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WEF Sees Big Jump in Nation’s Global Competitiveness
DUBAI — The UAE is now the second most competitive country in the Middle East and North Africa, the World Economic Forum said on Tuesday.
Building on its positive trend of the past few years, the UAE improved its ranking from 31st to 23rd in this year’s “The Global Competitiveness Report 2009-2010”.
“The UAE’s improvement by eight places reflects a more favourable assessment of institutions and an upgrading of technological readiness and innovative capacity,” the World Economic Forum, or WEF, said in a statement. “The country’s financial markets resist the financial crisis better than many other countries.”
Qatar, ranked 22nd, took the lead in the Middle East and North Africa region, gaining four positions from last year’s edition of the report. “The country continues to weather the economic crisis well thanks to its abundant resources in natural gas remaining, with an estimated 18 per cent growth rate in 2009, the fastest-growing economy in the GCC region,” the report said.
Several other countries in the Middle East and North Africa region rank in the upper half of the international standings, including Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait and Tunisia.
“It is not surprising that the World Economic Forum’s study found that the UAE has improved its competitiveness. The UAE is probably the only country in the region that has set up a dedicated body whose mandate is specifically to improve competitiveness on a federal level,” said Sultan Sooud Al Qassemi, a fellow at the Dubai School of Government.
At the same time, the Dubai Competitiveness Council — part of the Dubai Economic Council — will help the UAE to rise higher in future competitiveness indexes, Al Qassemi said.
The WEF noted that despite the current downturn, the UAE has the underlying fundamentals of a competitive economy. “The lower score in macroeconomic stability due to rising public debt and lower budget surplus is in line with most other countries’ results in this pillar and therefore does not lead to significant changes in the ranking,” it said.
The report observed that as the global downturn continued to limit the availability of finance and to squeeze tourism and trade, the UAE’s main sectors of activity were likely to be adversely affected.
Switzerland overtook the US as the world’s most competitive economy.
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