DESPITE winning repeated praise for its infocomm regulatory environment and strong government support for IT initiatives, Singapore failed to recapture the crown in this year's Global Information Technology Report.

The country climbed one spot to fourth position in the latest rankings of 134 of the world's most technologically ready nations by the World Economic Forum (WEF) and Insead.

Singapore claimed top spot in the annual survey five years ago, but had slipped to fifth position by the last round. This year marks its first upward movement after a four-year slide.

Denmark remains top of the rankings this year, followed by Sweden and the United States.

The annual study examines the impact of infocommunications technology (ICT) adoption on a country's development and competitiveness. Specifically, the report assesses so- called 'networked readiness' across three areas.

First, it examines the factors behind infocomm adoption, such as a country's regulatory regime and business landscape.

Then it delves into the willingness of citizens, businesses and government to embrace technology. And finally, it measures the utilisation rate of the latest ICT and communication tools.

Singapore scored top marks for having the world's most-conducive regulatory environment for infocomm development and the most technologically- ready government.

In the past year, for example, local authorities had set in motion a plan to overhaul the country's broadband infrastructure by putting in place an ultra high-speed fibre optic network that will boost access speeds 10 times or more.

This comes on top of a raft of other initiatives in recent years, from providing free island-wide wireless Internet to promoting the use of e-government services.

'Singapore's astonishing growth into a vibrant high-tech economy in the space of a few decades has much to do with the government's savvy promotion of ICT readiness as a key element of its competitive strategy, coupled with a continued focus on education and innovation and important private-public partnerships,' according to the report.

However, Singapore trails Denmark, Sweden and the US when it comes to other areas such as the use of ICT among individuals and businesses, and this dragged Singapore down to a fourth-place finish.