Microsoft created Digital Futures Index and measured level of digitalization of Croatia
Croatia has excellent results in the field of talent and skills. 48% of young people aged 16 to 29 have digital skills above the average of Eastern and Central European countries but there is much room for improvement in the field of digitalisation of public services.
Microsoft created the Digital Futures Index and measured the "digital pulse" of 16 European countries, including Croatia. The index provides data on the current level of digitalization of the country, detects the most successful areas, but also areas that need to be focused on to accelerate the process of digital transformation.
Digitization is observed through 5 categories of digital development: digital business, digital government and public sector, digital infrastructure, digital sector, and human capital. The overall level of digital development in Croatia is 91, which is 9 percent below the average of Central and Eastern European countries (100 is the number of points defined as the average for Central and Eastern Europe). Croatia is particularly strong in the field of talent, and the level of digital skills among the general population is also high. We achieve the best results in the category of human capital, which is strongly associated with higher innovation, productivity, and wages, and in all other categories the results are close to the average of Central and Eastern European countries.
“We’ve created Digital Futures Index to help decision makers to accelerate digital transformation of the country. Our research has shown that digitally advanced countries are greener, wealthier, more innovative, and more competitive. We in Microsoft believe that Croatia has strong potential and all te prerequisites for becoming the digital hub of this part of Europe, which will base its economic development on innovation and modern technologies, such as artificial intelligence,“ commented Tatjana Skoko, Country Manager, Microsoft Croatia.
Results of the Digital Futures Index for Croatia by category, related to the average of CEE countries (100 marks the average)
In category Digital Business Croatia scored 84, being 16 percent below average. The data show that accelerating digital transformation and increasing competitiveness will be achieved through greater investments by Croatian companies in the cloud and in advanced digital technologies such as artificial intelligence
In the category of Digital Government and Public Sector, Croatia has 90 points. From the results it can be read that the existing digital services are used to a large extent, but the key opportunity is the digitalization of public services.
In the area of Digital Infrastructure, Croatia scores 93 points, and there are large differences in the results of the average speed of fixed broadband access (71) and the average speed of mobile internet (131).
In the Digital Sector category, the state scored 87 points. The results of the size of the digital economy show that the ICT sector strongly contributes to GDP and that Croatia exceeds the average when looking at the number of newly established companies.
The best results are in the category of Human Capital - 107 points. Croatia has excellent results in the field of talent and skills, which have strong correlations in all segments in terms of innovation, productivity, and wages. It also surpasses all countries in the Index when it comes to the level of digital skills of young people aged 16 to 29, as the result is 48 percent above the average of Central and Eastern Europe.
To fully become a digital society, special attention needs to be paid to the following areas: developing and improving the digital skills of people of all ages, encouraging SMEs to digitally transform and digitizing public services. Adopting a hybrid work culture and work flexibility will make employees more productive and innovative, and the need to invest in IT professionals is emphasized.
About Digital Futures Index
The Digital Futures Index presents the results in PowerBI and brings the levels of digitization of Croatia, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Greece, Hungary, Malta, Poland, Romania, Russia, Serbia and Slovenia. The Index also includes countries considered to be leaders in digitalisation - Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands and Sweden - and Portugal, which is in the "digital rise", to obtain additional data for comparison. The model includes 55 different data parameters that are organized into categories for easier modeling and navigation through data. Data were collected from reliable public sources, including the European Commission, UNESCO, World Bank, Eurostat, OECD, Digital Nomad Index, UN, WTO, European Investment Bank and Eurofound.
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