Taiwan IT ranks among top ten in competitiveness

This article was published by the Macroview Weekly on July 18, 2007. It reports that according to the “IT industry competitiveness index” recently released by the Economist Intelligence Unit, Taiwan ranks sixth globally in terms of information technology (IT) industry competitiveness.

Taiwan's ranking is superior to that of Hong Kong, which ranks 21st among 64 countries covered in the survey, while China stands at the 64th.

This is the first time that the Economist Intelligence Unit has conducted a global survey to compare the IT industry competitiveness of countries. Their performance in six areas were measured -- overall business environment, IT infrastructure, human capital, legal environment, research and development environment, and support for IT industry development. The highest score is 100.

According to the survey, the top 10 countries with the strongest IT industry competitiveness are the United States (77.4), Japan (72.7), South Korea (67.2), the United Kingdom (67.1), Australia (66.5), Taiwan (65.8), Sweden (65.4), Denmark (64.9), Canada (64.6), and Switzerland (63.5), in that order.

According to Denis McCauley, director of the Economist Intelligence Unit's Global Technology Research Division, Taiwan's IT industry enjoys very strong competitiveness. Its overall standing is fairly good.

Asked what Taiwan should do to improve its IT industry competitiveness, McCauley said that Taiwan needs to intensify human resource development.