Insead, the leading international business school, Tuesday announced the findings of the 2009-2010 Global Information Technology Report, a study which the School has jointly published with the World Economic Forum for the past nine years.

The report examines the key role of information and communications technologies (ICT) as an enabler of a more economically, environmentally and socially sustainable world in the aftermath of the most serious economic crises in decades. Of the fourteen Middle East and North Africa (Mena) countries assessed, the UAE has once again been placed at number one.
This year’s report again features the Networked Readiness Index (NRI), which ranks 133 economies by examining the correlation between ICT readiness and economic growth.
Sweden ranked first in the 2009-2010 rankings, followed by Singapore and Denmark.
Regionally, the UAE ranked first, followed by Bahrain (29th) and Qatar (30th). The UAE’s impressive performance in recent years has been driven by a strong and consistent government focus on ICT as a key factor for its vision for the future.
The Networked Readiness Index examines how prepared countries are to use ICT effectively on three dimensions: the general business, regulatory and infrastructure environment for ICT; the readiness of the three key stakeholder groups in a society - individuals, businesses and governments - to use and benefit from ICT; and the actual usage of the latest information and communication technologies available.
From a regional perspective, Irene Mia, Senior Economist of the Global Competitiveness Network at the World Economic Forum and co-editor of the Report said, “UAE, Bahrain and Qatar’s superior capacity to leverage ICT as an enabler of sustainable, long-term economic growth in the Middle East region is a direct result of the focus placed by governments on knowledge-based economies with particular emphasis on education, innovation, as well as ICT access and diffusion.”
The NRI uses a combination of data from publicly available sources as well as the results of the Executive Opinion Survey, a comprehensive annual survey conducted by the World Economic Forum with its network of partner institutes (leading research institutes and business organisations) in the countries included in the report. The survey provides unique data on many qualitative dimensions important to assess national networked readiness.
(Source: ameinfo.com)