Switzerland, Finland and Sweden are the world’s most competitive economies according to The Global Competitiveness Report 2006-2007, released by the World Economic Forum on 26 September 2006. Denmark, Singapore, the United States, Japan, Germany, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom complete the top ten list, but the United States shows the most pronounced drop, falling from first to sixth.
The rankings are drawn from a combination of publicly available hard data and the results of 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. This year, over 11,000 business leaders were polled in a record 125 economies worldwide.
"The top rankings of Switzerland and the Nordic countries show that good institutions and competent macroeconomic management, coupled with world-class educational attainment and a focus on technology and innovation, are a successful strategy for boosting competitiveness in an increasingly complex global economy."
"The world economy is not a zero-sum game. Many nations can improve their prosperity if they can improve productivity. The central challenge in economic development, then, is how to create the conditions for rapid and sustained productivity growth."
"The process of growth is complex. The Growth Competitiveness Index is an attempt to capture this complexity by modelling growth as a complicated combination of factors that matter differently for different countries."
EXTRACT FROM THE PREFACE
by Professor Schwab
It is against a backdrop of burgeoning global imbalances, the collapse of the Doha round of trade negotiations and the revival of protectionist tendencies which are combining to create an atmosphere that highlights the precariousness of global economic growth prospects, that the World Economic Forum is bringing the latest edition of The Global Competitiveness Report. With the growing complexity of the global economy, the Report is a contribution to enhancing our understanding of the key factors which determine economic growth, and explain why some countries are much more successful than others in raising income levels and opportunities for their respective populations. By providing detailed assessments of the economic conditions of nations worldwide, the Report offers policymakers and business leaders an important tool in the formulation of improved economic policies and institutional reforms.
