Six Key Competitiveness Enablers
According to the Economist Intelligence Unit, six factors work together to create a sound environment for the IT sector, including: an ample supply of skills; an innovation-friendly culture; world-class technology infrastructure; a robust legal regime that protects intellectual property, such as patents and copyrights; an open, competitive economy; and government leadership that strikes the right balance between promoting technology and allowing market forces to work.
Those countries that perform well in these six ‘competitiveness enablers' generally are home to high-performance IT industries. High performing IT sectors directly contribute more than 5% to the gross domestic product of most advanced nations. They also drive momentum in the wider economy by helping organisations and workers to be more efficient and productive.
Other findings of the research include:
- Investing in people is mission-critical for domestic IT industries. Sourcing talent will be among the toughest challenges IT producers will face in the coming years.
- Competitive broadband markets help cultivate strong IT sectors. Without fast, reliable, and secure Internet access, technology firms cannot interact effectively with partners and the research community, nor can they sell their services online.
- A legal environment that protects intellectual property rights (IPR) and takes a robust approach to cybercrime is essential. The US, Australia and Western European countries have the most effective systems in place to address IP protection and cybercrime, but gradual improvements are also evident in tough places like China.
- Globalisation and the Internet will ‘liberate' R&D. Ecosystems, online or otherwise, that bring together talent, technology, venture capital, and good universities, supported by a risk-taking ethos, will be the best incubators of innovation.
For more information on the index results and the methodology, see "How technology sectors grow: Benchmarking IT industry competitiveness 2008," available free of charge at www.eiu.com or www.bsa.org/globalindex.
