IMD World Digital Competitiveness

At the indicator level, Taiwan’s largest improvements are in investment in telecommunications (46 th ), women with degrees (eighth), internet bandwidth speed (13th), and tablet possession (percentage of households, 20 th ). Conversely, its largest declines are in the availability of senior managers with strong international experience (40 th ), cybersecurity (19 th ), development and application of technology (25 th ), scientific research legislation (16 th ), and the availability of venture capital (19 th ). On the one hand, among Taiwan’s strengths (first) are agility of companies, IT and media stock market capi talization, use of big data and analytics, mobile broad band subscribers, and total R&D personnel per capita. It performs robustly in higher education achievement (third), total expenditure on R&D (third), PISA (math) educational assessment (fourth), high-tech exports (fourth), and opportunities and threats (fifth). On the other hand, its weaknesses include privacy protection by law content (40 th ), availability of senior managers with significant international experience (40 th ), attractiveness of the economy to foreign highly skilled personnel (44 th ), and investment in telecommunications (46 th ). In addi tion, Taiwan performs poorly in scientific and technical employment (47 th ), pupil-teacher ratio (tertiary education, 50 th ), total public expenditure on education (52 nd ), and percentage of female researchers (54 th ). Hong Kong SAR drops one position to 10 th place in the overall WDCR. Hong Kong ranks sixth in knowledge and 17 th in future readiness, which represents an improvement of one position in both factors. It remains in second place

in the technology factor. Hong Kong performs strongly in all knowledge subfactors, ranking sixth in talent, fifth in training and education, and eighth in scientific concen tration. It remains first in the technological framework subfactor, improving in regulatory framework (sixth) and adaptive attitudes (fifth). Its lowest ranking position at the subfactor level is IT integration (47 th ). Hong Kong’s slight decline in the overall digital ranking is largely due to significant drops in the efficiency of banking and financial services (13th), cybersecurity (14 th ), use of big data and analytics (23 rd ), availability of venture capital (21 st ), total public expenditure on educa tion (50 th ), and investment in telecommunications (57 th ). At the indicator level, however, Hong Kong substantially improves in the number of robots in education and R&D (34 th ), internet retailing (eighth), its attractiveness for foreign highly skilled personnel (23 rd ), and the effective management of cities (third). In addition, Hong Kong performs robustly in high-tech exports (first), graduates in sciences (first), high-tech patent grants (second), and smartphone possession (second). Other strengths include wireless broadband (penetration rate per 100 people) and PISA (math) educational assessment, ranking third in both criteria. Its lowest ranking positions at the indicator level are in privacy protection by law content (64 th ), investment in telecommunications (57 th ), and total public expenditure on education (50 th ). Other weaknesses are government cybersecurity capacity (49 th ) and total expenditure on R&D (41 st ). $7.08tn. As it was outlined above and in the preceding essay “Striving towards being a digital nation in the era of artificial intelligence”, the digital infrastructure of an economy is of paramount importance because it provides the lower technological bound to secure the cyberworld of that economy. However, the pressure to strengthen cybersecurity falls on companies as well. Proofpoint, Inc., for instance, estimates that among worldwide organizations, 85% experienced a bulk phishing attack while 76% had to deal with a situation involving ransomware. This strongly suggests that given the digital infrastructure of an economy, businesses must be proactive in finding ways to minimize the threat and instances of cyberattacks. Taking this into consideration, we asked the respon-

4. Cybersecurity challenges and digital competitiveness The pandemic forced the proliferation of digital commu nication. In the professional domain, economies that exhibited the infrastructure that supported remote work embraced the hybrid employment models we currently observe worldwide. In the personal realm, the lockdown and plunge of traveling forced people to digitally connect with family and friends. The rapid technological innova tions allowed for a profound change of the digital land scape. The increasing use of technological innovations and expansion of digital society, however, also increased the probability of potential compromises. In fact, the expansion of digital society has also contributed to a surge of cybercrime.

The numbers related to cybercrime are staggering. In 2019, before the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, Statista estimated the cost of cybercrime worldwide to be $1.16tn. By 2022, it reached the shocking amount of

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