By Kang Seung-woo
Korea moved up one notch from last year to 22nd out of 59 countries in this year’s global competitiveness rankings, compiled by the International Institute for Management Development (IMD) for its World Competitiveness Yearbook (WCY) 2011.
Korea’s ranking for 2011 marks its third consecutive year of improvement and is its highest since 1997 when they were first compiled. Japan also moved up one spot to 26th, while China fell by one to 19th. The United States regained its No. 1 position.
The IMD is a Switzerland-based institute that issues competitiveness rankings every year based on a country’s economic achievements, infrastructure and government, and corporate efficiency.
Korea scored 78.499 points out of 100 to place behind New Zealand, which had 79.799 points, but ahead of Belgium at 77.599 points.
The United States, which lost the title as the most competitive country last year for the first time in decades to Singapore, retook the top spot, sharing it with Hong Kong at 100 points, followed by Singapore, Sweden and Switzerland. Taiwan, Canada, Qatar, Australia and Germany rounded out the top 10.
Korea, Asia’s fourth-largest economy, ranked 27th in 2009 before landing at 23rd last year, which was the nation’s best record at that time.
Before the upward trend, Korea remained around the top 30 over the past five years, ranging from 32nd in 2003 to 27th in 2005.
In the four major indicators, Korea jumped in government efficiency from 26th to 22nd, but its economic performance dropped from 21st to 25th.
But in the other two indicators, business efficiency and infrastructure, it remained largely unchanged, sitting at 26th and 20th, respectively.
The nation received relatively low points in its efforts to attract foreign direct investment and improve relations between unions and management.
“Korea achieved a ranking improvement for three straight years and enhanced government and corporate efficiency helped drive up the standing to a new high,” the Ministry of Strategy and Finance said in an analysis of the IMD report.
“We still need to make efforts to address our weaknesses cited in the report in order to keep improving our national competitiveness on the global stage.”
The IMD ranked Venezuela at the bottom of the list and Greece, which is suffering from fiscal debt problems, saw its ranking plunge to 56th from the previous year’s 46th.