The annual report that collates measurements of the impact of technology on the economic and social development of the world’s countries says that the US has fallen from prime position because of “a deterioration of the political and regulatory environment” there.
The World Economic Forum ranks 122 of the world’s nations according to several criteria including the integration of technology in business, available infrastructure, government policies in the area of technological innovation and application, and the official promotion of the latest IT, computing and telecoms applications and services.
The top spot in the Networked Readiness Index this year goes to Denmark, which is up from the third place it held in 2006. Sweden is at number two, Singapore at three, Finland at number four and Switzerland at number five. Rounding off the Top Ten are the Netherlands, The US, Iceland, the UK and Norway.
Further down the rankings but still safely in the Top Twenty are three other European nations, Germany (16), Austria (17) and Estonia (20).
However, while most of the countries of Asia and the Pacific Rim continue to progress, growth in both China and India, nations that had been powering ahead in recent years, has slowed. India has slipped four places in the league table and is now at 44. The WEF says this is because, despite pockets of high-tech penetration such as in Bangalore, the sub-continent overall still has “weak infrastructure and a very low level of the individual usage of personal computers and the Internet.”
China has fallen nine places down the rankings and is now in 59th place. The WEF says this is because Chinese companies are not taking up and applying new IT and comms technologies at the rate they used to.
Commenting on the report's findings, Irene Mia, a senior economist at the WEF said, “Denmark, in particular, has benefited from the very effective government e-leadership, reflected in early liberalisation of the telecommunications sector, a first-rate regulatory environment and large availability of e-government services.”
The new report, that so graphically illustrates the declining fortunes of the US is the second in successive years to record a weakening in America’s once supreme position at the top of the ranking of the world’s nations. Last year the WEFs World Competitiveness Report showed that the US had fallen from first place to sixth in the global league.
However, the world Economic forum does have some words of comfort for America. It says that the nation remains focused on innovation that is driven by one of the world’s very best tertiary education systems and that its extremely efficient and sophisticated market environment – so attractive to venture capitalists – confers enormous advantages over many other countries around the world.
Autor(en)/Author(s): Martyn Warwick
Quelle/Source: TelecomTV, 30.03.2007
