ICT and its Economic Growth in SAARC Countries Impact on

Abstract

The aim of this study is to investigate the impact of ICT on economic growth In SAARC countries. It used ARDK technique to analyze the data which range from 2001 to 2018.The result extracted from the ARDL model shows that mobile cellular subscriptions are positively significant to economic growth in the long run in five SAARC member countries. The result also shows the elasticity of economic growth with respect to mobile cellular subscription is about 0.09 suggesting that if total mobile cellular subscription goes up by1 percent on average, the economic growth speed up by about 0.09 percent. Beside that labor and investment are positively and significantly integrated with economic growth in the SAARC countries in the long run. The error correction term (ECT) IS -0.270229 implying that the speed of adjustment to the correction disequilibrium to reaching long- term equilibrium is 27%. For ensuring economic growth and development of the region, respective authorities and policymakers should increase investment in technology related infrastructure.