GENEVA: Denmark and Sweden once again lead the rankings of The Global Information Technology Report 2008-2009, released by the World Economic Forum. They are followed by the United States which is up one position, Singapore, Switzerland, Finland, Iceland, Norway, the Netherlands and Canada. The Report underlines the ideas that good education fundamentals and high levels of technological readiness and innovation are essential engines of growth needed to overcome the current economic crisis.
“The development story of the most networked countries in the world, including the Nordic countries, Singapore and the United States among others, has owed much to a consistent focus in the national agenda on education excellence, innovation and an extensive ICT access. This success stands as a reminder for leaders in both the public and private sectors not to lose focus on ICT as an important enabler of growth and competitiveness in times of crisis,” said Irene Mia, senior economist of the Global Competitiveness Network at the World Economic Forum and co-editor of the report.
Published for the eighth consecutive year with record coverage of 134 economies worldwide, the Report remains the world’s most comprehensive and authoritative international assessment of the impact of ICT on the development process and the competitiveness of nations. Under the theme “Mobility in a Networked World,” this year’s Report places a particular focus on the relationship and interrelations between mobility and ICT.
In the executive summary of the Report, it was noted that the Middle East has further improved its networked readiness, with all countries considered, except one, appearing in the top half of the NRI rankings. Israel still leads the Middle East in 25th place, closely followed by the UAE (27) and Qatar (29). Rankings of the other GCC countries are Bahrain (37), Saudi Arabia (40), Oman (50) and Kuwait (57). It must be noted that some Middle Eastern nations such as Yemen, Lebanon and Iraq were not considered in the Report.
The Networked Readiness Index (NRI), featured in the Report, examines how prepared countries are to use ICT effectively on three dimensions: the general business, regulatory and infrastructure environment for ICT; the readiness of the three key stakeholder groups — individuals, businesses and governments - to use and benefit from ICT; and their actual usage of the latest information and communication technologies available.
The NRI uses a combination of data from publicly available sources, as well as the results of the Executive Opinion Survey, a comprehensive annual survey conducted by the World Economic Forum with its network of Partner Institutes in the countries included in the Report. An update of the NRI is followed by specialist contributions written by renowned academics and industry experts, exploring different aspects related to mobility, ICT and innovation such us mobile telephony and its impact on economic growth and networked readiness, Internet ubiquity, mobile reality mining, and mobility of talents and research and development (R&D) flows. Also insightful case studies on best practices in innovation and ICT development and diffusion in Egypt, the Republic of Korea and Brazil are included.
The Report contains detailed country profiles for the 134 economies featured in the study, providing a snapshot of each economy’s level of ICT penetration and usage. Also included is an extensive section of data tables, including each indicator used in the computation of the Index. The full Report and Networked Readiness Index 2008-2009 rankings may be downloaded free from http://www.weforum.org/gitr.