Press release: Belgium slightly improves in the competitiveness ranking, but….
08 Oct 2008The new ranking of the global competitiveness report of 2008-2009, designed by the World Economic Forum, and for which Vlerick Leuven Gent Management School is the partner institute, revealed that this year Belgium improved slightly on its competitiveness.
Based on a comprehensive survey which questioned 12.297 business leaders in 134 countries and the use of hard data on different aspects of an economy’s competitiveness, Belgium has been evaluated as the 19th most competitive economy in the world. The improvement follows a status quo of last two years at the 20th position.
Again, the United States have been ranked as the most competitive country followed by Switzerland and Denmark. Neighboring countries stayed ahead of Belgium. Some of them improved their position while others, including Germany, slided back some places. Germany has been ranked 7th and lost two places whereas the Netherlands have been ranked 8th and gained two places. The United Kingdom has been ranked 12th which implies a deterioration with 3 places whereas France has been ranked 16th, an improvement by 2 places. Luxembourg remained at the 25th position.
|
Country |
Ranking 2008-2009 |
Ranking 2007-2008 |
Change |
|
United States |
1 |
1 |
= |
|
Switzerland |
2 |
2 |
= |
|
Denmark |
3 |
3 |
= |
|
Sweden |
4 |
4 |
= |
|
Singapore |
5 |
7 |
+2 |
|
Germany |
7 |
5 |
-2 |
|
Netherlands |
8 |
10 |
+2 |
|
Japan |
9 |
8 |
-1 |
|
United Kingdom |
12 |
9 |
-3 |
|
France |
16 |
18 |
+2 |
|
Belgium |
19 |
20 |
+1 |
|
Luxembourg |
25 |
25 |
= |
|
China |
30 |
34 |
+4 |
|
India |
50 |
48 |
-2 |
Belgium’s main strengths can be found within health care and education. Especially the score for health and primary education items (3rd place) and the higher education and training items (6th place) are remarkable. Weak scores can be found within the efficiency of the labour market (79th score) and the macroeconomic stability (60th score).
The report states that business leaders perceive the restrictive labour regulations, the tax rates, the inefficient government bureaucracy, the tax regulations and the inadequately educated workforce as the most problematic factors for doing business in Belgium.
The ranking can at this moment be judged as ‘not in line with the current economic developments’ but it has to be mentioned that the survey took place already in February-March 2008. Implication of the credit crunch and the potential recession will become clear in next year’s report.
For further questions, please do not hesitate to contact Frederik De Witte (researcher responsible for the global competitiveness report) on +32 16 24.88.76 or frederik.dewitte@vlerick.be.
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