The recent 2013-14 Global Competitiveness Report published by the World Economic Forum confirms that some GCC countries must do more to score on this key economic parameter. In fact, the Global Competitiveness Index (GCI), an integral part of the report, gives Qatar and Bahrain rankings of 13 and 43 respectively while, interestingly enough, only the UAE and Kuwait succeeded in improving their rankings among GCC states.

Conversely, Bahrain’s ranking suffered a setback, dropping eight notches in a single year to fare the worst among GCC states. This whole negative scenario adds urgency to resolving the country’s socio-political crisis, which erupted in February 2011 with adverse effects for its economic fortunes as well.

The report ranks Qatar as the 13th most competitive economy in the world and the best within Middle East and North Africa region. The economies ahead of it in the pecking order are Switzerland, Singapore, Finland, Germany, the US, Sweden, Netherlands, Hong Kong, Japan, Britain, Norway and Taiwan.

Notwithstanding the achievement, Qatar’s ranking has unfortunately dropped by two notches. In effect, Qatar had to give up on the two higher notches attained in the 2012-13 report.

Not surprisingly, Qatar’s strengths include the exceptionally high per capita income, reportedly estimated at $100,000 per annum. Also, high marks are granted to the notion of market efficiency as reflected in the efforts by private sector investors to undertake projects ahead of the 2022 World Cup.

Undoubtedly, Qatar has the chance to further improve its ranking in the years ahead on the back of the investments channelled into the World Cup. The intended projects cover infrastructural developments such as a metro for Doha at a cost exceeding $18 billion.

Of all the GCC economies, that of the UAE emerged as a star by continuing the positive trend of improving its ranking - five notches in the latest report on top of three made the year before. Qualities include efficiency in the goods market as a reward for embracing the free market model.

Other attractive attributes relate to creating jobs, which rubs off on gains in labour efficiency as candidates from everywhere compete for jobs in the country. Also building up the UAE’s momentum are the steady government investments on infrastructure, from road networks to airports.

To be sure, the UAE has overtaken Saudi Arabia as the second most competitive Arab economy on the competitiveness index. The latter’s ranking dropped a notch to be ranked at 20th, which partly reflects in-built inefficiencies in the labour market.

For instance, the Saudi job market is characterised by limited participation of Saudi women, a phenomenon that denies the economy an opportunity to maximise benefits from is human resources.

The other drawback relates to placing increasing pressure on businesses to offer certain desired jobs to Saudi nationals, as part of efforts designed to confront the unemployment challenge amongst locals emerging from demographic pressures.

In essence, the ‘Nitaqat’ scheme pressurises private sector firms to employ more Saudi nationals at the expense of expatriates.

Understandably, the controversial policy, which went into effect in July, is not popular with foreign and local firms alike on the grounds of putting restrictions on their freedom of choice.

Rivalry is fierce among nations to improve competitiveness of their economies and to reap the ensuing benefits. Positive spillover effects entail an enhanced ability to entice investments and businesses and thereby create an opportunity to address economic challenges, most notably through creating job opportunities.

The writer is a Member of Parliament in Bahrain.