2011 Networked Readiness Index by World Economic Forum: How Networked is Asia?
World Economic Forum (WEF) on Tuesday released the latest edition of The Global Information Technology Report 2010 – 2011: Transformation 2.0 report. The annual report ranks a total of 138 countries worldwide, using its Networked Readiness Index (NRI).
Some observations:
- A total of 19 Asian countries in the 2010-2011 NRI list, out of 138 countries worldwide.
- 5 Asian countries are in the top 20 of this year’s NRI list – Singapore (2nd), Taiwan (5), South Korea (10), Hong Kong (12), and Japan (19).
- Singapore is the most networked nation in Asia. The Southeast Asian city-state ranked second in the world, behind Sweden.
- Singapore is also the only Asian country ranked higher than the United States (no. 5 worldwide).
- Malaysia ranked first among Upper-middle Income group of countries. Malaysia is also the only upper-middle income country in the top 30 overall. The country’s score increased from 4.65 in 2010 to 4.74 in 2011.
- According to the report, Malaysia “places 10th for ICT readiness of the society as a whole. Among the main stakeholders, the government is showing the way. ICT plays a critical role in its Wawasan 2020 (Vision 2020) plan for Malaysia to become high-income economy by 2020″ (p. 24; WEF, 2011).
- Indonesia leaped 14 places to 53 this year, with improvements across the three NRI components.
| 2010-2011 Networked Readiness Index for Asian Countries | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rank in Asia | Country / Economy | Score 2011 | Score 2010 | Global Rank 2011 |
| 1 | Singapore | 5.59 | 5.64 | 2 |
| United States | 5.33 | 5.46 | 5 | |
| 2 | Taiwan | 5.30 | 5.20 | 6 |
| 3 | South Korea | 5.19 | 5.14 | 10 |
| 4 | Hong Kong SAR | 5.19 | 5.33 | 12 |
| 5 | Japan | 4.95 | 4.89 | 19 |
| 6 | Malaysia | 4.74 | 4.65 | 28 |
| 7 | China | 4.35 | 4.31 | 36 |
| 8 | India | 4.03 | 4.09 | 48 |
| 9 | Indonesia | 3.92 | 3.72 | 53 |
| 10 | Vietnam | 3.90 | 3.87 | 55 |
| 11 | Brunei Darussalam | 3.89 | 3.77 | 57 |
| 12 | Thailand | 3.89 | 3.97 | 59 |
| 13 | Sri Lanka | 3.81 | 3.65 | 66 |
| 14 | Mongolia | 3.57 | 3.36 | 83 |
| 15 | Philippines | 3.57 | 3.51 | 86 |
| 16 | Pakistan | 3.54 | 3.44 | 88 |
| 17 | Cambodia | 3.23 | 3.03 | 111 |
| 18 | Bangladesh | 3.19 | 3.01 | 115 |
| 19 | Nepal | 2.97 | 2.95 | 131 |
According to the WEF report, the underlying principles of the Networked Readiness Index are:
- An ICT-conducive environment is a key precondition of network readiness.
- Networked readiness requires a society-wide effort.
- ICT readiness leads to ICT usage and increased impact.
The Index comprises to three subindexes, namely:
- Environment subindex:
- Market environment
- Political & regulatory environment
- Infrastructure environment
- Readiness subindex:
- Individual readiness
- Business readiness
- Government readiness
- Usage subindex:
- Individual usage
- Business usage
- Government usage
The final NRI score is a simple average of the three composing subindex scores, while each subindex’s score is a simple average of those of the composing pillars. In doing this, we assume that all Index components give a similar contribution to national networked readiness. (p. 6, WEF, 2011)
The Global Information Technology Report 2010 – 2011: Transformation 2.0 (Full report)
