Kazakhstan improves its global digital competitiveness ranking 

Kazakhstan ranked 34th in this year’s World Digital Competitiveness Ranking, just two positions behind Japan, and ahead of countries like Italy, India and Turkey. 

The ranking was released on Thursday by the Swiss-based International Institute of Management Development (IMD). 

“The ranking measures the capacity and readiness of 64 economies to adopt and explore digital technologies as a key driver for economic transformation in business, government and wider society,” the IMD report said. 

The only Central Asian nation included in the research, Kazakhstan has gone up two positions since last year. 

The list is led by the United States, the Netherlands and Singapore. 

The ranking is based on economic figures and a survey of business executives and government officials focusing on the three main categories (factors): knowledge, technology and future readiness. 

The knowledge factor indicates what the know-how of a given economy is likely to be when it comes to discovering, understanding and building new technologies, the report said.  

Future readiness looks at how well equipped a country is to use digital transformation opportunities.  

Another key measure of a nation’s digital competitiveness is investment in education and providing the skills required by the labour market, according to Arturo Bris, the director of the IMD’s World Competitiveness Centre. 

The idea behind the ranking is to point out to governments and companies where they should focus their resources and what practices would work best when moving towards digital transformation, the IMD says. 

The report explained Switzerland’s fifth position, despite being top in the knowledge factor, by conservative individual attitudes towards technology in the country. 

“It rejected the digital identity program, concerns about transparency are extremely high, digital banking isn’t as developed as in many other countries, and it doesn’t have Amazon or Google,” Bris said.  

He said Japan ranked only 32nd because, not counting transnational companies like Toyota and Mitsubishi, “the typical Japanese company (SME) is extremely reluctant to incorporate technology”.  

Generally, western Europe, East Asia and South America have, to varying extents, fared worse in the ranking compared to 2022. For example, Spain dropped three places, France five and the UK four. 

Notably, in the IMD’s Global Talent Ranking 2023, Kazakhstan is placed 38th, three positions behind the UK, and three positions ahead of China.   

The Talent ranking assesses how 64 economies develop, attract and retain talent needed for their operation. It is based on three factors: Investment and Development, Appeal and Readiness. 

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