Bangladesh has moved two notches forward to 107 among 140 countries in the world in Global Competitiveness Index (GCI).
World Economic Forum prepared the Global Competitiveness Report 2015-16 which was launched in Bangladesh by the Forum’s local partner Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) at Brac Centre Inn on Wednesday morning.
As per the report, Bangladesh has progressed due to better performance in Basic Requirements: institutions, infrastructure, macroeconomic environment, health and primary education.
"Though Bangladesh has done better but no changes come in innovation efficiency and skill. We need a breakthrough to overcome the situation," CPD Additional Director Dr Khondaker Golam Moazzem said.
The World Economic Forum made the report on 140 countries after evaluating 12 different issues known as “twelve pillars” under the three sub-indices.
Also Read: Bangladesh 110th-most competitive country
The GCI combines 114 indicators that capture concepts that matter for productivity. These indicators are grouped into 12 pillars: 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, and innovation.
These are in turn organized into three subindexes, in line with three main stages of development: basic requirements, efficiency enhancers, and innovation and sophistication factors. The three subindexes are given different weights in the calculation of the overall Index, depending on each economy’s stage of development, as proxied by its GDP per capita and the share of exports represented by raw materials.
Switzerland topped the 2015-16 index for the seventh consecutive years followed by Singapore, United States, Germany, the Netherlands, Japan, Hong Kong and Finland.
Among the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) countries, India was ranked 55, Sri Lanka 68, Nepal 100, Bhutan 105 and Pakistan 126.
The GCI includes statistical data from internationally recognized agencies, notably the International Monetary Fund (IMF); the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization; and the World Health Organization.
It also includes data from the World Economic Forum’s annual Executive Opinion Survey to capture concepts that require a more qualitative assessment, or for which comprehensive and internationally comparable statistical data are not available.