Malaysia falls three spots in world digital competitiveness

Malaysia has fallen three spots to 27th position in the IMD World Digital Competitiveness Ranking 2018, its lowest overall score in five years.

According to the IMD World Digital Competitiveness Center’s report, this year the majority (29) of countries in the study showed an improvement in their level of digital competitiveness, but Southeast Asian nations such as Malaysia, the Philippines and Indonesia recorded a decline.

Meanwhile, Singapore, which was ranked number one in the last five years, was overtaken by the United States in the study of 63 economies. Other countries in the top five were Sweden, Denmark and Switzerland.

“Results show that several countries are experiencing an “adaptive imbalance” or a mismatch between high levels of training and education, and the attitudes towards embracing digitalisation; among these economies, we note Austria, Malaysia and Russia,” said the report.

The overall ranking was based on three factors: knowledge, technology and future readiness.

Malaysia maintained its knowledge ranking at 17th place while dropping four rungs to 22 for technology and two spots to 29 for readiness towards digital transformation.

IMD is an independent business school with Swiss roots and global reach.