Russia has broken into the top-50 of the World Economic Forum’s Networked Readiness Index for the first time, rising from 54th to 50th place.
It maintained its position as the leading BRICS country in the index, ahead of China (62nd), Brazil (69th), South Africa (70th) and India (83rd). However, Russia was only ranked 6th among former CIS countries, behind Estonia (21st), Lithuania (31st), Kazakhstan (38th), Latvia (39th) and Azerbaijan (49th).
The top six positions in the rankings were unchanged from 2013, with Finland holding on to the top spot, ahead of Singapore, Sweden, the Netherlands, Norway and Switzerland.
The index is based on a survey of 15,000 company bosses from all over the world, and takes into account the cost of access to IT infrastructure, the IT-literacy of the population and the penetration of IT into state organisations, private businesses and the everyday lives of individuals. It also considers business climate, state IT policy, and regulation of the IT sector.