{"id":774,"date":"2011-01-11T00:01:37","date_gmt":"2011-01-11T00:01:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.unitedexplanations.org\/?p=774"},"modified":"2012-02-26T07:58:20","modified_gmt":"2012-02-26T07:58:20","slug":"most-competitive-countries-of-2010","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitedexplanations.org\/english\/2011\/01\/11\/most-competitive-countries-of-2010\/","title":{"rendered":"Top 20 countries of 2010 by competitiveness"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

And the winner is…: Switzerland (again)<\/h3>\n

In the new release of the Global Competitiveness Report 2010<\/a> countries that constitute the top 10 of the Global Competitiveness Index (GCI) remain the\u00a0same as last year, with some changes in rank among\u00a0them.<\/p>\n

Switzerland<\/span><\/strong> remains first:<\/span><\/strong>\u00a0retains its 1st place position again this\u00a0year as a result of its continuing strong performance\u00a0across the board. The country\u2019s most notable strengths\u00a0are related to innovation, technological readiness, and\u00a0labor market efficiency, where it tops the GCI rankings.\u00a0Switzerland\u2019s scientific research institutions are among\u00a0the world\u2019s best, and the strong collaboration between\u00a0its academic and business sectors, combined with high\u00a0company spending on R&D, ensures that much of this\u00a0research is translated into marketable products and processes\u00a0that are reinforced by strong intellectual property\u00a0protection.<\/span><\/p>\n

United States<\/span><\/strong> in decline:\u00a0<\/span><\/strong>the United States continues the decline that\u00a0began last year, falling two more places to 4th position.\u00a0While many structural features that make its economy\u00a0extremely productive, a number of escalating weaknesses\u00a0have lowered the US ranking over the past two years. The evaluation of institutions has continued to\u00a0decline, falling from 34th to 40th this year. The report states that the public\u00a0does not demonstrate strong trust of politicians (54th),\u00a0and the business community remains concerned about\u00a0the government\u2019s ability to maintain arms-length relationships\u00a0with the private sector (55th) and considers\u00a0that the government spends its resources relatively\u00a0wastefully (68th).<\/span><\/p>\n

Reinforced China:<\/span><\/strong>\u00a0Up two positions to 27th place, China has reinforced\u00a0its position within the top 30. It is the only\u00a0BRIC country to improve in the rankings this year,\u00a0thus increasing the gap with the other three. China\u2019s\u00a0performance remains stable in most areas measured with\u00a0the Index compared with last year, with its main strengths\u00a0its large and growing market size, macroeconomic stability,\u00a0and relatively sophisticated and innovative businesses.<\/span><\/p>\n

Stable Chile:<\/span><\/strong>\u00a0Stable at 30th, Chile remains the most competitive\u00a0country in Latin America and the Caribbean, with a very\u00a0convincing performance resting notably on solid basic\u00a0requirements (37th) and efficiency enhancers (35th).\u00a0The\u00a0country has been at the forefront of market liberalization\u00a0and opening, resulting in very efficient goods and labor\u00a0markets (28th and 44th, respectively), one of the most\u00a0sophisticated financial markets (41st), and the largest\u00a0pension industry in the region.<\/span><\/p>\n

Argentina<\/span><\/strong> still in the bottom:<\/span><\/strong>\u00a0Argentina is fairly stable at 87th, continuing to\u00a0feature in the bottom part of the rankings.\u00a0The picture is rather mixed: important strengths, such as its\u00a0extensive market size (24th) and fairly good educational\u00a0system at the primary and higher levels (ranked 60th\u00a0and 55th for health and primary education and higher\u00a0education and training, respectively), do not seem to\u00a0compensate for the serious and enduring shortcomings\u00a0undermining Argentina\u2019s long-term growth potential.<\/span><\/p>\n

Here comes Qatar:<\/span><\/strong>\u00a0Qatar, ranked 17th, enters the top 20 this year and\u00a0reaffirms its position as the most competitive country\u00a0in the region. With a projected growth rate of\u00a018.5 percent for 2010, the country is the fastest-growing\u00a0economy in the world, as well as one of the wealthiest.\u00a0Its strong competitiveness rests on solid foundations\u00a0made up of a high-quality institutional framework,\u00a0ranked 10th overall, a stable macroeconomic environment\u00a0(8th), and an efficient goods market (12th). Low\u00a0levels of corruption and undue influence on government\u00a0decisions, high government efficiency, and excellent\u00a0security are the cornerstones of the country\u2019s solid\u00a0institutional framework.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

What does competitiveness stand for?<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/strong>According to the authors\u00a0competitiveness is the “set of institutions,\u00a0policies, and factors that determine the level of productivity of\u00a0a country. The level of productivity, in turn, sets the sustainable\u00a0level of prosperity that can be earned by an\u00a0economy. In other words, more competitive economies\u00a0tend to be able to produce higher levels of income for\u00a0their citizens. The productivity level also determines the\u00a0rates of return obtained by investments (physical,\u00a0human, and technological) in an economy.”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Developing economies: the major engine of the global economy<\/h3>\n
In the preface of the report Klaus Schwab, Executive Chairman of the World Economic Forum, stresses that:\u00a0“developing economies have for the most part\u00a0fared comparatively well during the crisis: countries\u00a0such as Brazil, China, and India are expected to grow\u00a0at rates of between 5.5 and 10 percent in 2010, with\u00a0growth holding up well over the next few years. Indeed,\u00a0the world increasingly looks to the developing world as\u00a0the major engine of the global economy.”<\/div>\n
On the other hand,\u00a0advanced\u00a0economies face continuing difficulties such as persisting\u00a0unemployment, weak demand, and spiraling debt, while\u00a0still struggling with reforms in the financial and labor\u00a0markets, among other challenges. The International\u00a0Monetary Fund (IMF) predicts growth of 6.25 percent\u00a0for emerging markets, compared with 2.25 percent for\u00a0advanced economies in 2010.<\/div>\n

The 12 pillars of competitiveness<\/strong><\/h4>\n

The best way for Rwanda\u00a0to improve its competitiveness is not the same as the\u00a0best way for Germany to do so. This is because Rwanda\u00a0and Germany are in different stages of development: as\u00a0countries move along the development path, wages tend\u00a0to increase and, in order to sustain this higher income,\u00a0labor productivity must improve.<\/p>\n

The GCI assumes that, in the first\u00a0stage, the economy is factor-driven and countries compete\u00a0based on their factor endowments: primarily unskilled\u00a0labor and natural resources. Here is when the first 4 pillars (grouped under the category Basic requirements<\/em>) play a role within what is been called factor-driven <\/em>economies.<\/p>\n

\n
Factor-driven economies: basic requirements<\/strong><\/div>\n
<\/strong>\u2022 Institutions<\/div>\n
\u2022 Health and primary education<\/div>\n
\u2022 Macroeconomic environment<\/div>\n
\u2022 Infrastructure<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

According to the authors’ approach, as a country becomes more competitive, productivity\u00a0will increase and wages will rise with advancing development.\u00a0Countries will then move into the efficiency-driven<\/em> stage of development, when they must begin to develop\u00a0more efficient production processes and increase product\u00a0quality because wages have risen and they cannot increase\u00a0prices. At this point, competitiveness is increasingly driven\u00a0by what’s been called efficiency enhancers<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n
Efficiency-driven economies: efficiency enhancers<\/strong><\/div>\n
<\/strong>\u2022 Higher education and training<\/div>\n
\u2022 Goods market efficiency<\/div>\n
\u2022 Labor market efficiency<\/div>\n
\u2022 Financial market development<\/div>\n
\u2022 Technological readiness<\/div>\n
\u2022 Market size<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\n
Finally, as countries move into the innovation-driven\u00a0stage, wages will have risen by so much that they are\u00a0able to sustain those higher wages and the associated\u00a0standard of living only if their businesses are able to\u00a0compete with new and unique products. At this stage,\u00a0companies must compete by producing new and different\u00a0goods using the most sophisticated production\u00a0processes and through innovation.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
Innovation-driven economies: innovation\u00a0and sophistication factors<\/strong><\/div>\n
\u2022\u00a0Business sophistication<\/div>\n
\u2022 Innovation<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Where does the data come from?<\/h3>\n
The World Economic Forum draws\u00a0its data from two sources: international organizations and\u00a0national sources<\/strong>, and the Forum\u2019s Executive Opinion\u00a0Survey<\/strong>. The Survey is a one-of-a-kind tool\u00a0for capturing timely and vital information that is not\u00a0available on a global level. The data gathered, by sending the survey to a representative sample of business leaders in their respective countries, <\/span>provide\u00a0a source of insight and a qualitative portrait of\u00a0each nation\u2019s economic and business environment, as\u00a0well as how it compares with the situation in other\u00a0countries.<\/div>\n
\n
The 2010 edition<\/strong><\/div>\n
<\/strong>In the edition of 2010 it\u00a0has also expanded the scope of its sample, achieving\u00a0this year a record of over 15,000 surveys from 139\u00a0economies between January and May 2010.<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n
\n
Every year, the set of questions is updated to reflect\u00a0changes to the structure of the Forum indexes and meet\u00a0the need for new data.\u00a0Most questions in the Survey ask respondents to\u00a0evaluate, on a scale of 1 to 7, one particular aspect of\u00a0their operating environment. At one end of the scale,\u00a01 represents the worst possible situation; at the other\u00a0end of the scale, 7 represents the best.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A few days ago the World Economic Forum released its latest Global Competitiveness Report 2010-2011 which ranks a total of 139 countries according to its degree of competetitiveness. Here we show the main results.
CONTINUE READING<\/a>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":823,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35,26],"tags":[177,178,179,34,180,181,182,183,184,185,186],"class_list":["post-774","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-economy","category-graphshot","tag-12-pillars","tag-business","tag-competitiveness","tag-economy-2","tag-efficiency-driven-economies","tag-factor-driven-economies","tag-global-competitiveness-index","tag-global-competitiveness-report","tag-innovation-driven-economies","tag-switzerland","tag-xavier-sala-i-martin"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/unitedexplanations.org\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/4971812681_98c083e877_b1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitedexplanations.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/774","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitedexplanations.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitedexplanations.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitedexplanations.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitedexplanations.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=774"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/unitedexplanations.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/774\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5970,"href":"https:\/\/unitedexplanations.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/774\/revisions\/5970"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitedexplanations.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/823"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitedexplanations.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=774"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitedexplanations.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=774"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitedexplanations.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=774"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}