S’pore is 3rd most competitive economy

It climbs up two notches from last year in WEF survey

Singapore is the third most competitive economy, according to the latest survey by Geneva-based World Economic Forum (WEF) released yesterday.

It climbed up two notches from last year. The boost came from increased confidence in the country’s public institutions, efficient markets for goods and labour, and high-quality financial markets.

In the Global Competitiveness Report 2009-2010, the poll was conducted on 13,000 business leaders. They were asked to rate 133 countries on good government; transport and telecommunications infrastructure; openness to innovation; intellectual property protection; and availability of talent.

Switzerland overtook the United States for the top place, nudging the latter to second position.

The US lost its title as the most competitive economy in the world, as its financial markets have weakened while economic stability could be undermined by its fiscal deficits.

‘Given that the financial crisis originated in large part in the United States, it is hardly surprising that there has been a weakening of the assessment of its financial market sophistication,’ the survey said. ‘The country’s greatest weakness continues to be related to its macroeconomic stability.’

Switzerland’s economic performance has been ‘relatively stable’ though its financial markets have ‘weakened somewhat’, the survey said, pointing to the difficulties faced by its banks.

But the survey made no mention of Swiss banking secrecy, which came under US pressure when the US demanded client names of American taxpayers suspected of setting up secret offshore accounts with Swiss bank UBS AG.

Sweden maintained its fourth position, while Denmark slipped two places to fifth. They were followed by Finland, Germany, Japan, Canada and the Netherlands.

Source : Business Times – 9 Sep 2009