The World Economic Forum (WEF) ranked Vietnam as the 67th most competitive economy in its annual global competitiveness report, released on Wednesday.

Vietnam scored 61.5 out of 100 in the WEF’s 2019 Global Competitiveness Report, jumping ten notches from its 2018 ranking, the biggest climb for any economy on this year’s list.

According to the report, the Southeast Asian country is attracting a huge flow of foreign investment and makes a name for itself as one of the region’s top trading hubs.  

The rankings are based on 12 pillars – institutions, infrastructure, ICT adoption, macroeconomic stability, health, skills, product markets, labor markets, financial systems, market size, business dynamism, and innovation capability.

Of these areas, Vietnam scored 81 points in health, ranking 71st out of 141. In terms of market size, the country placed 26th with 72 points. Its macroeconomic stability chalked up 75 points, standing at 64th.  

Vietnam also has an extremely low risk of terrorism and a rock solid inflation rate, according to the 2019 ranking.

In Southeast Asia, Vietnam ranked seventh, following Singapore (1st), Malaysia (27th), Thailand (40th), Indonesia (50th), Brunei (56th), and the Philippines (64th).

Singapore beat the United States to the top spot this year, scoring 84.8 points overall. It ranked first in the infrastructure, citizens’ health, and labor market pillars.

It also scored highly in other areas including financial systems, market efficiency, and macroeconomic stability.

Other economies in the top ten, in descending order of their ranking, are Hong Kong, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Japan, Germany, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and Denmark.

In its report, the WEF recognized the progress made by several economies in the context of political and trade tensions which have clouded the global economy and slowed world trade.

“The latest Global Competitiveness Report paints a gloomy picture, yet it also shows that those countries with a holistic approach to socio-economic challenges, look set to get ahead in the race to the frontier,” the report reads.

The Global Competitiveness Report, published yearly by the WEF, ranks countries based on the Global Competitiveness Index, which integrates the macroeconomic and the micro/business aspects of competitiveness into a single parameter.

The report "assesses the ability of countries to provide high levels of prosperity to their citizens".

This, in turn, depends on how productively a country uses available resources, according to the WEF.

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