The United States continues to lead the world in embracing digital technology, but China and India are the fast movers, according to the 2022 Network Readiness Index.
Singapore, Sweden and the Netherlands comes after the United States, said the report co-led by Professor Soumitra Dutta, Dean of Oxford’s Saïd Business School.
The report notes that UK fell to 12th on the list. But China, which enters the top 25 for the first time, Malaysia and Russia lead the upper middle-income group. While Ukraine, Indonesia and India, which is among the fastest movers, lead the lower middle-income economies.
Dutta said, “Gen-Z and millennials are digital natives who are pointing to the direction of our digital futures. The shape of business and society tomorrow is being influenced by digital technologies in ways that we are only starting to understand today. The NRI is a valuable tool that provides better metrics and insights into creating a safe, inclusive and trusted digital future for businesses and society.”
The report said that the NRI 2022 results show that a group of 44 middle-and low-income economies stand out above their expected levels of development in one or more of the four pillar categories of digital readiness: technology, people, impact, and government. China, India, and Rwanda further distinguish themselves as the only countries to do so in all four categories, an official Oxford release said.
“Most of the outstanding pillar performers are among the lower middle-income group, and are predominantly located in Africa and the Asia & the Pacific regions,” the report said.
First launched with the World Economic Forum in 2002, and redesigned in 2019, the NRI is an in-depth analyses of 131 countries’ performance across four dimensions of digital readiness – technology, people, governance, and impact – using 58 different indicators.
