The UK has been ranked the sixth best place to run an IT
business. But Britain is better than other European nations when it
comes to developing IT talent.
The US is still the best environment in the world for IT
suppliers to prosper.
The Economist Intelligence Unit's
Resilience Amid Turmoil
report, which was sponsored by the Business Software Alliance,
benchmarked the competitiveness of the IT industry in 66
countries.
The UK has dropped from third in last year's report.
Top 10 best locations for IT businesses
- US (last year 1)
- Finland (last year 13)
- Sweden (last year 4)
- Canada (last year 6)
- Netherlands (last year 10)
- UK (last year 3)
- Australia (last year 7)
- Denmark (last year 5)
- Singapore (last year 9)
- Norway (last year 14)
India, which boasts large IT suppliers and has a deep IT talent
pool, was ranked 48.
The UK needs to improve in areas such as IT research and
development, with relatively weak scores in public and private
investment in R&D and the number of IT patents registered in
the UK, according to the research.
But the report said, "The UK outshines other European countries
in the human capital category, which measures the supply of IT
talent, as well as the education system's capacity to train
technology professionals with the necessary business, language and
IT competencies."
Francisco Mingorance, senior director of public policy, Europe
for BSA said the IT industry should be supported through the
recession. "In today's economic climate, supporting a strong
technology sector is more important than ever. Governments are
realising that technology can play a pivotal role in driving the
economic recovery and generating long-term growth. The goal of the
Digital Economy Bill should be to stimulate an even stronger UK IT
industry, and BSA encourages lawmakers to focus on the key enablers
of IT competitiveness."