Croatia ranks 55th among 64 leading world economies in the latest IMD World Digital Competitiveness Ranking, falling by three places from 2020, the National Competitiveness Council (NVK) said on Wednesday. 

“Croatia has shown that despite some good indicators, such as adoption of knowledge and technology, it is still inert in creating a better framework for the future, which is an obstacle to increasing digital competitiveness. The present low ranking of Croatia was probably affected by the emigration of digital specialists, notably young people. The creation of a stimulating and development-oriented social climate, especially in the digital sector, is a Croatian priority,” NVK president Ivan Misetic said.

Croatia’s fall in the ranking was mostly due to poor indicators of employee training, technological development, business agility and public-private partnership. On the other hand, the indicators that positively affected the country’s ranking are the pupil-teacher ratio in tertiary education, a large number of female researchers, high-tech patent grants, investment in telecommunications, and mobile broadband subscribers.

Overall, Croatia scored best on knowledge, ranking 47th, and worst on future readiness, placing 60th. Croatia is followed by Mexico, Peru, the Philippines, South Africa, Argentina and several other countries, which shows that Croatia occupies the lowest position in the ranking among all European and EU countries, NVK said.

The ranking is topped by the United States, Hong Kong, Sweden, Denmark, Singapore, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Taiwan, Norway and the United Arab Emirates.

The IMD World Digital Competitiveness Ranking, produced by the IMD World Competitiveness Center, 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. It analyses three factors – knowledge, technology and future readiness, with each factor divided into three sub-factors including a total of 52 criteria. The latest results are based on a survey carried out in February and March this year.