PH down 10 spots in world digital competitiveness rankings
The Philippines’ global competitiveness ranking in digital terms has fallen by 10 notches, to 56th out of 63 countries from last year’s 46th, based on a report released on Tuesday.
The 2018 World Digital Competitiveness (WDC) report, issued by Switzerland’s International Institute for Management Development (IMD), also ranked the Philippines among the lowest in the Asia Pacific at 12th out of 14, down one rung from last year.
The United States topped the WDC rankings, followed by Singapore, Sweden, Denmark and Switzerland.
Taking the bottom five spots, in descending order, were Colombia, Peru, Mongolia, Indonesia and Venezuela.
The report’s release followed last month’s announcement that the Philippines’ overall competitiveness ranking had fallen nine notches to 50th out of 63 economies in the IMD’s World Competitiveness Yearbook.
The WDC report evaluated countries using 50 indicators spread across three factors: knowledge, technology, and future readiness.
The Philippines improved in terms of knowledge, to 50th from 53rd last year, but fell in term of technology (58th from 51st) and future readiness (52nd from 43rd).
The low technology ranking was traced to weaknesses the regulatory and technological frameworks, with the country ranked 61st in both starting a business and enforcing contracts and 62nd in terms of communication technology.
It was also 58th with regard to internet users and 61st in terms of internet bandwidth speeds.
The country’s top strengths across the three main factors, meanwhile, were graduates in sciences (5th) and female researchers (8th) for knowledge; investments in telecommunications (12th) and high-tech exports (2nd) for technology; and innovative firms (10th) for future readiness.
WITH A REPORT FROM ANNA LEAH E. GONZALES
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