UAE climbs to 23rd place in world rankings

Dubai: The UAE climbed to 23rd position in the World Economic Forum's Global Competitiveness Index 2009 rankings, released yesterday, despite the impact of the global economic meltdown.

"The UAE climb to 23rd position is mainly due to a more favourable assessment of institutions, and higher technological readiness and innovative capacity. The financial markets in the UAE show more resilience to the financial crisis than many other countries," the report said.

A number of countries in the Middle East and North Africa region are in the upper half of the Global Competitiveness Index 2009 rankings, led by Qatar, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait and Tunisia, with particular improvements noted in the Gulf states, which continue their upward trend of recent years. Qatar improved by four places.

"Policymakers are presently struggling with ways of managing these new economic challenges, while preparing their economies to perform well in a future economic landscape characterised by growing uncertainty. In a difficult global economic environment, it is more important than ever for countries to put into place strong fundamentals underpinning economic growth and development," said Klaus Schwab, founder and executive chairman of the World Economic Forum, in a statement.

UAE analysts, however, say that the country needs to further improve its business climate to reduce time and red tape.

"Despite the progress made over the last few years, I feel there is more room for improvement," Raju Menon, an investment adviser, told Gulf News. "In fact, by giving investment advisory firms more access to processes, the government could cut down the processing time, if law and advisory firms are given more power to handle business applications and registration processes, like those in Singapore and New Zealand."