East Asian governments surge in AI readiness – see global rankings in full

By Jack Aldane on 26/01/2022 | Updated on 28/01/2022

Governments in countries across East Asia have leapt ahead in their readiness to adopt artificial intelligence in public services, according to an annual index report released by Oxford Insights.

The 2021 Government AI Readiness Index ranked 160 countries in total, scoring each out of 100 based on indicators of AI readiness, including government vision, technology sector size and available data and infrastructure.

Governments in East Asian countries for the first time made up around 25% of the top-scoring 20 countries overall, with Singapore the highest in second place. The US topped the index meanwhile, owing to the size and maturity of its technology sector.

The report pointed to East Asia’s “global success in AI research and its advanced computing power”. It added that, with the exception of Taiwan, all the highest-ranking countries in the region scored significantly above the global average on skills, education and infrastructure.

Of the highest-scoring governments in East Asia behind Singapore, South Korea came 10th, followed by Japan (12th), China (15th), and Taiwan (18th).

According to the report, pressure on East Asian countries to respond to the coronavirus pandemic prompted a surge in digital healthcare innovation, especially Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines.

“While it is hard to trace the effects of such developments on specific indicator scores in our index, it is feasible that they will trickle through to higher rankings in the private sector innovation capacity and government digital capacity dimensions in the future,” it said.

Regional disparities in AI developments across the world

Though East Asian governments collectively appeared to advance in preparedness for AI-based services, the degree of readiness between them varied significantly. Possible explanations were linked to factors such as the lack of available data in individual countries, the relative maturity of their technology sectors, as well as under-developed national AI strategies.

“Despite the advances of many of the top scoring countries in the region, East Asia is one of the most unequal regions in terms of AI readiness. Several countries score below the global overall average of 47.42 out of 100,” it said.

Developed countries were more likely to have developed national AI strategies, but only around 40% of the countries ranked were found either to have released a strategy or be involved in creating one. Of the top five countries overall, three were based in Western Europe: the United Kingdom, Finland, and the Netherlands. Nordic countries were noted to have scored highly despite the relative size of their economies. An example given was Finland, which has the world’s 41st largest economy, yet managed to rank 4th in the index.

“These results demonstrate how a country’s size does not determine its ranking in the index,” the report said. Countries that had made the least progress were based in Sub-Saharan Africa and Central and South Asia. Together, these regions held a combined average score of 36.27.

“With governments in some developing nations having limited capacity to build and deliver AI in their public services, few are at the stage in AI readiness to publish their vision for AI,” it said.

AI Readiness Index in full

Global Position	Country	Overall Score	Government	Technology Sector	Data and Infrastructure
1	United States of America	88.16	88.46	83.31	92.71
2	Singapore	82.46	94.88	66.69	85.80
3	United Kingdom	81.25	85.69	67.26	90.81
4	Finland	79.23	88.45	63.85	85.40
5	Netherlands	78.51	80.42	66.17	88.92
6	Sweden	78.16	80.76	67.37	86.36
7	Canada	77.73	84.36	63.75	85.08
8	Germany	77.26	78.04	67.68	86.07
9	Denmark	76.96	83.50	63.24	84.14
10	Republic of Korea	76.55	85.27	58.49	85.89
11	France	76.41	82.10	60.61	86.53
12	Japan	76.18	81.90	59.31	87.32
13	Norway	76.14	84.24	59.25	84.91
14	Australia	75.41	83.79	57.07	85.37
15	China	74.42	83.79	61.33	78.15
16	Luxembourg	73.37	82.67	50.66	86.80
17	Ireland	72.80	74.70	61.11	82.59
18	Taiwan	71.98	77.59	59.42	78.92
19	United Arab Emirates	71.60	79.41	53.33	82.05
20	Israel	70.01	64.64	65.87	79.52
21	Estonia	69.18	77.65	49.46	80.45
22	Switzerland	68.56	52.30	67.60	85.79
23	New Zealand	68.08	66.07	53.16	85.02
24	Austria	68.07	63.09	58.54	82.59
25	Spain	67.68	71.87	49.84	81.32
26	Qatar	67.18	79.56	43.02	78.96
27	Italy	67.07	72.75	48.19	80.28
28	Belgium	66.16	59.07	58.54	80.89
29	Czech Republic	65.95	68.98	50.56	78.32
30	Lithuania	65.19	72.79	44.27	78.50
31	Slovenia	65.05	70.10	45.48	79.58
32	Malta	64.85	83.62	41.52	69.41
33	Portugal	64.31	74.64	50.42	67.87
34	Saudi Arabia	63.42	67.23	45.14	77.89
35	Poland	62.50	67.27	42.82	77.42
36	Malaysia	62.46	68.37	52.67	66.34
37	Latvia	62.27	68.74	41.45	76.60
38	Russian Federation	61.93	67.44	46.46	71.90
39	Slovakia	61.62	67.59	41.39	75.89
40	Brazil	60.64	65.04	42.70	74.16
41	Chile	60.42	69.99	42.14	69.13
42	Bulgaria	60.07	67.03	39.19	73.97
43	Hungary	59.72	68.09	41.65	69.40
44	Cyprus	59.71	69.46	37.99	71.70
45	Colombia	58.91	73.03	34.66	69.04
46	Iceland	58.53	49.97	50.73	74.87
47	Indonesia	58.14	73.05	40.96	60.40
48	Uruguay	57.93	69.48	31.63	72.67
49	Oman	57.26	63.01	34.99	73.77
50	Greece	56.22	52.54	43.34	72.79
51	India	56.11	73.26	48.04	47.02
52	Serbia	55.98	68.15	36.35	63.42
53	Turkey	55.49	71.41	39.05	55.99
54	Argentina	54.36	64.86	33.62	64.59
55	Bahrain	53.54	51.46	31.54	77.62
56	Romania	53.22	52.09	37.50	70.09
57	Brunei Darussalam	52.93	41.05	43.50	74.23
58	Mauritius	52.71	68.52	33.82	55.80
59	Thailand	52.63	45.45	41.22	71.21
60	Mexico	52.62	54.70	40.22	62.94
61	Croatia	52.30	48.70	36.48	71.71
62	Viet Nam	51.82	70.81	32.78	51.87
63	Kuwait	50.97	46.53	34.37	71.99
64	Ukraine	50.58	52.36	38.19	61.19
65	Egypt	49.75	62.72	35.17	51.37
66	Kazakhstan	48.43	48.80	32.38	64.10
67	Azerbaijan	48.26	50.60	33.86	60.34
68	South Africa	48.24	40.92	39.14	64.66
69	Fiji	48.17	44.57	37.99	61.94
70	Seychelles	47.48	41.28	33.82	67.33
71	Philippines	47.20	41.97	37.20	62.44
72	Iran	46.23	36.42	35.20	67.06
73	Belarus	46.20	39.89	34.30	64.40
74	Costa Rica	46.19	40.64	34.57	63.36
75	Montenegro	46.10	40.71	34.61	62.96
76	Armenia	45.93	43.10	31.14	63.53
77	Tunisia	45.71	50.22	36.31	50.61
78	Kenya	45.54	57.15	28.75	50.72
79	Georgia	45.41	44.20	29.22	62.83
80	Jordan	44.38	38.26	38.31	56.56
81	North Macedonia	43.73	40.79	31.08	59.31
82	Panama	42.98	38.25	29.97	60.73
83	Albania	42.90	41.47	28.54	58.69
84	Morocco	42.38	42.13	31.74	53.27
85	Barbados	42.20	35.39	31.06	60.14
86	Republic of Moldova	41.71	40.03	29.80	55.29
87	Jamaica	41.50	36.76	31.68	56.06
88	Sri Lanka	41.12	34.84	32.54	55.97
89	Dominican Republic	40.89	41.25	24.57	56.84
90	Trinidad and Tobago	40.78	34.63	28.78	58.92
91	Peru	40.56	38.24	29.52	53.90
92	Ghana	40.19	41.78	24.75	54.05
93	Uzbekistan	40.13	37.95	31.32	51.13
94	Lebanon	39.67	38.23	33.47	47.30
95	Ecuador	39.19	35.42	26.12	56.03
96	Bosnia and Herzegovina	38.67	31.05	27.10	57.87
97	Suriname	38.58	24.97	26.62	64.16
98	Tajikistan	38.49	35.85	26.29	53.31
99	Algeria	37.92	32.96	29.57	51.24
100	Kyrgyzstan	37.61	35.16	23.62	54.04
101	Maldives	37.47	29.59	16.08	66.73
102	Paraguay	37.35	35.32	22.45	54.27
103	Mongolia	37.20	33.45	27.24	50.90
104	Iraq	36.93	25.51	31.27	54.02
105	Côte D’Ivoire	36.71	38.73	22.29	49.10
106	Saint Lucia	36.61	28.22	27.53	54.08
107	Gabon	36.51	32.40	26.50	50.62
108	Senegal	36.34	39.47	28.31	41.23
109	Botswana	36.33	36.27	28.18	44.53
110	Bangladesh	36.10	40.21	25.10	42.99
111	Cabo Verde	36.07	36.46	23.35	48.40
112	Rwanda	35.16	44.44	27.03	34.01
113	Nigeria	35.15	35.53	26.32	43.61
114	Lao People’s Democratic Republic	34.93	29.22	24.69	50.88
115	Honduras	34.91	30.65	25.58	48.51
116	Papua New Guinea	34.75	35.50	27.83	40.93
117	Pakistan	34.03	39.58	35.00	27.50
118	Bhutan	34.02	36.52	26.15	39.40
119	Cambodia	33.35	32.66	22.53	44.87
120	Namibia	33.14	30.49	22.97	45.95
121	United Republic of Tanzania	32.69	39.90	22.99	35.18
122	Togo	32.68	32.67	20.71	44.65
123	El Salvador	32.41	26.16	23.69	47.39
124	Belize	32.28	27.97	22.57	46.29
125	Guatemala	32.25	24.30	23.28	49.18
126	Burkina Faso	32.24	35.71	21.31	39.71
127	Nepal	31.92	33.28	24.47	38.03
128	Cameroon	31.88	34.58	23.77	37.30
129	Uganda	31.76	35.97	22.20	37.11
130	Bolivia	31.62	23.50	21.49	49.87
131	Nicaragua	31.57	30.41	22.45	41.86
132	Myanmar	31.57	24.80	27.54	42.36
133	Zambia	31.21	35.08	21.93	36.63
134	Venezuela	30.54	18.77	22.44	50.40
135	Gambia	30.45	28.73	20.29	42.34
136	Congo	30.42	30.49	20.97	39.80
137	Cuba	30.38	20.75	29.67	40.71
138	Mali	30.14	31.81	22.00	36.61
139	Lesotho	29.84	23.26	20.78	45.49
140	Eswatini	29.76	28.59	21.53	39.16
141	Mauritania	29.62	25.74	21.54	41.59
142	Madagascar	29.53	31.16	20.44	36.99
143	Sierra Leone	29.39	32.59	19.65	35.93
144	Zimbabwe	29.15	26.45	22.28	38.71
145	Benin	28.73	34.76	21.61	29.82
146	Liberia	28.14	31.72	19.72	32.97
147	Ethiopia	27.95	34.65	20.57	28.62
148	Niger	27.81	33.31	20.09	30.03
149	Guinea	27.55	27.78	22.22	32.65
150	Mozambique	26.23	32.28	17.60	28.83
151	Sudan	25.91	24.83	21.62	31.29
152	Haiti	25.14	24.24	14.67	36.49
153	Malawi	24.85	28.57	18.43	27.55
154	Afghanistan	24.38	25.67	9.23	38.23
155	Chad	24.00	27.58	14.41	30.02
156	Burundi	23.72	28.40	19.06	23.70
157	Democratic Republic of the Congo	23.32	27.46	16.72	25.79
158	Angola	22.87	27.30	13.86	27.44
159	Central African Republic	20.73	15.01	19.21	27.98
160	Yemen	17.93	15.85	17.91	20.03

The three pillars of the report’s methodology: Government, Technology Sector, Data and Infrastructure, consist of 42 indicators across 10 dimensions.

The dimensions for Government include: Vision (indicators of which are: a National AI strategy), Governance & Ethics (indicators: data protection and privacy legislation, cybersecurity, national ethics framework, legal framework’s adaptability to digital business models), Digital Capacity (indicators: Government promotion of investment in emerging technologies, ICT use and government efficiency, Online services, Trust in Government websites and apps), Adaptability (indicators: Effectiveness of government, Government’s responsiveness to change and E-procurement capacity.
Dimensions for Technology Sector include: Size (indicators: Number of AI unicorns CB Insights Number of non-AI technology unicorns, Market value of public technology companies, Value of trade in ICT services [per capita], Value of trade in ICT goods [per capita], Computer software spending), Innovation Capacity (indicators: Entrepreneurial culture, Business administrative requirements, R&D spending, Company investment in emerging technologies) and Human Capital (Graduates in STEM, Quality of engineering and technology higher education, Digital skills, Github commits, Knowledge-intensive employment, Research papers published in AI).

Dimensions for Data and Infrastructure include Infrastructure (indicators: Telecommunications infrastructure, 5G infrastructure, Number of supercomputers, Internet bandwidth, Adoption of emerging technologies) Data Availability (indicators: Open government data, Open data policies, Statistical capacity, Mobile-cellular telephone subscriptions, Households with Internet access at home) and Data Representativeness (indicators: Gender gap in Internet access, Gender gap in mobile access, Cost of internet-enabled device relative to GDP per capita, Socioeconomic gap in Internet usage).

About Jack Aldane

Jack is a British journalist, cartoonist and podcaster. He graduated from Heythrop College London in 2009 with a BA in philosophy, before living and working in China for three years as a freelance reporter. After training in financial journalism at City University from 2013 to 2014, Jack worked at Bloomberg and Thomson Reuters before moving into editing magazines on global trade and development finance. Shortly after editing opinion writing for UnHerd, he joined the independent think tank ResPublica, where he led a media campaign to change the health and safety requirements around asbestos in UK public buildings. As host and producer of The Booking Club podcast – a conversation series featuring prominent authors and commentators at their favourite restaurants – Jack continues to engage today’s most distinguished thinkers on the biggest problems pertaining to ideology and power in the 21st century. He joined Global Government Forum as its Senior Staff Writer and Community Co-ordinator in 2021.

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East Asian governments surge in AI readiness – see global rankings in full

Regional disparities in AI developments across the world

AI Readiness Index in full

About Jack Aldane

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East Asian governments surge in AI readiness – see global rankings in full

Regional disparities in AI developments across the world

AI Readiness Index in full

About Jack Aldane

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Leave a Reply

Latest News

General

Resources

Popular Public Bodies

UK

USA & Canada

Asia Pacific

World

Global Government Forum Events