Sweden just beats US for top spot in global study of ‘useful connectivity’

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Connectivity Scorecard 2011 emphasizes the need for sustained focus on information and communications technology (ICT) for sustainable socio-economic growth

Countries that continue to invest in ICT infrastructure, applications and services as well as promoting ICT workforce skills and use will be better able to cope with the effects of global recession and boost their socio-economic growth. This is one of the key findings published today in the Connectivity Scorecard 2011. Among innovation-driven economies, Sweden retained its top spot despite the United States closing last year’s gap.

The annual global study, which analyzes ‘useful connectivity’ in 50 countries, is commissioned by Nokia Siemens Networks and authored by Professor Leonard Waverman, Dean, Haskayne School of Business, University of Calgary in conjunction with the consulting firms, Berkeley Research Group and Communicea. It defines ‘useful connectivity’ as a combination of infrastructure, complementary skills, software and informed use that allows ICT to be a key driver of productivity and socio-economic growth.

“Despite global economic shocks, the knowledge economy is growing in power. While many advanced countries are forging ahead in terms of infrastructure and their use of ICT, the real connectivity gaps are in the developing world with the exception of strong growth in mobile telephony,” said Professor Waverman. “One thing, which is clear is that developing countries must make ICT more affordable, stimulate its adoption and overcome barriers to its use to remain relevant and competitive.”

“By commissioning the Connectivity Scorecard, we aim to highlight the pivotal role of information and communications technology in driving productivity and sustainable socio-economic growth ,” added Kim Jones, the Connectivity Scorecard program manager at Nokia Siemens Networks. “In its fourth year, the study reiterates that broadband infrastructure deployments only translate into faster economic growth, when there is complementary investment in skills as well as in relevant services and applications.”

Innovation-driven economies
While the US remained a strong performer in this year’s Scorecard, it failed to capture the top position from Sweden by only a very narrow margin. Moreover, though Korea and Japan performed well in this category, their rankings fell because business investment and use of ICT failed to match the levels achieved in Northern Europe and U.S.

The Nordic countries Sweden, Norway and Denmark along with the Netherlands, continued to lead the innovation-driven economies and ranked among the top five. However, Finland, fell three places to the ninth spot, edged out by UK, Canada and Australia, which performed relatively better. Conversely, southern and eastern European countries trailed behind the leading economies in all aspects of ICT as tracked by the Scorecard. Portugal, Italy, Hungary, Poland and Greece were disappointingly placed among the bottom five in this group.

Resource and Efficiency-driven economies
Malaysia maintained its lead among the 25 resource and efficiency-driven economies for the fourth consecutive year. While Russia, Turkey and countries in Latin America performed favorably, South Africa fell seven places to the ninth rank. India and China continued to trail behind the smaller, richer economies. However, China climbed three places to 14 whereas India was only ranked 21 out of 25 countries. Apart from a few strong performances, most of the countries in this group scored poorly according to the latest data used in this year’s study.

“This year’s Scorecard includes a broader range of indicators to capture new forms of ICT use such as cloud computing, business mobile data services, and ICT investments in healthcare and education. The weighting methodology has also been updated extensively,” said Kalyan Dasgupta, Principal, Berkeley Research Group, LLC. “While the overall impact of the indicators was modest for most innovation-driven economies, the new data caused an increased dispersion between the best and worst resource and efficiency-driven economies.”

Launch of Connectivity Scorecard 2011
The Connectivity Scorecard 2011 will be launched via an online videocast on 5 May, 2011 at 9 AM in Washington DC /2 PM London/4 PM Helsinki. Professor Leonard Waverman, Kalyan Dasgupta, Principal, Berkeley Research Group, LLC, and Janne Rajala, Managing Consultant, Communicea will together present the results.

About the Connectivity Scorecard
The Connectivity Scorecard is a unique global ICT index that ranks countries not only on their ICT infrastructure deployment but also measures the extent to which these technologies are used by the public sector, businesses and consumers for socio-economic growth.

To download the complete Connectivity Scorecard 2011 report and 50 individual country reports, please visit www.connectivityscorecard.org

About Nokia Siemens Networks

Nokia Siemens Networks is a leading global enabler of telecommunications services. With its focus on innovation and sustainability, the company provides a complete portfolio of mobile, fixed and converged network technology, as well as professional services including consultancy and systems integration, deployment, maintenance and managed services. It is one of the largest telecommunications hardware, software and professional services companies in the world. Operating in 150 countries, its headquarters are in Espoo, Finland. www.nokiasiemensnetworks.com


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Rankings and scores
The scores are determined by the measurement of a series of indicators for each country in the areas of infrastructure as well as use and skills for the consumer, business, and public sectors, using a weighting scheme for all six components for each country. Every country’s performance for each of the six components of the Scorecard is benchmarked against the best in a particular class in in the given group of economies.

Comparison of 2011 and 2010 results
Since the Connectivity Scorecard compares how countries rank in relation to each other at a given point in time, it is difficult to interpret the Scorecard in terms of absolute ‘ improvements’ or ‘deteriorations’ and to make comparisons of scores over time. While direct comparisons are not possible, the study nevertheless, offers some comments on country rankings and scores in 2011 as compared to 2010.