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IMD WORLD COMPETITIVENESS RANKINGS 2024
Australia has improved one place in an international ranking of digital competitiveness.
IMD WORLD COMPETITIVENESS RANKINGS 2024
Australia has improved one place in an international ranking of digital competitiveness.
Australia has risen by one place in an international ranking of digital competitiveness, helped by a strong performance on new measures of artificial intelligence (AI) and our technology framework.
Australia ranked 15 in the 2024 IMD World Digital Competitiveness Ranking (WDCR) of 67 countries.
“The improvement in our overall technology performance was helped by our rankings on two new AI measures - Australia was 8 on a count of AI policies passed into law, and 13 on a measure of peer-reviewed literature on AI,” CEDA senior economist Melissa Wilson said.
The WDCR shows Australia has several key strengths, including the country credit rating (1st), mobile broadband subscribers (1st) and a high number of international students (2nd).
International students
Mobile broadband subscribers
Ease of starting a business
“The improvement in our overall technology performance was helped by our rankings on two new AI measures - Australia was 8 on a count of AI policies passed into law, and 13 on a measure of peer-reviewed literature on AI,” CEDA senior economist Melissa Wilson said.
“While these are positive results, the proof will be in how they translate to investment and competitiveness in practice.
Australia’s worst performance was on internet bandwidth speed – we ranked just 50 of 67 nations.
Communications technology
Internet speed
Government cyber security
“This is a consistent area of weakness for us, and one we must do better on as high-speed internet is a critical enabler of a range of digital technologies,” Ms Wilson said.
“Despite our improvements on technology, Australia’s overall future readiness remains poor, with continued low rankings on the agility of companies (39) and their ability to respond quickly to opportunities and threats (37).
“These results are consistent with previous CEDA work showing Australian businesses must get better at seizing new opportunities, rather than just focusing on business as usual.”
“We need to ensure that Australia continues
on the positive path suggested by these results
and seizes the opportunities of AI.”
“We need to ensure that Australia continues
on the positive path suggested by these results
and seizes the opportunities of AI.”
Overall, Singapore again topped the ranking this year, while Switzerland was second and Denmark came in third. The United States declined by three positions to rank fourth.
IMD said the most digitally competitive economies performed well across all aspects of the ranking, and economies that balanced strong governance, technological advancement and adaptability to
emerging trends would be digital leaders in the years ahead.
“Geopolitical rivalries, particularly between major powers such as the US and China’s technological competition, are fragmenting the digital landscape, influencing not only how other countries develop and use digital technologies but also their ability to compete globally,” said WCC Senior Economist José Caballero.