Finland ranks third in exploitation of information technology

Finnish researcher criticises inaccurate indicators used in WEF assessment

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Finland ranks number three in the World Economic Forum's (WEF) Global Information Technology Report, published on Wednesday.
      According to the report, Singapore is the world's number one economy in exploiting information and communication technologies (ICT). The United States, which ceded the top billing to Singapore, was ranked fifth this time around. Finland reached the number three position for the second time in a row.
     
Four of the five Nordic Countries made it to the top ten on the WEF list, with Iceland, Finland, Denmark and Sweden in the second, third, fourth, and sixth places respectively.
      According to the WEF report, the strengths combining the Nordic Countries include a distinguished track record in IT innovations, and the fact that governments, the business communities, and households in these countries are enthusiastic users of new technologies.
      The WEF also establishes that the United States' loss in rank has less to do with the country's erosion in performance, but rather with its competitors improving theirs. The United States is still a global leader in many sectors, including the quality of scientific research institutes and business schools, the WEF report reveals.
     
After viewing the variables used in the WEF study, research director Petri Rouvinen of Etlatieto Oy, a project research and information services subsidiary of ETLA, The Research Institute of the Finnish Economy, estimates that the report's margin of error is in the region of ten placings up or down.
      According to Rouvinen, the fact that two thirds of the report's findings are based on interviews where company directors and other experts have only commented on their own country's performance, significantly weakens the study's accuracy.
     
Rouvinen also claims that despite the report's findings, the United States still utilises ICT more effectively than any other nation. According to Rouvinen, the harder the competition is on the end-product market, the better the companies' ability to exploit new technologies has to be.
      Rouvinen's colleague Mika Malinranta of ETLA feels that the WEF report supports the notion that in Finland many of the basics are in order, even if some fine tuning is still needed.
      Malinranta also warns of not getting too excited about the report's results, as the indicators used are poorly suited to predicting the future.
     
Alpo Kuparinen from the Ministry of Trade and Industry says that much could still be done to make the information technologies more humane.
      As the population gets older, there are enormous growth prospects in the field of health and social care, in particular for more user-friendly technologies.


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  World Economic Forum

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