IMD World Digital Competitiveness Ranking 2018

Asia dips in digital competitiveness ranking US, Canada and Europe in top 10

Singapore loses its #1 place to the US this year but is the only Asian country in top 10 despite dropping a place from last year

This year the majority (29) of countries in the study (63) experienced an improvement in their level of digital competitiveness

• USA tops IMD World Digital Competitiveness Rankings 2018 followed by Singapore, Sweden, Denmark and Switzerland
• The leading Asia-Pacific  countries this year are Singapore (2^nd), Hong Kong (11^th), Korea (14^th), Taiwan (16^th), Japan (22^nd)
• Most of the countries in the study experienced an improvement in their level of digital competitiveness, yet Southeast Asia nations such as Malaysia (27^th), Philippines (56^th), Indonesia (62^nd) recorded a decline.

Lausanne, Switzerland – 19 June 2018 – The USA leads the IMD World Digital Competitiveness Rankings 2018 followed by Singapore, Sweden, Denmark and Switzerland. Rising from the 3^rd spot, the USA overtakes Singapore and Sweden to top the ranking.

The IMD World Digital Competitiveness Ranking 2018 studies 63 economies. This year the majority (29) of countries in the study experienced an improvement in their level of digital competitiveness. About 40% of the sample (26 countries) shows a decline while only eight economies remain in the same position.

Professor Arturo Bris, Director of the IMD World Competitiveness Center, notes that “The USA capitalizes on its improvements in knowledge (4th from 5th) and in technology (3rd from 6th). It remains stable in future readiness (2nd)”. He adds “Gains in knowledge result from a strong performance in employee training and an increase in the share of scientific and technical employment while the furthering of the technology factor capitalizes on slight advancement in all its sub-factors, including connectivity infrastructure”.

Results show that several countries are experiencing an “adaptive imbalance” or a mismatch between high levels of training and education, and the attitudes toward embracing digitalization; among these economies, we note Austria, Malaysia and Russia. For instance, while in training and education Austria ranks 7^th and Russia 12^th, their performance in embracing new technologies (25^th and 39^th in adaptive attitudes) is relatively low.

In the overall rankings, Singapore drops from 1^st to 2^nd position. It reaches 1^st place in the knowledge and technology factors, and 15^th in future readiness. Seemingly, despite Singapore’s high level of training and education, and an environment conducive to digitalization, society’s attitudes toward the adoption of technologies and the agility of business to take advantage of digital transformation, are relatively low (20^th and 18^threspectively).

In 3^rd place dropping from 2^nd, Sweden shows a balanced scorecard. At the factor level, it ranks 7^th in knowledge, 5^th in technology and 5^th in future readiness. The rather low performance in some of the knowledge components may be at the core of Sweden’s decline in the ranking. It ranks 20^th in higher education achievement (down from 18^th) and 23^rd in the percentage of graduates in sciences (down from 20^th). Switzerland joins the top five reaching 5^th place from 8^th. Norway, Finland, Canada, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom complete the top 10.

Asia and the Pacific

Singapore and Hong Kong lead the region. Although Singapore drops from 1^st to 2^ndposition and Hong Kong drops from the 7^th to 11^th position. Korea reaches the 14^th spot (five places up from 19^th) and Japan advances five places to 22^nd position, in both cases because of an advancement in components of the knowledge and future readiness factors.

China slightly improves from 31^st to 30^th as does Thailand from 41^st to 39^th and India (51^stto 48^th). These countries all share progress in the technology factor, ranging from improvements in connectivity systems to tech-friendly regulation. In contrast, Taiwan drops (12^th to 16^th), Malaysia declines from 24^th to 27^th. The Philippines experiences one of the largest drops in the overall digital ranking, from 46th to 56th. The slowdown comes after declines in the technology (51^st to 58^th) and future readiness (43^rd to 52^nd) factors. At 61^st, Mongolia remains stable as does Kazakhstan at 38th. Dropping three ranks to 62^nd in the overall digital ranking, Indonesia is the lowest ranking country in the region. The development of highly-skilled workers is a key-challenge for the country. In turn, it affects the capacity for technological development and the integration of new technologies in the private sector and in society, which lead to low scores in the technology and future readiness factors. In the Pacific, while Australia moves up two places to the 13^th position, New Zealand drops from 14^th to 19^th.

Introduced for the first time in May 2017, the ranking quantifies the rapid technological transformations that countries are undergoing, providing a tool for decision-makers in the public and private sectors to interpret and address these changes.

The objective of the digital competitiveness ranking is to assess the extent to which a country adopts and explores digital technologies leading to transformation in government practices, business models and society in general. In addition it provides firms the ability to find better opportunities to strengthen future value creation. The ranking draws upon 50 selected indicators divided into three factors: Knowledge, Technology and Future Readiness.

The knowledge factor refers to intangible infrastructure, which underlines the process of digital transformation through the discovery, understanding and learning of new technologies. The technology factor assesses the overall context through which the development of digital technologies is enabled (technology-friendly regulation, availability of capital for investments and the technological infrastructure). Finally, the future readiness factor examines the degree of technology adoption by government, business and society in general.

The IMD World Competitiveness Center is a research group at IMD business school in Switzerland with 30-years of research expertise in the field of country competitiveness.

Region specific profiles

Europe

In Western Europe, there is a fair degree of Nordic “dominance” in the ranking, with Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Finland all in the top ten. In particular, these countries excel in the quality of their technological framework and in the widespread adoption of technologies in the society. While the Netherlands drops three places to the 9^th position, the United Kingdom breaks into the top 10 following improvements in several indicators of the future readiness factor. Within the top half of the ranking, Austria, Ireland and Iceland experience improvements with the first two showing progress in their scientific concentration. In contrast, Germany (18^th), Belgium (23^rd), Luxembourg (24^th) and France (26^th) slightly decline. In the bottom half, Portugal (32^nd) improves and Greece (53^rd),  Spain (31^st), Italy (41^st) and Cyprus (54^th) drop because of a decline in indicators related to training and education under the knowledge factor.

• A full breakdown of the IMD World Digital Competitiveness Center’s Rankings as well as every individual country profile is available here.
• The IMD World Competitiveness rankings have been produced every year since 1989 by the IMD World Competitiveness Center and are widely acknowledged as the leading annual assessment of the competitiveness of countries. The IMD World Competitive Digital Ranking was introduced last year. In 2017 the top 10 consisted of Singapore, Sweden, USA, Finland, Denmark, Netherlands, Hong Kong SAR, Switzerland, Canada and Norway.
• The IMD World Talent Rankings 2018 will be released on 19 November 2018 at Orchestrating Winning Performance(OWP), Singapore.

 

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