U.S. regains top ICT rank in World Economic Forum study

The U.S. regained the number one position in the World Economic Forum's (WEF) annual worldwide study of information and communication technology (ICT) usage and acceptance, the WEF said on Tuesday.

The U.S. had dropped to number four in the ranking in 2004 but last year improved ICT physical infrastructure, the availability of venture capital and high levels of business and government usage of the latest technologies helped propel the U.S. upward, the WEF said.

In compiling the rankings, the WEF considers the economic, regulatory and infrastructure environment for ICT, the readiness of organizations to benefit from ICT and their actual usage of ICT. The report this year was sponsored by Cisco Systems Inc. and ranks 115 countries.

Singapore held the number one spot in 2004, dropping to second in 2005. Its regulatory environment, high levels of education and government support have kept the country in the top three spots for the last four years, the WEF said.

Nordic countries Denmark, Iceland, Finland and Sweden took third, fourth, fifth and eighth places respectively. Education, friendly governmental attitudes toward new businesses and an acceptance of new technologies help these countries stay on top, the WEF said.

Switzerland was number nine and the U.K. number 10. Estonia took the top place among eastern European countries, ranking 23.

The authors of an essay included in the report say that one reason the U.S. tops the list is that U.S. companies appear to reap more benefits from ICT than European countries. U.S. multinationals based in Europe are more productive than other multinationals in Europe and that's due to better use of IT, concluded John Van Reenen and Raffaella Sadun of the London School of Economics, in their essay. U.S. firms tend to be decentralized and use better management practices and that allows them to obtain higher returns from their IT investments, they said.

The WEF is a nonprofit organization that aims to improve the world by promoting economic development. It is best known for the annual forum it holds in Davos, Switzerland, bringing together business leaders and government policy makers to discuss the world's problems.