UAE moves up in Global Competitiveness Ranking

The UAE has improved its ranking in overall competitiveness to 24 from last year’s 27, in the 2012-13 Global Competitiveness Report, released by the World Economic Forum.

Switzerland, Singapore and Finland are ranked first, second and third respectively, followed by Sweden, the Netherlands, Germany, United States, the United Kingdom, Hong Kong and Japan making up the top ten slots.

In the Middle East and North Africa, Qatar (11th) leads the region while Saudi Arabia remains among the top 20 (18th). The United Arab Emirates (24th) improves its performance while Kuwait (37th) slightly declines. Morocco (70th) and Jordan (63rd) improve slightly. In sub-Saharan Africa, South Africa (52nd) and Mauritius (54th) feature in the top half of the rankings. However, most countries in the region continue to require efforts across the board to improve their competitiveness.

The annual report prepared by the Davos-based think-tank is based on a select questionnaire-based survey distributed to a select group of senior corporate executives – benchmarks countries on three stages – basic requirements, efficiency enhancers and innovation and sophistication factors. The world’s most advanced economies usually features in the third stage.

The UAE, however is the only Arab country to feature in the Stage 3, which deals in innovation and business sophistication.

Among the other leading economies, China ranks 29th, India ranks 59th, Russia 67th, Brazil 48th, Mexico 53rd, Turkey 43rd and Indonesia taking the 50th position.

Global Competitiveness Report, along with the World Bank’s Doing Business Report and IMD’s World Competitiveness Yearbook, helps form better public opinion on the ongoing economic reforms in different countries.