The subject of the study is to consider the impact of information and communication technologies (ICT) on the country’s economic development that requires providing the systematic research of objective prerequisites for increasing ecological and economic efficiency of the introduction and use of ICT. The economic justification for the implementation of ICT taking into account the economic consequences of its impact on the environment is impossible without studying, systematizing economic and environmental effects from the use of ICT. Scientific studies of the economic problems of the implementation of ICT, in our opinion, should be deepened on the basis of the need to take into account the positive and negative economic consequences of their impact on the environment and therefore require further research in this direction. The purpose of the paper is to determine the impact of information and communication technologies on the country’s ecological and economic development and to systematize the economic, social and environmental effects from the introduction and use of ICT. The dialectical method of scientific knowledge, method of analysis and synthesis, comparative method, method of data generalization are used in the paper. The paper outlines and describes the main directions of influence of information and communication technologies (ICT) on economic development of industry, on development of agriculture, on the sphere of transport and communication. The classification of the effects from the introduction and use of ICT is given, namely: by the life cycle of the product – the effects that arise at the stage of development, production, realization, consumption and disposal of the product; by recipients of influence – the effects that arise in enterprises, government bodies, which use ICT, households, which are consumers of ICT goods and services, and in the environment; by the form of manifestation – direct and indirect effects. ICT provide extensive opportunities for learning, promote the participation of citizens in public life, etc., but at the same time they can increase the unevenness of the economic development of the regions of the country due to the difference in access to ICT. The development of ICT provides a reduction in the material component of production and consumption, helping to reduce the resource intensity and ecological sustainability of economic processes, and improve the environmental situation.
A synthesis of the impact of the ever evolving information and communication technologies on the economic development of Togo
