South Africa drops in global IT competitiveness index
South Africa ranks 43 in the world in the 2009 IT competitiveness index with a score of 35 out of 100. These are among the findings of a new study issued by the Economist Intelligence Unit and sponsored by the Business Software Alliance (BSA).
The study, now in its third year, assesses and compares the IT industry environments of 66 countries, including South Africa, to determine the extent to which they enable IT sector competitiveness.
The study is based on the collection of data spread between six IT industry factors – overall business environment, IT infrastructure, human capital, legal environment, R&D environment and support for IT industry development. R&D is weighted most heavily with a 25 point allocation.
The findings show that South Africa performed strongest in the business environment scoring 74.9 out of a possible 100 and the legal environment scoring 63.5. Areas for improvement include the research and development environment at 13.2 and human capital at 31.8.
South Africa’s final scores were 74.9 for business environment, 17.8 for IT infrastructure, 31.8 for human capital, 13.2 for R&D development, 63.5 for legal environment and 55 for support for IT industry development.
This year saw a drop in South Africa’s standing from 37 in 2008 to 43 in 2009. According to the report this can be contributed to changes in the country’s performance as well as to improvements in the sources of data used to measure some indicators.
Global IT sector performance
In terms of the global economic crisis the report has shown that the IT sector has performed positively.
“Globally, the IT sector has ridden out the crisis reasonably well, despite reduced technology spending,” says Denis McCauley, director of global technology research with the Economist Intelligence Unit.
“Technology can drive the economic recovery and generate long term economic growth. Broadband availability is becoming increasingly essential to IT sector competitiveness, as more IT offerings are delivered over the Internet. BSA expects that the recent construction of the Seacom cable and the premise of increased and cheaper broadband could influence the SA rank positively in the next few years,” said Alastair de Wet, the chairperson of the Business Software Alliance South Africa Committee.
The top five ranking countries in the study were the United States (78.9%), Finland (73.6%), Sweden (71.5%), Canada (71.3%) and the Netherlands (70.7%). The lowest ranking country was Iran (17.1%) with Nigeria (18.8%) trailing closely behind.
The top five countries in Middle East and Africa are Israel 64.3; South Africa 35.3; Saudi Arabia 33.9; Turkey 33.8 and Egypt 26.8.
SA and global IT competitiveness – comments and views
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