Singapore trumps US in competitiveness ranking

It takes the third spot, below Hong Kong and Switzerland.

Singapore went one notch higher in the latest IMD World Competitiveness Yearbook, pushing the United states out of the top three to the fourth rank.

Hong Kong still dominated the annual rankings by the IMD World Competitiveness Center, taking the top spot for the second year. Switzerland came in second and Singapore finished third. USA recorded its lowest position in five years. Netherlands jumped three places and joined top five.

The IMD World Competitiveness Center, a research group at IMD business school in Switzerland, publishes the rankings every year since 1989. Rankings are based on 260 indicators, about two thirds of which come from ‘hard’ data such as national employment and trade statistics; and a third from more than 6,250 responses to an Executive Opinion Survey that measures the business perception of issues such as corruption, environmental concerns and quality of life.

Professor Arturo Bris, director of the IMD World Competitiveness Center, said the indicators that stood out among the most improved countries are related to government, business efficiency, as well as productivity.

“These countries have maintained a business-friendly environment that encourages openness and productivity,” he said. “If you look at China, its improvement of seven places to 18th can be traced to its dedication to international trade. This continues to drive the economy and the improvement in government and business efficiency,” he said.

Meanwhile, Singapore topped the digital competitiveness ranking, followed by Sweden, the USA, Finland and Denmark.

“Singapore and Sweden have developed regulation that takes advantage of the talent they have by adopting, for instance, regulation that facilitates the inflow of overseas talent which complements the locally available pool,” Bris noted.

He added, “The US invests more in developing its scientific concentration and generating ideas but the country has a history of government support for technological innovation. This shows that in digitally competitive countries, the government must facilitate the adoption of new technologies,”