Vietnam, Cambodia, Brunei jump in competitiveness, Philippines loses out
by Arno Maierbrugger - Oct 9, 2019
Reading Time: 3 minutes

The World Economic Forum (WEF)’s competitiveness ranking for 2019 is out and shows remarkable improvement for four Southeast Asian countries, namely Vietnam, Cambodia, Brunei and Singapore, while others declined.

The 2019 Global Competitiveness Report, which measures the strength of 103 key indicators, such as inflation, digital skills, institutions, macroeconomic stability, health, environment, human capital, markets, innovation and productivity across 141 countries, shows that Singapore has overtaken the US to become the most competitive nation in the world.

Singapore scored highly for its public sector, labour force, diversity and infrastructure. On life expectancy, Singapore was ranked number one, with newborn children expected to live until the age of 74.

But there were other, less developed countries in Southeast Asia which made remarkable improvement.

With a ten-notch jump, Vietnam now ranks 67 in the index 2019, being the country whose score improved the most globally. The nation scored better in all 12 pillars of the index, highest in human capital, macroeconomic stability, market size, ICT adaption and infrastructure.

“Vietnam used to be at 77 last year. This year, it’s at 67,” said Saadia Zahidi, head of the WEF’s Center for the New Economy and Society.

“That ten-rank increase is in part because the economy has been able to use the current situation in terms of the trade war to attract some of the investments to be able to become a little bit more of a regional trading hub,” she added.

Cambodia is another winner in this year’s index. The highest scores of the country were in macroeconomic stability, health, labour market and financial system. However, the county still lacks competitiveness in institutions, labour skills and innovation capability.
http://investvine.com/vietnam-cambodia- ... loses-out/