Towards data-driven optimisation (Bild: IKV)

31.10.2024 Sustainability and digitalisation antagonising deindustrialisation

What to do not losing ground

von Professor Dr. Christian Hopmann (RWTH Aachen – Institut für Kunststoffverarbeitung (IKV))

Despite all its commitments to digital transformation, Germany is losing ground in international competition. This was just recently subrevealed by the IMD in its World Digital Competitiveness Ranking 2023 [1]. Out of 64 countries surveyed, incl. leading industrialised nations such as the USA and China as well as digital speedboats such as the Netherlands and Korea and countries with a low-performing economy, Germany has slipped to 23rd place and is no longer even in the top 30%.

In detail, Germany shows considerable weaknesses in several areas (Fig.1): In the „knowledge“ category, the subcriterion „digital/ technological skills“, i.e. digital and technological education across the population, is identified as a major inhibiting factor. In the „technology“ category, these inhibiting factors are the criteria „communication technology“ and „mobile broadband subscribers“ and in the „future readiness“ category the criteria „smartphone possession“ and „opportunities and threats“.