Western Europe

In Western Europe, Switzerland (#5), the Netherlands (#6), and the United Kingdom (#10) all rank in the top ten but five other advanced economies attain high positions, ranging from 16th to 23rd place. Overall, these countries exhibit fairly well developed conditions for ICT.

Switzerland places #5 on the NRI. The country features in the top 10 of six pillars, and comes in at
 4th place in the skills pillar. Switzerland boasts very high usage rates and is boosted by a high degree of readiness and a propitious environment. It ranks 6th on
 the individual usage pillar, owing to very high penetration rates of mobile telephony, computers, Internet, and broadband Internet. Furthermore, it places 2nd behind Sweden in the business usage pillar. ICT has a very significant impact on the economy (3rd), leading 
to new services, products, and business models and fostering innovation. Its impact on society however, seems to be less marked (25th), as is the modest engagement of its government in promoting and using ICT (35th). The country’s performance is also affected by the costliness of ICT (48th) even when adjusting for purchasing power differentials.

 #6 The Netherlands delivers a strong performance. The country earns excellent marks in terms of ICT usage (9th). In particular, the Netherlands boasts the world’s highest broadband Internet penetration rate with 40 subscriptions per 100 people, the second-highest percentage of computer ownership (92 percent of households), and third-highest percentage of individuals using the Internet (90.1 percent). The country’s best rank is achieved in the economic impacts pillar (4th) thanks to the high share of knowledge-intensive jobs in the economy, the third highest in the world—and the country’s knack for innovation with the fifth-highest ratio of ICT-related patent applications per capita. The affordability pillar represents the only real weakness in its assessment (47th).

Germany, at #16 achieves fairly good economic impacts (13th) thanks to a high level of ICT-related innovations and a robust innovation system led by the business community (6th). The country’s well-developed ICT infrastructure (14th) and its high-quality educational system (17th) provides the vast majority of the population with the required skills to effectively use ICT (20th), resulting in high levels of ICT usage by individuals (14th). Further improvements could be achieved by rendering access to ICT, especially fixed broadband, more affordable (38th); also the government should put more emphasis on the importance of ICT for the future economic and social development of the country (47th). With a very similar profile, Austria arrives #19. Its very good ICT infrastructure development (12th), including access to digital content (4th) and that almost the entire population has the basic skills to utilize and access ICT (24th), result in very good penetration rates by individuals (17th) and the business community (11th). Moreover, the successful integration of ICT in a well-performing innovation system results in positive economic impacts (19th) in terms of innovation and focus on knowledge-intensive activities. On a less positive note, the high tax rate (115th) and the cumbersome procedures to open new businesses (97th) can hinder entrepreneurship and new ICT-based business opportunities.

#21 Luxembourg and #22 Belgium present slightly different pictures in terms of ICT development. Although both countries benefit from a fairly
well-developed ICT infrastructure, Belgium benefits from a better-performing and more robust innovation and educational system allowing the country to obtain better economic impacts and higher innovation rates. On the other hand, Luxembourg has more affordable access to ICT and a more entrepreneurial-prone environment with lower taxes.

France #23, achieves a harmonious uptake of ICT by all agents in society, producing good economic results (15th) in terms of developing innovative products and services (6th) and granting a wide access to basic services (18th). Despite the high cost of mobile cellular rates (121st), ICT infrastructure is fairly well developed and the educational system has allowed the population to acquire a skill base to use ICT. In order to further boost entrepreneurship and innovation via the creation and development of new technology-based companies, the high corporate tax rate (127th) and the insufficient development of venture capital (36th) are areas that may require further attention.

ITC Investment in France As part of their investment in ICT convergence, governments can lead the development of advanced networks or create an open-access infrastructure to attract private investment. By 2008, 65 percent of households in France had broadband service, and multiple service providers had benefited from the unbundling of the incumbent France Telecom network. Now national and local governments are investing in the rollout of open-access fiber networks that private service providers will pay to use. Included in this plan are opening sewers and conduits to allow competitive service providers to lay their fiber optic cables within already-existing networks. According to one estimate, this will reduce costs of network deployment by up to 60 percent.

GITR 2011 results in review

For the 2010 - 2011 edition of the GITR, Sweden topped the rankings for the second time in a row, with an outstanding performance across the board. Although some Nordic countries lost some ground with respect to the year before, the others were still amongst the most successful countries in the world at fully integrating new technologies in their competitiveness strategies and using them as a crucial lever for long-term growth. Finland, Denmark, Norway, and Iceland ranked among the top 20, at 3rd, 7th, 9th, and 16th, respectively.

Singapore was stable at 2nd, leading Asia and the world in networked readiness, followed by Finland(up three places from the previous year), Switzerland, and the United States.

Europe continued to display remarkable levels of ICT readiness, with 11 regional economies featuring among the top 20 of the world’s best performers. Besides the Nordics and Switzerland, the Netherlands (11th), Germany (13th), Luxembourg (14th), the United Kingdom (15th), and France (20th) ranked among the most networked economies worldwide.

Asia was home to some of the best performers in the world in the NRI rankings and to the countries that have proven the most dynamic over time. In particular,six economies besides Singapore featured amongst the top 20, namely Taiwan (6th), Korea (10th), Hong Kong (12th), Australia (17th), New Zealand (18th), and Japan (19th). With regard to the largest Asian emerging markets, China consolidated its position at 36th after years of impressive progression in the rankings, while India lost some ground and dropped down five places to 48th.

Although a number of countries in Latin America and the Caribbean region posted notable improvements or consolidated their achievements in networked readiness, last year the region as a whole continued to trail behind international best practices in leveraging ICT advances.

No Latin American or Caribbean economy appeared in the top 20 and only a handful featured in the top 50: Barbados (38th), Chile (39th), Puerto Rico (43rd), Uruguay (45th), and Costa Rica (46th). While Brazil climbed five places to 56th, Mexico was stable at 78th, and Argentina dropped five places to 96th.

The assessment of sub-Saharan Africa’s networked readiness was disappointing, with the majority of the region lagging in the bottom half of the NRI rankings, bar Mauritius (45th) and South Africa (61st). Tunisia consolidated its leadership in North Africa at 35th place, while all other countries in the region, with the exception of Morocco (83rd, 5 places up), followed a downward trend. The biggest decline was that of Libya, which dropped a staggering 23 places to 126th. Egypt (75th) and Algeria (117th) lost 4 places each, although both improved in score. On a more positive note, the Middle East continued to feature prominently in the rankings, with four countries in the top 30, namely Israel (22nd), the United Arab Emirates (24th), Qatar (25th), and Bahrain (30th).