Philippines jumps to 56th in digital competitiveness index

THE PHILIPPINES improved five spots in the World Digital Competitiveness Ranking by the International Institute for Management Development (IMD), but remained a laggard in the Asia-Pacific region.

- By Beatriz Marie D. Cruz Reporter

The country ranked 56th out of 69 economies, with an overall score of 50.87 (out of 100), in the 2025 World Digital Competitiveness Ranking of the IMD World Competitiveness Center.

This was an improvement from last year when the Philippines ranked 61st, its worst ranking since the report was launched in 2017.

Among 14 Asia-Pacific economies, the country ranked 13th, ahead only of Mongolia (67th).

Switzerland ranked first in the global digital competitiveness index with a score of 100, followed by the United States (99.29), Singapore, (99.18), Hong Kong (97.79), and Denmark (97.23).

The ranking measures a country's readiness to adopt and explore digital technologies to transform government practices, business models, and society overall.

The index measures a country's capacity based on three key factors: knowledge or the quality of human capital, excellence of technological infrastructure, and future readiness.

The Philippines ranked 65th in the knowledge factor, 52nd in future readiness and 54th in technology.

According to IMD, the country showed weakness in the ease of starting a business (66th), enforcing contracts (66th), communications technology (66th), and secure internet servers (63rd).