Finland was ranked the most competitive country in the world by the World Economic Forum (WEF) on Thursday, edging out the United States from the top spot in its annual survey thanks to a healthy Finnish economy, efficient public institutions and technology-driven industry.
The two countries have traditionally vied for the lead position in the WEF’s three-year-old survey, one of two global rankings of competitiveness drawn up every year by Swiss-based private research institutes.
All the Nordic states were ranked within the top nine of the 102 countries surveyed and European countries generally improved their position in the main index after it was adjusted to take account of waste in government spending, according to the 2003 Global Competitiveness Survey.
Taiwan and Singapore were the highest-ranked Asian economies, in fifth and sixth place, respectively, while South Korea rose from 21st to 18th place and Japan (11th) climbed two slots.
”Korea’s rise in the rankings was driven by improvements in its macroeconomic environment, increased public trust in politicians, a better score in the area of diversion of public funds and a remarkable improvement in its technology performance,” the survey said.
China (44) fell nine places down the table because of ”a remarkable deterioration in the perceived quality of public institutions”, the survey added.
West European countries, including Germany (13), were largely stable or marked slight progress compared with last year.
But Ireland (30) fell in the index because of its ailing economy and Italy lagged far behind in 41st place due to ”across the board” declines in economic performance, the perception of its public institutions and its technology base.
The survey praised eight Eastern European countries due to join the European Union next year, led by Estonia (22), noting that some of them could join the top ranks of the most competitive economies ”in the medium term”.
”Quite aside from having benefited from reasonably competent macroeconomic managment, as a group they have moved further along than virtually any set of economies in the world in implementing broad-ranging structural reforms,” it added.
Chile (28) continued to be the most competitive Latin-American nation in the WEF survey, but was criticised for government waste, ”exhibiting the worst decline in the indicator measuring public trust of politicians”.
Argentina (78) and Brazil (54) suffered from declines in their economic environment, but the WEF highlighted the strength of their technology base and especially a surge in recruitment in the service industry in Brazil.
Botswana was the highest-ranked African country (38), but was handicapped by a low rating on the technology criteria.
Angola, Chad and Haiti were ranked least competitive. — Sapa-AFP