Republic remains outside top 20 countries in e-readiness rankings

IRELAND has held its position in the Economist Intelligence Unit’s e-readiness rankings for this year, but it still remains outside the top 20.

A country’s “e-readiness” is a measure of its e-business environment that include factors that indicate how amenable a market is to internet-based opportunities.

Increasingly, it is also about how individuals and businesses consume digital goods and services, according to the Economist Intelligence Unit.

Ireland scored 8.03 out of 10, up from 7.86 and putting it in 21st position this year. The US lead the way on 8.95 just pipping Hong Kong on 8.91 and Sweden on 8.85.

Ireland came in behind countries such as Taiwan (19), Bermuda (17) and New Zealand (16) but beat France (22), Italy (25) and Spain (26).

The average e-readiness score of the 70 countries in this year’s rankings rose to 6.39, up from 6.24 last year.

The survey noted that the overall progress masks backtracking among a handful of countries, notably within the top 10. After four consecutive years as the world’s most e-ready country, Denmark has fallen four places, as has Switzerland.

Editorial director of the Economist Intelligence Unit Robin Bew said: “The world’s most developed digital economies and many less developed ones continue to record impressive gains in broadening access to ICT and making digital services available to the population.

“But the leaders have much to do to translate these gains into real economic and social benefits,” he said.