EU2020 and WEF: Competitiveness

Just as the Europe 2020 strategy (EU2020) aims for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth, the World Economic Forum (WEF) is increasingly trying to actually measure or assess ”quality growth”, especially sustainable growth.

The 527 pages of the global comparison The Global Competitiveness Report 2011-2012 from the WEF offer a cornucopia of questions of method about competitiveness factors (Part 1) and substantive information about how well prepared the countries are for the future (Part 2). In other words, we can learn from both the general and the country-specific parts of the comparative study.

The Global Competitiveness Index takes into account twelve interrelated groups or ”pillars” of competitiveness: institutions, infrastructure, macroeconomic environment, health and primary education, higher education and training, goods market efficiency, labour market efficiency, financial market development, technological readiness (ICT), market size, business sophistication and technological innovation.

As in previous years, this year’s top 10 remained dominated by a number of European countries, with Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Germany, and the Netherlands confirming their place among the most competitive economies. Singapore continued its upward trend to become the second-most competitive economy in the world, overtaking Sweden, while the United Kingdom returned to the top 10 as it recovers from the crisis, said the WEF.



Ralf Grahn