S'pore most e-ready in Asia

S'pore most e-ready in Asia

SINGAPORE (DPA): Singapore leads Asia in capturing the commercial potential of the Internet and ranks seventh in the world, a new global ranking showed on Friday.

The London-based Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) rated the "e-readiness" of business environments in 60 countries.

The United States led the list, with Australia elbowing aside a host of bigger and richer countries for second place.

Britain ranked third, followed by Canada, Norway and Sweden.

"Our rankings show how the Internet is producing new centers of excellence," The Straits Times quoted Daniel Franklin, the EIU's editorial director, as saying.

Finland, Denmark and Netherlands rounded out the top ten.

Japan, the world's second largest economy, placed eighteenth, behind Taiwan, which tied for sixteenth with Austria.

"For many, e-business represents a chance not only to connect with the rest of the world but also to improve their competitive position," the EIU said.

Such factors as the sophistication of a country's telecommunications infrastructure, security of credit card transactions and computer literacy of its population were used in evaluating e-readiness, the EIU said.