The study conducts a country-level examination of the impact of information and communication technologies (ICTs) on sustainable development. Sustainable development is an agenda that global countries are determined to achieve. The ubiquitous nature of ICT and the benefits it accrues make it an inevitable choice to address the sustainable development agenda of nations. The literature on the influence of ICT on sustainable development at a global level is scant and the available literature provides ambiguous results on the relationship. This study conceptualizes sustainable development as three dimensions—economic, social and environment and supports the contention using secondary panel data analysis. A dataset comprises of 80 countries during the years 2000–2016. A Seemingly Unrelated Regression Estimation method helps in understanding the simultaneous relationship of ICT with the three described dimensions. To explore the relationship further, mediation analysis was conducted to understand the relationship of ICT with each dimension of sustainable development in the presence of the other dimensions. The results indicate that ICT has a significant positive influence on the dimensions of sustainable development of a nation. However, further examination with the mediation analysis reveals that ICT has a strong influence on the economic dimension and the spillover effects from economic dimension result in the realization of environmental and societal dimension of sustainable development. The results indicate that the unprecedented diffusion of ICT across remotest countries of the world is a ray of hope to address the agenda of sustainable development. However, the utmost attention must be taken to balance the three dimensions of sustainable development. The policy makers need to keep a critical eye on the environmental dimension and develop policies that incentivize the use of environmentally friendly technologies to ensure minimal or no impact on the environment and thereby ensure ICT as a catalyst for sustainable development.

该研究对信息和通信技术（ICT）对可持续发展的影响进行了国家层面的研究。可持续发展是全球各国决心​​实现的议程。信息通信技术无处不在的性质及其带来的好处，使其成为解决各国可持续发展议程的必然选择。关于信息通信技术对全球可持续发展的影响的文献很少，现有文献对这种关系提供了模棱两可的结果。这项研究将可持续发展概念化为三个维度：经济，社会和环境，并使用二级面板数据分析来支持这一争论。2000-2016年期间，数据集包含80个国家/地区。一种看似无关的回归估计方法有助于理解ICT与上述三个维度的同时关系。为了进一步探讨这种关系，进行了调解分析，以了解ICT与可持续发展各个方面之间的关系。结果表明，信息通信技术对一个国家的可持续发展具有重大的积极影响。但是，通过对中介分析的进一步研究表明，信息通信技术对经济方面具有很大的影响，而经济方面的溢出效应导致实现可持续发展的环境和社会方面。结果表明，信息通信技术在世界上最偏远的国家中空前的普及，是解决可持续发展议程的一线希望。但是，必须最大程度地注意平衡可持续发展的三个方面。决策者需要密切关注环境问题，制定政策以鼓励使用环保技术，以确保对环境的影响最小或没有影响，从而确保将ICT用作可持续发展的催化剂。