Romania is less competititive

In a year, Romania has gone down from 56th to 66th in the Global Competitiveness Report, published by the World Economic Forum, the organiser of the famous Davos forum.
Published on a yearly basis since 1979, this survey ranked 80 countries in 2002. Two lists are based on indices, one of them examining the growth prospects of a specific country in the medium and long run, while the other measures the factors contributing to the current productivity.
The World Economic Forum’s partner for Romania is the Romanian Economic Society (SOREC).
Romania has fallen only six places in the second chart from 61 to 67 in 2001, ranking below Peru and ahead of Bulgaria, which kept the same position as in the previous year, 68.
The report shows the USA have regained the top position in the two charts, one year after having been outranked by Finland, now on the second position.
Taiwan follows next, ahead of Singapore, Sweden and Switzerland.
Out of the Western European countries, the UK ranks 11th, Germany ranks 14th, while Spain retained the 22nd position. France lost 10 positions, going down to the 30th place, while Italy lost 13, going down to the 39th place according to the growth prospects.
As regards the European Union applicant states, Estonia is the best positioned of them all, 26th in the first ranking, having gained three positions as compared with 2001. Slovenia ranks 28th, Hungary 29th, Lithuania 36th, the Czech Republic 40th, Latvia 44th, Slovakia 49th and Poland 51st.
At the same time, Japan, in spite of the economic stagnation it has been experiencing for several years now, jumped from the 21st position to the 13th, according to the growth prospects.
The United States rank first in terms of current productivity, followed by Finland, the UK, Germany, Switzerland and Sweden, while Hungary, the Czech Republic and Poland rank 28th, 34th and 46th.
This year’s edition of the World Economic Forum’s global report also included Tunisia, Botswana, Namibia, Morocco, Croatia and Haiti and excluded Egypt, due to insufficient data.