Bangladesh has scaled up two places on the Global Competitiveness Index, according to the latest rankings released by the World Economic Forum (WEF) yesterday.
It now ranks 107th among 140 countries, against 109th in 2014-15. But, despite this jump, Bangladesh experienced negative changes in the sub-indices on institutions, financial market sophistication, goods market efficiency, technological readiness and business sophistication.
Switzerland retained the top spot in the latest rankings, followed by Singapore, the US, Germany and Netherlands.
Among South Asian countries, India leads the way at 55th, followed by Sri Lanka (68th, up five), Nepal (100th, up two), Bhutan (105th, down two) and Pakistan (126th, up three).
The report was launched in 140 nations simultaneously and in Dhaka. Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) launched the report as a partner institute of WEF.
CPD Executive Director Prof Mustafizur Rahman who joined the event through Skype from Geneva said: “Bangladesh needs to run rather than walking for faring well in competitiveness.”
“Though the score increased, the country did not make breakthrough in efficiency, productivity and labour market,” he said.
He suggested that Bangladesh needs infrastructural development, reforms and enabling environment in public administration to graduate into an upper middle-income country from its current lower-middle income status.
The WEF report attributes the jump in Bangladesh’s ranking to better performance in basic requirements but at the cost of weakening “efficiency enhancers”.
The Global Competitiveness Index is an annual assessment to gauge the factors driving productivity and prosperity across 140 countries.
It measures a country’s performance on 12 pillars – institutions, infrastructure, macroeconomic environment, heath and primary education, higher education and training, goods market efficiency, labour market efficiency, financial market development, technological readiness, market size, business sophistication and innovation.
The World Bank’s ease-of-doing-business survey published early this year ranks Bangladesh at 173rd.
The latest WEF rankings shows Bangladesh’s institutions are judged not favourably (ranked 132nd against 131st in 2014-15).
The report says performance in efficiency enhancers declined two places to 105th in ranking.
A big improvement was seen in the country’s macroeconomic stability through the past year, with its ranking jumping 23 places to 49th in 2015-16. Part of this could reflect the recent moderation in inflation and the fall in the current account deficit.
On infrastructure, the ranking moved up four notches. Now, it ranks 123rd on the quality of railroad infrastructure.
But on other key parameters, it fares poorly, ranking 113rd on the quality of roads and 120th on electricity supply. Ground and water transport networks have further worsened.
About governance, the report says the governance-related issues have remained unchanged and even deteriorated with 68% respondents believing that the parliament is ineffective as law-making institution, and 96% believe that politicians maintain poor ethical standards.
Health and primary education is seen as an area of improvement, with Bangladesh’s ranking jumping 1 place to 101st.
On innovation, Bangladesh ranks 127th from 129th in 2014-15.
The report lists corruption, instability of the government, higher tax, poor work ethic and complexity of tax regulations, access to financing, government instability and inadequate supply of infrastructure as the top concerns in terms of doing business in India.
According to an analysis of Bangladesh’s Business Environment in 2015, most Bangladeshi entrepreneurs have identified energy price shock, underdeveloped infrastructure and weak governance as the foremost risks for doing business in Bangladesh within the next 10 years.
Source: Dhaka Tribune
