Global Infrastructure Ratings and the Knowledge Economy
In what can only be interpreted as a bit of good news for the battered U.S. economy, a recent survey found the United States to have the best technological infrastructure in the world.
Here’s the back-drop to the story: Many economists believe that the key to improving the economic and productivity performance of a country lies with the greater and better-focused use of information and communications technology.
A study commissioned by Nokia Siemens Networks, measured the extent to which governments, businesses and consumers in 50 countries make use of connectivity technologies to enhance economic and social prosperity. Connectivity is defined as the bundle of infrastructure, complementary skills, software and informed usage that makes communications networks the key driver of productivity and economic growth. They broke the countries up into two groups:
- Innovation driven economies - what are sometimes called developed, or first world, countries.
- Efficiency & resource driven economies - what are sometimes called developing, or third world, countries.
The rankings were then determined by the measurement of each country against two criteria (infrastructure, and usage plus skills) in the realms of business, government and consumer. Low scores reflect gaps in a country’s infrastructure, usage or both. For each of the six components of the Connectivity Scorecard, countries are benchmarked against the best in class in their tier; thus if a country was best in all dimensions, it would score a maximum of 10. The Scorecard, therefore, measures countries against the best usage that currently exists rather than an ideal model.
For the “Innovation-driven” economies, the Connectivity scores were:
- United States (7.71)
- Sweden (7.47)
- Denmark (7.18)
- Netherlands (6.75)
- Norway (6.51)
- United Kingdom (6.44)
- Canada (6.15)
- Australia (6.14)
- Singapore (5.99)
- Japan (5.87)
- Finland (5.82)
- Ireland (5.70)
- Germany (5.37)
- Hong Kong (5.33)
- France (5.22)
- New Zealand (4.85)
- Belgium (4.65)
- South Korea (4.17)
- Italy (3.99)
- Czech Republic (3.71)
- Spain (3.49)
- Portugal (3.02)
- Hungary (2.72)
- Greece (2.62)
- Poland (2.49)
Just below the United States in the innovation-driven economy group, the Connectivity Scorecard confirms the reputation of Scandinavia as a technological power region with Sweden, Denmark and Norway all ranked in the top five. Japan (10th) and Korea (18th) repeat their surprisingly low performances of 2008 as do Germany (13) and France (15). The poor showing of southern European economies is also repeated as Italy, Spain, Portugal and Greece share the bottom spots with eastern European nations.
For the “Efficiency & Resource driven” economies, the Connectivity scores were:
- Malaysia (7.07)
- Turkey (6.71)
- Chile (6.59)
- South Africa (5.76)
- Mexico (5.39)
- Russia (5.37)
- Argentina (5.14)
- Brazil (5.12)
- Columbia (4.08)
- Botswana (3.98)
- Thailand (3.75)
- Iran (3.62)
- Ukraine (3.60)
- Tunisia (3.5)
- China (3.19)
- Philippines (3.17)
- Egypt (3.02)
- Sri Lanka (2.87)
- Vietnam (2.75)
- India (1.88)
- Indonesia (1.87)
- Kenya (1.75)
- Bangladesh (1.60)
- Pakistan (1.54)
- Nigeria (1.30)
Latin American nations make the strongest regional showing in the Efficiency and Resource driven category, with Chile third behind Malaysia and Turkey, leading a group of five nations in the top 10. As was the case in 2008 Asian and African nations fared the worst. In 2009 an expanded group of south Asian nations - Sri Lanka, India, Pakistan and Bangladesh - occupy four slots in the bottom eight, while Nigeria finishes 25th and last. (NOTE: The scores of the innovation-driven economies and the efficiency and resource-driven economies are not comparable, as different sets of criteria, taking account of different circumstances in the two sets of countries, were used to determine scores.)
As the global economy moves more towards being knowledge-based, the technological backbone of each country becomes vital to its competitiveness and economic power. Technology, and the knowledge workers who use it, play an increasing important role within every industry sector.
Consulting firms like M Squared Consulting are at the forefront of the knowledge economy. Our assets are measured in intellectual capital, our inventory is the bench of talented project professionals like those in the M Squared Consultant Network, the products we produce are the results we deliver for clients. We take the experience and expertise of our knowledge workers and deploy them against our clients’ strategic initiatives and biggest challenges. The technological infrastructure will become increasingly important as the way we do work and the very nature of work evolves.
