SINGAPORE came out tops - ninth place out of 66 countries - in an information technology (IT) industry competitiveness study done by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIC), which was published on Tuesday.

This is up from 11th place in 2007, when the study was published for the first time by EIC, a research arm of the Economist group, which publishes The Economist.

Singapore shone in two areas. It ranked second in developing talent for the IT industry, after the United States; and came in third - after Norway and United Kingdom - for getting government's support for the IT industry.