Dubai: The UAE is the most prosperous nation in the Middle East and North Africa (Mena), according to a new global prosperity index that measures and ranks countries based upon social and economic well-being.
Globally, the UAE also ranked 29th overall out of 142 countries in the 2012 Legatum Institute Prosperity Index.
The UAE placed nine full rankings ahead of Kuwait (38) and 23 spots ahead of Saudi Arabia (52) in the sixth annual survey of global prosperity in weighted categories, ranging from economy and education to governance, health and personal freedom.
The UAE scored better than its regional counterparts across all fronts, most notably with a ranking of 17th best economy in the world, followed closely by a ranking of 23rd best country on the planet for safety and security.
Those high marks offset the UAE’s lowest ranking of 66th in the personal freedom category although it fared much higher than countries in the category such as Saudi Arabia which was ranked 130th globally.
Entrepreneurship
The UAE earned 30th place for its entrepreneurship opportunities, 41st ranking in the governance category, 37th for its strides in education, 32nd in health services and 42nd in social capital which measures family and society support.
In a statement, Legatum pointed out wide disparity in rankings between countries in the region, noting that the “United Arab Emirates, for example, ranks in the top 30 overall whilst Iraq and Afghanistan — two new countries in the index this year — rank within the bottom 15 countries in the index.”
The firm said in its report that most countries in the Middle East “improved their performance in the Entrepreneurship and Opportunity sub-index over the last three years...the Mena region has seen the second largest improvement in this sub-index behind Asia.”
The report also pointed out that the improvements “are partly due to a decrease in business start-up costs [which] have decreased throughout the [Mena] region.”
As the United States dipped to 12th place this year in the index out of the top 10, Jeffrey Gedmin, president and CEO of the Legatum Institute, said: “The Legatum Prosperity Index allows us to paint a comprehensive picture of what makes a country truly successful, encompassing traditional measures of material wealth as well as capturing citizens’ sense of well-being — from how safe they feel, to their perceived personal freedom. GDP alone can never offer a complete view of prosperity.”
Simon Williams, HSBC senior economist in the UAE, lauded the UAE’s placing, but said that like most countries tracked in the new index, there is room for improvement.
“I’m not surprised the UAE ranks first in the region,” Williams told Gulf News on Wednesday.
“Given that the UAE has one of the wealthiest GDPs per capita in the world, this tells you how far the UAE has to go to close the gap between potential and reality,” he said.
On the social capital front, what the index called the “social cohesion, reciprocity and trust in a society,” there was a sharp decline in Mena in 2012, “most pronounced in countries such as Tunisia, Syria and Yemen”.
“Yet, even countries where the Arab Spring was of less consequence have also declined,” the index reported.
“Among the worst performers are Afghanistan, Syria and Iran where more than 40 per cent of the population report that they cannot rely on relatives and friends.”
