The KEI is an aggregate index representing a nation or region's overall preparedness to compete in the Knowledge Economy based on four pillars: the economic incentive and institutional regime (EIR), innovation and technological adoption, education and training, and information and communications technologies (ICT) infrastructure.
Taiwan's knowledge economy competitiveness has continuously improved over the past 12 years, with the ranking rising from 16th in 2000 to 13th this year, and the gap with other leading nations decreasing.
Taiwan ranks among the top 10 for innovation, education, and ICT, but is only 35th when it comes to the economic incentive sub-index, which comprises incentives that promote the efficient use of existing and new knowledge technologies and the flourishing of entrepreneurship, the CEPD pointed out.
In terms of the education and training pillar, which evaluates whether the population is appropriately trained and capable of creating, sharing and using knowledge, Taiwan ranks 8th in the world. This indicates that the number of Taiwan's educated talents is on the rise, which is beneficial to the country's economic transformation, the CEPD said.
The government's active promotion of Internet and communications-related infrastructure has also paid off: Taiwan ranked 9th in the world in terms of the ICT pillar ranking. While the CEPD attributes Taiwan's high ranking in this sector to the widespread use of broadband Internet and technical knowledge among citizens, the World Bank claimed in the report that “Taiwan's improvement resulted exclusively from an increase in computer users.”
In terms of the innovation pillar, the World Bank commented that Taiwan's gains are “primarily because of the astonishingly high number of patents — 323 per million people, ranking number 1 among all 146 economies.” Indeed, Taiwan received patents for 413 items in 2010 alone, the CEPD said.
As the global economy fluctuated over the past decade, many countries' KEI dropped. That the decrease seen in Taiwan, 0.06, was lower than Singapore's 0.31, South Korea's 0.45, and Japan's 0.53, indicates that Taiwan's knowledge economy competitiveness has been impacted less than other Asian nations, according to the CEPD.
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Autor(en)/Author(s): Grace Soong
Quelle/Source: The China Post, 07.06.2012
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