According to IMD World Digital Competitiveness Ranking 2019 report, the United Arab Emirates is ranked first in the Arab region and 12^th globally, advancing five positions from 2018.

In this year's report, the UAE has achieved the first rank in the Arab region in all three main factors which are: the technology factor, the future readiness factor and the knowledge factor.

Globally, the UAE was ranked:

• 2^nd in the technology factor
• 9^th in the future readiness factor
• 35^th in the knowledge factor.

The report explained that the UAE’s progress was due to an improvement in the training and education sub-factor. It attributed the success also to an improvement in the:

• regulatory framework in starting a business (from 29^th rank in 2018 to 15^th rank in 2019)
• effectiveness of scientific legislation (from 12^th rank in 2018 to 7^th rank in 2019)
• positive shift in IT integration (from 14^th rank in 2018 to 8^th rank in 2019) mainly because of improvement in the delivery models of government services via electronic channels (from 28^th rank in 2018 to 21^st rank in 2019).

Related links

• IMD World Digital Competitiveness Ranking 2019 (PDF, 100KB) 
• IMD World Digital Competitiveness Ranking 2018 (PDF, 100KB) 
• IMD World Digital Competitiveness Ranking 2017 (PDF, 100KB)