Australia has dropped two spots to eleventh place in a global report on the impact of IT and the ability to maximise technology opportunities in different nations.
In the World Economic Forum's 2004-2005 Global Information Technology Report, Australia fell from ninth position in 2003-04 to eleventh.
That's ahead of the UK but behind Canada.
The report, which covered 104 economies worldwide, assessed the impact of information and communications technology (ICT) and measured a country's likelihood of exploiting ICT opportunities.
"There is a strong correlation between ICT spending and productivity," said John Chambers, chief executive of networking vendor Cisco Systems, which sponsored the report.
"While ICT usage is a measure of the present, ICT readiness is perhaps a measure of the future," he said.
"Proactive policies and investments by all levels of government such as encouraging broadband network infrastructures, the education and literacy of citizens and ongoing skills training are all components of the readiness measurement and play an important role in building the foundations of a country's productivity.”
Singapore was top performer in the report, scoring highly with quality maths and science education, affordable telephone and internet connection charges, and government prioritisation and procurement of ICT.
Iceland, Finland, Denmark and the United States rounded out the top five performing economies.
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