Switzerland less competitive regarding digitisation

This year’s overall results show few changes in the economies placing in the top ten from last year - the US and Singapore maintained their positions at the top – but several entries lower in the top tier have traded places.  Switzerland dropped one place to claim the 6th spot.

In the case of the USA, education and R&D was pinpointed by the authors as a major force behind digital growth. The USA is renowned for increasingly incorporating digital in education. It came third in adaptive attitudes and second in business agility. Singapore comes first in the talent and regulatory framework ranking indicators; Sweden and Denmark stand out for their excellent scores in knowledge building; while Eastern Asia, Western Europe and North America are the most digitally progressive regions. 

Significant drop in high-tech exports

The slight drop experienced by Switzerland this year is the result of declines in both the knowledge and technology factors. In knowledge, the most significant change is in scientific concentration in which Switzerland moves down from 7th to 9th, mainly as a result of a somewhat stagnant performance in the percentage of female researchers indicator (34th) and R&D productivity by publication (38th). In technology, Switzerland drops in the technological framework from 9th in 2019 to 14th which results from a significant drop in high-tech exports.

The Ranking relies on three factors: Knowledge, which captures the intangible infrastructure necessary for the learning and discovery dimensions of technology; Technology, which quantifies the landscape of developing digital technologies; and Future Readiness, that examines the level of preparedness of an economy to assume its digital transformation. For most countries the responses of the survey were acquired during the first wave of COVID-19.