Which Asian Countries Are the Best at Going Digital?

The digital best
IMD is out with its global rankings on where Industry 4.0 might flourish best—as of 2018.

This is IMD’s second-annual World Digital Competitiveness Rankings (2018); after years of producing its well-known IMD World Competitiveness Rankings, it added a “digital” version in 2017.

And what, BTW, does IMD say about itself? “The IMD World Competitiveness Center is a research group at IMD business school in Lausanne, Switzerland with 30 years of research expertise in the field of country competitiveness.” IMD was filled with big data geeks before there were big data geeks, like way back in 1988.

If you want your own copy, the full 137-page report can be downloaded as a pdf here: World Digital Competitiveness Rankings (2018).

The only Asian country in the top 10 of the IMD rankings is Singapore (#1 (2017); #2 (2018), but, as the IMD points out, Singapore has a drag or two on its digital journey. North America and Europe occupy the other nine slots.

The remainder of Asia ranks from a high of #11 (Hong Kong) to a low of #64 (Indonesia). See the big green chart below.

Interestingly, however, the Asian states collectively present well. An enlightening line chart on p. 60 shows clearly what is happening (See below).

East Asia (excluding Taiwan) has been on the rise since 2016, passing the U.S. (#1 in the IMD rankings) in 2017, and thereafter continuing to rise.

The U.S. took a downward dip from 2015 to 2016, and thereafter has flat lined.

The EU took a dive in 2016, somewhat arrested its descent in 2017, and thereafter has trended slightly down.

In fourth place is the ASEAN and Asia Pacific.

Here’s the IMD explaining its ranking methodology, and the three pillars upon which it is all built: Knowledge, Technology, and Future Readiness [p.16]:

“The Knowledge factor refers to the intangible infrastructure, which underlines the process of digital transformation through the discovery, understanding and learning of new technologies.

“The Technology factor assesses the overall context through which the development of digital technologies is enabled. This context includes first, a supportive regulatory framework which allows for the efficient performance of business activities and the enforcement of relevant regulation while encouraging business development and innovation.

“The second element of the technology factor is capital which evaluates the availability and current investment on technology related development. It also considers the level of investment risk in a particular economy.

“The final element is the existing technological framework which assesses the current physical technological infrastructure in a country and also its quality.

“The Future Readiness factor examines the level of preparedness of an economy to assume its digital transformation.”

Excerpted from IMD’s 2018 report
“This year the IMD World Digital Competitiveness Rankings (WDCR) celebrates its second edition. In 2017, we introduced this ranking in order to quantify the rapid transformations countries are undergoing, and to provide a tool for decision makers in the public and private sectors to interpret and address these changes.

“The objective of the digital ranking is to assess the extent to which a country adopts and explores digital technologies leading to transformation in government practices, business models and society in general. In this way, firms are able to find better opportunities to strengthen future value creation.” [p.16]