The UAE has achieved a major international milestone by being ranked in tenth place in the World Digital Competitiveness Ranking 2021 issued by the IMD World Competitiveness Center of the International Institute for Management Development.
According to the 2021 ranking the UAE has lead the Middle East and North African and outperformed some major economies, such as Finland, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, China, Germany, France, Japan and Belgium.
The UAE (18th in 2017, 10th in 2021) shows strong advancements as its digital competitiveness has been boosted by increasing investments in digital technologies in the private sector as well as the development of e-government services. Now in its fifth year, the International Management Development (IMD) World Digital Competitiveness Ranking measures the capacity and readiness of 64 economies to adopt and explore digital technologies as a key driver for economic transformation in business, government and wider society. Based on a mixture of hard data and survey replies from business and government executives, the digital rankings help governments and companies to understand where to focus their resources and what might be best practices when embarking on digital transformation.
Speaking about this major achievement, Mohammad bin Abdullah Al Gergawi, Minister of Cabinet Affairs and President of the Emirates Competitiveness Council, said that the UAE’s top ten rating in the World Digital Competitiveness Ranking 2021 is a new achievement, which is part of its efforts to enhance its prominent stature as one of the world’s best countries.
“The UAE has proven its ability to overcome challenges and turn them into inspiring opportunities, due to the visions of President H.H. Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, and H.H. Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, and H.H. Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces,” he added.
“This achievement is to be added to the country’s record in global competitiveness and highlights its ability to keep pace with its significant new government work approach. It also highlights the government’s future aspirations and its strategic goal to achieve overall progress,” he further added.
The IMD World Digital Competitiveness Ranking presents the 2021 overall rankings for the 64 economies covered by the WCY. The rankings are calculated on the basis of the 52 ranked criteria: 32 Hard and 20 Survey data.
Based on research, the methodology of the WDC ranking defines digital competitiveness into three main factors: Knowledge Technology Future readiness In turn, each of these factors is divided into 3 sub-factors which highlight every facet of the areas analyzed. Altogether, the WDC features 9 such sub-factors.
In this year’s report, the UAE topped MENA countries, ranking first in all key categories, as well as fifth globally in “Technology,” 12th in “Readiness for the Future,” and jumping 13 places to 18th in “Knowledge.”
In the report’s nine sub-factors, the UAE was ranked first globally in “Talent,” advancing four places compared to last year’s report, as well as second globally in “Regulatory framework,” fifth globally in “Technological framework,” 25th globally in “Education and training,” and 10th globally in “Business agility” and “IT integration.”
The UAE was ranked first globally in four indexes, which are “Cybersecurity”, “Net flow of international students,” “Immigration laws” and “Mobile broadband subscribers.” The country was ranked second globally in “Foreign highly-skilled personnel,” “International experience” and “Attitudes toward globalisation,” and third globally in “Management of cities,” “Companies’ use of big data and analytics,” and “Opportunities and threats.”
The UAE advanced significantly in several indexes in the report, jumping 31 places in both “Internet users” taking the 4th globally, and “Higher education achievement”, comin16th globally.
The country also jumped 22 positions in the “Mobile broadband Subscribers” index, ranking 12th globally, as well as nine positions in the “Women with degrees” index, reaching tenth place globally.
