Taiwan’s ranking in global information technology (IT) competitiveness dropped to 15th place this year from second place last year largely because of a worsening research and development environment, an annual study by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) showed.
The London-based researcher ranked the US as the world’s top performer, with a score of 78.9, because its educational environment continues to develop high-quality technology professionals.
The study, now in its third year, compares the IT environment in 66 economies. It was sponsored by the Business Software Alliance (BSA).
Finland, Sweden, Canada and the Netherlands were ranked second, third, fourth and fifth respectively this year, in line with the degree to which they enable IT companies to compete effectively.
BSA vice president Jeffery Hardee said the IT sector remains an important engine of growth in the Asia-Pacific region.
“Economies that are taking steps to stimulate technology sector output are placing themselves in a strong position to accelerate economic recovery,” Hardee said.
With broadband access becoming a prerequisite for many parts of the IT sector, economies with widespread broadband penetration have a big competitive advantage over those where the infrastructure is lacking, he said.
Taiwan’s drop placed it behind Singapore (9) and Japan (12), but ahead of South Korea (16), Hong Kong (21) and China (50).
“Singapore ranked third in the category of innovation environment, owing to its strong support for R&D and its IT firms’ record of patenting innovations,” the EIU said in a press release. “Taiwanese, South Korean and Japanese firms also remain the most prolific generators of IT patents in Asia.”
Taiwan and South Korea, however, saw sharp declines in their rankings largely because of the deterioration in their R&D environment scores, the EIU said.
The EIU report, Resilience Amid Turmoil: Benchmarking IT Industry Competitiveness 2009, measures competitiveness of the IT industry based on 26 quantitative and qualitative indicators grouped under six main categories: overall business environment, IT infrastructure, human capital, legal environment, R&D environment and support for IT industry development.
The Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday that Taiwan’s plunge in the rankings was due to changes in two indicators and the adjustment of indicator weights.
This year’s study used available data sourced from the European Patent Office (EPO) to score the IT patents indicator in the R&D environment category, rather than the number of patent applications to the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), which was used in the past, the ministry said.
“EIU only selected patents of computers and office equipment for assessment, while overlooking those of personal navigation devices and smartphones in which Taiwan enjoys a competitive edge,” the statement said.
Taiwan scored 12.5 points less than last year in the overall ranking because of this change, the ministry said.
The addition of the quality of IT staff as a new indicator to gauge the competitiveness of human capital also hurt Taiwan’s ranking, which was 18.1 points lower than last year’s, the ministry said.
Meanwhile, the Council for Economic Planning and Development said yesterday that the nation’s information & communications technology (ICT) industry faces rising challenges from emerging economies.
To help local ICT firms improve innovation capability and technology upgrading, the council said the Cabinet has proposed investing NT$12.7 billion (US$392.4 million) to improve ICT infrastructure and has drawn up bills aimed at raising competitiveness.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last