Turkey replaces Greece as most competitive in region

Greece, plagued by debt and deficit problems, has been overtaken by Turkey in a new ranking.

(Sofia News Agency, Dnevnik.bg, Mediapool, Mediafax – 18/05/11; International Institute for Management Development – 17/05/11)

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Turkey climbs nine places in the Swiss-based IMD’s 2011 world competitiveness rankings. [Reuters]

Turkey has emerged as the most competitive among five Southeast European (SEE) countries in a new survey by the International Institute for Management Development (IMD) on Tuesday (May 17th).

A fast-growing economy, Turkey jumped nine places to 39th in the leading Swiss-based business school’s annual World Competitiveness Yearbook (WCY), which covers 59 industrialised and emerging economies this year. Turkey thus came out well ahead of Romania, Bulgaria, Greece and Croatia, the only other countries from the region included in the survey.

The IMD, which has been publishing its competitiveness studies since 1989, analyses and ranks countries’ ability to create and maintain an environment in which enterprises can compete on the basis of 331 criteria. The data the Lausanne-based institute compiles for its surveys is grouped into four main categories: economic performance, government efficiency, business efficiency and infrastructure, which are then each divided into five sub-factors.

Countries’ rankings are based on their overall scores of up to 100 points, two-thirds of which rests on statistical data and the remaining one-third on the responses of a total of 4,000 executives.

This year, the United States and Hong Kong were given the best possible score of 100 points each, based on which the two tied in the pole position, ahead of 3rd-placed Singapore. The other countries in the top ten include Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Canada, Qatar, Australia and Germany.

Greece, which ranked highest among the SEE countries last year, slipped ten places to 56th in the IMD’s new survey, a reflection of the country’s worsening debt and deficit problems.

As a result of this significant decline, Greece is now ranked lower than Turkey, Romania and Bulgaria. Among the SEE countries included in this year’s WCY, Greece is now ahead of Croatia, which has dropped two notches to 58th since 2010.

Aside from Turkey, Romania is the only other SEE nation to have improved its ranking. It moved up four places to 50th, ahead of Slovenia, South Africa, Jordan and Argentina.

Bulgaria, which was ranked 53rd last year, slipped to 55th place, reflecting its lower rankings on each of the four basic factors. The country lost most ground on government efficiency, falling nine places to 41st on this individual category. It also slipped five notches on infrastructure, to take 53rd place among the surveyed economies on this specific factor. Its worst scores, however, were for business efficiency, which placed it only two places from the bottom.

“The world of competitiveness becomes more national” and is “characterised by a greater self-reliance of countries”, said Stephane Garelli, head of the IMD’s World Competitiveness Centre. “It increasingly emphasises re-industrialisation, exports, and a more critical look at delocalisation.”

This content was commissioned for SETimes.com.