Korea’s digital competitiveness falls nine notches in 2025

(Joint Press Corps)

South Korea’s digital competitiveness has taken a sharp hit, falling behind regional peers in Asia such as Singapore, Hong Kong and Taiwan.

The Institute for Management Development in Switzerland released its 2025 World Digital Competitiveness Ranking on Sunday, placing Korea at 15th. The country tumbled 9 spots from 6th the previous year.

Korea had climbed into the top 10 in 2022, rising from 12th in 2021 to 8th, and held 6th place in both 2023 and 2024. This year’s assessment, however, showed the country near the bottom among 69 surveyed economies in talent and regulatory conditions.

(IMD)

The IMD index draws on 61 indicators across the categories of knowledge, technology and future readiness, which are further divided into nine subcategories. Korea’s talent ranking dropped 30 notches from a year earlier to 49th, while its regulatory framework fell 20 spots to 38th.

In 2022, the Korean government announced a national digital strategy and pledged to raise the country to 3rd place in the IMD index by 2027. This year, it set goals to become one of the world’s top 3 AI powers and top 5 science and technology nations and rolled out regulatory and talent development measures. The latest decline, however, is seen as a major setback that calls those ambitions into question

Switzerland topped the global ranking, up one notch from last year. It was followed by the U.S., Singapore, Hong Kong and Denmark. In Asia, Taiwan placed 10th, down one spot, while China moved up two spots to 12th. Japan rose one spot to 30th.

The report also found that AI literacy skills considered essential for future generations, particularly creativity and problem solving among elementary and secondary students, were significantly low. The findings pointed to an urgent need for stronger education in those areas.

“The AI race is shifting from a technology contest to a competition between national systems built around talent,” said Yeo Yeong-jun, associate research fellow at the National Assembly Futures Institute. “Korea needs to move beyond short-term workforce programs and adopt sustainable talent policies that support long-term development.”