Thursday 28 Mar 2024
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This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily on June 20, 2018

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia has slipped three spots to 27th from 24th in the World Digital Competitiveness Ranking 2018, according to the IMD World Competitiveness Centre.

In a statement yesterday, IMD said the World Digital Competitiveness Ranking 2018 studied 63 economies. It said this year, the majority (29) of countries in the study experienced an improvement in their level of digital competitiveness.

About 40% (26 countries) of the sample showed a decline, while only eight economies remain in the same position.

In the overall rankings, Singapore dropped from first to second position as the US overtakes Singapore to top the ranking.

"Seemingly, despite Singapore’s high level of training and education, and an environment conducive to digitalisation, society’s attitudes towards adopting technologies and the agility of businesses to take advantage of digital transformation, are relatively low (20th and 18th respectively)," said IMD.

Meanwhile, Sweden, Denmark and Switzerland took the third, fourth and fifth spots respectively.

IMD said the results show several countries including Malaysia, are experiencing an "adaptive imbalance" or a mismatch between high levels of training and education, and the attitudes towards embracing digitalisation.

The ranking, introduced in May 2017, quantifies 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 ranking's objective is to assess the extent to which a country adopts and explores digital technologies leading to transformations in government practices, business models and society in general.

It also provides firms with 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.

 

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