This year's leader of the ICT revolution is Singapore, which has a comprehensive digital strategy at governmental level and where online services and tools are utilised extensively. More than 50% of the population works in knowledge-intensive positions. Thanks to its leadership in business and government usage of ICT, Singapore was at the top of the rankings in the Global Information Technology Report. Published by INSEAD in partnership with the World Economic Forum and Johnson Cornell University, the report offers a comparison of 143 countries.
The top 10 countries are developed economies
Which other countries are successful? Singapore is followed by Finland, Sweden, the Netherlands, Norway, Switzerland, the US, the UK, Luxembourg and Japan. Japan made an impressive leap of six places compared to 2014. It seems that emerging economies are failing to exploit the potential of ICTs. The Russian Federation scored the best among the states of BRICS, occupying 41st place. The Czech Republic was on the 43rd place.
Why an internet revolution is necessary
Technological innovation has a great impact on all types of economies. Social media are quickly changing how we interact with each other on both a personal and business level. New products and new markets are created by utilising big data. In developing countries, information and communication technologies (ICTs) are key to lowering inequalities and creating new jobs.
These technologies are the main factor that can help reduce poverty in such countries; for the majority, however, the internet remains unaffordable and scarce. If these countries are able to invest properly in infrastructure and education, ICT will significantly speed up the transformation of their economies with reduced information costs, new opportunities to collaborate and new working practices. In short, these technologies bring enormous gains in productivity.
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