The Cisco Digital Readiness Index measured the digital preparation of 118 countries, 19 of which are from Latin America, with the purpose of learning where each country stands and the effects this generates in their competitiveness, generation of employment, attraction of investments and promotion of innovation.

According to this Index, the country in Latin America best ranked in digital readiness Is Uruguay, followed by Chile and in third place Costa Rica.

The classification identified three different stages: activate (the lowest), accelerate (intermediate) and amplify (those with highest digital readiness). In general the Latin American countries are in between a basic and intermediate stage when It comes to digital readiness, none of the Latin American countries are in the amplifying stage.

Aspects that were evaluated include: technological infrastructure, technology adoption; basic needs; easiness to do business and investment of Government and Businesses.

The average of Latin America was of 11.78 while globally it was of 11.96 . The global marks for countries in the highest stage averaged 16.83; intermediate stage 12.49 and the ones in the lowest stage averaged 7.91.

Uruguay scored 14.07, Chile 13.92 and Costa Rica 13.89, ahead of Panama with 13.41 and Mexico that scored 13.11.
The United States ranked in the amplify stage along with several countries in Western Europe; Singapore and Japan in Asia, and Australia.

“Through this investigation we discovered a relation between digital readiness in a region and the GNP per capita of that region. These index reveal which counties are highly digitally ready and which ones aren’t which gives an insight of the opportunities for local governments, the industry, educational institutions and community organizations to work together and contribute with the purpose of improving the digital readiness”, explains the report.

For example, countries in the “Accelerate” stage, would benefit from more development of human resources, improvements in basic human needs and advances in the easiness to do business.

“As we understand how technology quickly changes our work and everyday life, we can take advantage of it to maximize social inclusion. We believe Cisco has an important role in this field, and as a company we hope to work as an agent of change to push the inclusive digital economy”, commented Gabriel Calgaro, general manager of Cisco Chile.