Australia tops international tech-readiness ranking

The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) has named Australia, Singapore and Sweden as the countries most prepared for technological change, and the most attractive places for tech companies to invest in the next five years. 82 countries were assessed for the report across three key categories; access to the internet (including internet usage and mobile phone subscriptions), digital economy infrastructure (looking at e-commerce, e-government, and cyber-security) and openness to innovation (international patents, R&D spending, and research infrastructure).

Australia was also a top scorer in the Online Service Index, with a score of .978, and ranked 14th for R&D spending, at 2.2 percent of GDP. Israel and South Korea were the highest spending nations with regard to R&D, at 4.3 percent and 4.2 percent of GDP respectively.