Despite a new method of assessing countries' ICT competitiveness, there have been no major changes in the rankings of Southeast European countries from the previous period, except Bosnia and Herzegovina's big improvement and Croatia's noticeably better position in comparison to other Southeast European countries.

After dropping from 46th place in 2006 to 54th in the 2011 rankings, this year Croatia is ranked 45th.

In the Readiness subindex, Croatia is ranked 19th for accessibility (mobile, broadband, Internet and fixed telephone line tariffs), but 79th for business usage and 82nd for government usage.

Croatia has a relatively good position because of a quite developed ICT infrastructure, a high literacy rate, inclusion in secondary education, and quality of education.

NVK president Ivica Mudrinic said the ICT ranking was Croatia's highest position on the Global Competitiveness Index.

By applying ICT, we can ensure prosperity, but in order to achieve technological standards, we must focus on encouraging investment in technology, education and innovation as crucial for Croatia's faster development, he added.

Sweden, Singapore and Finland remain the leading countries according to ICT usage.

Slovenia was ranked 37th in the WEF's latest ICT Competitiveness report.