Taiwan remained ninth in the world in terms of digital competitiveness according to this year’s report by Swiss-based International Institute for Management Development (IMD) released yesterday.
In this year’s IMD World Digital Competitiveness Ranking (WDCR), which assesses three major factors — knowledge, technology and future readiness — Taiwan ranked ninth out of the 67 regions assessed, unchanged from a year earlier.
Singapore was first in this year’s rankings, while Switzerland was second and Denmark third.
Photo: AFP
The IMD said Taiwan rose one place to sixth in “future readiness” this year.
Meanwhile, it fell one place and ranked 19th in “knowledge” and was down four places to seventh in “technology.”
The knowledge factor refers to having the know-how necessary to discover, understand and build new technologies; the technology factor indicates the overall context that enables the development of digital technologies; and the future readiness factor assesses the level of a country’s preparedness to make the most of the digital transformation, the IMD said.
“Overall, Taiwan’s performance is underpinned by large variations between strong performances in some areas of digital competitiveness, while also performing relatively poorly in others,” the IMD said in the report.
“Striking a balance between these variables could be key to the country’s future advancement in the WDCR,” it said.
The report showed Taiwan ranked in the top three in seven of the 59 sub-factors.
It ranked first in the information technology (IT) and media stock market capitalization sub-factor under the technology category, second in the total research and development (R&D) personnel per capita under the knowledge category, and second in agility of companies under the future readiness category.
Taiwan secured third place in the educational Program for International Student Assessment in mathematics, higher education achievement and the ratio of total expenditure on R&D to GDP — part of the knowledge factor.
Furthermore, Taiwan was third in the ratio of high-tech outbound sales to total exports, which falls under the technology factor, the report showed.
The Ministry of Digital Affairs said in a statement that this year’s digital competitiveness report showed the country has gained the upper hand in IT development, technology R&D, performance by enterprises and higher education.
The ministry said Taiwan improved in several knowledge sub-factors this year, including women in degree programs, scientific and technical employment and graduates in sciences.
Taiwan also moved higher in some technology rankings, including scientific research legislation, funding for technological development, venture capital, investment in telecommunications and wireless broadband, the ministry said.
Taiwan also improved in knowledge transfer, cybersecurity and government cybersecurity capacity, which it said was evidence of efforts by the public and private sectors.
The government would continue to invest in artificial intelligence (AI) development to help the country build an AI ecosystem, the ministry added.
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