Global Competitiveness Report: Providing Valuable Information

With the world continuing to shrink into a global village, it is becoming increasingly evident that major economies can no longer thrive in isolation. Investment on a global scale has opened up opportunities to investors that may not have been as easily accessed before. With these new opportunities comes the need for information.

One source of information that has been published since 1979, but now has increased significance, is the Center for Global Competitiveness (part of the World Economic Forum) annual Global Competitiveness Report, which documents pertinent information relating to the economic prosperity of 133 major and emerging economies. Other publications provided by the Center for Global Competitiveness include the Global Gender Gap Report, the Global Enabling Trade Report, the Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Report, and the Global Information Technology Report, in addition to a number of region and country specific reports.

The current Global Competitiveness Index (GCI) used to rank economies, was developed by Xavier Sala-i-Martin and was first put into practice in 2004. The twelve pillars of competitiveness used in the index are: infrastructure; institutions; health and primary education; higher education and training; macroeconomic environment; goods market efficiency; financial market development; labor market efficiency; technological readiness; market size; innovation; and business sophistication. Data used in the rankings calculations include data available to the public, together with the Executive Opinion Survey carried out through a network of partner institutes of the World Economic Forum.

More than 13,500 business leaders, representing 139 economies, were polled in 2010, thereby capturing a broad range of factors which have an impact on the business climate of an economy. The report highlights strengths and weaknesses of each economy listed, which is a valuable resource for identifying key priorities for policy reform.

The 2010-2011 Global Competitiveness Report rankings for the top 30 countries are: (1) Switzerland; (2) Sweden; (3) Singapore; (4) United States; (5) Germany; (6)Japan; (7) Finland; (8) Netherlands; (9) Denmark; (10) Canada; (11) Hong Kong; (12) United Kingdom; (13) Taiwan; (14) Norway; (15) France; (16) Australia; (17) Qatar; (18) Austria; (19) Belgium; (20) Luxembourg; (21) Saudi Arabia; (22) South Korea; (23) New Zealand; (24) Israel; (25) United Arab Emirates; (26) Malaysia; (27) China; (28) Brunei; (29) Ireland; (30) Chile.