SA ranks 35th out of 62 countries in the technology component of the latest Globalisation Index compiled by research firm AT Kearney and Foreign Policy magazine.
Overall, the country performed relatively poorly, slipping 11 places since last year to 42nd place in the globalisation rankings.
The index measures economic, person-to-person, political and technological integration in the 62 countries accounting for 96% of the world`s gross domestic product and 84% of the world`s population. The current index is based on 2002 data.
In terms of technology, SA ranked 39th in Internet users, 35th in Internet hosts and 27th in secure Internet servers.
The country was placed 45th in the economic rankings, 36th in the political rankings and 57th in the personal rankings.
Africa`s best performer was Botswana, which ranked 30th overall. The worst African performer was Kenya in 54th place.
Other African countries were Tunisia (35th), Uganda (38th), Senegal (40th), Nigeria (42nd) and Morocco (47th). Egypt (60th) is counted in the index as part of the Middle East.
Overall, the most globalised country in the world was Ireland, for the third consecutive year, followed by Singapore, Switzerland, the Netherlands and Finland. The least globalised country in the study is Iran.
Globally, the study shows, international connections via telephone and the Internet grew in 2002, "in part because they offered safe substitutes for 'being there` in an era of increased travel safety concerns".
International telephone traffic increased by 15 billion minutes to more than 21 minutes per person, with international mobile phone calls outnumbering fixed-line phone connections for the first time.
More than 130 million new Internet users came online internationally, bringing the world total to more than 620 million, or 9.9% of the total world population.
The full text and findings can be found at www.foreignpolicy.com and www.atkearney.com.
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