China leads BRICS in global IT industry - People's Daily OnlineApril 14, 2011
China climbed to the 36th position in the rankings of the "Global Information Technology Report 2010-2011: Transformation 2.0," released by the World Economic Forum on April 12, 2011.
Sweden and Singapore continue to lead the rankings, taking first and second place, respectively. The Nordic countries and Asian Tigers confirm their leadership in adopting and implementing ICT advances for increased growth and development. Finland jumped to third place, while Switzerland and the United States are steady in fourth and fifth place, respectively. The 10th anniversary edition of the report focuses on ICT's power to transform society in the next decade through modernization and innovation.
Since 2006, China has leapfrogged 23 positions and is among the 10 most improved countries over five years. The government recognizes the importance of ICT and innovation for the development of the country.
Businesses are relatively quick to adopt new technologies and have developed a taste for innovation. The use of ICT by the population is also increasing rapidly but remains relatively low because of the sheer size of the country.
With a record coverage of 138 economies worldwide, the report remains the world's most comprehensive and authoritative international assessment of the impact of ICT on the development process and the competitiveness of nations. The Networked Readiness Index (NRI), featured in the report, examines how prepared countries are to use ICT effectively in regards to three areas: the general business, regulatory and infrastructure environment for ICT; the readiness of the three key societal actors - individuals, businesses and governments - to use and benefit from ICT; and their actual usage of available ICT.
Under the theme Transformations 2.0, this 10th anniversary edition explores the coming transformations powered by ICT, with a focus on the impact they will have on individuals, businesses and governments over the next few years. Since the beginning of the report, the sheer amount of information generated by today's digital society has increased at an astounding rate.
In order to measure impact of ICT and this new data revolution, a new data sharing platform is also launched on the occasion of the report's 10th anniversary to provide users with a set of tools to explore the impact of information a "ICT, and the Internet in particular, have changed the world dramatically, and all indications point to an even higher rate of transformation of our lives going forward," said Soumitra Dutta, Roland Berger Professor of Business and Technology at INSEAD and co-editor of the report. "As the Global Information Technology Report series enters its second decade, we hope it will continue to provide policymakers and decision leaders from both the public and private sectors a unique reference and tool to address the challenges and opportunities brought about by the transformations 2.0."
"Innovation and ICT have proven a crucial lever for long-term growth, with countless social and economic benefits and the capacity to significantly improve people's life around the world," said Alan Marcus, senior director and head of information technology and telecommunications at the World Economic Forum. "Countries fully integrating new technologies and leveraging the new data revolution in their development and growth strategies, are laying the foundations for competitive, resilient economies for the future."
The report is a project within the framework of the World Economic Forum's Centre for Global Competitiveness and Performance and the Industry Partnership Program for Information Technology and Telecommunications Industries. It is the result of collaboration between the World Economic Forum and INSEAD, the leading international business school.
The Networked Readiness Index uses a combination of data from publicly available sources, as well as the results of the Executive Opinion Survey, a comprehensive annual survey conducted by the World Economic Forum with its network of partner institutes (leading research institutes and business organizations) in the countries included in the report. This survey of over 15,000 executives provides unique data on many qualitative dimensions important to assess national networked readiness.
The presentation of the NRI rankings is followed by contributions by academics and industry experts, exploring the transformations 2.0, including the emerging Internet economy, communities to be built around digital highways, ICT growing impact on poverty reduction, localization 2.0, and the potential of mobile banking in the emerging world, among others. Furthermore, four deep-dive studies on selected national/regional experiences in leveraging ICT for increased competitiveness are included: Costa Rica, Saudi Arabia, as well as broadband approaches and developments in the European Union and United States.
The report contains detailed country profiles for the 138 economies featured in the study, providing a snapshot of each economy's level of ICT penetration and usage. Also included is an extensive section of data tables for the 71 indicators used in the computation of the Index.
The editors of the report are Soumitra Dutta, Roland Berger Professor of Business and Technology, INSEAD, France, and Irene Mia, Director and Senior Economist, Centre for Global Competitiveness and Performance, World Economic Forum.
By Kai Bucher, Cathy Li, WEF
