The introduction of digital technology in the national administration has led Spain to be on the 12 place out of 34 on digitisation. The ‘Telefónica Index on Digital Life (TIDL)’ report also highlights the growth of some Latin-American countries.
14 june 2016
Spain is on the 12 place out of 34 on digitisation in the national economy thanks to the development of electronic administration (e-government), according to the first edition of Telefónica Index on Digital Life.
In the report by Telefónica, together with the Imperial College Business School (England), George Mason University (USA) and Pécs University (Hungary), three variables were taken into account:
- Digital Opening: how freely does the information flow within a specific economy.
- Digital Trust: the degree in which users are involved in the digital world.
- Digital Entrepreneurship: how economic activities thrive in the digital world.
A higher economic potential is not always linked to a higher implementation of digital technology
‘Ranking’ by countries
Spain achieves its best result in the section ‘Digital Trust’. In Europe, it is in the 3 position in the ranking, whereas it is only 6 at an international level. Regarding digital entrepreneurship, it is among the 10 first countries internationally.
In general terms, the TIDL gives Spain a score of 70.1 out of 100. The USA is first in the ranking with a score of 96.3, surpassing other countries like Canada, Australia, the United Kingdom, Germany, Israel and France.
The Latin-American countries, specially Colombia, Chile and Mexico, present a growth in digitisation which is proportionally superior to the GDP per capita of their respective economies. The results of the study show that a higher economic potential is not always linked to a higher implementation of digital technology.
In this regard, the president of Telefónica, José María Álvarez-Pallete, states in the introduction of the report that “an increase of the 10% in digitisation of economy could boost the growth rate of the GDP per capita up to a 40%”. He also adds that “through the last two decades, the digital industry has been responsible of mostly the fifth part of the world’s growth”.
Recommendations
The document concludes with a section dedicated to present the challenges regarding certain public policies adopted in several countries that could be complicating the creation of a successful digital ecosystem. Again, the recommendation revolve around three main pillars:
- Digital Opening: ending the technological monopolies, free access to the digital infrastructure, low change costs and easy migration among platforms.
- Digital Trust: creation of policies to grant choice and expression freedom, security and privacy of the digital data.
- Digital Entrepreneurship: policies oriented to ensure that the learning of digitisation is being correctly seized.
The digitisation is the transversal social and economic process to almost all societies and economies that consists on implementing digital technologies in all the fields of social life, from culture and education to the social services or transportation.
Telefónica Index on Digital Life Report: http://indexdigitallife.telefonica.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/indexdigitallife-report-es.pdf
