In a study that seeks to promote the strong development of a digital economy globally, Chile ranks as the Latin American country best prepared to start implementing the new economic model. It took 34th place internationally.
The Digital Readiness Index 2019, published by technology firm Cisco, analyzes the digital maturity of 141 countries around the world and assesses their level of digitization across seven different areas, such as access to basic needs and technological adoption, using data from the World Bank, the World Economic Forum and the United Nations.
In the ranking, Chile advanced one position compared to 2018, overtaking Uruguay, and stands out in the category of access to basic needs, where factors such as life expectancy and access to electricity are evaluated.
“We take basic needs as one of the components because the true value of technology and infrastructure is obtained through the capacity of the population to take advantage of it and the benefits of innovations,” explains the general manager of Cisco Chile, Gabriel Calgaro.
According to the director of the Center of Digital Economy Studies of the Santiago Chamber of Commerce, George Lever, Chile urgently needs to accelerate its progress towards a digital economy by, for example, promoting digital adoption by small and medium-sized businesses and increasing investment in research and development (R&D).
“Today, the adoption of practices supported and enabled by digital technologies is generating gigantic gaps in terms of the competitiveness of a business. It is key to generate a cultural change that facilitates this process,” says Lever.
Weak start-up environment
At the other extreme, Chile obtained its worst evaluation in the index for its start-up environment.
Lever notes that “our very low performance on start-up development is mainly due to poor production of new patents and the absence of a powerful venture capital market (…) It is very likely that the same start-up would have a greater chance of success in the United States or Israel than in Chile, and that is a comment on the limitations of our market.”
Calgaro adds that, at the local level, work is still required to develop a start-up environment in order to foster innovation in communities, encourage the adoption of new technologies and promote business and government investment in innovation and technology.
To find out more about technology advances in Chile and investment opportunities, see this article.
Source: Diario Financiero