BARBADOS narrowly edged-out Puerto Rico for the highest position among Caribbean countries in the 2012 Global Information Technology Report (GITP).

Placing 35th out of 142 in the GITP ranking, Barbados was marginally ahead of Puerto Rico which copped the 36th spot. Both countries were given favourable reviews for their telecoms and information technology programmes.

The GITP 2012 Living in a Hyper-connected World is published by the Swiss-based World Economic Forum (WEO), an independent non-aligned organisation that seeks to shape global and industry agendas.

It commended Barbados and Puerto Rico, arguing that their strengths outweighed their disadvantages.

“Both economies boast environments conducive for entrepreneurship and benefit from relatively robust ICT infrastructures, although mobile coverage in Puerto Rico (123rd) remains insufficient,” the report said.

“In the case of Barbados, the strong skill base (10th) results in a large individual uptake of technology (24th) and offsets the high costs of using ICT (102nd).

“On the other hand, Puerto Rico needs to further develop the skills of its population (78th), which currently negatively affects the uptake of technology by individuals (53rd) added the report.

The two islands placed well among 142 countries worldwide, leading in the Caribbean, Latin America and elsewhere, ahead of Chile, 39th; Brazil, 65th; South Africa, 72nd; Mexico, 91st; Peru, 106th; Venezuela, 107th; and Indonesia, 80th.

Among the English, French and Dutch-speaking nations and territories of the Caribbean, Barbados and Puerto Rico outdistanced Trinidad and Tobago, 60th; Jamaica, 74th; the Dominican Republic, 87th; Guyana, 90th; Belize, 119th; and Haiti, 142nd.

No African or Eastern European country did as well as Barbados and Puerto Rico when it came to the availability of the latest technologies and the business and innovation climate.

The ten nations with the best records were Sweden, Singapore, Finland, Switzerland, Netherlands, Norway, the United States, Canada and Britain.

The lowest-ranked countries were Lesotho, Madagascar, Burkina Faso, Swaziland, Burundi, Chad, Mauritania, Angola, Yemen and Haiti.