Australia’s digital competitiveness is in decline, dropping five places to 20th in a ranking of 64 countries, with its key weaknesses being business agility along with digital skills and training..
It is the third year in a row that Australia has fallen in the IMD World Digital Competitiveness Ranking (WDCR) rankings with only Poland and Bulgaria falling harder.
The WDCR report also shows Australiahas key strengths, including its regulatory framework to support starting a business, its IT integration in terms of software piracy and E-Government.
However, Australia ranked 55 for business agility, with executives ranking themselves particularly poorly for agility of companies and responding to opportunities and threats.
Australia also was just 31st for knowledge transfer between companies and universities.
“Despite the COVID-19 pandemic leading to the rapid adoption by businesses of digital opportunities to survive, Australia is not keeping pace with the rest of the world,” CEDA (Committee for Economic Development of Australia) Chief Executive MelindaCilento said.
“Lifting digital competitiveness would enable Australia to better leverage digitisation and new technologies to create value for customers, provide new job opportunities, improve government services and find solutions to challenges like decarbonisation and climate change.
“Of particular concern is Australia’s poor performance in terms of future readiness – our worst result in the history of the index – which unpins a country’s ability to sustain its digital competitiveness over time.
“This means Australia will struggle to keep pace with the most digitally competitive nations and it underlines the challenge ahead for Australia to meet the federal government’s ambition for the nation to emerge as a leading digital economy by 2030."
CEDA says Australia should appoint a chief technologist to build community trust and understanding in emerging
technologies, including through transparent technology assessments, and would provide leadership across emerging technologies, knowledge and future preparedness.
The World Digital Competitiveness Ranking is produced by the Switzerland-based International Institute for Management Development (IMD) World Competitiveness Centre. CEDA is the Australian partner
Have something to say on this? Share your views in the comments section below. Or if you have a news story or tip-off, drop us a line at adnews@yaffa.com.au
Sign up to the AdNews newsletter, like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter for breaking stories and campaigns throughout the day.