Singapore is world’s most “globalised” economy

January 17, 2001

Free Market Foundation

A report to be released today ranks 50 nations on the extent of their economic interaction with the rest of the world, relative to the size of their economies. Singapore ranks first based on such factors as foreign trade, Internet use, international telephone traffic and numbers of international visitors. The U.S. places 12th.

The rankings, compiled by A.T. Kearney/Foreign Policy magazine, are believed to be the first broad-based attempt to measure globalization on a country-by-country basis.

The leading globalized nations — Singapore, Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland, Finland, Ireland, Austria, the United Kingdom, Norway and Canada — are mostly smaller countries needing goods, services and investment from outside their borders.

The more globalized nations tend to have less income inequality within their borders than less globalized nations.

There is a widening “globalization gap” between developed and developing nations because of what the authors see as a “digital abyss.”

Nevertheless, many small and developing nations are being affected by the many forces associated with an increasingly globalized world.

The authors note that the U.S. would have been higher up on the list if a nation’s cultural impact on the rest of the world had been factored in. But they decided to adhere to available data, rather than try to make cultural judgments.

Source: Mark Memmott, U.S. Ranks 12th on Globalization Index Out
Today, USA Today, January 8, 2001.

For text http://www.usatoday.com/usatonline/20010108/2970838s.htm

For more on Globalization http://www.ncpa.org/pd/trade/trade3.html