Great Danes lead Europe’s technology

By Peter Chapman

Date: 15/07/04

DENMARK, Sweden, the Netherlands, the UK and Finland are the leading five member states in the information and communications technology (ICT) stakes, according to a study by the world-famous INSEAD business school.

The five were the top performers among EU countries and hopefuls Bulgaria, Romania and Turkey, across a wide range of indicators ranging from citizens' access to the internet, numbers of public services online, e-commerce, security issues and availability of fast "broadband" services.

INSEAD said the top nations plus Germany, ranked sixth, belong to a group of global leaders in the ICT world which, it reckons, can teach the continent's laggards a thing or two when it comes to deploying new technology at home, in the workplace and in the public sector.

"Due to their high level of development … this group of countries provides a rich set of best practices and case studies that can be used by other nations seeking to improve," said the report, commissioned by German software giant SAP.

INSEAD said Malta and Estonia were the best-performing of the ten countries which joined the EU on 1 May.

The Fontainebleau-based business school ranked the duo 13th and 14th respectively - in the same league as the bulk of the "old" EU-15, just ahead of Spain (15th), in the ranking division of countries with average performance.

Other members of this pack are Austria, Belgium, Ireland, Luxembourg, Italy and France, rated seventh to 12th respectively.

The worst performers were split into two camps, those "somewhat aligned" to the average in the old EU-15 and those with "development required".

The former group is headed by Portugal (16th) and Greece (17th), the lowest-ranked of the EU-15 states. The duo are joined by Slovenia, the Czech Republic, Poland, Cyprus, Slovakia and Latvia, 18th to 23rd on the list.

The laggards are Turkey (24th), Lithuania, Hungary, Romania and, worst performer of all, Bulgaria.

INSEAD says these states "require significant development" in order to meet average levels from the old EU-15.

These countries "have significantly lower gross domestic product per capita as compared to the other new member states," INSEAD adds.

A close look at the data reveals why the Danes deserve their place at the top of the league.

Twenty-two percent of the country's citizens spend more than six hours per week surfing the internet, compared to 20% of Britons and 19% of Swedes.

The internet is a big hit in Estonia, too, where 18% of citizens said they stay online for six hours or more.

Danes topped the charts for the number of citizens hooked on email - with 61% of Danish citizens having sent a message in the past month compared to 58% of Swedes and Dutch.

By contrast, only 12% of Hungarians and 8% of Romanians used email during the same period.

Danish firms were also the most connected in Europe, with 40% of workers using internet at work, followed by 37% of Finns and 34% of British workers.

However, only 8% of Poles and Bulgarians had internet access at work, followed by 7% of Hungarians and a mere 5% of Romanians.

According to a study by the INSEAD business school, Denmark, Sweden, the Netherlands, the UK and Finland are the leading Member States in the information and communications technology stakes. The study considered a wide range of indicators such as citizens' access to the internet, e-commerce, security issues and availability of broadband services.

http://www.insead.edu http://www.insead.edu

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