Ireland ranks 11th amoung worlds most competive small economies

MDR

Ireland ranks 11th amoung worlds most competive small economies, apparentily our internet infrastructure isn't helping at all.

Read the full storyhere

Dun

The report is available here - as fortune would have it, Ireland's report is the free sample one . Out of the 29 economies measured, we ranked:

No. 20 - Internet Access Basket for 20 hours at peak times.

No. 29 - Suitable Internet Access (Suitable Internet Access (availability, speed, cost) is not provided in your economy).

So we came last in internet access. Surprise, surprise.

SkepticOne

Ranked No 1 in low corporation tax.

pork99

Originally posted by SkepticOne
Ranked No 1 in low corporation tax.

which is the only policy we need here

so let 'em sleep on, Bertie!;

http://www.thepost.ie/web/DocumentView/did-395940975-pageUrl--2FHome.asp

LFCFan

the infrastructure section makes for very worrying reading and only confirms what we already know.

zz03

Originally posted by LFCFan
the infrastructure section makes for very worrying reading and only confirms what we already know.

Just to underscore the point that the above infrastructure numbers are rankings out of a total of 29 countries surveyed.

:mad:
zz..

Hannibal_12

Originally posted by zz03
Just to underscore the point that the above infrastructure numbers are rankings out of a total of 29 countries surveyed.

:mad:
zz..

LOL really drives it home doesn't it.

molinaalexis

IRELAND has ranked last in an international poll of 29 countries for the speed, cost and availability of internet access.

And the country has fallen to 11th place from 9th in the competitiveness survey of smaller countries compiled by the International Institute for Management Development (IMD), a Swiss business school.

The fall to 11th place marks a drop of three places since 2000 in a group of countries with a population of less than 20 million, where both Austria and Hong Kong have pulled ahead of us.

And the most competitive country in the group was Finland, followed by Singapore and Denmark.

According to IMD, Ireland's falling position and placement at the bottom of the pile in terms of internet accessibility and cost has been powered by lower cost bases in other geographical areas, like the Baltics and South America. It added that we must continue to add value and productivity quickly as the cost base increases.

And Ireland's infrastructure also needs attention. The report stated that the distribution infrastructure, like roads and trains, is generally insufficient and the maintenance and development of that infrastructure are not adequately planned and financed.

The 2003 report looked at the competitiveness of 59 countries, using more than 300 criteria in the four categories of economic performance, government efficiency, business efficiency and infrastructure.


Ailish O'Hora

sceptre

Originally posted by LFCFan
the infrastructure section makes for very worrying reading and only confirms what we already know.

Oh, that's just plain cute. One of the most expensive countries in Europe to live in, meanwhile we're coming near the bottom of quality of life and development as well.

Da Man

What does "Survey" mean? If it means that people in each country were surveyed for their opinion, it's obviously a completely useless measurement as people will answer based on whatever media is harping on about at the moment. Most people don't really have an objective view of what their country is like in comparison to other countries.

LFCFan

Originally posted by Da Man
What does "Survey" mean? If it means that people in each country were surveyed for their opinion, it's obviously a completely useless measurement as people will answer based on whatever media is harping on about at the moment. Most people don't really have an objective view of what their country is like in comparison to other countries.

so you think Ireland don't deserve to be that low when it comes to infrastructure? It seems fairly acurate to me. Infrastructure isn't something you have to read about in the papers or see on the news. It's something ever man, woman and child has to experience for themselves day in day out. And in the experience of myself and probably every sane person in this country they will see that we have a very poor infrastructure from Broadband to the Roads.

MDR

Da Man,

has a good point, it is a simply a survey of peoples perceptions it doesn't exactily lend itself credability. People are very fickle in their persceptions ...

Dustaz

molinixes thread merged

zz03

Originally posted by Da Man
...as people will answer based on whatever media is harping on about at the moment.

You don't need a newspaper to tell you how awful the roads are in Ireland. One would need to be living in a cave on the Blasket Islands not to know. Ditto for rail services.

Ditto for maintenance and development of infrastructure. There are badly signposted, dangerously designed, roads all over the place with potholes - even if they are under 10 years old - due to neglect.

Alcohol and Drug abuse will be apparent to anyone who goes out at night. Ask any tourist who has spent a week or two on the town in Dublin – someone who is unlikely to have read an Irish newspaper.

Urbanization of cities. You don't need a newspaper journo's opinion to come to a view that Dublin and some other cities are a planning mess mainly due to corruption and a lack of long term strategic planning.

Quality of air transport - overcrowded airports, nasty customer unfriendly airlines (eg Ryanair), no rail connections, over priced parking, poor layout, crappy over priced food services and scruffy waiters providing same, etc.

Health infrastructure – just ask anyone who has had to use a hospital over the past decade.

Paper and cardboard recycling – have you tried to recycle your newspapers lately? It is difficult or impossible in most parts of the country. Ditto for most other forms of recycling.

As for internet access I don’t think I need to highlight anything to this forum! In fact the opposite is the case. Newspapers writings are driven by consumer discontent manifest by forums like this and others. Which is probably the case for all the other 27, 28 and 29 rankings too!

zz..

Da Man

Excellent, so you're not happy with the way things are here. And how does this compare this country in absolute terms with other countries? (to help you along, it doesn't).

I'm incidently not claiming that infrastructure is good here, but I'm interested in seeing proper comparisons not some finger in the air job. That survey tells me nothing about that and is therefore in my opinion practically worthless. The report is useful to gauge how satisfied people are with certain aspects of their country, but that's it.

seamus

It is a valid point, Da Man, but I'd say it has to do with satisfaction levels, as opposed to "How do you think your country does against others?"

E.g. They may ask 10,000 people "How do you rate Ireland's transport system in terms of QoS and thoroughness?". And if Ireland comes 29th, then it means that it's people have rated it lower than other country's have rated theirs. Of course, this is speculation. It also depeds heavily on the attitudes of the country's population. In Switzerland, for example, if trains started to become 5 minutes late routinely, there'd be uproar. In Ireland however, trains are expected to be a) at least 15 mins late or b) Leave early without telling anyone, so people won't rate a 5 minute delay so badly.

If it is a satisfaction rating, then being one of the most expensive countries in Europe, you'd think we'd demand satisfaction for our pennies

zz03

Originally posted by Da Man
Excellent, so you're not happy with the way things are here. And how does this compare this country in absolute terms with other countries? (to help you along, it doesn't).

I'm incidently not claiming that infrastructure is good here, but I'm interested in seeing proper comparisons not some finger in the air job. That survey tells me nothing about that and is therefore in my opinion practically worthless. The report is useful to gauge how satisfied people are with certain aspects of their country, but that's it.

The customer is always right. Surely customer perceptions are the key? You admit that infrastructure is poor in Ireland. The masses appear to agree with you. Everybody is effectively singing off the same hymn sheet from bitter experience. One suspects that the IMD researchers used a consistent survey format across the 29 jurisdiction.

In terms of user experiences:

As far as Ireland is concerned, the population in general has a good idea of what infrastructure should be like due to the fact that many people have lived outside the state for some period.

Unfortunately those that haven’t are more likely to be politicians and civil servants and eircom employees. Their life experiences are based on living in an inefficient and insular world of infrastructural deprivation.

As far as residents of other European states are concerned, Europe’s a small place and people are travelling all the time across frontiers. They have exposure to various infrastructure systems from different states and can surely make valid comparisons better than most people on the planet.

zz..

Stonemason

Caught a little snipped about large american companys complaining there costs are going up due to bad public transport and poor internet access i even heard the phrase number twenty nineth in some survey or another.Sorry i cant be more clear but i only Caught it in passing.