Singapore Overtakes the United States in the World Economic Forum's Global Information Technology Report

The United States has dropped four places and ceded top billing in the World Economic Forum's Global Information Technology Report to Singapore. Released today, the Report ranks Singapore as the top economy in exploiting global ICT (information and communications technology) developments for the first time. The report places Singapore as the best performer worldwide in a number of categories -- quality of maths and science education, affordability of telephone connection charges, and government prioritization and procurement of ICT -- and gets extremely high scores in other areas, such as affordability of Internet access.

By contrast, the United States drops to number 5 in the ranking. However, the loss in rank is less due to actual erosion in performance with respect to its past history and more to continuing improvements by its competitors. The United States maintains global leadership in the business readiness component of the rankings as well as in variables such as the quality of its scientific research institutions and business schools -- which have no peer in the world -- and the availability of training opportunities for the labour force as well as the existence of a well-developed venture capital market, which has spurred innovation.

With a total coverage of 104 economies worldwide and published for the fourth consecutive year, The Global Information Technology Report has emerged as the world's leading assessment of the impact of information and communication technology (ICT) on the development and competitiveness of nations. Under the theme "Efficiency in an Increasingly Connected World", The Global Information Technology Report 2004-2005 is released at a time of cautious optimism about the short-term global economic outlook and the emergence of a broad consensus about the central role that ICT plays in boosting growth prospects of developed and developing countries. In line with the World Economic Forum's efforts to expand the geographical coverage of the Report, five new countries from diverse regions of the world (Bahrain, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cyprus, Georgia and United Arab Emirates) have been included this year.

"It is clear that information and communication technologies will continue to play a growing role in boosting the efficiency of the increasingly integrated global economy, enabling countries to improve resource allocation and boost growth prospects. Singapore is an excellent example of a country that has been able to make in a relatively short period of time enormous progress in putting ICT at the service of improved living standards. Together with a handful of other economies (Taiwan, Israel, United Arab Emirates, Korea, Estonia, among others), Singapore's experience highlights the increasingly central role played by technology as an engine of growth and competitiveness, even beyond the borders of the rich industrial countries," said Report co-editor Augusto Lopez-Claros, director of the Global Competitiveness Programme at the World Economic Forum.

The Global Information Technology Report 2004-2005 consists of three main parts: the first part presents several analytical studies related to aspects of ICT development, including a case study on Taiwan's impressive emergence over the last 20 years as one of the world's leading manufacturers of ICT products; the second part contains detailed country profiles providing a snapshot of each country's level of ICT development; and the third consists of data tables with country rankings for each variable comprised by the Index. The overall main index of the Report, the Networked Readiness Index (NRI), measures the propensity for countries to exploit the opportunities offered by ICT and establishes a broad international framework mapping out the enabling factors of such capacity.

"There is a strong correlation between ICT spending and productivity, which is demonstrated in this research as a strong correlation between the rankings and global competitiveness," said John Chambers, president and CEO of Cisco Systems, which sponsored the Report. "While ICT usage is a measure of the present, ICT readiness is perhaps a measure of the future. Proactive