Singapore moved down one place to 3rd position in the sixth Global Information Technology Report (GITR) 2006-2007's "Networked Readiness Index", maintaining its dominant position for the 5th successive year.Singapore's ICT excellence is built on the country's excellent regulatory and business environment, on the government's early focus on the adoption and diffusion of the latest technologies, and on ICT penetration and its ability to involve the private sector in a common strategy and vision for ICT readiness.Among the top 20, Switzerland, up 4 ranks to 5th place, registers one of the biggest improvements, after Sweden and the Netherlands, both 6 ranks up from last year. Switzerland's ICT prowess is pushed by its first-class business environment and by effective e-leadership shown by the business sector and, to a lesser extent by the civil society, in ICT usage and innovation.The United States lost its top position and dropped 6 places to 7th, mainly due to relative deterioration of the political and regulatory environment. However, the country maintains its primacy in innovation, driven by one of the world's best tertiary education systems and its high degree of cooperation with the industry as well as by the extremely efficient market environment displayed, states the GITR report. The latter has been very conducive to the development and prospering of the ICT sector (in particular, the availability of venture-capital, sophistication of the financial market and the ease to start a business).Among other countries in Europe, the Netherlands (6), the United Kingdom (9), Germany (16), Austria (17) and Estonia (20) also feature in the top 20. Estonia, in particular, stands out for the impressive progress realized in the space of a decade in networked readiness as well as general competitiveness, driven by an efficient government ICT vision and strategy. Ireland (21) and France (23) are also fully leveraging ICT for development while some other countries, such as Italy (38) and Greece (48) lag behind, although Italy has been following an upward trend for the last two years, with a 4 place improvement over last year.Countries from Asia and the Pacific continued to do well this year, with Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan, Australia and Korea occupying 12th, 13th, 14th, 15th and 19th positions, respectively, although Taiwan and Korea are losing some ground from last year (down 6 and 5 positions respectively).The highest-ranking Latin American countries are Chile (31), newly included Barbados (40), Jamaica (45), Mexico (49), Brazil (53), and Costa Rica (56). The rankings for the region show an encouraging upward trend, with large countries such as Mexico, Argentina (63) and Peru (78) gaining several positions.The same tendency is even more marked for small Central American and Caribbean countries, such as Jamaica (45), Costa Rica (56), Dominican Republic (66) and Guatemala (79) which realized impressive improvements. The region's overall improvement can be traced partly to the results of increased emphasis being laid on ICT strategies in recent policy agendas of most countries in the region to reduce the digital divide and increase competitiveness.Sub-Saharan Africa displays a less positive picture, with all countries, but Nigeria (88), dropping places in the rankings. In particular, the traditional ICT champions in the region are all losing ground, with South Africa, Mauritius and Botswana dropping 10, 6 and 11 places to 47th, 51st and 67th, respectively.Although the region has quickly increased its ICT penetration rates in recent years and its markets retain great potential for investors, it has not moved fast enough compared with the rest of the world: a lack of extensive and efficient infrastructure, overregulated business environments and poor governance and education standards prevent sub-Saharan Africa from fully leveraging ICT for increased development.In the MENA region, Tunisia (35), Morocco (76) and Algeria (80) have all improved their networked readiness from last year while Egypt is down 14 places to 77th. Israel, in 18th position, remains the incontestable leader in the Middle East, with outstanding levels of technological sophistication, innovation and ICT penetration. The Gulf countries, except for Kuwait which is down 8 positions to 54th this year, remain rather stable in comparison to last year, with the United Arab Emirates (UAE) leading the region at 29th. Indeed, the UAE has been placing a growing emphasis on the role of ICT for development in recent years, with the launch of a number of ICT initiatives to create ICT-related clusters.
