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UK, US slip down World Digital Competitiveness Ranking

(2022/09/29)


Denmark has topped the International Institute for Management Development's seventh annual World Digital Competitiveness Ranking – an assessment of 63 nations' "capacity and readiness to adopt and explore digital technologies as a key driver for economic transformation in business, government and wider society."

The Institute (IMD) with its World Competitiveness Center claim to be an independent academic institution that aims to develop leaders. The Digital Competitiveness Ranking assesses three main factors, listed below:

Knowledge – Know-how necessary to discover, understand and build new technologies;

Technology – Overall context that enables the development of digital technologies;

Future Readiness – Level of country preparedness to exploit digital transformation.

The IMD also considers additional nine sub-factors that mark nations against 54 criteria.

Up until this year, the USA is the only nation to have topped the Rankings. Denmark finally toppled the champ thanks to an exceptional rating on the Future Readiness factor.

The Ranking mentions plenty of problems in the USA, which ranked ninth in the world on the Technology factor but slipped from third to tenth in IT integration capacity. Fears that business is not handling cybersecurity well contributed to the nation's decline.

[1]

Among major Reg -reading nations, the UK dropped two places to 14th despite its Technology and Future Readiness scores improving. Other nations improved more markedly, with Israel jumping two places to thirteenth. Twelfth-placed Australia surged six spots up the chart.

[2]

[3]

India talks a good game about its many [4]digital government services and IT services industry – but was ranked 44th.

Canada jumped three spots to 10th, while Germany dipped to 18th after placing 16th in the last Ranking.

[5]Japan to start stamping out rubber stamps and tearing up faxes as new digital agency given Sept. 1 start date

[6]Report slams UK plan to become 'science superpower' by 2030

[7]Ex-Googler Eric Schmidt's think tank warns China could win global tech race

[8]UK science stuck in 'holding pattern' on EU funding by Brexit, says minister

Taiwan's 11th place handily beat China's 17th ranking, though both nations went backwards over the last year.

European nations – Denmark, Sweden, Switzerland, Netherlands and Finland – occupied five of the top ten positions. Three Asian nations – Singapore, South Korea and Hong Kong – made the top ten.

[9]

Hong Kong, however, fell seven places to ninth. The sudden shutdown of democracy can do that to a country.

Croatia made the biggest jump, with a 12-slot surge taking it to 43rd place.

Japan's efforts to end its [10]reliance on floppy disks and faxes appear not yet to have seen its digital capacity increase – the nation dropped one place to 29th. Italy is the worst-ranked of the G7 group of very rich and well-developed nations, at 39th place.

[11]

Argentina, Colombia, Botswana, Mongolia and Venezuela took the final five slots in the rankings.

The full rankings can be found [12]here . ®

Get our [13]Tech Resources



[1] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2YzVsumVnapRQCORo@kt0fAAAANA&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0

[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YzVsumVnapRQCORo@kt0fAAAANA&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0

[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33YzVsumVnapRQCORo@kt0fAAAANA&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0

[4] https://www.theregister.com/2022/07/05/india_stack_global/

[5] https://www.theregister.com/2021/05/13/japan_digital_agency_law_passed/

[6] https://www.theregister.com/2022/08/09/scitech_superpower/

[7] https://www.theregister.com/2022/09/14/special_competitive_studies_project_report/

[8] https://www.theregister.com/2022/02/07/minister_confirms_uk_science_in/

[9] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YzVsumVnapRQCORo@kt0fAAAANA&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0

[10] https://www.theregister.com/2022/08/31/japan_floppy_disk_ban/

[11] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33YzVsumVnapRQCORo@kt0fAAAANA&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0

[12] https://www.imd.org/centers/world-competitiveness-center/rankings/world-digital-competitiveness/

[13] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/



veti

So... How, exactly, does anyone assess a country's performance on these criteria? Who is doing the judging, and based on what?

Not saying I don't believe it, or that I could do better. Just that without this sort of information, it's hard to know what to make of it.

lglethal

If you go to the website (hyperlink is in the very last word of the article), I'm sure you will find the answers to your questions. There's even a section entitled "Methodology in a Nutshell" to save you from reading the full report. Handy, huh?

veti

I did follow the link before posting. All I see is some waffle about "54 criteria" and an "executive opinion survey".

Lots more detail needed, please.

Prospects

Mike 137

" Knowledge – Know-how necessary to discover, understand and build new technologies;

Technology – Overall context that enables the development of digital technologies;

Future Readiness – Level of country preparedness to exploit digital transformation. "

" the UK dropped two places to 14th despite its Technology and Future Readiness scores improving "

So apparently the UK is good at technology and prepared for digital; futures but no good at understanding or innovating the technologies. Supposing that somewhat self-contradictory picture is accurate, it doesn't bode well for Blighty. If it is realistic, it's probably due to our approach to education - fact stuffing for exam passes rather than instilling understanding that can be applied independently to new situations.

One of my lecturers at college (a long time ago) said " if you've really learned the subject, the exam is just a friendly conversation with the examiner ". Pity that message is no longer imparted, and we may already be paying the penalty.

Re: Prospects

lglethal

"the exam is just a friendly conversation with the examiner."

Wait, you mean I have to actually talk to the students? Ewww....

No, no, no. I cant be having that...

Re: instilling understanding

Pascal Monett

That is a dangerous thing. It makes people have objectivity and makes them capable of critical thinking, both things which are anathema to the Boris Johnsons of this world.

That is why the education systems in our so-called 1st-world countries are being actively steered away from accomplishing any such thing.

Panem et circenses. That is the rule now.

IIMD is a private business school in Lausanne, Switzerland

Howard Sway

Looks like an expensive money making operation for milking senior executive types. If rankings are the game, then the institute is [1]ranked at number 338 in the world by the Center for World University Rankings

So, pinches of salt and all that.

[1] https://cwur.org/2021-22/International-Institute-for-Management-Development.php

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deal with: death.
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