MANAMA: Saudi Arabia has improved its ranking by eight points in the Global Competitiveness Report. The Kingdom ranks 24th in the global ranking of the Global Competitiveness Report 2009-2010.
Qatar topped the index in the GCC at 22 and UAE at 23 followed by Saudi Arabia 24, Bahrain 38, Kuwait 39 and Oman 41.
“A number of countries in the Middle East and North Africa region are in the upper half of the rankings, led by Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait and Tunisia, with particular improvements noted in the Gulf States, which continue their upward trend of recent years,” the report said.
“In sub-Saharan Africa, South Africa, Mauritius and Botswana feature in the top half of the rankings, with a number of other countries from the region measurably improving their competitiveness,” it said.
The Global Competitiveness Report 2009-2010, released yesterday by the World Economic Forum ahead of its Annual Meeting of the New Champions 2009.
The United States has lost its place as the world’s most competitive economy, falling behind Switzerland, mainly because of the financial crisis and accumulated fiscal deficits. Singapore, Sweden and Denmark round out the top five. European economies continue to prevail in the top 10 with Finland, Germany and the Netherlands listed. The United Kingdom, while remaining very competitive, has continued its fall from last year, moving down one more place this year to 13th, mainly attributable to the continuing weakening of its financial markets. China continues to lead the way among large developing economies, improving by one place this year, solidifying its position among the top 30. Among the three other large BRIC economies, Brazil and India also improve, while Russia falls by 12 places. Several Asian economies perform strongly that include Japan, Hong Kong, South Korea and Taiwan. In Latin America, Chile is the highest ranked country, followed by Costa Rica and Brazil.
“The strong interdependence among the world’s economies makes this a truly global economic crisis in every sense. Policy-makers are presently struggling with ways of managing these new economic challenges, while preparing their economies to perform well in a future economic landscape characterized by growing uncertainty.
In a difficult global economic environment, it is more important than ever for countries to put into place strong fundamentals underpinning economic growth and development,” said Klaus Schwab, founder and executive chairman of the World Economic Forum.
“Amid the present crisis, it is critical that policy-makers not lose sight of long-term competitiveness fundamentals amid short-term urgencies,” added Xavier Sala-i-Martin, professor of economics, Columbia University, USA, and co-author of the report.
“Competitive economies are those that have in place factors driving the productivity enhancements on which their present and future prosperity is built.
A competitiveness-supporting economic environment can help national economies to weather business cycle downturns and ensure that the mechanisms enabling solid economic performance going into the future are in place,” said Sala-i-Martin.