Guyana up slightly in global competitiveness

Guyana up slightly in global competitiveness
Posted By Stabroek staff On March 11, 2010 @ 5:11 am In Local News | 11 Comments
http://www.stabroeknews.com/2010/stories/03/11/guyana-up-slightly-in-global-competitiveness/


Guyana has moved up slightly on the Global Competitive-ness Index (GCI) 2009-2010 list, ranking 104 out of 133 countries in the annual report released by the World Economic Forum.

Last year the country had placed 115 out of 134 countries while in the 2007-2008 report it recorded a ranking of 126 out of 131.

The GCI listing is based on individual countries’ performance which is measured using 12 pillars as well as looking at the impact on business related issues such as crime, corruption, taxation, bureaucracy, inflation and stability among others.

The top ten ranked countries according to the report are Switzerland, the United States of America, Singapore, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Japan, Canada and the Netherlands.

The 12 pillars on which the index is built are institutions, infrastructure, macroeconomic stability, health and primary education, higher education and training, goods market efficiency, labour market efficiency, financial market sophistication, technological readiness, market size, business sophistication and innovation.

In the broad categorization of “basic requirements” which comprise the pillars of Institutions, Infrastructure, Macroeconomic Stability and Health and Primary Educa-tion, Guyana ranked 105 out of the 134 countries with the average score of 3.69.

Under the category of “Institutions” Guyana scored 3.32 and recorded a rank of 103 while for the category of Infrastructure it scored 3.03 and achieved a rank of 91 out of 133 countries. Guyana also ranked 127 for macroeconomic stability achieving a score of 3.00. Under Health and primary education Guyana reach scored 5.41, which placed it at 67 of the 133 countries.

According to the report under the Efficiency Indica-tors the country achieved a rank of 107 with an average of 3.40. In the category of Higher Education and training the country pegged a score of 3.81 which placed it 78. Guyana recorded a rank of 96 and achieved a score of 3.91 for its Goods Market Efficiency. In the category of Labour Market Efficiency, the country scored 4.06 and achieved a ranking of 99. Financial Market Sophisti-cation saw the country ranking 94 with a score of 3.12 while under the category of Market Size, the country ranked 129 with its score of 1.78.

Under the broad grouping of Innovation and Sophisti-cation Factors the country recorded a rank of 110 with its score of 3.06. In the pillars which contribute to this category: “Business Sophisti-cation” and “Innovation”, Guyana ranked 94 and 121 respectively with respective scores of 3.60 and 2.52.

Concerning the Latin American and the Caribbean, the report said that several countries are realizing important advances “in the midst of a major external shock on export demand and financing availability, brought about by the current global economic crisis and lower commodity prices. The report said that this reflects the “rather strong footing of most of the countries in the region that enables them to weather the crisis, thanks to sounder macro-economic fundamentals achieved in recent years especially in the areas of reduced debt levels and increased foreign currency reserves”. The report said that although the average Gross Domestic Project (GDP) for the region was expected to contract by 1.9 percent during 2009, it is projected to start growing again in 2010 at 3.1 percent, which is a rate higher than the projected average world growth for 2010 which is 1.9 percent.