Surprises are coming out of the 2012
Digital Investment Attractiveness Index (DIAI), a Strategy Analytics ranking of
87 lower and middle income countries by their potential markets for digital
products and services.

According to Tom Elliott, Director
of the Emerging Markets Communications Strategies service (EMCS) and principal
analyst of the DIAI, “Some countries that have been receiving a lot of
international investment, like Pakistan and Nigeria, look less attractive when
factors like GDP growth, education, quality of government and access to grid
power are considered,” says Tom Elliott, director of the Emerging Markets
Communications Strategies (EMCS) service at Strategy Analytics. In contrast,
sometimes overlooked countries, like Mongolia and Jordan, have very positive
fundamental qualities.

The Digital Investment
Attractiveness Index (DIAI) was created by Strategy Analytics to provide a
single quantitative measure of the relative attractiveness of developing
countries as markets for digital products and services. This tool aggregates 22
country-level measures of demographics, economics, business climate, and
information and communications technology drawn from public sources and
proprietary Strategy Analytics databases.

“With international companies
like Telenor and Etisalat writing off billions of dollars of investments
because of an Indian court decision, it is clear that closer attention must be
paid to the actual risks and opportunities in developing countries,” says
David Kerr, Senior Vice President of the Strategy Analytics Global Wireless
Practice.

Source: Business Wire