Jordan drops in global smart city rankings

AMMAN — Jordan ranked fourth in the Arab world in a recent report on smart digital cities for the year 2020.

In its fifth edition, the Smart City Index for 2020 placed the Kingdom in the 53rd place worldwide.  

The report was prepared by IMD World Competitiveness Centre in Lausanne, Switzerland.

The US topped the list followed by Singapore, Denmark, Sweden and Hong Kong.

The report stated that over the past 12 months, Jordan registered improvements in some of the indicators such as the availability of capital for the digital world, talents, the technology domain and scientific concentration.

The report also stated that Jordan was listed in the 11th place in terms of the use and analysis of data in both the local and public sector.

Meanwhile, Jordan witnessed some regression and did not "fair well in domains such as comprehensive technology information and work flexibility".

Director of the Phenix Centre for Economic Studies Ahmad Awad said that the decline in Jordan's ranking in the Global Digital Competitiveness Report for 2020 from 50 to 53 out of 63 countries included in the report indicates a slowdown in the development of many sub-indicators such as business flexibility and information technology integration. 

"This decline was accompanied by many other international competitiveness indicators such as corruption perceptions and ease of business," Awad told The Jordan Times.

Awad added that the other participating countries advanced at a faster pace than Jordan, which indicates "a decline in the government performance in this area".

However, he added that this does not hinder Jordan's progress in some of the other "sub-indicators that make up the Global Digital Competitiveness Index, as it improved in enhancing talent, the regulatory framework, availability of capital for the digital sector, the technological framework, adaptive attitudes and scientific focus".

The report measures the capacity and readiness of 63 economies to adopt and explore digital technologies as a key driver for economic transformation in business, government and wider society, according to the IMD website.