Hong Kong rose to 4th place globally in digital competitiveness on the strength of its advances in technology, knowledge and "future readiness", according to the latest survey released on Tuesday.

The special administrative region climbed three places in the World Digital Competitiveness Ranking 2025, published by the International Institute for Management Development, after rising three spots last year.

Among the 69 economies covered by the survey, Hong Kong ranked third in "technology", fifth in "knowledge", and 10th in "future readiness", a notable rise of five places. At the subfactor level, the city ranked first globally in "technological framework" and "adaptive attitudes".

"The IMD's WDCR 2025 continued to recognize Hong Kong as one of the most digitally competitive economies in the world," a Hong Kong SAR government spokesman said in a statement.

He said that with the staunch support of the country and Hong Kong's international prospects, coupled with a thriving startup ecosystem, a free, open and fair business environment, a simple low tax system and strong policy support, Hong Kong is well positioned to attract enterprises, talent and technology from around the world, thereby laying a solid foundation for further advancing information and technology (I&T) collaboration and development.

The spokesman said the nation supports Hong Kong’s development into an international innovation and technology center. “The HKSAR government has been striving to enhance the strategic layout of I&T infrastructure, with three major I&T parks and five key research and development institutions as the framework, so as to actively drive I&T development and cultivate new quality productive forces,” he said.

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He also noted that Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu announced in his 2025 Policy Address a series of measures aimed at implementing the development of an international I&T center, including accelerating the development of "new industrialization" and promoting artificial intelligence infrastructure and application.

The HKSAR government will expedite the development of the third InnoHK research cluster and has put up a site of about 10 hectares at Sandy Ridge in the North district for the development of a data facility cluster for open tender, with a view to promoting AI business applications, consolidating and enhancing Hong Kong's competitive edge in the global market, as well as fostering the cultivation of new quality productive forces, said the spokesman.

Sun Dong, secretary for Innovation, Technology and Industry, noted that Hong Kong's overall computing power is expected to increase to approximately 5,000 PFlops by the end of this year, providing strong support for research and applications.

PFlops, or petaflops, are a measure of computational performance, with one unit representing 1 quadrillion floating-point operations per second.

He also mentioned that several local educational institutions have introduced AI-related programs, with five local universities ranking among the global top 50 in the fields of data science and artificial intelligence, ensuring a steady pipeline of talent for Hong Kong's future development.

Sunny Chai Ngai-chiu, chairman of the Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks Corp, said that the ranking highlights Hong Kong's unique advantages under the “one country, two systems” principle. “It underscores Hong Kong's ability to attract top global technology talent and capital, as well as its outstanding performance in fundamental research and the translation of research outcomes into practical applications," he said.

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Switzerland, the United States, and Singapore were ranked as the top three in this year’s rankings, each scoring above 99 points, while Hong Kong scored 97.79.