Issued by The Economist's Intelligence Unit and sponsored by the BSA, the IT Competitiveness 2009 study puts Singapore 9th among 66 economies.

T&A: A study released one and a half weeks ago has recently ranked five Asia Pacific economies — Australia (7th), Singapore (9th), Japan (12th), Taiwan (15th) and South Korea (16th) — as among the Top 20 in the world in infotech (IT) industry competitiveness.

The study, now in its third year, was made by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) and sponsored by the Business Software Alliance (BSA), and it compares the IT industry environments of 66 economies, to determine IT sector competitiveness.

According to Jeffrey Hardee, BSA Vice President and Regional Director, APAC, the IT sector remains an important engine of economic growth, and economies that support innovation and stimulate tech sector output will be in a stronger position to accelerate economic recovery.

A new reportpiracy.asia Website currently shows the software piracy rates of different APAC countries.

The challenges for Asia Pacific governments however, remain. China and India must address issues such as balancing large pools of skilled IT talent with progress in IT infrastructure.

Broadband access thus becomes a prerequisite for many in the IT sector, as economies with pervasive broadband penetration have a big competitive advantage over those where the infrastructure is lacking, Hardee said.

Finally, Hardee also emphasized that economies with strong legal frameworks for protecting intellectual property (IP) generally score higher in the index.

In contrast, economies where IP protection has not been well enforced are not traditionally seen as innovators.

Some rely instead on their low-cost labour markets to remain competitive but this is hard to sustain over time.

If you’re interested, here’s the complete IT Competitiveness 2009 study in PDF.

In a separate release,  BSA has also launched a website to make it easier for users to report companies using pirated software. Called reportpiracy.asia, the site also lists the current piracy rates of the different countries in the APAC region.

Here’s a viral video to further promote this cause and the website: