Introduction

In the context of the global pandemic of the COVID-19 in 2020 and 2021, digital technology has been widely used. Home office, online conference, online teaching, e-shopping, telemedicine and other epidemic prevention measures have slowed the spread of the epidemic. On the one hand, the epidemic has caused serious impacts on the normal operation of the global economy and society; On the other hand, digital technology is driving a transformation in the way the economy and society operate. New forms and models of digital economy continue to emerge, demonstrating strong resilience in its development. According to statistics from the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology, in 2021, the added value of the digital economy in 47 countries worldwide reached 38.1 trillion US dollars, a year-on-year increase of 15.6%, accounting for 45.0% of GDP. The growth rate and GDP proportion increased by 12.6 and 1.3 percentage points respectively compared to the previous year. Under the pressures of global health crisis, economic recession, and increasing geopolitical risks, the digital economy has become a stabilizer for global economic downturn and a new high ground for strategic competition among major powers.

The acceleration of the global digital revolution under the epidemic has also heightened the urgency for countries to respond to this process. The digital economy is becoming a key force in restructuring global factor resources, reshaping the global economic structure and governance system. Digital technology, digital rules, and digital sovereignty are becoming new focal points in the great power game. The "2022 Global Innovation Index Report" released by the World Intellectual Property Organization points out that the rapid rise of digital technologies such as artificial intelligence, big data, cloud computing, and the Internet of Things is profoundly changing the global economic landscape. In the past five years, patent innovation in the digital technology field has been 172% faster than in all other fields. In January 2021, the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation of the United States released the "US Global Digital Economy Grand Strategy", which pointed out that digital technology is a key technology in today's world, and the United States must develop a comprehensive and ambitious strategy to guide its IT and digital policies and occupy the dominant position in the global digital economy. In June 2021, the US Senate passed the "2021 American Innovation and Competition Act", which involves numerous provisions on digital technology and cyberspace. It mainly makes strategic deployments from the perspectives of global technology facilities, communication technology, and information content, proposes the construction of digital communication technology and network security partners, and leads the standard setting of 5G technology. The EU actively competes for leadership in formulating global digital rules and has successively issued regulations and strategic documents such as the General Data Protection Regulation, Shaping Europe's Digital Future, European Data Strategy, and 2030 Digital Compass: The European Digital Decade. In April 2021, the European Union passed the Artificial Intelligence Act, proposing the development of "trustworthy artificial intelligence based on European values and rules". Japan released its Comprehensive Data Strategy in June 2021, which aims to build the digital foundation necessary for Japan to become a world-class digital nation. The strategy clarifies the basic ideas of data strategy, formulates a social vision, and provides basic action guidelines for achieving this vision. In September of the same year, Japan established the Digital Agency with the aim of rapidly and effectively promoting the digital society process. In October 2021, South Korea passed the Basic Law for the Revitalization and Utilization of the Data Industry, laying the foundation for the development of the data industry and the revitalization of the data economy. It implemented a new digital policy in South Korea that focuses on promoting the development of big data, 5G networks, and artificial intelligence (AI). In October 2021, Singapore released its Cybersecurity Strategy 2021, proposing strategic measures such as building resilient infrastructure, creating a secure cyberspace, and strengthening international cyberspace norms and cooperation. In the 14th Five Year Plan for the National Economy, China proposed to make key digital economy technologies such as artificial intelligence and integrated circuits major national science and technology projects, and support their leading development. In 2021, China officially released the "Data Security Law of the People's Republic of China" and the "Personal Information Protection Law of the People's Republic of China", which strengthened the regulation of data security and personal information protection. In terms of global digital economy cooperation, in June 2021, the United States and Japan established the "US Japan Global Digital Connectivity Partnership" to promote the development of the digital economy and the development of new generation communication technologies; In the same month, the United States and the European Union initiated the establishment of the "Trade and Technology Committee", dedicated to eliminating trade barriers, developing technical standards, and innovating key technologies, promoting the coordinated development of the US and Europe in the digital field. The EU's "EU Indo Pacific Cooperation Strategy Report" proposes to reach new digital partnership agreements with countries such as Japan and Singapore, cooperate with India in the development of artificial intelligence and 5G networks, and promote the standardization, institutionalization, and stability of digital partnership relationships. On November 1, 2021, China officially applied to join the Digital Economy Partnership Agreement and actively aligned with global digital economic and trade rules.

In summary, the strong development resilience demonstrated by the digital economy during the pandemic has accelerated the pace of countries formulating digital economy development strategies and regulations, intensified the competition for dominance in digital technology standards and digital trade norms, and deepened the cognitive gap between major powers regarding data sovereignty and national security. Based on this, this report constructs a global digital economy country competitiveness evaluation index system based on newly available data, and uses the latest data to quantitatively evaluate and analyze the digital economy competitiveness of 50 major countries worldwide.

The Comprehensive Evaluation Results and Analysis of the Competitiveness of Global Digital Economy Countries

Our research team has been studying and constructing a global digital economy country competitiveness evaluation index system since 2017, and has selected 50 countries worldwide to quantitatively evaluate and analyze their digital economy competitiveness. On the basis of the previous indicator system, combined with the availability and timeliness of underlying data, this year's global digital economy country competitiveness evaluation indicator system has been further updated and improved, as shown in Table 1.

表1 全球数字经济国家竞争力评价指标体系构成

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Table 1 Composition of the Evaluation Index System for the Competitiveness of Global Digital Economy Countries

The evaluation index system for the competitiveness of countries in the global digital economy is still mainly based on the frameworks of digital infrastructure, digital industries, digital innovation, and digital governance. The competitiveness of digital facilities is developed from three aspects: network facilities, communication facilities, and terminal equipment. In order to highlight the popularization and application of new generation digital technologies and equipment, three indicators have been added: 5G base station penetration rate, smartphone penetration rate, and smart home terminal market size. The competitiveness of the digital industry and digital innovation basically retains the original indicators. In terms of digital governance competitiveness, the data source of data openness level, regulatory regulations, and business policy indicators has been updated to reflect national data transparency, data security, and data privacy. After this adjustment and improvement, the evaluation index system for the competitiveness of global digital economy countries has retained its basic framework, with more timely data updates, more authoritative and stable data sources, and more authentic and reliable evaluation results.

（1） Comprehensive ranking of national competitiveness in the digital economy

According to the evaluation index system for the competitiveness of global digital economy countries constructed in Table 1, based on the latest data, the digital economy competitiveness level of 50 major countries worldwide was quantitatively evaluated. The final evaluation results are shown in Table 2.

表2 2022年全球数字经济国家竞争力排名

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Table 2 Global Competitiveness Ranking of Digital Economy Countries in 2022

According to the evaluation results, the United States is the country with the strongest comprehensive competitiveness in the global digital economy, ranking first and topping the list for six consecutive years. The advantage of the US digital economy is still stable and far ahead of the second place. From the four sub indicators, the United States ranks first in the world in digital infrastructure and digital innovation, second in digital industry competitiveness, and has lower scores than the other three sub indicators. Its digital governance competitiveness ranks fourth, but the gap with the top three is not significant. Overall, the United States ranks among the top in various indicators, and the development of the digital economy is relatively balanced, reflecting strong global competitiveness.

China ranks second in the global competitiveness of digital economy countries, and the gap with the United States is significant. Compared to the 4.25 point gap last year, the gap will widen to 3.3 times in 2022. From a background analysis perspective, the United States has listed China as its most important strategic competitor, and a series of competition laws have focused on suppressing China's economic and technological development, which greatly limits the normal development of China's digital economy and leads to a decline in the overall competitiveness score of China's digital economy. From the perspective of sub indicators, China ranks among the top 6 in digital industry, digital innovation, and digital infrastructure. The competitiveness of the digital industry continues the previous year's advantage and ranks first on the list, but there is only a slight gap of 0.04 points compared to the competitiveness of the digital industry in the United States. And the competitiveness score of China's digital governance is relatively backward, at the middle level, which seriously affects the overall competitiveness score of China's digital economy as a country.

Switzerland and the Netherlands rank third and fourth on the list, with scores in the top 6 for digital infrastructure and digital governance. However, due to their small market size and low growth rate, the Netherlands' digital industry competitiveness ranks at the bottom. Japan and South Korea rank 5th and 6th, with their digital infrastructure and digital innovation competitiveness both ranking in the top 10. Their digital governance competitiveness is about 10 points behind Switzerland and the Netherlands, placing them in the middle and upper reaches of the global market. Japan has a higher score in digital industry competitiveness, ranking 6th in the world.

Denmark, Ireland, Sweden, and Israel rank 7th to 10th on the list, and these countries often only rank among the world's top in two of the four sub indicators, resulting in relatively uneven development of the digital economy. Among them, Denmark's digital governance competitiveness ranks first in the world, and its digital infrastructure competitiveness ranks fifth. However, its digital infrastructure competitiveness is a weakness for the other three countries, all of which are in the middle range.

From the overall score, except for the United States which scored over 75 points, China and Switzerland scored slightly over 60 points. The countries ranked 4th to 10th all scored between 55 and 60 points, with little difference between them. This indicates that the competitiveness of the United States in the digital economy is difficult to surpass in the short term, and on the other hand, it also shows that the digital economy is currently the most fiercely competitive field, and the future competition pattern of the digital economy will still be in a state of drastic change.

From the bottom 10 of the list, Colombia still ranks at the bottom, while Croatia, Vietnam, South Africa, the Philippines, Indonesia, and Mexico still rank in this column. Against the backdrop of accelerated iteration of digital technology and the emergence of a large number of new digital formats, countries with backward digital economic foundations will exhibit a clear "Matthew effect".

（2） Analysis of the Internal Structure of Competitiveness in Global Digital Economy Countries

This report continues to combine the four primary indicators of national competitiveness in the global digital economy, categorizing digital industry competitiveness and digital innovation competitiveness as digital market competitiveness, and digital governance competitiveness and digital facility competitiveness as digital environment competitiveness. The equal weighting method is used to sum up the two scores and create a scatter plot. From Figure 1, it can be seen that there is an overall positive correlation between the digital environment competitiveness and the digital market competitiveness of each country, that is, the digital environment and the digital market are complementary. Only when the two achieve balanced development can a country gain strong global competitiveness.

From Figure 1, only the United States is located in the upper right corner of the scatter plot, while other countries are distributed in a relatively elliptical shape on the left. From this, it can be seen that the United States has an absolute leading advantage in the digital environment and digital market, and is in the first tier of digital economy competitiveness, with a significant gap compared to other countries. Countries with a digital market competitiveness score greater than 80 and a digital environment competitiveness score greater than 100 are classified as the second tier. These countries are the main competitors of the global digital economy, including China, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Japan, South Korea, Denmark, Ireland, Sweden, Israel, Germany, Finland, the United Kingdom, Singapore, France, Norway, Austria, Canada, Australia, Belgium, and Spain. Among them, China is a country with significantly stronger digital market competitiveness than digital environment competitiveness, while countries such as the Netherlands, Switzerland, and Denmark have stronger digital environment competitiveness than digital market competitiveness. However, countries such as Mexico, Indonesia, South Africa, and Colombia have weak competitiveness in the digital market and digital environment, making it difficult to gain an advantage in the global digital economy competition. In summary, the leading advantage of the United States in the field of digital economy competitiveness will not be surpassed in the short term, and China is its biggest challenger, but it needs to focus on strengthening its competitiveness in the digital environment.

Figure 1 Scatter plot of digital environment competitiveness and digital market competitiveness of major countries

According to the evaluation index system for the competitiveness of global digital economy countries constructed in this report, a country's digital economy competitiveness is determined by the scores of four sub indicators: digital infrastructure competitiveness, digital industry competitiveness, digital innovation competitiveness, and digital governance competitiveness. Any major weakness in any indicator will lead to the country losing its advantage in global digital economy competition. From the perspective of the balance of the development of each indicator, the internal structure of the competitiveness of the digital economy of various countries is analyzed. As shown in Figure 2, China is the country with the most balanced score of the four sub indicators. Because of this balance, China still shows strong resilience in the development of the digital economy against the background of the COVID-19 and the all-round suppression of the US economy, trade and science and technology. The United States scores relatively evenly on three indicators, but its competitiveness in the digital industry is relatively low. This is also an important reason for the United States to accelerate the return of physical industries, reshape the global high-tech industry chain, and seize the dominant position in digital economic and trade rules. The remaining countries in the top 6 of the list mostly show a structure with low scores in digital industry competitiveness and high scores in digital governance competitiveness. This indicates that these countries are ahead of the digital industry in terms of governance in digital security, personal privacy, and other aspects. This also reflects a fact that it is difficult for countries to achieve comprehensive coverage in the field of digital economy, and the globalization of digital economy is still the trend.

Figure 2: The internal structure of the top 6 competitiveness countries in the digital economy

（3） Ranking and Trends of Competitiveness of Global Digital Economy Countries over the Years

This report has been evaluating and ranking the comprehensive competitiveness of the digital economy in 50 countries (regions) around the world since 2017. Since Vietnam was added to the list in 2018, the countries participating in the evaluation have been fixed. The ranking and trend of ranking changes of various countries over the years are shown in Table 3.

表3 2017～2022年全球数字经济国家竞争力排名

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Table 3 Global Competitiveness Ranking of Digital Economy Countries from 2017 to 2022

From an overall ranking perspective, the United States has consistently ranked first on the list, and apart from the United States, no other country has such a stable level of comprehensive competitiveness in the digital economy. China, Japan, South Korea, Sweden, Norway, Austria, Belgium, Spain, Estonia, Czech Republic, Italy and other countries have not changed much in their ranking and are in the middle and upper reaches of the ranking list, indicating that their digital economy development has entered the right track, with a certain scale of digital economy, a relatively complete governance system, and strong resilience to external shocks. Although countries such as the Netherlands, Ireland, and Singapore have strong comprehensive digital economy capabilities, their overall digital economy is relatively small. The digital economy heavily relies on the international market and is highly susceptible to external factors such as competition from major powers, making it difficult to maintain a stable position in overall competitiveness. Although the rankings of countries such as Indonesia, Mexico, and Colombia are stable, they have long been at the bottom of the list, while the rankings of countries such as Portugal and Brazil have shown a downward trend over the long term. From a background analysis perspective, major economies around the world have issued a series of regulations and strategic documents to develop the digital economy. Countries that have long been at the bottom of the list or whose rankings continue to decline urgently need to introduce corresponding strategic plans to drive the development of the digital economy. From an overall perspective, the United States and China are the main competitors in the field of digital economy. Although there is a certain gap between the two, only China has a certain economic scale and strength to catch up with the United States. Japan, South Korea, and some European countries have long been in the upper middle of the list. These countries are major participants in the global digital economy and also China's main competitors in the field of digital economy.

Results and Analysis of Sub item Evaluation of Competitiveness of Three Global Digital Economy Countries

（1） Analysis of Competitive Ranking of Digital Facilities

The ranking of digital infrastructure competitiveness is evaluated from three aspects: network infrastructure, communication infrastructure, and terminal equipment. Table 4 shows that the United States has the highest score in digital infrastructure competitiveness, followed by South Korea and the Netherlands. The competitiveness of digital infrastructure in the United States has consistently ranked first, with the highest scores in communication facilities and terminal equipment, and a mid to high level in network infrastructure. Compared to previous indicators of digital infrastructure competitiveness, the 2022 report focuses on the penetration rate of 5G facilities and smart terminal devices, which better reflects the new characteristics of the digital economy. South Korea is the country that deployed its first 5G network, and it is expected that by 2025, nearly 60% of its mobile users will use 5G networks. According to a report from the National Bureau of Statistics of China, as of the end of 2021, the number of 5G base stations in China accounted for over 60% of the global total, and China has built the world's largest 5G network. According to VIAVI statistics, the two countries with the most 5G network coverage in cities are China (376) and the United States (284). According to the China Academy of Electronic Information Industry Development, as of the end of 2021, there were nearly 700 large and above data centers worldwide, more than double the number in 2016, with nearly 40% located in the United States. The number of data centers in China and the United States accounted for more than half of the world's total. From the above data, it can be seen that China's ranking of digital infrastructure competitiveness has risen from 15th place last year to 6th place. The main reason is that the indicators focus on China's application of digital technology and digital equipment. However, due to China's vast territory and large population base, it is difficult to compare with smaller and more densely populated countries such as South Korea, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and Denmark in terms of new technology penetration rate or per capita rate. Europe is a region with a high deployment rate of digital technologies and equipment such as 5G, and its overall digital infrastructure competitiveness score is high.

表4 数字设施竞争力综合排名

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Table 4 Comprehensive Ranking of Digital Facility Competitiveness

（2） Analysis of the Ranking of Competitiveness in the Digital Industry

The evaluation of the competitiveness of the digital industry is mainly carried out from three aspects: economic output, international trade, and industrial growth rate. Considering the coherence and availability of data, the data on economic output and industrial growth rate are sourced from the Statista database. Economic output includes three aspects: e-commerce, digital media services, and electronic services, which are slightly different from the digital economy output scale calculated by the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology. Table 5 shows the evaluation results and ranking, from which it can be seen that China occupies the top spot on the list with a slight advantage of 0.04 points over the United States, but its scores in international trade and industrial growth rate are relatively low. Compared with the previous year, the economic output gap between China and the United States has significantly narrowed, and the industrial growth rate of the United States has surpassed that of China. With this trend, the gap between the United States and China in digital industry competitiveness will become smaller and there is a possibility of surpassing China. With its advantages in international trade, Ireland still ranks in the top 4 of the list, closely followed by Israel, Argentina, Japan, Sweden, India, France, and Germany. Due to the huge advantages of China and the United States in the digital economy, other countries mainly gain competitiveness by increasing industrial growth.

表5 数字产业竞争力综合排名

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Table 5 Comprehensive Ranking of Digital Industry Competitiveness

At the bottom of the list are South Africa, Portugal, Croatia, Lithuania, Colombia, the Netherlands, Estonia, Türkiye, Latvia and Saudi Arabia, of which the Netherlands and South Africa have a large decline. From the perspective of the large proportion of Central and Eastern European countries at the bottom of the list for a long time, the digital economy in Central and Eastern Europe will still be lagging behind in the short term.

（3） Analysis of Ranking of Digital Innovation Competitiveness

The booming development of digital technologies such as artificial intelligence, big data, cloud computing, and the Internet of Things has brought new growth opportunities for enterprises, especially startups, and is the main driving force for global digital economic growth. The competitiveness of digital innovation is mainly evaluated from three aspects: innovation output, talent investment, and research and development investment. The scores and rankings of digital innovation competitiveness in various countries are shown in Table 6.

表6 数字创新竞争力综合排名

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Table 6 Comprehensive Ranking of Digital Innovation Competitiveness

The United States ranks first with a score of 72.16, 12.37 points higher than the Netherlands in second place, followed closely by Japan, Switzerland, China, South Korea, Sweden, and Israel. The digital innovation competitiveness scores are all above 50 points, and the gap is not too large. Mexico, the Philippines, Indonesia, Vietnam, and India rank at the bottom of the list. From the perspective of sub indicators, the scores of all indicators in the United States are relatively high and balanced. The Netherlands scored high in terms of intellectual property income. According to the World Bank's 2021 data on intellectual property exports, the Netherlands ranked fourth with $37.16 billion, more than three times that of China ($11.74 billion). From the perspective of digital technology patent production, according to the 2021 important technology field patent application volume published by the German Patent Office (DPMA), China has applied for 4308 patents in the field of "digital communication technology" (including mobile communication including 5G standards), surpassing the 4115 patents in the United States. Huawei is the most important patent applicant for mobile communication and network technology in China; In terms of computer technology, the United States is far ahead with 5943 cases, China ranks second with 2017 cases, and Germany ranks third with 1814 cases; However, in the field of semiconductors and chips, Japan ranked first with 1020 patent applications, followed by the United States (884), South Korea (820), Taiwan, China (695) and Germany (646). Chinese Mainland failed to rank among the top 5. From this, it can be seen that although China produces more innovative achievements represented by patents, it lacks core patents in some key areas of the digital economy, making it difficult to obtain high intellectual property benefits. In addition, China's investment in talent and research and development ranks at the middle level, which seriously affects the comprehensive ranking of China's digital innovation competitiveness. Although countries at the bottom of the list have some talent and R&D investment, they have less output of innovative achievements in the field of digital economy, resulting in lower competitiveness.

（4） Ranking analysis of digital governance competitiveness

The rapid development of the digital economy has given rise to a series of issues such as data security, privacy protection, algorithm discrimination, platform monopoly, and tax evasion. Unfair competition, infringement of user rights, and harm to national security continue to emerge. The great power game in the field of digital economy has also shifted from competing for scientific research strength to competing for digital technology standards and international rule making power. Currently, the competition among major powers is escalating, and the "new track" of countries vying for digital sovereignty will profoundly change the global economic, interest, and security landscape. Building a global digital economic governance system has become a focus of attention for all countries. This report uses digital governance competitiveness as a sub indicator to evaluate the competitiveness of digital economy countries, and comprehensively and accurately evaluates it using three secondary indicators: security assurance, service management, and market environment. Service management is mainly evaluated from two aspects: the level of data openness and the government electronic service index released by the United Nations. The development of the digital economy cannot be separated from the soil of the market. The fairness, flexibility, and stability of a country's market regulatory policies all determine the development prospects of its digital economy. In addition, this report evaluates the market environment from both regulatory and business policy perspectives. The evaluation results and rankings of digital governance competitiveness are shown in Table 7.

表7 数字治理竞争力综合排名

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Table 7 Comprehensive Ranking of Digital Governance Competitiveness

Denmark ranks first in digital governance competitiveness with a score of 93.30, followed closely by Singapore, the Netherlands, and the United States, with little difference in digital governance competitiveness scores between countries. The top 10 countries are mainly European countries, with China ranking only 27th, with a gap of over 20 points compared to Denmark. Vietnam, South Africa, Colombia, and the Philippines are at the bottom of the list, but the gap with other countries is not too large, indicating that the development of the digital economy is significantly faster than the construction of the digital governance system, which is a universal phenomenon worldwide. Overall, European countries continue to lead the world in digital governance capabilities, while Asian countries have significant differences in political, economic, and social environments. Governments of various countries have different processes in carrying out digital governance, and the development of digital governments is more differentiated.