools through its one laptop per child program, but the technological readiness of the country still needs improvement, particularly in the area of innovation, according to WEF.

BARBADOS & PUERTO RICO

Both of these Caribbean countries have environments conducive to entrepreneurship as well as relatively strong ICT infrastructure, the report said.

Barbados' population in particular has a strong ICT skills base, leading to a large individual uptake of the technology, which helps to offset the high cost of ICT access in the country.

Barbados would also benefit from improving its innovation capacity.

Puerto Rico, meanwhile, lacks this strong skills base, which negatively affects ICT uptake. ICT development has largely been lead by the country's private sector, with government initiatives lagging behind. This is also true to a lesser extent in Barbados, according to the report.