OREANDA-NEWS. April 28, 2014. Estonia has edged ahead one place in the World Economic Forum's Information Technology rankings and is now 21st in the world.

The list - the Networked Readiness Index in the Global Information Technology Report - is led by Finland for a second straight year, with Singapore, Sweden, Netherlands and Norway rounding out the top five. Lithuania was 31st and Latvia finished 39th.

"The country has recognized the crucial role that ICTs have to play in the local economy and for social development," the report said, and Estonia is first overall in Central and Eastern Europe and "well ahead" of southern Europe. But it has work to do to become a "full-fledged knowledge-based society."