As has been the case in recent years, the IMD’s “World Competitiveness Yearbook 2017” grants an exceptional ranking for the UAE, while assigning decent positions for Qatar and Saudi Arabia. But the other Gulf states fault to get a mention with the IMD providing rankings for just 63 economies out of some 200 countries.
Clearly, the comprehensive nature of the selection criteria makes it difficult to extend coverage to all. The report evaluates economies on some 341 factors in total. Broadly, the sizeable number of variables deal with economic performance, government efficiency, business efficiency, and infrastructure.
Some 83 criteria relate to economic performance such as trade and investment plus the size of the domestic economy. In turn, government efficiency scores depend on 73 criteria, such as policies conducive to competitiveness including public finance and supporting legislation.
Business efficiency, boasting some 71 variables, consist of productivity, attitudes and management practices, notably in encouraging enterprises to become innovative, profitable and responsible. The 115 variables under the infrastructure criteria consider education plus technological and scientific infrastructure as well as human resources and the extent to which they meet needs of the business community.
The drop in oil prices since 2014 has exposed weaknesses in Gulf economies. Even then, the UAE advanced five notches and thereby more than overcoming the drop by three rankings in the 2016 study. The UAE is now just behind Hong Kong, Switzerland, Singapore, the US, Netherlands, Ireland, Denmark, Luxembourg and Sweden. The UAE maintained its competitiveness thanks to the diversification from oil.
Emirates airline is the largest operator of Airbus 380 and Boeing 777 planes. Dubai operates the only metro system in any GCC city giving the emirate an edge over rivals with regards to efficiencies and quality of life.
The UAE will have more to offer in terms of economic competitiveness with the hosting of World Expo 2020 in Dubai. The event will be coming to the region for the first time ever.
Also, the 2019 AFC Asian Cup will be held in the UAE in early 2019 at eight stadiums in four cities. This marks the second time the UAE hosts the tournament after the 1996 finals. Likewise, the UAE has been selected as host of the 2017 and 2018 editions of the FIFA Club World Cup Final.
Qatar saw its ranking decline four notches to the 17th position. It was the best performer in the region by clinching the 13th ranking in the 2016 report. The report ranks Saudi Arabia as the 36th most competitive in the world.
The writer is a Member of Parliament in Bahrain.
