October 19, 2004

What we can learn from the WEF Global Competitiveness Report

The World Economic Forum released its "The Global Competitiveness Report 2004-2005". Its interesting to see what we can learn from it. I've spent extended periods of time in each of the top 4 countries and they each have a very different approach to growth and competitiveness.

First off several of the top countries have strong socialist polices and others do not. The US retoric that only low taxes and no social programs creates growth is obviously wrong.

Taiwan and Finland are intesting cases. Neither had an empire. Both are far from the markets they serve and are small open economies with limited natural resources. Its interesting to see that Singapore and Hong Kong - both consistantly ranked as the "most economicaly free" by right wing think tanks are not in the top 5 countries.

I met a fellow who fixes chip assembly lines on the way from Taipei to Manila. He travels extensively all over the world fixing chip assembly lines - US, Japan, China, Germany, Korea and Taiwan. He said that the biggest and most efficient lines he had ever seen were in Taiwan. "They are are twice as big as the biggest Japanese ones - and 50% more efficient". I'm going to return to this topic later as I mull over theories in my head....

Country 2004 rank 2004 score 2003 rank
Finland 1 5.95 1
U.S. 2 5.82 2
Sweden 3 5.72 3
Taiwan 4 5.69 5
Denmark 5 5.66 4
Norway 6 5.56 9

Growth Competitiveness Index Rankings

Country 2004 rank 2004 score 2003 rank
Finland 1 5.95 1
U.S. 2 5.82 2
Sweden 3 5.72 3
Taiwan 4 5.69 5
Denmark 5 5.66 4
Norway 6 5.56 9
Singapore 7 5.56 6
Switzerland 8 5.49 7
Japan 9 5.48 11
Iceland 10 5.44 8
United Kingdom 11 5.30 15
Netherlands 12 5.30 12
Germany 13 5.28 13
Australia 14 5.25 10
Canada 15 5.23 16
United Arab Emirates 16 5.21 -
Austria 17 5.20 17
New Zealand 18 5.18 14
Israel 19 5.09 20
Estonia 20 5.08 22
Hong Kong SAR 21 5.06 24
Chile 22 5.01 28
Spain 23 5.00 23
Portugal 24 4.96 25
Belgium 25 4.95 27
Luxembourg 26 4.95 21
France 27 4.92 26
Bahrain 28 4.91 -
Korea 29 4.90 18
Ireland 30 4.90 30
Malaysia 31 4.88 29
Malta 32 4.79 19
Slovenia 33 4.75 31
Thailand 34 4.58 32
Jordan 35 4.58 34
Lithuania 36 4.57 40
Greece 37 4.56 35
Cyprus 38 4.56 -
Hungary 39 4.56 33
Czech Republic 40 4.55 39
South Africa 41 4.53 42
Tunisia 42 4.51 38
Slovak Republic 43 4.43 43
Latvia 44 4.43 37
Botswana 45 4.30 36
China 46 4.29 44
Italy 47 4.27 41
Mexico 48 4.17 47
Mauritius 49 4.14 46
Costa Rica 50 4.12 51
Trinidad and Tobago 51 4.12 49
Namibia 52 4.11 52
El Salvador 53 4.10 48
Uruguay 54 4.08 50
India 55 4.07 56
Morocco 56 4.06 61
Brazil 57 4.05 54
Panama 58 4.01 59
Bulgaria 59 3.98 64
Poland 60 3.98 45
Croatia 61 3.94 53
Egypt 62 3.88 58
Romania 63 3.86 75
Colombia 64 3.84 63
Jamaica 65 3.82 67
Turkey 66 3.82 65
Peru 67 3.78 57
Ghana 68 3.78 71
Indonesia 69 3.72 72
Russian Federation 70 3.68 70
Algeria 71 3.67 74
Dominican Republic 72 3.63 62
Sri Lanka 73 3.57 68
Argentina 74 3.54 78
Gambia 75 3.52 55
Philippines 76 3.51 66
Vietnam 77 3.47 60
Kenya 78 3.45 83
Uganda 79 3.41 80
Guatemala 80 3.38 89
Bosnia and Hercegovina 81 3.38 -
Tanzania 82 3.38 69
Zambia 83 3.36 88
Macedonia, FYR 84 3.34 81
Venezuela 85 3.30 82
Ukraine 86 3.27 84
Malawi 87 3.24 76
Mali 88 3.24 99
Serbia and Montenegro 89 3.23 77
Ecuador 90 3.18 86
Pakistan 91 3.17 73
Mozambique 92 3.17 93
Nigeria 93 3.16 87
Georgia 94 3.14 -
Nicaragua 95 3.12 90
Madagascar 96 3.11 96
Honduras 97 3.10 94
Bolivia 98 3.09 85
Zimbabwe 99 3.03 97
Paraguay 100 2.99 95
Ethiopia 101 2.93 92
Bangladesh 102 2.84 98
Angola 103 2.72 100
Chad 104 2.50 101

Note: In the rankings for 2003, the three countries not covered this year (Cameroon, Haiti and Senegal) are not shown. Posted by Anthony at October 19, 2004 09:50 AM | TrackBack