DUSHANBE, November 11, 2008, Asia-Plus — The Global Competitiveness Report (GCR) 2008-2009 released by the Global Competitiveness Network (GCN) of the World Economic Forum (WEF) on November 8 ranked Tajikistan 116th among 134 countries in terms of competitiveness. Compared to 2007-2008 Tajikistan has improved by one place.
As far as other Central Asia’s states are concerned, Kazakhstan was ranked 66th and Kyrgyzstan 122nd. The GCR 2008-2009 does not have competitiveness indices for Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.
Russia ranked 51st remains on top of competitiveness rankings among the CIS states. Azerbaijan was ranked 69th, Ukraine 72nd, Georgian 90th, Armenia 98th, and Moldova 95th.
The United States tops the overall ranking in The Global Competitiveness Report 2008-2009. Switzerland is in second position followed by Denmark, Sweden and Singapore. European economies continue to prevail in the top 10 with Finland, Germany and the Netherlands following suit. The United Kingdom, while remaining very competitive, has dropped by three places and out of the top 10, mainly attributable to a weakening of its financial markets.
China continues to lead the way among large developing economies, improving by four places this year and joining the top 30.
Through its reports and activities the GCN identifies impediments to growth and thereby helps stimulate the development of relevant strategies to achieve sustained economic progress. The GCN team works with leading academics worldwide to ensure latest thinking and research on global competitiveness are incorporated into its reports.
The Global Competitiveness Report (GCR) is the GCN”s flagship publication. It is the most comprehensive and authoritative assessment of the comparative strengths and weaknesses of national economies, used by governments, academics and business leaders. The GCR was first published in 1979 and its coverage has expanded each year since, now extending to 134 major and emerging economies. Further expansion of coverage is planned.
The Executive Opinion Survey is a major component of the GCR and provides the key ingredient that turns the Report into a representative annual measure of a nation’s economic environment and its ability to achieve sustained growth, gathering valuable information on a broad range of variables for which hard data sources are scarce or, frequently, nonexistent.
The Global Competitiveness Report 2008-2009 polled over 12,000 business executives worldwide.
The rankings are calculated from both publicly available data and the Executive Opinion Survey, a comprehensive annual survey conducted by the World Economic Forum together with its network of Partner Institutes (leading research institutes and business organizations) in the countries covered by the report.
