The Middle East isn’t known as a hotbed of technological achievement. But in the seventh annual Global Information Technology Report released on Apr. 9 by the Geneva-based World Economic Forum [WEF] and French management school INSEAD, the region demonstrated the most improvement in its tech-readiness and expertise of any in the world.
Soumitra Dutta, a professor of business and technology at INSEAD and co-editor of the report, says oil-producing countries have woken up to the fact that diversifying their economies will prove “absolutely critical” in the coming years. “They have to rely on people and on knowledge-based industries,” he says. Other countries in the region, especially Egypt and Jordan, also now understand that technological prowess will prove vital to their global competitiveness.
That’s the underlying message of the Global Information Technology Report [http://www.weforum.org/gitr], which assesses 127 economies on scores of factors ranging from the cost of mobile phone calls and available Internet bandwidth to the quality of higher education. Not just a catalog of technical specifications, the report weighs these measures to determine which economies are best positioned to compete in the information-intensive 21st century economy.
Northern Lights
The conclusion, as in previous studies, finds Nordic countries grabbing five of the top 10 slots, with Denmark and Sweden placing No.1 and No.2 for the second year running. Credit widespread Internet usage, supportive government policies, and good education. The U.S. came in at No.4, up three positions from last year. Although the U.S. gets top marks in innovation and education, it’s pulled down by “red tape and rigidities” that stifle its business environment, according to the report.
By coincidence, on the same day the WEF report came out, a rival ranking from the Economist Intelligence Unit [EIU] assessing the “e-readiness” of countries around the world also was released. The EIU study [www.eiu.com/sponsor/ibm/e-readinessrankings2008] used a similar method…