IMD World Digital Competitiveness Ranking 2020

Figure 3: Digital competitiveness factors performance across regions in 2020

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by North America (which drops from an average position of about 20 th over the past four years to 22.3 in 2020). Southern Asia and the Pacific and Western Asia and Africa regions saw a decline in the 2019-2020 period reaching the 33 rd and the 36 th positions respectively. The performance of Eastern European countries is stable in 2020 around an average 40 th position. Ex-Cis and Central Asia economies declined from about 45 th to 47 th during the same period. Conversely, the South American region The top 10 economies remain the same as last year. The USA continues to lead the IMD World Digital Competitiveness Ranking for the third consecutive year. Likewise, Singapore remains in the 2 nd spot. While Denmark overtakes Sweden moving up one place (3 rd and 4 th respectively), Hong Kong SAR rises three ranks to 5 th . Switzerland drops to 6 th (from 5 th ) and similarly the Netherlands declines to 7 th (from 6 th ). Korea Rep. moves up to 8 th (from 10 th ), Norway remains at 9 th and Finland rounds up the top 10 dropping 3 places from 7 th . The USA’s performance is largely driven by the knowledge and future readiness factors. More specifically, it is sustained by factors related to scientific concentration (e.g., percentage of scientific and technical employment and the use of robots in education and R&D), capital (e.g., availability of venture capital), adaptive attitudes (e.g., e-participation) and business agility (e.g., world robots distribution or the percentage share of world robots). Singapore achievements comes mainly on the back of its performance in the knowledge and technology factors. Particularly, Singapore tops the rankings in talent, and in the regulatory and technological frameworks. In training and education, employee training rises from the 28 th place to the 16 th . In addition, in scientific concentration, the scientific and technical employment indicator shows improvement. Top 10

shows a slight improvement this year increasing its average position from 56 th in 2019 to an average ranking of 55 th in 2020. In terms of the digital competitiveness factors ( Figure 3 ), regional rankings are fairly similar to the overall digital competitiveness scores. However, a noticeable difference is present in the knowledge factor where North America and Ex-CIS and Central Asia economies perform better compared to the general score. Denmark exceeds in the future readiness factor. In the latter, it ranks 1 st in IT integration, 2 nd in adaptive attitudes and 5 th in business agility. At the indicator level, Denmark ranks 1 st in attitudes toward globalization and e-government, and 3 rd in the effectives of companies’ response to opportunities and threats, and in knowledge transfer between companies and universities. At the factor level, Sweden reaches its highest ranking in knowledge which is driven by its performance in training and education (2 nd ). Among the indicators, Sweden ranks the highest in the development and application of technology and in country credit rating (1 st in both), and it reaches the 2 nd spot in the availability of digital/technological skills and in attitudes toward globalization. Hong Kong’s improvement in the overall digital competitiveness ranking is mainly the result of its performance in the technology factor and to a lesser extent in knowledge. In the former, Hong Kong ranks highest in the technological framework (2 nd ), and in the latter, in talent (7 th ). Its strengths include high-tech exports (as a percentage of manufactured exports) and the private sector’s response to opportunities and threats ranking 1 st in both, graduates in sciences (2 nd ) and high-tech patent grants (2 nd ).

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IMD WORLD DIGITAL COMPETITIVENESS RANKING 2020