Singapore Continues to Remains the World’s Most Competitive Economy
The 2020 edition of IMD’s World Competitiveness ranking has been released and Singapore continues to remain the world’s most competitive economy for the second year in a row.
The ranking analyses a total of 63 economies on their ability to generate prosperity and has been published annually since 2004.
Most Competitive Economies
The top five most competitive economies in 2020 are 1. Singapore, 2. Denmark, 3. Switzerland, 4. The Netherlands, and 5. Hong Kong. The rankings were made based on a combination of surveys done on business executives about a country’s economy and hard data.
It is notable that all top 5 economies are small economies with populations ranging from 5.6 to 17.3 million people. They have demonstrated the strength of smaller economies to withstand disruptions caused by global events such as the COVID-19 pandemic.
IMD has largely credited Singapore’s exemplary performance is to its business-friendly environment, the relative ease of setting up business, the availability of skilled labour and the country’s cutting-edge technological infrastructure. The research organization further clarifies that Singapore has continued to perform well due to its education system and top-notch infrastructures such as telecommunications, Internet bandwidth speed and high-tech exports.
Singapore’s Minister for Trade and Industry has commented that while it is good news that Singapore has maintained its position in overall global competitiveness, these were still volatile times and there cannot be complacency as the COVID-19 pandemic has not fully ended yet.
However, aside from the rankings of Singapore and Taiwan (which rose to 11th place from 16th last year), all other Asian economies have dropped in rankings compared to 2019. Hong Kong has dropped from 2nd to 5th place as ongoing political turmoil has affected its economic performance. However, the prosperous island-city state continues to have a strong underlying framework for advancements and economic growth.
US and China Fell in Rankings
US and China, the world’s two largest economies, have also falled in rankings due to the trade war reversing their positive growth trajectories.
The US has failed to claim its number one spot back twice now ever since losing it to Singapore in 2019 and fell even further from 3rd place to 10th place, whereas China fell from 14th place to 20th place.
Other notable rankings include economies that have shown considerably year-on-year consistency such as India (43rd), Australia (18th), and Germany (17th). Canada has moved up from 13th place to 8th while the United Kingdom has climbed up from 23rd to 19th place.
