Vietnam’s competiveness indicator on a slide: WEF
Friday, September 07, 2012, 10:30 GMT+7
Vietnam has been ranked 75th out of 144 tracked economies in the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) global competitiveness index, down 10 notches from its 2011 status.
This is the third consecutive time the Southeast Asian country’s competitiveness indicator has been downgraded, from 59th and 65th place in 2010 and 2011, respectively. Currently, Vietnam’s competitiveness index is the second lowest in the Southeast Asian region, according to the WEF survey.
In the 12 criteria for evaluating competitiveness, Vietnam has been downgraded in nine.
Vietnam fell 41 places on the macroeconomic environment to 106th after climbing 20 places in 2011.
Other indicators include infrastructure (95th), the quality of roads (120th), and portal and logistics infrastructure (130th).
According to the WEF, infrastructure remains a major challenge for Vietnam's economic growth despite signs of improvement in recent years.
Other downsides include state institutions which are limited by corruption and inefficient operations, while the transparency of the private sector is poor.
Vietnam's inflation in 2012 has decreased significantly, but the debt situation remains worrying.
On the other hand, the strengths of Vietnam's competitiveness include labor market efficiency and a large-scale market, WEF said.
The labor market has been assessed as “quite effective” (ranked 51st) with a large market size (ranked 32nd), but the quality of higher education and health care fare lower at 64th.
European countries continued to dominate the ‘Top 10’ list this year, in which Switzerland retained its lead. The top 10 also included the U.S. (7th) and three Asian economies, Singapore (2nd), Hong Kong (9th) and Japan (10th).
In Asia, China dropped from 26th to 29th, and the Philippines swapped spots with Vietnam, up from rank No.75 to 65. Malaysia, Thailand, Taiwan and Cambodia were ranked 25th, 38th, 13th and 85th, respectively.
The WEF global competitiveness report is based on 12 key factors on the level of competition, providing an overview of the competitive landscape in countries around the world.
These factors are: institutions, infrastructure, macroeconomic environment, health and education, the level of goods market efficiency, labor market, financial market development, information technology, market size, business sophistication and innovation.
The World Economic Forum (WEF) is a Swiss non-profit foundation, based in Cologny, Geneva. It describes itself as an independent international organization committed to improving the state of the world by engaging business, political, academic and other leaders of society to shape global, regional and industry agendas.
The Forum is best known for its annual meeting in Davos, a mountain resort in Graubünden, in the eastern Alps region of Switzerland.
The meeting brings together some 2,500 of the world’s top business leaders, international political leaders, selected intellectuals and journalists to discuss the most pressing issues facing the world, including health and the environment.
