The US has overtaken China as the country believed to hold the most potential for driving far-reaching technology breakthroughs within the next four years, a survey by audit, tax and advisory firm KPMG revealed on Tuesday.

The KPMG 2013 Global Technology Innovation survey showed that 37% of the technology executives surveyed globally believed that the US would likely deliver disruptive breakthroughs, while 24% of the respondents believed technological breakthroughs would emerge from China.

The US and China had tied for the top spot in the 2012 survey.

The latest survey showed that 10% of those surveyed expected technology shake-ups from India, while 7% identified Korea and 6% Japan and Israel as the countries with the most potential for developing groundbreaking technologies.

KPMG noted that, supporting the confidence in the US as a top innovator, was a decline – from 44% in 2012, to 33% in 2013 – in the number of executives believing that the technology innovation centre of the world would shift from Silicon Valley to another country, most likely to China, in the next four years.

However, KPMG’s China-based partner and client and innovation consultant, Egidio Zarrella, said that China, on the back of domestic consumption and demand for local brands, would continue to innovate at an “impressive speed” and would “innovate for China’s sake”.

This would benefit Africa, which was increasingly trading with China, said KPMG South Africa technology leader Frank Rizzo.

“Since China is seen as most likely to become the leading innovation centre going forward, this could be beneficial for Africa if the relations extend to technology investment,” he added.

However, while most governments in Africa had “a will to boost innovation” and wanted to invest in technology, many countries experienced difficulties in the implementation and execution of those technologies.

Technology-specific skills need to be improved and capital expenditure prioritised.

“At the moment, African countries are focused on building infrastructure such as dams and roads and not necessarily on Internet connection upgrades. Also, the cost of technology is still an inhibiting factor for most African countries,” said Rizzo.

Meanwhile, technology leaders in India were rated the most confident about their nation’s prospects for technology innovation in KPMG’s debut confidence index in this year’s survey.

“Of the ten factors assessed globally in this technology innovation confidence index, the highest marks, on average, were given for talent supply and technology infrastructure. The lowest rating was for government incentives, judged weak by more than one-third [of respondents] globally,” explained Zarrella.

India achieved an index score of 72, followed by Israel, ranking second at 71. The US ranked third with an index score of 65, while China scored 64 ranking it fourth.

The research - which surveyed 811 business leaders from technology industry start-ups, midsized and large enterprises, venture capital firms and angel investors, worldwide, about disruptive technologies, innovation trends and the scope of change - did not include African representatives.

KPMG noted that 25% of the respondents were from the US, 12% from China and 9% from India.

KMPG expected to commission an Africa-specific survey by the end of this year.