Our country ranks 47th of 115 countries in the Euler Hermes ranking for 2019.
Bulgaria climbs 11 positions to 47th place of 115 countries in the annual Euler Hermès business digitalisation rating. With this result, our country becomes the most dynamically developing country in the region of Central and Eastern Europe, commented from the association.
In the last year’s ranking, Bulgaria fell down by two positions and then ranked 58th in business digitization ranking.
The EDI (Enabling Digitalization Index) assesses the working conditions and development of digital companies, as well as the opportunities for digitalization of businesses in their countries. For this purpose, 5 criteria are used – regulations, knowledge, connectivity, infrastructure and dimension. The maximum possible score is 100 points.
With good ratings for regulations and connectivity, Bulgaria manages to outperform its neighbors Serbia (50th), Romania (56th), Turkey (48th), as well as Croatia and Montenegro. Ahead of us are some other countries in the region – the Czech Republic (27th), Slovenia (31st), Hungary (34th), which are also making progress.
The Euler Hermes analysts’ assessment of the region is positive, noting the successful strategy of the countries to compensate the lack of dimention with a focus on infrastructure, connectivity and development of knowledge. It is knowledge that has the greatest potential for improvement in our country.
The 2019 Euler Hermes ranking is once again led by the United States. Germany also retains its second place, with the Netherlands displaced by the top three from Denmark. China’s development is also positive, the country ranked in the top 10 for the first time.
Analysts say that the EDI index does not measure the digitalization itself in the country concerned, but focuses specifically on the conditions for business development through digitalization and the risks of delay. Along with the data on the contribution of the digital economy to GDP, factors such as growth of e-commerce, the new services, big data and cloud technologies, robotics and automation, the impact on productivity and the development of education are taken into account.
According to Euler Hermes experts, tracking the EDI is important for business because of the new economic reality – currently about one fifth of global GDP is generated by the digital economy. The data on the development of e-commerce also proves it, with a growth of 13.7% in the USA for 2018 (after 16% in 2017). In China, the increase is even more significant – 29% for 2018 (32% in the previous year). The pace is higher than the traditional trade growth.
In addition, besides adapting to the new environment and using growth opportunities, according to Euler Hermes experts, it is also important for the business to keep an eye on digitalisation and the emergence of new risks. They are related both to cyber security and the impact of the so-called “new cold war”, that has escalated between China and the United States in cases involving tech companies.
