A new study on global IT competitiveness ranks Singapore highly, but it said the Republic's Achilles' heel lies in research and development, specifically in patent generation — the single biggest indicator of IT competitiveness.

According to the inaugural study by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) and sponsored by the Business Software Alliance (BSA), Singapore is listed 11th globally in terms of IT competitiveness, and fifth within the Asia-Pacific, behind Japan, South Korea, Australia and Taiwan.

Mr Jeffrey Hardee, BSA's Asia Pacific vice-president and regional director, said: "Singapore is doing well overall. There are some areas where it can improve and one of those might be IT infrastructure. For example, broadband penetration was surprisingly low for Singapore, relative to the other places in the region such as South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Australia."

Other factors that made up a country's ranking ranged from an ample supply of skills, an innovation-friendly culture to a competition-friendly business environment.

With all those added up, the ranking assesses and compares the environment of the IT industry across 64 countries in order to determine the extent to which they enable competitiveness in the IT sector.

Singapore scored in developing talent and support for IT industry development, said Mr Tony Nash, EIU's Asia director of country and economic research.

"It is ranked as one of the highest countries in the world in terms of human capital along with the US and other countries probably because of how it handles education and how it responds to the needs of the workforce — very rapidly, very flexibly and in a very quality-focused way."

Singapore could improve in its rankings by encouraging "businesses to do more innovation in Singapore", Mr Hardee said.

"This will have a spin-off effect to make the IT industry more competitive. Also, it will do well by encouraging venture capitalists to come and provide seed money to firms, to encourage entrepreneurial spirit in Singapore and do more risk taking."

The United States topped the global ranking.

Surprisingly, typical Asian powerhouses such as India and China lagged behind, taking up 46th and 49th places in the ranking respectively.


- TODAY/so