The Impact of ICT investment on Human Development

International Journal of Management Sciences Vol. 5, No. 1, 2015, 111-124 The Impact of ICT investment on Human Development Eman Ahmed Hashem 1 Abstract The world has witnessed rapid growth in information and communication technology (ICT) sector. Which lead to a global increase in ICT investment. One point of view argue that ICT investments are vital for human development but the other point of view argue that developing countries should focus their limited financial resources on the human development dimensions especially education and health. This study investigates the impact of ICT investments on human development. This by exploring the impact of different components of ICT investment (hardware, software, services and communication) on different dimensions of human development: standard of living (as measured by GDP per capita), education (measured by education index which consists of mean years of schooling and expected years of schooling) and health (measured by life expectancy).the analysis shows that the ICT investments have positive impact on human development index and investment in ICT components must be complementary to gain the benefits for human development. Also, we found that ICT investment have positive impacts on standard of living, education and health. Based on these findings, this study recommends that policymakers should adopt strategies that integrating ICT policies with education and health goals to improve human development indicator. Key words: Egypt, Information and communication technology (ICT), Human development 1. Introduction The information and communication technology (ICT) sector has been growing all over the world at a rapid rate. A debate rose to link the rapid progress in ICT with human development. ICTs are affected economic growth, poverty, education, health care services, and the ability to provide clean water, adequate infrastructure and healthy food. (UN Millennium project, 2005: 20) ICT can affect human development as it improves communication and the exchange of knowledge and information, strengthening and creating new social and economic networks. ICTs can affect Health ICT can affect the performance of health sector through enables health care workers act remote consultation and diagnosis, access medical information, research activities and provide an effective channel for the distribution of health and disease prevention information to the general public. Providing remote health care services: health care workers can use ICT to provide remote consultation, diagnosis and treatment and collaborate with colleagues without traveling long, costly distances. Research and Training for health care workers: ICT allows health care workers to update their Knowledge through access to the latest medical research. ICT also can offer online educational programs to enhance training programs. (World Bank, 2003: 23) Provide health information to the general public: ICT can provide general knowledge for the public through information as part of health promotion or health education to people, schools and health care 1 Lecturer of Economics Department, Faculty of Commerce, Ain Shams University 2015 Research Academy of Social Sciences http://www.rassweb.com 111

E. A. Hashem centers. Such information provides knowledge about the healthy food and lifestyle and indicates the relationship between lifestyle and quality of life. The purpose is to help prevention of the diseases. ICT can affect Education ICT can improve the education process through: Increasing access through distance learning: ICT can provide various channels to reach educational options to those who have been excluded before, including populations in rural areas without schools, women facing social barriers that limit their access to education, students with disabilities or with specific vocational training needs. Improving the quality of education: ICTs can enhance the quality of education through several ways. like increasing learner motivation and engagement, facilitating the acquisition of basic skills and enhancing teacher training through online training programs. ICT can affect Standard of Living ICT help in reduce poverty through promoting opportunities for the poor. ICT can help reach this objective by Stimulating Macroeconomic Growth ICT can enhance economic growth through increasing labor productivity, high growth of total factor productivity in ICT producing sector, increase in the real ICT capital stock per worker, and through the overall productivity growth in the economy as a whole.(world Bank, 2003:11) Making Markets more Efficient ICT make markets more efficient by provides opportunities to farmers, workers, businessmen and entrepreneurs to engage in the market through reduce transaction costs, increase market coverage and improve competitiveness even across borders. In this study we will investigate the impact of ICT investments on human development. This by exploring the impact of different components of ICT investment (hardware, software, services and communication) on different dimensions of human development: standard of living (as measured by GDP per capita), education (measured by education index which consists of mean years of schooling and expected years of schooling) and health (measured by life expectancy). 2. Literature Review (UNDP, 2004) the study examines the interdependency between ICT and human development. The study focuses on nine countries in Asia: China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mongolia, Sri lanka, Pakistan, Thailand and Viet Nam. The study concludes that ICT indicators have shown strong positive relationships with per capita income and HDI across the countries of the world in 1991. In 2001, the pattern of relationships between ICT indicators and those of income and HDI across countries has strengthened. Further, the conditions between ICT and MDG indicators related to health and education have improved overtime. Also, the positive relationship between ICT indicators and the percentage of the non poor, has improved significantly. The correlation of ICT with MDG indicators related to environmental sustainability, particularly to water and sanitation in Urban, however, weakened over the decade. (Olga Morawezynish & Ojelanki Ngwenyama, 2007), in this study they use Multivariate Adaptive Regression Splines to explore the interaction amongst investments in ICT, education and health care. They analyze how different types of investments impacts human development in five West African countries (Cameroon, Benin, Senegal, Ivory coast and Niger). 112

International Journal of Management Sciences The study concluded that investments in ICTs alone are not enough to significantly impact human development. Complementary investments in education and health care must be given equal consideration. (Kim etal,2008) this study investigated the impact of different facets of ICT investment (hardware, software and internal spending) on economic development in 51 countries with the largest ICT markets. The study indicates the importance of IT in improving the gross domestic product of countries (GDP). (Felix o. Bankole and et al, 2011) this study investigates the impact of ICT investments on human development. Of particular interest are the relationships between different dimensions of ICT investment (hardware, software, internal spending and telecommunication investment) and the components of human development (standard of living: GDP per capita, Education: literacy and school enrolments and health: life expectancy). The study concludes that the four dimensions of ICT investment have an impact in various ways on the components of human development, and that these impacts are different, in high income, mid income and low income countries. In this study we will investigate the impacts of ICT investments on human development by exploring the impact of the four components of ICT investment (hardware, software, services and communications) on human development. And determining which dimension of the three dimensions of human development (standard of living, health and education) is affected by ICT investments. We will investigate the relationship between the ICT investment and human development for 6 countries (Egypt, Malaysia, India, China, South Africa and Brazil). China, India and Egypt as lower middle income countries, while Malaysia, Brazil and south Africa as upper middle income countries. Information and Communication Technology sector in Egypt Egypt has witnessed growth in Information and communication technology (ICT) sector. Since 2000, Egypt has undertaken several initiatives including ICT supportive environment, market liberalization, increased private participation, building technology zones, promoting ICT exports and entering into several international commitments. (Alex Bank, 2011: 3) There are four subsectors of ICT: a) Hardware Industry hardware spending includes the total value of purchased or leased computers, storage devices, memory upgrades, printers, monitors, scanners, input-output devices, terminals, other peripherals, and bundled operating systems. Hardware accounted for an estimated 6% of Egypt s ICT spending in 2013. Spending on hardware increased from 147 million $ in 2000 to 929.7 million $ in 2013.(WITSA, digital planet, different issues) One of the government initiatives for spreading technological knowledge and awareness among Egyptians is lowering tariffs on computers, computer equipment and software to 5% to be affordable for a wide range of citizens. b) Software Industry Software spending includes the total value of purchased or leased packaged software such as operating systems, database systems, programming tools, utilities, and applications. Spending on software increased from 158.8 million $ in 2000 to 313.6 million $ in 2013. Spending on software represents 2% of Egypt s ICT spending. (WITSA, digital planet, different issues) c) Services Computer services spending include the total value of outsourced services whether domestic or offshore. 113

E. A. Hashem Spending on ICT services increased from 97.9 million $ in 2000 to 580.8 million$ in 2013. Spending on services represents 3.5% of Egypt s ICT spending.(witsa, digital planet, different issues) The government, finance and telecommunication sectors have the biggest share of ICT services demand that account for about 25% of the market while basic hardware support and maintenance services, represent more than one third of ICT services. (AlexBank,2011: 7) d) Communication Communications spending includes the total value of voice and data communications services and equipment. Egypt s ICT market is communication dominated. Communication accounted for an estimated 89% of Egypt s ICT spending in 2013. Spending on communication in Egypt increased from 645.3 million $ in 2000 to 15095.4 million $ in 2013 which represent growth of more than 200%.(WITSA, digital planet, different issues) The number of Internet users in Egypt increases from 0.45 million in 2000 to 17.1 million in 2010 with an increase of 38 times. Also, Internet penetration in Egypt rose from 0.7% in 2000 to 22% in 2010. Mobile line subscribes grew from 2.36 million in 2000 to 59.5 million in 2010. Also, fixed telephone subscribers increases from 5.48 million in 2000 to 10.45 in 2010. (Rasha Fouad, 2011: 7) ICT Contribution to the Economy a) ICT Contribution to GDP 4 3 2 1 Fig (1): ICT Contribution to GDP (%) at Fixed Prices 0 2006-2007 2007-2008 2008-2009 2011-2012 2012-2013 Source: MCIT, Egypt ICT indicators portal The contribution of the ICT sector to GDP at fixed prices increased to 3.4% in 2012-2013 compared to 2.4% in 2006-2007. The ICT industry generated revenues of about 65 billion LE in 2012 compared to 24.5 billion LE in 2005. The indirect economic impact of ICT could be more important through its use and applications in different sectors of the economy than its direct contribution. The total number of Egyptian ICT firms is about 5000 companies. There was a 11.04% increase in the number of companies operating in ICT sector in Egypt during 2013 about 5644 companies, about 77.36% IT companies while 15.15% value added services and 7.49% communication companies. This is due to the partnership between government and business to keep government s reform efforts. (WIPO, 2004: 8) b) Investment in ICT In 2009-2010, the total implemented investment in ICT sector grew to reach 21.6 billion, with growth rate of 48% against the last year. These investments were mainly dominated by the private sector representing 80%. 114

International Journal of Management Sciences In 2011 and after the 25 th of Jan revolution, the total implemented investment dropped to EGP billion 14.2 in 2011-2012 and EGP billion 13.1 in 2012-2013. Figure (2): ICT Investment (Million) 20000 18000 16000 14000 12000 10000 8000 6000 4000 2000 0 public private c) Employment in ICT Source: MCIT, Egypt ICT indicators portal. The total number of direct employees in ICT sector reached 213.3 thousand employees in 2011 compared to 162.5 thousand by the end of 2007. The average annual growth rate of ICT direct employment (2007-2011) is 6.89%. Fig (3) ICT Employees 250000 200000 150000 100000 50000 0 ICT employees 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 Source: MCIT, Egypt ICT indicators portal. Employment in ICT private sector represents more than 70 percent of total employment in ICT sector. Although the growth rate in employment in ICT sector but the contribution of employment in ICT sector to total employment in Egypt is still low, which account around 1%. d) ICT Exports & Imports Exports: Egypt s total exports from ICT sector reached 1.3 billion $ in 2013 compared to 50 million $ in 2005. Imports: Egypt consider one of the leading developing countries importing computers which increased reaching 1.01 billion $ in 2010 representing 2.1% of total imports. (MCIT, ICT indicators) 115

e) Contribution of ICT to the Treasury E. A. Hashem Egypt s ICT sector was transformed from one dependent on subsidies and grants to revenue generating sector and a net contribution to the treasury. 25 Fig (4): ICT contribution to the treasury (billion) 20 15 10 5 0 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2011 2012 Source: MCIT, Egypt ICT indicators portal. Competitiveness of Egyptian ICT sector We will compare Egypt with other middle income enhanced countries (Brazil, India, China, Malaysia and South Africa by examine scores and ranks obtained in ICT related indexes. 1) The ICT Development Index (IDI) The ICT Development index prepared by International Telecommunication Union (ITU). IDI merge previous ITU indices such as the Digital Access Index (DAI), the Digital opportunity Index (DOI) and the ICT opportunity Index (ICT- OI). The IDI is a composite index based on a set of eleven variables in three categories: ICT Access, ICT use and ICT skills. The IDI measured on a scale of 0 to 1; 10 indicate high ICT development and 0 indicates least ICT development. Country Rank (out of 157) Table 1: The ICT Development Index IDI IDI Access IDI Use IDI skills score Rank score Rank score Rank score South Africa 84 3.95 85 4.14 75 2.35 95 6.75 Egypt 86 3.85 83 4.20 72 2.51 108 5.80 Brazil 62 5.00 67 5.49 57 3.41 72 7.19 India 121 2.21 122 2.50 121 0.65 117 4.79 china 78 4.18 80 4.36 66 2.70 93 6.77 Malaysia 59 5.04 54 6.09 61 3.11 92 6.81 Source: ITU, Measuring the Information society 2013 116

International Journal of Management Sciences Egypt ranked 86 out of 157 countries in 2012 in the ITU ICT development index, worse than South Africa (84), Brazil (62), China (78) and Malaysia (59) and better than India (121). 2) IT Competitiveness Index The IT industry competitiveness index published from 2007 by the Economist Intelligence unit to assess to what extent countries possess the conditions necessary to support a strong IT industry. country Rank (out of 66) Overall index score Indicator Categories and Their Weights Overall business environment 10% IT infrastructure 20% Human capital 20% Legal environment 10% R&D environment 25% Support for IT industry development 15% Table 2: IT industry competitiveness Index 2011 Business Env. IT infr Human capital R&D env. Legal env. Support for IT industry Development South Africa 48 35.0 57.5 17.5 32.1 18.4 64.5 55.2 Egypt 54 26.3 66.5 10.9 29.9 0.6 42.0 47.9 Brazil 39 39.5 73.6 25.9 33.1 21.2 58 61.3 India 34 41.6 61.8 5.8 52.8 42.9 53.5 51.0 China 38 39.8 54.5 18.1 60.4 25.6 59.5 42.2 Malaysia 31 44.1 69.6 27.4 29.9 43.9 59.5 58.2 Source: Economist Intelligence unit 2011, IT industry competitiveness 2011 Egypt ranked 54 out of 66 countries in 2011 worse than its rank in 2008 (53 out of 66 countries). Egypt s rank in 2011 is worse than South Africa (48), Malaysia (31), China (38), Brazil (39) and India (34). From the sub categories, Egypt needs to achieve improvement in R&D environment and legal environment. 3) The Networked Readiness Index (NRI) The Networked Readiness Index (NRI) measures the degree to which economies across the world leverage ICT for enhanced competitiveness. The NRI comprising four sub indexes that measure the environment for ICT; the readiness of a society; the usage and the impacts that ICT generates in the economy and society. country value NRI Rank (out of 148) Table 3: The Networked Readiness Index 2014 Environment Readiness subindex subindex Usage subindex Impact subindex value Rank value Rank value Rank value Rank South Africa 3.98 70 4.8 31 4.2 98 3.7 70 3.3 89 Egypt 3.71 91 3.4 119 4.4 93 3.5 89 3.6 61 Brazil 3.98 69 3.4 116 4.7 76 4.1 47 3.6 57 India 3.85 83 3.8 91 4.6 85 3.4 91 3.6 60 China 4.05 62 3.9 77 4.8 73 3.9 61 3.7 56 Malaysia 4.83 30 5.0 24 5.0 59 4.8 30 4.5 28 Source: World Economic Forum, the Global Information technology Report 2014. 117

E. A. Hashem Egypt ranked 91 out of 148 countries in 2014 worse than its rank in 2008 (63 out of 127 countries). Egypt s rank in 2014 was the worst among the comparable countries. Malaysia surpassed Egypt by 60 positions; Brazil and china were higher in ranking than Egypt by 22 and 29positions. According to the sub indexes Egypt s weaknesses in the political and regulatory environment (115 th ) and the business and innovation environment (117 th ) result in a low innovation capacity by Egyptian companies (111 th ) and thus limited economic (59 th ) and social (65 th ) positive outcomes. Strengths o Relatively low labor cost. o Moderate wage inflation combined with a surplus of talent makes Egypt s cost competitiveness sustainable. Opportunities o Government support for the ICT sector through a number of initiatives. o Government and private training programs for IT skills. Strengths o Relatively low labor cost SWOT Analysis of Egyptian ICT sector: Weaknesses o Brain Drain: Large numbers of talented Egyptians leave the country for foreign jobs with better working conditions. o Bureaucracy and difficulties in licensing companies. Threats o Political instability. o Competition from emerging countries like china, India, Brazil and Malaysia that have strong support policies. o High illiteracy rate. The average salary of IT programmers in Egypt around 15,000 $ per year which higher than India (about 13,000$), but lower than china (around 20,000$), Brazil (around 39,000$) and many other competitors in Eastern European. (Data monitor, 2009:5) Also, the fully loaded cost which include personnel and non personnel cost are substantially lower than many competitors and comparable to India. o Egypt s geographical location Which consider gateway to both African and Arab markets. Weaknesses o Brain Drain Large numbers of talented Egyptians leave the country for foreign countries seeking for better working conditions. In 2008, Egyptian migrants abroad were around 3.9 million. According to IOM, migrants are more educated than non migrants as most of the migrants have at least completed secondary education. (IOM, 2010) In 2012, the emigration rate for university graduates was about 4% and 12% in secondary and higher. o Bureaucracy and difficulties in licensing companies: According to Doing Business Report 2014, Egypt ranked 128 out of 189 countries on the ease of doing business. (world bank, 2014: 3) Opportunities o Large number of University Graduates Around 330,000 students graduate from Egyptian universities every year. Out of these, about 66,000 graduate from commerce, around 17,000 graduate from science and technology and around 16,000 118

International Journal of Management Sciences graduate in engineering, which creating an annual flow of about 90,000 graduates qualified to work in Information and communication Technology (ICT) sector. (Itida, 2014:7) o Government Support for ICT Sector Through a number of Initiatives o MICT (Ministry of communication and information technology) put (2011-2014) strategy and its main goals are: a) Enhancing ICT companies to establish and operate in Egypt. b) building Egypt s brand as a regional hub for innovation. c) Enhancing local and foreign ICT companies to innovate in Egypt. d) supporting partnership to generate, finance and deploying ICT related innovation. (MICT,2011: 11) 13 initiatives have been introduced, each one of these initiative contributing to one of the four main goals of the strategy. The 13 initiatives can be classified in three categories: foundation of innovation, empowering businesses and recognizing innovation. Threats o Political instability: political instability discourages foreign investments and lead to high budget deficit, high debt rate and low standard of living. After the Egyptian Revolution 2011, Egypt suffered from a significant decrease in the numbers of private investment both domestic and foreign. Foreign investment in Egypt decreased from 6.8$ billion to 2$billion in 2010/2011. (Doaa S. & zeinab Z., 2013:7) o Competition from emerging countries: according to the ICT Development index, we found that Egypt ranked 86 out of 157 countries in 2012, worse than Brazil (62), China (78), Malaysia (59) and South Africa (84). And according to IT competitiveness index, Egypt ranked 54 out of 66 countries in 2011, worse than South Africa (48), Malaysia (31), China (38), Brazil (39) and India (34). Also, in the Networked Readiness Index, Egypt ranked 91 out of 148 countries in 2014, worse than Malaysia (30), Brazil (69), India (38), South Africa (70) and China (62). 3. Research Methodology This study investigates the impacts of ICT investments on human development. By exploring the impact of the different components of ICT investments (hardware, software, services and communications) on different dimensions of human development (standard of living, health and education). We explore the relationship between ICT investments and human development in 6 countries (Egypt, Malaysia, India, China, South Africa and Brazil). These countries are classified as middle income countries according to the World Bank classification. China, India and Egypt are classified as lower middle income economies, While Brazil, Malaysia and South Africa are classified as upper middle income economies. In this study, we conduct exploratory research using quantitative data about ICT investments from ITU (International Telecommunication Union) and WITSA ( World Information technology and services Alliance) and human development from UNDP (human development reports, different issues) then using regression model. The data on ICT investment and human development was collected for the period (2000-2013) as complete data sets on both ICT investments with its components and human development with its dimensions for the 6 countries were available for this period. 119

4. Results E. A. Hashem A) Findings on the impact of ICT investments on Human development Table 4: Impact of ICT Investment on Human Development (Human Development Index) South Brazil China Egypt India Malaysia Africa Hardware R 2 β Software R 2 β Services R 2 β Communicati on R 2 β Total ICT investments R 2 β 0.282 0.531 0.188-0.434 0.219-0.468 0.312-0.558 0.325-0.570 0.283-0.532 0.275-0.524 0.270-0.519 0.254-0.504 0.260-0.510 0.001 0.030 0.032-0.179 0.001-0.036 0.027-0.164 0.023-0.152 0.338-0.581 0.465-0.682 0.401-0.633 0.374-0.611 0.380-0.616 0.268-0.517 0.298-0.546 0.199-0.446 0.253-0.503 0.257-0.507 0.312-0.559 0.211-0.460 0.162-0.519 0.137-0.370 0.148-0.384 The findings illustrates that the increase in ICT spending in most cases have been positively correlated with human development index. In upper middle income countries observed that there are some highly significant positive impacts of ICT investments on human development than in lower middle income countries. The findings show that the impact of each component of ICT spending (hardware, software, services and communication) on human development index varies from country to country. So, countries must complementary investments in various components of ICT in order to maximize the impact on human development. b) Findings on the impact of ICT Investments on the Standard of Living Table 5: Impact of ICT investments on the standard of living (GDP per capita) R 2 β F Brazil 0.918 0.958 134.049 China 0.968 0.984 364.444 Egypt 0.906 0.952 115.283 South Africa 0.863 0.929 75.846 India 0.911 0.954 122.139 Malaysia 0.955 0.977 256.009 Investments in ICTs components show significant impacts on standard of living as measured by GDP per capita. This result supported by previous studies such as ( colecchia A. &Schreyer, 2002) that examines the contribution of ICT capital to economic growth in nine OECD countries by looking at investment trends in 120

International Journal of Management Sciences ICT equipment and software and the role played by ICT in overall capital. This study concluded that ICT capital investment has positive effects on economic growth and ICT contributed between 0.2 to 0.9 per year to economic growth depending on the country. (Kim et al., 2008) investigated the impact of the different components of ICT investment on economic development in 51 countries and concluded that the complementarity between the three types of IT (hardware, software and internal spending) has an effect on GDP and this effect differential according to GDP level. (Vincenzo, 2012), estimated the contribution of three types of ICT investments (computer, software and communication) in 26 industries over (1995-2007) and concluded that the contribution of ICT investments to economic growth was bigger or equal to the contribution of non ICT investments. And (Khuong vu, 2005), investigated the impact of ICT investment on economic growth in a number of industrialized countries and concluded that ICT investment has a significant impact on economic growth not only as traditional investment, but also as a boost to efficiency in growth: a higher level of ICT capital stock per capita allows an economy to achieve a higher growth rate for given levels of growth in labor and capital inputs. c) Findings on the impact of ICT investments on the Education Table 5: Impact of ICT investments on Education (Education Index) R 2 β F Brazil 0.969 0.985 379.480 China 0.943 0.971 197.328 Egypt 0.910 0.954 120.959 South Africa 0.867 0.931 78.137 India 0.861 0.928 74.192 Malaysia 0.888 0.943 95.553 The findings show that ICT spending is positively correlated with education as measured by education index. There are several empirical studies that show the causal relationships between ICT use and educational outcomes. Such as : (Kozma, 2005), which indicate that ICT positively impact student knowledge, skills and attitudes, as well as teaching practices, school innovation and community services. The benefits of ICT will be through a) high scores in school subjects or the learning of entirely new skills b) development of teacher technology skills and c) increased innovativeness in schools and increased access of community members to adult education and literacy. (OECD, 2010:a), this study indicates that the ICT in the classroom improves performance. It also indicates that more intensive use of ICT needs to go hand in hand with an increase in the social capital of students as measured by other complementary educational assets. And the study of (Aristovnik A., 2012), examining ICT efficiency and the impact of ICT on educational outcome and indicate that the ICT helps to improve the quality of learning and educational outcomes but it differs significantly across the great majority of EU and OECD countries. d) Findings on the impact of ICT investments on the Health The findings show that ICT spending is positively correlated with health as measured by life expectancy. According to (OECD, 2010:b) study the potential benefits that can result from ICT implementation are four broad inter related objectives: a) increasing quality of care and efficiency b) Reducing operating costs of clinical services c) Reducing administrative costs and d) Enabling entirely new modes of care. 121

E. A. Hashem Table (6) Impact of ICT investments on health (life expectancy) R 2 β F Brazil 0.904 0.951 112.710 China 0.954 0.977 250.546 Egypt 0.781 0.884 42.758 South Africa 0.704 0.839 28.567 India 0.132 0.364 1.830 Malaysia 0.896 0.947 103.408 Also (Info Dev, 2006) study, indicate that the use of ICTs in the health sector can improve the functioning of health care systems (by improving the management of information and access to that information), improving the delivery of health care (through better diagnosis, better mapping of public health threats, better training and sharing of knowledge among health workers and supporting health workers in primary health care) and improving communication about health (including improved information flows among health workers and the general public) And (European commission, 2010) study, evaluate the socio economic and Financial impacts of e health in several Europe countries and the United States and concluded that based on cost benefit analyses, the socio economic gains to society exceeded the costs. From the above tables we found that the impacts of investments in ICT on education (measured by education index) and standard of living (measured by per capita GDP) are greater than the impacts on health (measured by life expectancy) in most of the selected countries. For example, In Egypt the impacts of investments in ICT on education and standard of living are 91% while the impacts on health just 78%. Also, In Brazil, the impacts of investments in ICT on education and standard of living are 97% and 92% respectively while the impact on health is 90%. Factors that Affecting Benefit from ICTs o Policy structure of the Government: the growth of any communication technology in a society depends to a great extent on the degree to which policy makers and governments aware of the importance of ICTs. Many developing countries have realized the importance of the information and communication technology sector to support the other sectors in the economy and for better quality of life. (Rajesh, 2012: p.7) o ICT Infrastructure: in order to benefit from ICT investment in human development a strong infrastructure is needed to deliver better education and health care services, to create new business opportunities and to achieve betterment of the society. o Human Resources: the migration of skilled ICT professionals from developing to developed countries seeking for better working condition (brain drain) contributes to a lack of human resources to support ICT. o Insufficient funding: due to the high costs of ICT products and services and insufficient funding, many potential users in developing countries are too poor to afford the cost of access to ICT. 5. Conclusion In this study we explore the impact of investments in ICT on human development in six countries (Brazil, China, India, Egypt, Malaysia and South Africa). 122

International Journal of Management Sciences We exploring the impact of different components of ICT investments (hardware, software, services and communications) on different dimensions of human development (standard of living measured by per capita GDP, education measured by education index and health measured by life expectancy). The result of the analysis found the following findings. First, the increase in ICT spending have positive impact on human development index and upper middle income countries have highly significant positive impacts of ICT investments on human development than in lower middle income countries. Second,the impact of each component of ICT spending (hardware, software, services and communication) on human development index varies from country to country and no component has greater impact than the other components. So, countries must complementary investment in different components of ICT in order to maximize the impact on human development. Third, investments in ICTs components have significant positive impacts on standard of living (as measured by GDP per capita), education (as measured by education index) and health (as measured by life expectancy). The findings found that the impacts of investment in ICT on education and standard of living are greater than the impacts on health. What is the important of these results? The most important conclusion that in order to enhance the role of ICT and to maximize the benefits for human development, countries must complementary investment in different components of ICT together with the investments in education and health care. Policymakers should adopt strategies that integrating ICT policies with education and health goals to improve human development. References AlexBank(2011), information and communication technology Industry, boosting industry in Egypt, Economic Research Division. Aristovnik A. (2012), the impact of ICT on educational performance and its efficiency in selected EU and OECD countries: a non parametric analysis, MPRA working paper no.39805, july 2012. Colecchia A. & Schreyer P. (2002), ICT investment and Economic growth in the 1990s: Is the united states a unique case?, a comparative study of nine OECD countries, Review of Economic Dynamics, 5,2 p.408-442. Data monitor (2009), Global Delivery locations focus on Egypt, Analyst Insight. Doaa S. &Zeinab Z. (2013), The Egyptian Revolution and post socio Economic impact, Topics in Middle Eastern and African Economies, volume 15, No.1, p.p 92-115. Economist Intelligence unit( 2011), IT industry competitiveness 2011. European commission (2010), Interoperable e health is worth it : securing benefits from electronic health records. Felix o. Bankole and etal (2011), Investigating the impact of ICT investments on human development, journal of information systems in developing countries, 48,8,1-19. Info Dev (2006), Improving health, connecting people: the role of ICTs in the health sector of developing countries, working paper no.7. IOM (2010), a study on Remittances and investment opportunities for Egyptian Migrants. Itida (2014), why Egypt?, your guide to Egypt s strengths as an outsourcing destination. Kimetal (2008), Different effects of IT investments: complementarity and the effect of GDP level, International journal of Information Management, 28,8, 508-516. 123

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