Croatia ranked 43rd out of 63 in the latest global ranking of digital competitiveness for 2022, climbing 12 places from the year before, state agency hina said on Wednesday, citing a press release from the National Competitiveness Council (NVK), which cited data compiled by the World Competitiveness Center (WCC).

According to WCC’s world ranking, the top three countries for 2022 are Denmark, United States, and Sweden.

Hina said that WCC urged the governments and the private sector  “to shield their digital infrastructure from cyber attacks if they want to continue in the race for digitally competitive economies.”

Commenting on Croatia’s performance, acting director of NVK, Ivan Misetic, underscored that moving upward by 12 spots is the “highest achievement made by Croatia so far.”

“Growth has been achieved in all three areas –  future readiness, knowledge and technology – and the ranking also indicates what still needs to be done, such as the transfer of knowledge or the ability to attract foreign experts in which Croatia ranks 59th,” Misetic said.

He underlined areas in which Croatia has shown “excellent results,” such as the ratio of the number of students to professors, (7th place), and investment in telecommunications (5th place), which is recognition of the work done so far, but also an obligation to continue with the efforts to improve its ranking and its competitive advantage for the Croatian economy and the betterment of society.

WCC’s annual ranking covered 63 global economies, quantifying the capacity to adopt and explore new digital technologies and how they are being used to transform government practices, business models and society. The ranking is based on 54 criteria that are a mix of external hard data and executive opinion surveys which include three broad categories – future readiness, knowledge and technology, with a set of sub-factors for each.

WCC director Arturo Bris said that the scale of digital competitiveness describes the importance of national factors in explaining the digital transformation of companies and the adoption of digital practices by citizens.

“This ranking describes the importance of national factors in explaining the digital transformation of companies and the adoption of digital practices by citizens. Digital nations result from a combination of digital talent, digital regulation, data governance, digital attitudes and the availability of capital,” said Bris.