Ireland tops globalisation index, again
25-02-2004
by Matthew Clark

Ireland has, for the third time in a row, topped a major international index that measures globalisation.

According to the fourth annual A.T. Kearney/Foreign Policy Magazine Globalization Index, the Republic of Ireland was the most global nation in the world in 2002, beating Singapore, Switzerland, the Netherlands and Finland, which took the second through fifth spots respectively. The industrial, technological and military superpower that is the United States ranked seventh, while Ireland's closest neighbour, the United Kingdom, came in 12th.

The high ranking for the Republic, which came amidst a faltering world economy and political uncertainty, was mostly due to the country's "strong economic links and high levels of personal contact to the rest of the world," the survey's authors said.

The A.T. Kearney/Foreign Policy Magazine survey measures globalisation by ranking countries in terms of four key areas: economic integration, technological connectivity, personal contact and political engagement.

It was Ireland's relative economic strength that propelled it into the top spot, scoring exceptionally high in areas like foreign direct investment (FDI), investment income, portfolio capital flows and international trade. Ireland also scored well in the personal connectivity ranking, which covers areas like international travel and tourism, international telephone traffic, and remittances and personal transfers.

In terms of political engagement, Ireland ranked fifth for involvement in UN peacekeeping and ninth for international treaties ratified, but only 23rd with regard to memberships in international organisations and 26th on the governmental transfers scale.

Of the four main categories that the report's authors used to measure globalisation, it was in the area of technological connectivity where the Republic performed worst, coming in at 14th overall. A score of 24th for Internet users per capita hurt this ranking most, the report showed. With a 27 percent Internet penetration in 2002, Ireland came behind less wealthy nations like Slovenia and Malaysia, and just ahead of the Czech Republic and Chile. Meanwhile a 16th placing in the Internet hosts category also dragged down the nation's overall score, though a seventh place performance in the number of secure Internet servers per capita helped shore up the final result.

The entire report covered 62 countries, accounting for 96 percent of the world's gross domestic product (GDP) and 84 percent of the world's population. Fourteen of the top 20 countries were in Europe, and two of the 14, Slovenia and Czech Republic, are EU accession countries. Malaysia (20), Singapore (2), New Zealand (8) and Australia (13) were the only Asia/Pacific countries in the top 20 and the US (7) and Canada (8) were the only nations from the Western hemisphere to rank in the top 20 during 2002.

In commentary about the level of global integration, the report noted that global economic integration declined sharply during 2002, due partly to an overall economic decline, newly introduced national trade barriers, slipping foreign direct investment (FDI) and smaller global portfolio capital flows.

Still, international person-to-person contact expanded during the year, with 22 million more people travelling across borders. More than 130 million new Internet users and a 21-minute rise in per person international telephone traffic also helped deepen international integration.