1:33:10 PM | 14/10/2008
Vietnam ranks the 70th among the 134 economies surveyed in the 2008 Global Competitiveness Report by the World Economic Forum (WEF), dropping two levels compared to the 2007 position, state media said.
According to the report released on October 8, Vietnam has advantages in 23 criteria with the highest competitiveness seen in labor market efficiency thanks to cheap labor costs. The country’s several other strong points include stable marco-economic, health and education environment.
Meanwhile, the three biggest problems of Vietnam are high inflation, poor infrastructure and lack of skilled labourers, the report said.
Among East Asian countries, Vietnam is ahead of only the Philippines and Cambodia, the WEF said.
Vietnam stood at the 64th in 2006, the 68th in 2007 and the 70th in 2008. However, the 2008 list sees some additional countries. WEF points out that if the newly listed countries had not been added, Vietnam would have fallen by one grade to the 69th.
This year, the U.S. still tops the ranking thanks to its productivity, high creativeness and the ability to apportion strength in the most effective way.
The list of the top ten countries which have the highest competitiveness does not see big changes this year with familiar names like the U.S., Switzerland, Denmark, Sweden, Singapore, Finland, Germany, the Netherlands and Japan.
Canada has joined the top ten, while the UK, though remaining very competitive, has fallen three grades and out of the top ten, which is attributed mainly to the weakening of its banking system.
China continued to climb this year, up four places to 30, Russia also rose sharply to 51, and meanwhile, India slipped two places to rank 50. (Vietnam Economic Times, Youth)
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