IMD World Digital Competitiveness

region’s average digital competitiveness has declined over the past two years. Furthermore, South American economies continue to lag, securing 57 th place in 2023. The dominance of Eastern Asia across all digital factors stands out; notably, the region surpasses North America and Western Europe, particularly in the technology and future readiness factors. Lastly, Southern Asia & the Pacific, along with Western Asia & Africa, exhibit rapid strides in the technology factor, narrowing the divide with more digitally competitive regions and positioning themselves as potential contenders in innovation. Examining the top-10 most advanced economies reveals a diverse range of strengths, such as scientific concen tration and adaptive attitudes for the US, or dominance in technology and regulatory framework for Singapore. Top economies also exhibited weaknesses, such as adaptive attitudes in Denmark’s case, and business agility where Finland is concerned. Such diversity underscores the complexity of the ranking, pointing out the lack of a single path for success in terms of competitiveness. Adaptation shows itself to be important in this year’s ranking. The return of the US to the top place, the re-entry of Taiwan into the top 10, and the significant rise of the Netherlands point to a need for continuous adaptation. That is to say, countries cannot be compla cent from year to year as the digital panorama is a quickly changing one. In particular, adaptation is needed to address an important threat of our time: cybercrime. Our survey of over 4,000 executives across 64 economies revealed a proactive stance among companies. Around 27% prioritize controlling access, protecting sensitive data, and running backups, while 25% focus on network integrity through encryption and firewalls. Moreover, 26% enhance awareness through employee training and 15% concentrate on monitoring and managing CSP

accounts. Notably, a mere 5% reported no new cyberse curity measures in the past year, reflecting widespread recognition of imminent danger. Dissecting responses based on company size reveals differences in cybersecurity strategies. Large compa nies predominantly emphasize increasing employee awareness, whereas medium and small companies prioritize employee training. Discrepancies also emerge at the national level, where economies with perceived inadequate cybersecurity frameworks witness a surge in additional cybersecurity measures. Overall, the ranking underscores the interconnectedness of robust cyberse curity practices at the company level with the same at the economy level, in order to achieve sustained value generation in the digital age. In conclusion, successful digital nations–that is, econo mies that utilize digital talent, have a resilient and agile culture, and rely on effective digital infrastructure–align their skills and competences, their capacity, and their planned future investments in order to adopt and explore new digital technologies that can transform government practices, business models, and society at large.

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