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Satyendra Pathak
Doha
Qatar continued to retain its strong position in the Arab region in terms of its economic competitiveness by remaining the second-most competitive economy in Arab World and 30th globally in the global competitiveness index 2018.
The Global Competitiveness Report 2018, published annually by the World Economic Forum (WEF) in collaboration with the Qatari Businessmen Association (QBA) and the Institute of Social and Economic Research of the University of Qatar (SESRI) showed that Qatar climbed 2 ranks up from last year's 32nd place out of 135 countries.
The improvement in ranking reflects Qatar's continued global competitiveness and reinforces Qatar's plan to join the list of the 10 most competitive economies in the world over the next 10 years.
Qatar is ahead of several countries, including Saudi Arabia (39), Bahrain (50), Italy, Turkey, Russia, India, Brazil and Argentina. Most of them belong to the G20 as the world's largest economy. Oman has witnessed remarkable progress in 14 ranks and Kuwait was ranked as 54th globally.
Competitiveness performance in the Middle East and North Africa remains diverse with the UAE (27), leading the way in the region. According to the report, a focus on intra-region connectivity, in combination with improvements in ICT readiness and investment in human capital would improve the region's capacity to innovate, foster business dynamism and increase its competitiveness performance.
It is worth mentioning that the main 12 pillars that assess the status of the economy are divided between institutions, infrastructure, ICT adoption, macroeconomic stability, health, skills, product market, labour market, financial system, market size, business dynamism and innovative capability. Qatar ranks first in the Arab world and among the top 10 countries globally in many indicators.
In the institutional pillar, Qatar ranked ninth globally in the"Efficiency of the legal framework in challenging regulations"indicator and ranked eighth in the"Future orientation of the government". As for the ICT adoption pillar, Qatar ranked seventh in the Internet user's indicator and the spread of high-speed Internet services (Broadband). Qatar has also taken the lead in the pillar of the macroeconomic stability in the inflation rates indicator as it ranked first globally
As for the business dynamism, Qatar ranked tenth in the indicators of growth of innovative companies and the attitude towards entrepreneurial risk and ranked ninth in financing small and medium enterprises and ranked eighth in venture capital availability as part of the financial system pillar.
In addition to 22 indicators, among which Qatar ranked tenth and 20th globally, in terms of availability of scientists and engineers, quality of air transport infrastructure, protection of minority shareholders, quality of mathematics and science education, quality of vocational training, easy access to skilled labour and pupil to teacher ratio, spread of non-tariff barriers, the diversity of the labor force, the regulation of financial markets, and the quality of roads
With a score of 85.6 out of 100, the United States is the country closest to the frontier of competitiveness. It notably leads the Business dynamism pillar, thanks to its vibrant entrepreneurial culture, the Labour market pillar
In addition to the US, other G20 economies in the top 10 include Germany (3), Japan (5) and the UK (8).
Singapore ranks second in the overall rankings with openness as the defining feature of this global trading hub and one of the main drivers of its economic success.
The country also leads the infrastructure pillar, with a nearly perfect score of 95.7, thanks to its world-class transport infrastructure and connectivity.
