On 20 July 2007 an Economist Intelligence Unit published the report „The means to compete: Benchmarking IT industry“ – how does Lithuanian IT sector compare?

An Economist Intelligence Unit published the report „The means to compete: Benchmarking IT industry“, which compares the IT industry environment in 64 countries in all regions of the world, including the EU of 27, all developed countries, as well as most emerging „tiger” economies. Unsurprisingly, the evaluation of Lithuania is nothing to brag about – the country came out last in the EU of 25, and surpassed only the newest EU Member States – Bulgaria and Romania.

The country has scored especially low with the measure for IT Infrastructure, while the R&D Environment score is simply embarrassing and surpassed by countries such as Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Ukraine. We also feel that the score for the Human Capital is somewhat unrepresentative of the actual situation (especially since it is purely quantitative; and does not account for the quality of the higher education system in Lithuania, as well as factors like the brain drain).

The report comes at a time when the government is doing little or even nothing to facilitate better environment for IT industry in Lithuania, arguing that “no breakthrough is necessary”. Since IRII voice is too weak to be heard by the mighty, hopefully, they will spare a minute to read a concluding remark from the report:

„Governments can do much to help create an environment in which IT firms will thrive, but it is a delicate balancing act. By devising far-sighted foreign investment and competition policies, encouraging widespread technology adoption, providing strategic direction for the educational system, and also by spending wisely themselves on IT and on R&D, governments can help improve competitiveness. At the same time, they must avoid picking winners, among either IT firms or technologies—and also be wary of over-regulation.“