Taiwan this year ranked second in a survey of information technology (IT) competitiveness conducted by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), up four notches from last year.
With a score of 69.2 out of 100, Taiwan not only beat the UK, Sweden and Denmark in the top five, but also outranked South Korea, Singapore and Japan in Asia, the EIU survey showed.
The UK-based institute attributed Taiwan’s stellar performance to its strength in research spending, it said in a press release yesterday.
Apart from Taiwan, South Korea and Japan also retained their leadership in research and development (R&D) for technology production, the statement added.
US FIRST
The US, with a score of 74.6, placed first among 66 countries in the EIU’s “IT industry competitiveness index” poll this year for the second consecutive year, thanks to advantages such as being an established incubator of high-tech start-ups and technology innovation and as a developer of talent, the EIU said.
The survey uses six categories of quantitative and qualitative indicators — business environment, IT infrastructure, human capital, legal environment, R&D environment and support for IT industry development — to gauge a nation’s IT competitiveness.
The EIU said in the statement that the US, Singapore and UK provided the best environments for human-capital development among the 66 countries. But it warned these countries to work harder on this front because the brain drain of IT talent from emerging markets has shown signs of slowing or reversing.
As for their legal environment, the EIU said the US, Australia and west European countries possessed the world’s most effective systems of intellectual property protection. These countries also own the most developed bodies of e-commerce and cybercrime law, it said.
“Policymakers and business leaders need to address the full combination of factors that enable competitive IT industries,” Denis McCauley, the EIU’s director for global technology research, wrote in the statement.
ENVIRONMENT
“Few countries can hope to build strong IT production sectors without strong business and legal environments, deep pools of talent, support for innovation and the widespread use of technology throughout society,” he said.
The EIU’s index results were part of the institute’s latest report, How Technology Sectors Grow: Benchmarking IT Industry Competitiveness 2008, which was sponsored by the Business Software Alliance (BSA).
The local branch of BSA, a Washington-based trade group, is scheduled to release the full report, especially its highlight on Taiwan, at a press conference in Taipei tomorrow.
BSA president and CEO Robert Holleyman said the report could serve as a guide for governments on advancing innovation and economic performance.
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