.doThere is a growing desire in the DominicanRepublic to build on a decade of economicsuccess and to become a service-oriented,Networked Ready economy. The nationfaces a number of major challenges, partic-ularly in rural-urban disparities, education,income distribution, and effective coordi-nation between the government and theprivate sector. The Dominican Republicranks forty-seventh overall in theNetworked Readiness Index, and eighthwithin Latin America.In general, information infrastructure inthe Dominican Republic is fairly well devel-oped in affluent and urban locales, butpoor elsewhere (Ranking in InformationInfrastructure micro-index: 45). Thecountry has good international connec-tivity, driven largely by the demand forcommunication with the large Dominicandiaspora in the United States. Many ICT business leaders want greaterdialogue with the government to improveNetworked Readiness (Ranking in ICT asGovernment Priority: 45). The recentestablishment of Indotel, a quasi-inde-pendent telecommunications regulatoryagency, was a positive step towardcreating a competitive telecommunicationsenvironment (Ranking in Effect ofTelecommunications Competition: 11). The local, long-distance, cellular, and ISP markets are dominated by the formerstate monopoly, CODETEL. The cellularsector is the most competitive, and mobiletelephony has boomed in recent years.There are only three major ISPs operatingin the Dominican Republic. Although DSLservice was rolled out during 2001, broad-band is almost nonexistent (Ranking inAvailability of Broadband: 38). There isvery little Internet use outside of SantoDomingo and Santiago, the nation’s twolargest cities.Reliability of the electricity supply is poor,even in urban areas. Many ICT users havehad to invest in their own power genera-tors and universal power supply units toprotect their ICT equipment against black-outs (Ranking in General Infrastructuremicro-index: 64).The Dominican government has initiatedseveral innovative ICT projects. The LittleIntelligent Communities (LINCOS) programfocuses on establishing community ICTcenters that offer telephone and Internetaccess as well as telemedicine, community-oriented ICT applications, and Internetradio. The Santo Domingo Cyber Park andthe Instituto de las Américas were estab-lished to attract foreign direct investmentin the ICT sector and to train workers inICT skills. Finally, computer laboratorieswere established in several hundred highschools. There is very little e-commerce, in eitherthe B2C or B2B sectors (Ranking in e-Commerce micro-index: 55). This is dueprimarily to the low penetration of PCs in both the commercial and consumermarkets, a lack of credit card use, thesmall middle class, and high cost of access.Limited financing sources and high interestrates discourage start-up businesses, espe-cially nascent ICT-related companies.Many in the Dominican private sector feelit is difficult to find and attract qualifiedICT workers. The university-level ICTcurriculum remains outdated, and rigidcurriculum revision guidelines hamperefforts to introduce the latest ICT skills.Many ICT graduates leave the country forthe higher wages they can find elsewhere(Ranking in IT Brain Drain: 43). Computersare common in private schools at theprimary and secondary levels, but, in thepublic schools, there are serious deficien-cies in the ICT curriculum, teachertraining, and student access to computers(Ranking in Internet Access in Schools:57). Most Dominican schools continue tograpple with more fundamental needs, suchas basic supplies, electricity, and qualifiedteachers.“ There is poor telecommu-nications deployment over the country, and most of the populationdoesn’t have access totechnology or Internet.”—Senior executive, Dominican Bank“ Our primary setback is education.”—Sales executive, Dominican ITcompanyCountry Profiles192Geoffrey Kirkman, Harvard UniversityCountry Profiles193Dominican RepublicPopulation 8,372,695 Rural population (% of total population) 1999 35.64 %GDP per capita (PPP) US$5,962 Global Competitiveness Index Ranking, 2001–2002 50UNDP Human Development Index Ranking, 2001 (adjusted to GITR sample) 59Main telephone lines per 100 inhabitants 10.39 Telephone faults per 100 main telephone lines 133.20 Internet hosts per 10,000 inhabitants 9.44Personal computers per 100 inhabitants NAPiracy rate 68.00 %Percent of PCs connected to Internet NAInternet users per host 3.80 Internet users per 100 inhabitants 0.30 Cell phone subscribers per 100 inhabitants 7.73 Average monthly cost for 20 hours of Internet access US$30.42 Networked Economye-Commercee-GovernmentGeneral InfrastructureRANKNetwork AccessInformation InfrastructureHardware, Software, and SupportNetwork PolicyBusiness and Economic EnvironmentICT PolicyNetworked SocietyNetworked LearningICT OpportunitiesSocial Capital4742513845314858385455456358555664Network Use component indexEnabling Factors component indexNetworked Readiness IndexKey