Taiwan ranks 9th in digital competitiveness

Taipei, Nov. 14 (CNA) Taiwan continued to be ranked ninth in the world in terms of digital competitiveness according to the 2024 report by Swiss-based International Institute for Management Development (IMD) released Thursday.

In the 2024 IMD World Digital Competitiveness Ranking, which assesses three major factors -- "Knowledge," "Technology" and "Future Readiness" -- Taiwan ranked ninth out of the 67 regions assessed, unchanged from a year earlier.

The IMD said Taiwan rose one place to be ranked sixth in Future Readiness in the 2024 rankings. Meanwhile, it fell one place and ranked 19th in Knowledge and down four places to seventh in Technology.

According to the IMD, the Knowledge factor refers to having the know-how necessary to discover, understand and build new technologies, Technology indicates the overall context that enables the development of digital technologies, and Future Readiness assesses the level of a country's preparedness to make the most of the digital transformation.

"Overall, Taiwan's performance is underpinned by large variations between strong performances in some areas of digital competitiveness, whilst 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."

The report showed Taiwan ranked in the top three in seven of the 59 subfactors. It was ranked first in the IT & media stock market capitalization sub-factor under Technology, second in the total R&D personnel per capita under Knowledge, and second in agility of companies under Future Readiness.

Taiwan secured third place in the educational assessment PISA (the Programme for International Student Assessment) in mathematics, higher education achievement and the ratio of total expenditure on R&D to GDP -- part of Knowledge.

According to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), PISA measures 15-year-olds' ability to use their reading, mathematics and science knowledge and skills to meet real-life challenges.

Furthermore, Taiwan was ranked third in the ratio of high-tech outbound sales to total exports which falls under Technology, the report showed.

The Ministry of Digital Affairs (MODA) said in a statement that the 2024 digital competitiveness report showed the country has gained the upper hand in IT development, R&D in technologies, performance by enterprises and higher education.

MODA said Taiwan improved in several Knowledge subfactors in the 2024 rankings, including women in degrees, scientific and technical employment and graduates in sciences.

MODA noted Taiwan also moved higher in some Technology rankings, including scientific research legislation, funding for technological development, venture capital, investment in telecommunications and wireless broadband.

MODA added the government will continue to invest in artificial intelligence development to help the country build an AI ecosystem.

In the Future Readiness major factor, MODA 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.

MODA said it will continue working to improve Taiwan's global digital competitiveness through promoting cooperation between the public and private sectors in digital transformation.

Singapore ranked first in this year's rankings, while Switzerland came in second and Denmark third.