Hong Kong is world’s seventh most competitive nation

Moves up two places in the Global Competitiveness Report.

The latest report from the World Economic Forum (WEF) showed that Hong Kong again topped the infrastructure pillar for the fourth consecutive report. WEF said this reflects the outstanding quality of Hong Kong’s facilities across all modes of transportation in addition to its domination of the financial market development ranking.

The latest WEF report featured a record 148 economies that were ranked on 12 factors: infrastructure, financial market development, goods market efficiency, labor market efficiency, technological readiness, market size, business sophistication, innovation, the institutional environment, macroeconomy, health and primary education and higher education and training.

The report also showed China in 29th place while Singapore placed second to Switzerland, which remains on top as the world’s most competitive nation.

Japan moved one rank higher to ninth and Taiwan improved one rank to 12th place. Malaysia ranked 24th after successful moves to slash red tape. South Korea fell six places to 25th on perceived weaknesses in its economy. India, beset by monetary and economic woes, fell to 60th place.

WEF noted the competitiveness of most ASEAN countries remains impeded by poor transport, inadequate energy and communication infrastructures, low enrolment rates and/or mediocre quality in education, and low levels of technological readiness.

On the other hand, ASEAN economies were showing positive trends, faring better than most developing Asian nations. WEF said the Philippines, once 40 places behind, is now ahead of India.