Global Competitiveness Index

Bangladesh moves up 7 steps

Bangladesh advances seven placers to rank 99 out of 137 countries in the Global Competitiveness Index (GCI) 2017-18 published by the World Economic Forum (WEF) yesterday.

“Bangladesh has improved its scores across all pillars of competitiveness and its overall score is 3.9, up from 3.8 of GCI 2016-17 when its position was 106 out of 138 nations,” said the WEF.

Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) released the GIC report at a press conference in the capital yesterday.

Distinguished fellow of CPD Dr Mustafizur Rahman, Executive Director Fahmida Khatun and Dr Tawfiqul Islam Khan were present at the programme while CPD's Research Director Golam Moazzem highlighted the different key-points of the index.

While presenting key findings of Bangladesh chapter of the report, Dr Khondaker Golam Moazzem said that considerable score in ‘basic requirement’ sub-index helped Bangladesh in coming down to double digits ranking.

According to the WEF, corruption has been identified as the most problematic factor for doing business in Bangladesh, followed by issues like inadequate supply of infrastructure, inefficient government bureaucracy, inadequately educated workforce and poor work ethic in national labor force.

In the GCI, Bangladesh scored well in macroeconomic environment category, ranking 56th. But its performance in health and primary education, and higher education and training categories were not as impressive - 102nd and 117th respectively.

In terms of market size, the country ranked 38th but stood at 111th in infrastructure, and 118th in labour market efficiency categories.

The WEF index is based on 12 basic factors -- institutions, infrastructure, the macroeconomic environment, health, education, market efficiency, the labour market, financial market development, technological capacity, market size, innovation and business sophistication.

The WEF has been publishing the index since 1979.

Dr Moazzem emphasized some recommendations and said more investment in the IT sector and quick implementation of the key projects are also very important as the country is most laggard in the sector.

He also said, Bangladesh should focus towards an ‘efficiency driven’ economy to accommodate the GIS requirements.

He, however, highlighted that weakness in efficiency enhancers continue to prevail despite some improvement.

Switzerland has been the world's most competitive economy, narrowly ahead of the United States and Singapore. Other G20 economies in the top 10 are Germany, the United Kingdom and Japan. China is the highest ranking among the BRICS group of large emerging markets, moving up one rank to 27.

Global Competitiveness Index

Bangladesh moves up 7 steps

Bangladesh advances seven placers to rank 99 out of 137 countries in the Global Competitiveness Index (GCI) 2017-18 published by the World Economic Forum (WEF) yesterday. Bangladesh has improved its scores across all pillars of competitiveness and its overall score is 3.9, up from 3.8 of GCI 2016-17 when its position was 106 out of 138 nations, said the WEF. Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) released the GIC report at a press conference in the capital yesterday. Distinguished fellow of CPD Dr Mustafizur Rahman, Executive Director Fahmida Khatun and Dr Tawfiqul Islam Khan were present at the programme while CPDs Research Director Golam Moazzem highlighted the different key-points of the index. While presenting key findings of Bangladesh chapter of the report, Dr Khondaker Golam Moazzem said that considerable score in basic requirement sub-index helped Bangladesh in coming down to double digits ranking. According to the WEF, corruption has been identified as the most problematic factor for doing business in Bangladesh, followed by issues like inadequate supply of infrastructure, inefficient government bureaucracy, inadequately educated workforce and poor work ethic in national labor force. In the GCI, Bangladesh scored well in macroeconomic environment category, ranking 56th. But its performance in health and primary education, and higher education and training categories were not as impressive - 102nd and 117th respectively. In terms of market size, the country ranked 38th but stood at 111th in infrastructure, and 118th in labour market efficiency categories. The WEF index is based on 12 basic factors -- institutions, infrastructure, the macroeconomic environment, health, education, market efficiency, the labour market, financial market development, technological capacity, market size, innovation and business sophistication. The WEF has been publishing the index since 1979. Dr Moazzem emphasized some recommendations and said more investment in the IT sector and quick implementation of the key projects are also very important as the country is most laggard in the sector. He also said, Bangladesh should focus towards an efficiency driven economy to accommodate the GIS requirements. He, however, highlighted that weakness in efficiency enhancers continue to prevail despite some improvement. Switzerland has been the worlds most competitive economy, narrowly ahead of the United States and Singapore. Other G20 economies in the top 10 are Germany, the United Kingdom and Japan. China is the highest ranking among the BRICS group of large emerging markets, moving up one rank to 27.