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Released earlier this week as part of the Asian Development Outlook (ADO) 2022, the Global Index of Digital Entrepreneurship Systems (GIDES) puts Singapore in the first place, followed by the United States and Sweden.

“Digital entrepreneurship helped economies stay afloat during the COVID-19 pandemic, and it can become a major engine of growth and innovation in the post-pandemic world,” said ADB Chief Economist Albert Park.

“For this to happen, there needs to be a supportive environment enabled by conducive policies and incentives. While the environment for Asia’s digital entrepreneurs made substantial strides in the past couple of years, there’s still a lot of room for improvement.”

The index measures the quality of the environment for digital entrepreneurs by looking at the level of digitalisation in eight areas, namely culture, institutions, market conditions, infrastructure, human capital, knowledge, finance, and networking.

In addition to investing in digital infrastructure such as broadband networks, governments need to promote political stability, reliable legal systems, open and competitive markets, and strong property rights.

For Asia and the Pacific as a whole, an insufficiently supportive culture is among the biggest weak spots when it comes to nurturing digital entrepreneurship. One example is a general lack of public appreciation for the vital role that entrepreneurs play in economic progress. One way to change this is to improve the public perception of entrepreneurship through education./.