Taiwan attains best ranking of No. 11 in 2020 IMD Global Digital Competitive Report
E201001Y5・E201001Y7 Oct. 2020（E251）
National Development Council of Taiwan issued a press release indicating that according to the report published by the Swiss-based International Institute for Management Development in October 2020, the World Digital Competitiveness Ranking 2020, Taiwan finishes 11th among the 63 major countries and economies evaluated, moving up two spots from 2019 to its best ranking since the International Institute for Management Development began launching the annual list in 2017. Moreover, Taiwan is ranked 3rd among the countries or economies with more than 20 million inhabitants, rising one notch from 2019, and also rises two places to the 11th among the 34 economies with GDP per capita greater than USD20,000
1. Taiwan ranks among the top three in several sub-factors.
According to the National Development Council, Taiwan is placed in the report among the top three in seven sub-factors, outshining its peers by coming top in “Agility of companies”, “Proportion of mobile broadband subscribers”, and “Ratio of information technology and media stock market capitalization”, taking the 2nd place in “Total R&D personnel per capita”, “Opportunities and threats”, and “Smartphone possession” and the 3rd place in “High education achievement”.
2. Taiwan demonstrates its overall upgrading strengths in the major areas of “Technology” and “Future readiness”.
The International Institute for Management Development measures and grades the 63 economies based on 3 major factors, 9 sub-factors, and 51 indicators, assessing the 63 economies’ capacity and readiness to adopt, explore, and make use of digital technologies as a key driver for economic transformation. The three major factors are “Knowledge”, “Technology”, and “Future readiness”.
(1) The survey in the area of “Knowledge” reflects the ability of the economy or country assessed to learn new technologies. Taiwan slips one notch to the 18th place in this area but moves up in the ranking of the sub-factors of “Talent” and “Training & education” and also in some other sub-factors under this area. For instance, Taiwan maintains its second spot in “Total R&D personnel per capita”, up to the 3rd in “High education achievement” and to the 4th in “Total expenditure on R&D (%)”, which makes it clear that Taiwan has been sparing no efforts in promoting high education and in cultivating R&D talents. The report pinpoints Taiwan’s overall weaknesses in “Foreign highly-skilled personnel” and “Scientific and technical employment”. With respect to this weakness, the National Development Council has been promoting amendment to the “Act for Recruitment and Employment of Foreign Professionals” to ease restrictions on the regulations governing work and residence so as to enhance talents recruitment.
(2) In the aspect of “Technology”, economies or countries are measured with respect to their ability to develop digital innovative technologies. Taiwan captures the 5th place in this aspect, up four places from 2019 to claim the top honor in “Proportion of mobile broadband subscribers”, and “Ratio of information technology and media stock market capitalization”. Moreover, remarkable headway is made by this country in “Mobile bandwidth speed” as reflected in its leap in the ranking to the 5th, up 13 spots. Such significant improvement substantiates the success of Taiwan government in promoting national digital transformation projects and reinforcing Taiwan’s technological energy and the infrastructure of information and communications technology.
(3) The factor of “Future readiness” is used to grade the extent of digital transformation of each country or economy assessed, and Taiwan moves up four places from 2019 to snatch the 8th spot. For business operation, Taiwan tops the ranking of “Agility of companies” and ranks the second in “Opportunities and threats”. Also, Taiwan shows its significant advancement in “Use of big data and analytics” by coming in fifth, up 9 places. It indicates that the Taiwan government’s assistance in enterprises’ digital transformation has gradually taken effect. Likewise, in the area of mobile services, Taiwan also makes progress in “Smartphone possession” by rising to No. 2 and also in “Cyber security” by climbing 4 places to No. 8. (Released 2020.10.01)
/CCS
