The World Competitiveness Report, released yesterday, ranks SA 59th overall in terms of technology infrastructure, out of 61 participating countries.
The Swiss-based Institute of Management Development conducted the annual study.
"When it comes to Internet costs, measured at 20 hours dial-up per month, in the report, we are not doing very well at all," says Sello Mosai, executive manager of knowledge management and research at SA`s National Productivity Institute.
"In fact, out of a total of 61 countries, we are in last place [in terms of Internet costs]. This means our broadband costs and accessibility have been ranked even below counties such as Indonesia."
According to Mosai, the Accelerated and Shared Growth Initiative of SA (ASGISA) has allocated a substantial budget to rectifying this problem, and construction plans have already been written to change the broadband situation, with projects already rolling out in some areas.
"ASGISA has estimated the time to completion [of the initiative] at five years. But time is a challenge as the ultimate goal is working towards completion by the 2010 Soccer World Cup," Mosai explains.
"Growing the broadband network in SA and lowering Internet costs is very important, because people need to be more confident in SA`s technology infrastructure, and we cannot do that if we are at 59th place for this overall," he says.
Mosai says of the high Internet costs: "Business in SA is really affected, and that in turn, affects all the other figures [in the report]."
There is also a large sum allocated to help grow IT skills, where, according to the report, SA is ranked at 49. Mosai explains that it is important to develop the country`s R&D infrastructure.
His comments come after government`s announcement earlier this week that details will be revealed shortly about ministerial directives aimed at reducing local and international connectivity costs.
Minister of public enterprises Alec Erwin told Parliament that the announcements will relate directly to a framework being developed by the economic cluster of ministries, as determined by Cabinet in its ASGISA policy.
In term of the overall ICT industry, the announcements will deal with reducing the costs of communications, funding for national signal distributor Sentech`s wireless broadband network, the terms and conditions for participation in the East African Submarine Cable System, and the development of the business process outsourcing and off-shoring industry, said Erwin.
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