Australia drops out of IT economy top 10

Australia has dropped two places to rank 11 in the World Economic Forum’s 2004-2005 Global Information Technology Report.

Ranked ninth in the 2003-2004 period, Australia fell to 11, ahead of the UK and behind Canada.

The report, which covers 104 economies worldwide, is an assessment of the impact of information and communications technology (ICT) and is a measure of the likelihood of a country to exploit ICT opportunities.

"There is a strong correlation between ICT spending and productivity," said John Chambers, president and CEO of networking vendor Cisco Systems, which sponsored the Report.

"While ICT usage is a measure of the present, ICT readiness is perhaps a measure of the future," he said.

"Proactive policies and investments by all levels of government such as encouraging broadband network infrastructures, the education and literacy of citizens and ongoing skills training are all components of the readiness measurement and play an important role in building the foundations of a country’s productivity.”

Singapore was the number one performer in the report, scoring highly with quality math and science education, affordable telephone and internet connection charges, and government prioritisation and procurement of ICT.

Iceland, Finland, Denmark and the United States rounded out the top five performing economies.