According to the forum’s annual Global Information Technology Report released Wednesday, Korea was the most active country in the world in terms of private firms’ Internet usage, and second best in the high-speed Internet penetration rate. On the contrary, it was lowly ranked in the administrative process for starting new businesses (89th), efficiency of taxation (71st) and accessibility to venture capital (68th).
The report also said Korea has lost its competence in the IT and communication sector over the past year, dropping five places from 14th place to 19th in the benchmark ranking of 122 nations.
Nordic countries prevailed in the rankings as Denmark, Sweden and Finland took the first, second and fourth places. Singapore and Switzerland were third and fifth, while the United States slid from the top place to seventh.
Hong Kong, Taiwan and Japan were all ahead of South Korea at 12th, 13th and 14th, whereas China was far below in 59th place.
The WEF said that Korea is still one of the most advanced countries in the world.
``Nordic countries are doing well as usual, and small Asian countries such as Singapore, Hong Kong and South Korea are still doing quite well,’’ said Irene Mia, co-author of the report. ``It’s interesting that these Nordic countries and small Asian countries are showing the same focus on education, innovation and very good regulatory environment. Those are the main strengths of these countries in ICT competitiveness.’’
The Global Information Technology report assesses a nation’s ICT strengths and weaknesses and evaluate its progress over a year. It is composed by the WEF and Insead Business School every year.
South Korea has been oscillating in the rankings over the past few years, from 20th in 2002, 14th in 2003, 24th in 2004 and 14th in 2005.
The report showed that Korea’s strength lies mostly in its broadband Internet infrastructure, and its weaknesses in the legal and administrative sector. Broadband Internet service price (2nd), Internet penetration in schools (4th) and e-government readiness (5th) received relatively favorable assessments, while complicated market regulations (23rd) were cited as one of its big drawbacks.
Autor(en)/Author(s): Cho Jin-seo
Quelle/Source: The Korea Times, 28.03.2007
