Headquartered in London, UK, The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) is the independent business-to-business arm of The Economist Group, providing economic and business research as well as related forecasting and analysis.
Its new Technological Readiness Ranking builds on the success of The EIU’s long-running Business Environment Ranking, which measures the attractiveness of 82 of the world’s largest economies as investment locations.
In the Technological Readiness Ranking’s case, these 82 business environments are assessed on how “future-oriented” they are via eight indicators across three categories.
These are namely: access to the internet based on usage and mobile phone subscriptions; digital economy infrastructure, specifically e-commerce, e-government and cybersecurity; and openness to innovation, such as research infrastructure and R&D spending.
“In line with this strong growth outlook, The EIU expects over half of the 82 countries in our index to register improvements in their scores for internet usage between the ranking’s historical period (2013-17) and the forecast period (2018-22),” the EIU said.
“The EIU expects particularly strong jumps in access in India, the Philippines, Ecuador and Malaysia,” it added.
Australia, Singapore and Sweden topped the EIU’s new technological readiness ranking.
At the bottom of the index were Libya and Angola, where corruption and weak institutions have “stymied investment in infrastructure,” the EIU said.
Herewith the Southeast Asian rankings listed within the range:
Source : Philstar.com
