October 15, 2003

Singapore Tops in Technology and e-Commerce Research

SINGAPORE BEAT 48 countries to rank highest in technology and e-commerce capabilities in the 2003 Global Information Technology-Economy Index (GITEI), released by Tech-Economy, an IT research firm.

Tech-Economy's 2003 GITEI measures the technological sophistication and e-commerce capabilities of 48 nations based on six categories: knowledge jobs, globalisation, enterprise dynamism and competition, transformation to a digital economy, technological innovation capacity and visionary government.

A strong showing by Singapore this year relegated the United States to an unprecedented third place. Both Singapores and second-placed Finland excelled in the "visionary government" category, gaining high scores in "new legislation," "investment incentives," "real corporate taxes" and "government transparency" to beat the U.S. in the overall results. Hong Kong, Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, Canada, Switzerland and Luxembourg round off the list of top ten countries. Asia produced varying results but overall emerged strongly on the world economic-technological scene. Japan's current economic woes weigh it down to 31st place. As mentioned, Singapore surprises with a first-place finish this year. Hong Kong, Taiwan and Malaysia are on their way to becoming major players on the global technology scene. China, despite a low overall finish, is also making tremendous strides towards establishing a global presence.