SA has moved from 37th place to 34th place in the World Economic Forum`s (WEF`s) Networked Readiness Index, although it has lost the top spot in Africa.
The index measures the propensity for countries to exploit the opportunities offered by ICT. According to the WEF`s Global Information Technology Report, the index is based on three pillars.
The first relates to aspects of the environment of a given nation for ICT development, such as the regulatory regime and legal framework for ICT, available infrastructure and other factors; the second deals with actual levels of networked readiness of individuals, businesses and governments; and the third focus is on actual levels of ICT usage by these groups.
The index ranks 104 countries on these criteria.
"There is a strong correlation between ICT spending and productivity, which is demonstrated in this research as a strong correlation between the rankings and global competitiveness," says John Chambers, president and CEO of Cisco Systems, the report`s sponsor.
"While ICT usage is a measure of the present, ICT readiness is perhaps a measure of the future."
Although SA has improved in the rankings, and maintains dominance in sub-Saharan Africa, it has lost the top spot among the 23 African countries covered by the index. Tunisia, which held the 40th position last year, has moved up to 31st place.
It is not immediately clear from the executive summary of the report why Tunisia was ranked higher than SA.
The country will host the World Summit on Information Society later this year. There has been some debate about the appropriateness of this, since the country is seen as having little media freedom.
The Tunisian authorities have said in response to this criticism that the country has a free press. In addition, it says it offers free Internet access, boasts over 900 000 Internet users and has 12 Internet service providers and 310 Internet access centres, among other things.
Other African countries in the index include Mauritius (47), Botswana (50), Morocco (54), Namibia (55), Egypt (57), Ghana (65) and Gambia (74). The lowest-ranking country overall was Chad.
The top five countries were, in order, Singapore, Iceland, Finland, Denmark and the US, which was at the top of the index last year.
The WEF says the US`s loss in rank has less to do with erosion in performance and more with continuing improvements among its competitors.
"It is clear that information and communications technologies will continue to play a growing role in boosting the efficiency of the increasingly integrated global economy, enabling countries to improve resource allocation and boost growth prospects," says report co-editor Augusto Lopez-Claros, director of the WEF`s Global Competitiveness Programme.
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