The Philippines improved two spots in a global digital competitiveness index, but still had the lowest ranking among Southeast Asian countries.
In IMD business school’s World Digital Competitiveness Ranking 2022, the Philippines ranked 56th out of 63 countries with a score of 52.81. This was an improvement from its 58th ranking last year.
The Philippines remained 13th among the 14 Asia-Pacific economies included in the IMD ranking, ahead only of Mongolia.
Among the five main Southeast Asian economies, the Philippines lagged behind Indonesia (51st), Thailand (40th), Malaysia (31st) and Singapore (4th).
Denmark was the top performer globally, with a score of 100, followed by the United States and Sweden, both with 99.81, and Singapore with 99.48.
On the other hand, Venezuela had the worst score of 27.
“This ranking describes the importance of national factors in explaining the digital transformation of companies and the adoption of digital practices by citizens,” World Competitiveness Center Director Arturo Bris said in a statement.
“Digital nations result from a combination of digital talent, digital regulation, data governance, digital attitudes, and the availability of capital,” he added.
Each economy is ranked in indicators grouped under three factors: knowledge, technology, and future readiness.
In terms of knowledge, the Philippines moved up to 62nd this year from 63rd the previous year, as it maintained its ranking for talent (55th) and training (61st) but fell one spot in scientific concentration (57th).
Knowledge refers to intangible infrastructure that enables the discovery, understanding, and learning of new technologies.
The Philippines also saw its ranking in terms of technology rise to 49th from 54th in 2021, as it improved its rank for the technological framework sub-factor to 45th from 49th previously. Its rankings for the regulatory framework and capital sub-factors were unchanged at 62nd and 40th place.
Under the future readiness factor, the Philippines slipped to 58th from 57th spot. This measures the extent to which technology is adopted by the government, businesses, and society.
However, the country improved two spots to 58th in the sub-factor of adaptive attitudes, but fell to 45th from 37th spot in terms of business agility. It remained at 57th spot for the information technology integration sub-factor.
Source: Business World