ISLAMABAD: Pakistan advances by four points on the Global Competitiveness Index of the World Economic Forum (WEF).
For the eighth consecutive year, Switzerland ranks as the most competitive economy in the world – narrowly ahead of Singapore and the United States – a Global Competitiveness Report 2016-2017 said.
Pakistan has shown some extraordinary recovery on the economic front, where the country has been successful in improving its macroeconomic framework to improve its global competitiveness, the report added.
According to the report, Pakistan was classified as a factor driven economy – which basically depends on improving its institutions, infrastructure, macroeconomic stability, health and primary education indicators.
The report further said that Pakistan improved from 119 to 111 on the institutions pillars but the infrastructure improved by only one point and stands at 116 this year.
On the Macroeconomic Stability Pillar, Pakistan jumped from 128 in 2015 to 116 – a solid 12 points gain that shows economic progress on gross national savings percentage of GDP, where Pakistan improved from 115 in 2015 to 107 this year.
While the government debt percentage to GDP also ranks at 95 among 138 economies in the world. The biggest gain, however, was in the area of inflation; annual percentage change where Pakistan moved from 127 in 2015 to 93 in 2016, the report said.
On other pillars – among 138 countries – Pakistan ranks 128 at health and primary education, 123 at higher education and training, 117 at goods market efficiency, 129 at labour market efficiency, 107 at financial market sophistication, 119 at technological readiness, 29 at market size, 95 at business sophistication and 75 at innovation.
Mishal Pakistan Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Amir Jahangir – the country partner institute of the Global Competitiveness and Benchmarking Network of the World Economic Forum said, “Pakistan has shown improvements on some of the key indicators to improve its global competitiveness, however the country still needs to integrate itself into the digital and cyber world.”
Pakistan – with a population of at least 186 million – offers great prospects if data and knowledge-based policy making is introduced in the country, it said.
