Nepal languishes in 125th position in Global Competitive Index

Nepal has made no progress in competitiveness in 2012-13 as the country remained in 125th position in the Global Competitive Index published by World Economic Forum (WEF), as in the previous year.

The WEF report made public in Switzerland on Thursday attributed Nepal's poor competitiveness to unstable government, corruption, slack service delivery, lack of flexible labour policies and inadequate infrastructure, among others.

Switzerland has topped the competitive index for the fourth consecutive year while Singapore remained in second position and Finland in third position and Sweden 4th) .These and other Northern and Western European countries dominate the top 10 with the Netherlands (5th), Germany (6th) and United Kingdom (8th). The United States (7th), Hong Kong (9th) and Japan (10th) complete the ranking of the top 10 most competitive economies.

Likewise, China figures in 13th position while India is in 59th position. The two emerging economic giants were in the same positions last year. The WEF prepares the index on the basis of economic competitiveness in view of yardsticks like basic requirement, efficiency enhancers and innovation and sophistication factors. Under the Basic competitiveness requirements indicators include - institutions, infrastructure, macroeconomic environment, and health and primary education.

Similarly, indicators like higher education and training, goods market efficiency, labour market efficiency, financial market development, technological readiness and market size as considered as the efficiency factors apart from business sophistication and innovation. nepalnews.com