Singapore is Asia's lone "hyperconnected" state

The Lion City retained the position for the third consecutive time and is the only Asian country in the top 10 this year.

Singapore has retained its No. 2 position in the Global Information Technology Report for the third consecutive time, and is the only Asian country to rank in the top 10 this year. Compiled by INSEAD and the World Economic Forum, GITR covers 142 economies which account for over 98% of the world’s gross domestic product. Sweden topped the study while Finland came in third, with their rankings unchanged from 2010-2011.

GITR provides a comprehensive and authoritative international assessment of the impact of ICT on the development process and the competitiveness of nations. This year's report, which was released on 4 April 2012, examines in detail the main drivers and impacts of the “hyperconnected” world, driven by the exponential growth of mobile devices, big data and social media.

In their executive summary, the GITR editors Professor Soumitra Dutta of INSEAD and Mr Benat Bilbao-Osorio of the World Economic Forum noted that these developments are leading to fundamental transformations in society.

“Hyperconnectivity is redefining relationships between individuals, consumers and enterprises, and citizens and the state. It is introducing new opportunities to increase productivity and well-being by redefining the way business is done, generating new products and services, and improving the way public services are delivered. However, hyperconnectivity can also bring about new challenges and risks in terms of security, cybercrime, privacy, the flow of personal data, individual rights, and access to information,” they said.

In view of these developments, this year’s report features an evolved Networked Readiness Index which incorporates a newly-introduced ICT impact sub-index, in addition to data on the main drivers of ICT readiness. Singapore topped the new sub-index, which measures the social and economic impacts of ICT. It also topped the environment sub-index, which monitors the business and innovation, and the political and regulatory environment for ICT.

The other two sub-indexes in the NRI are the readiness of a society to use and benefit from affordable ICT infrastructure and digital content, and their skills in doing so; and the actual usage of information and communication technologies by the three key stakeholder groups – individuals, businesses and governments. Singapore came in eighth and fifth respectively in these two sub-indexes.