The distance separating Greece from the global "cream of the crop" of the digital economy is growing, with our country ranked 74th out of 148 countries in the Networked Readiness Index (NRI), while the reins of the international technological scene, in terms of digital readiness, are held by the advanced Northern European countries, the "Asian Tigers" and some of the most advanced economies of Western Europe.
As reported by APE, according to the World Economic Forum's assessment, as reflected in "The Global Information Technology Report 2014", Greece slipped ten places, compared to 2013, achieving a score of 3.95, when its previous performance was 64th place among 144 countries, with a score of 3.9.
As shown by the study “The Global Information Technology Report 2014”, presented by the Association of Greek Information & Communications Enterprises (SEPE), Greece, although it lost positions in the ranking among the most technologically advanced and digitally interconnected countries, nevertheless managed to improve – albeit slightly – its overall score, even showing progress in a number of individual indicators.
However, despite the efforts made by the country to better position itself on the international digital map, in 2014 it followed the tradition of recent years, which has seen it lose ground in terms of adopting innovation and reforms with the help of new technologies.
From the data of the World Economic Forum study on the country's long-term course (2007-2014), which was processed by SEPE, it emerges that it is evaluated from stagnant to declining, with few bright exceptions, such as 2007, when Greece achieved its best performance to date, achieving 48th place among 122 countries with a score of 4.
Since then, Greece's performance in new technologies, according to the World Economic Forum's assessment, has shown stagnation, with minimal fluctuations, which are certainly not sufficient to remove the country from the states with moderate achievements in new technologies and classify it among technologically mature markets.
The milestone years, where Greece tried to make a difference, were also 2009, when our country achieved 55th place among 134 countries (with a score also of 4), in 2010, when it managed to achieve 56th place among 142 countries (with a score of 3.8), and also in 2012 (59th place among 142 countries with a score of 3.9).
Optimistic remarks
The World Economic Forum analysts, although they note that Greece, like Italy, suffered a notable decline, which deprived it of ten positions in the relevant ranking, underline that our country shows slow but steady improvement in a series of individual indicators (p. that co-shape the Digital Readiness Index). The ranking of countries in the Digital Readiness Index is based on four axes: Environment (political, regulatory, business, innovation), readiness (infrastructure and digital content, affordability, skills), use (personal, professional, governmental) and impacts (economic, social).
Greece, for 2014, is ranked 87th in terms of the environment (89th in 2013), 63rd in terms of readiness (47th in 2013), 68th in terms of use (67th in 2013) and 82nd in terms of impacts (90th in 2013).
Furthermore, from the analysis of the individual NRI indicators, it emerges that Greece continued to improve its performance in the area of “ICT Infrastructure and Digital Content”, achieving 40th place among the 148 countries examined in the study, with a score of 5.
Greece also recorded significant improvement in terms of the business environment and, specifically, the number of procedures required to start a business, ranking 34th in the world with a score of 5. World Economic Forum analysts also identify improved performance in the penetration of broadband connections among the population, a sector where Greece managed to rank 27th.
Delays
However, in contrast, the country's performance in a number of other areas, such as the political and regulatory environment, is extremely anemic, where Greece, panting, occupies only 114th place.
Improvement is also slow in issues related to the availability of venture capital (146th place), government technology procurement (141st place) and the quality of the education system (112th place). Greece also has a long way to go in areas such as business-to-business (B2B) internet use (107th place), the government’s success in promoting ICT (140th place) and the impact of ICT on new services and products (129th place), according to the study.
Source: tro-ma-ktiko.blogspot.gr
