Wednesday, August 08, 2007

Better legal environment key for Taiwan's IT competitiveness

Taipei, Aug. 7 (CNA) A better legal environment and government support will be the keys for the development of Taiwan's already robust information technology (IT) competitiveness if it wants to overtake Asia Pacific leaders Japan and South Korea, an IT consultant said Tuesday.

Taiwan's IT industry competitiveness ranks sixth globally and fourth in the Asia Pacific region, according to the "IT industry competitiveness index" released by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) in July.

With Taiwan's buildup on IT infrastructure and research and development, along with a better legal environment and support from the government, Taiwan has the potential to overtake Japan and South Korea, said Goh Seow Hiong, director of Asia software policy of Business Software Alliance.

The EIU has conducted a global survey for the first time to compare countries' IT competitiveness by gauging their performance in six areas -- overall business environment, IT infrastructure, human capital, legal environment, R&D environment and support for IT industry development -- with 100 representing the highest score.

Collaboration between the government and private sector has been very successful, helping Taiwan establish a robust R&D environment that ranks third in the world, according to Goh, who added that the best example is the success of the Industrial
Technology Research Institute in Hsinchu.

Taiwan's overall business environment, which ranked seventh globally, will enter a phase where a lot of mergers occur in the future, he predicted.

The government was encouraged to open the market for competition in order to improve the IT infrastructure, which ranked a fair 18th out of 64 countries in the survey. With the Institute for Information Industry leading the way, government support is adequate, although a 19th place ranking shows there is a lot of room of improvement, Goh pointed out.

Creating a better legal environment is also vital, said Goh, who pointed out that Taiwan ranked only 32nd in that category.

In terms of government priorities, key findings in the survey are that the government should ensure the flow of talent and support competition and innovation without stifling them, and ensure better intellectual property rights protection, he said.

According to the survey, the top 10 countries with the strongest IT industry competitiveness are the United States (77.4) , Japan (72.7) , South Korea (67.2) , the United Kingdom (67.1), Australia (66.5), Taiwan (65.8), Sweden (65.4), Denmark (64.9), Canada (64.6) and Switzerland (63.5).