Author: Daniela Milanese

Source: Blogs of Estadão - São Paulo / SP - DANIELA MILANESE - 25/03/2010

Brazil fell two places in the information technology ranking prepared by the World Economic Forum. Now, the country is in the number 61 position, among the 133 economies analyzed, behind Barbados (35th), Chile (40th), Puerto Rico (45th) and Costa Rica (49th), in Latin America.

According to the entity, despite the satisfactory penetration and use by companies and the government, Brazil is poor in regulation, in addition to the low level of education and high cost of access to services. "The regulatory environment needs updating to become more friendly to information technology, improving the protection of intellectual property, as well as the educational standard", says the report of the Forum, released today, in Geneva.
 

The Forum also points out that cell phone tariffs are among the highest in the world, which is reflected in the use of the service.
 
The worst grades obtained by Brazil refer to the business environment. The country came in last place in terms of assessing the amount and effects of taxes and second to last in the government's regulatory burden. Negative evaluations of points related to bureaucracy, such as deadlines and procedures for starting a new business, are also negative.
 
The improved scores came from points linked to the implementation of services, such as the capacity for innovation. "The corporate sector is at the forefront of advances, thanks to investments in research and development and the potential for innovation," says the report. Another positive point, evaluates the entity, is the efficiency of electronic services used by the government.
 
Sweden leads, for the first time, the technological ranking of the Forum, followed by Singapore and Denmark (which left the first place, after three years in the position). Next are Switzerland, the United States, Finland, Canada, Hong Kong, the Netherlands and Norway, completing the top ten places.
 
The survey, released for the ninth consecutive year, assesses the regulatory, business and infrastructure environment, the preparation of individuals, companies and the government and the implementation of the latest available technologies. The analysis is based on public domain data and opinion polls with executives. The ranking is prepared with the INSEAD business school.