World Economic Forum (WEF) which is based in Geneva, Switzerland recently release “The Global Competitiveness Report 2014-2015”. The ranking is based on 12 pillars and 144 criterias to measure the competitiveness for each countries.
The 12 pillars are Institutions, Infrastructure, Macroeconomic environment, Health and primary education, Higher education and training, Goods market efficiency, Labor market efficiency, Financial market development, Technological readiness, Market size, Business sophistication & Innovation.
In the report, Malaysia ranked the 20th most competitive nation among 148 countries up 4 spot from 24th out of 144 countries in 2013-2014 overtaking advanced economies country such as Australia and France. Malaysia remained the second most competitive among Asean and has improved to sixth position among 28 Asia-Pacific countries. Malaysia’s biggest improvement was in the institutions pillar.
The table below is top 25 of the ranking.
| Country | Rank 2014/15 | Score (2014/15) | Rank 2014/15 | Score (2013-14) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Switzerland | 1 | 5.70 | 1 | 5.67 |
| Singapore | 2 | 5.65 | 2 | 5.61 |
| United States | 3 | 5.54 | 5 | 5.48 |
| Finland | 4 | 5.50 | 3 | 5.54 |
| Germany | 5 | 5.49 | 4 | 5.51 |
| Japan | 6 | 5.47 | 9 | 5.40 |
| Hong Kong | 7 | 5.46 | 7 | 5.47 |
| Netherlands | 8 | 5.45 | 8 | 5.42 |
| United Kingdom | 9 | 5.41 | 10 | 5.37 |
| Sweden | 10 | 5.41 | 6 | 5.48 |
| Norway | 11 | 5.35 | 11 | 5.33 |
| United Arab Emirates | 12 | 5.33 | 19 | 5.11 |
| Denmark | 13 | 5.29 | 15 | 5.18 |
| Taiwan | 14 | 5.25 | 12 | 5.29 |
| Canada | 15 | 5.24 | 14 | 5.20 |
| Qatar | 16 | 5.24 | 13 | 5.24 |
| New Zealand | 17 | 5.20 | 18 | 5.11 |
| Belgium | 18 | 5.18 | 17 | 5.13 |
| Luxembourg | 19 | 5.17 | 22 | 5.09 |
| Malaysia | 20 | 5.16 | 24 | 5.03 |
| Austria | 21 | 5.16 | 16 | 5.15 |
| Australia | 22 | 5.08 | 21 | 5.09 |
| France | 23 | 5.08 | 23 | 5.05 |
| Saudi Arabia | 24 | 5.06 | 20 | 5.10 |
| Ireland | 25 | 4.98 | 28 | 4.92 |
Full report can be found at WEF webpage.