Saudi Arabia achieved the best progress in the Global Competitiveness Report (GCR) of the 2018 World Economic Forum, by ranking 39th out of 140 countries, making this the best improvement in the ranking since 2012.
The Report gave Saudi Arabia a "full score" in the macroeconomic stability index of 100 percent, along with the UAE, Kuwait, Germany, Canada, Denmark and Britain.
Dr. Majid Al-Qasabi, Minister of Trade and Investment, Chairman of the Executive Committee, explained that to improve business performance in the private sector and stimulate it to participate in economic development "Tayseer", the integrated work in which more than 40 government agencies participated was one of the most important factors that led to the improvement of the Kingdom's ranking in the 2018 Country Competitiveness Report.
He pointed to the contribution of unifying the efforts of these bodies in addressing the obstacles and challenges and supporting the private sector in the Kingdom during the last period.
He praised the reforms that were implemented by government agencies in all indicators of measuring the Kingdom's performance in the Global Competitiveness Report.
According to SPA, Dr. Majid Al-Qasabi pointed out that the Kingdom's progress came despite the change in the World Economic Forum (WEF) to the methodology of the competitiveness report and increase the number of countries to 140 countries.
This change has affected the ranking of many countries in the world, including the Kingdom, where the WEF adopted 98 indicators in its new methodology to measure the competitiveness of countries for 2018, of which 64 indicators were recently developed. The previous methodology was based on 114 indicators to measure competitiveness.
The change in the methodology of the report also included a change in the data collection mechanism, where "questionnaires," a tool for collecting report data, accounted for 70 per cent of the report's results in terms of reliability. While the results of the report rely on "international sources and statistics" at 30 per cent.
However, the new methodology was the opposite of what it was before, with "questionnaires" accounting for 30 per cent and "international sources and statistics" at 70 per cent.
According to the previous methodology, the Kingdom ranked 30th out of 137 countries in 2017. After applying the new methodology, the Kingdom ranked 41st in 2017.
The Executive Committee to improve the performance of business in the private sector is working to improve the Kingdom's ranking in global indicators that are interested in the business sector. It has been able to address many of the obstacles and challenges facing the sector to contribute to stimulate it to participate in economic development.
The Committee was established by a decision of the Economic Affairs and Development Council headed by Dr. Al-Qasabi. It includes more than 40 government agencies and the Council of Saudi Chambers representing the private sector.
Globally, the US economy is releasing its annual survey of global competitiveness for the first time since the financial crisis between 2007 and 2009, while taking advantage of a new classification methodology this year.
The report pointed out that the United States is the closest to "highly competitive", an index that ranks competitive productivity on a scale of zero to 100.
According to "Reuters", the report said, "The United States beat Singapore, Germany, Switzerland and Japan, the other four major markets, 85.6 out of 100, thanks to its vibrant culture of entrepreneurship, the strength of the labor market and the financial system."
The World Economic Forum, the same institution that runs the Davos policy-making forum in January each year, puts its ranking includes 140 economies based on about ten competitive engines that include state institutions and policies that contribute to productivity.
This year, the Forum modified its methodology to better calculate the factors for preparing for future competition, such as generating ideas, entrepreneurial culture and the number of companies that change the rules of the game with existing markets in the country.
The United States topped the list for the last time in 2008.
The World Economic Forum said it was too early to describe how the Trump's trade policies have recently affected the US classification.
In addition, Saadia Zahidi, the Forum's general manager, said in a statement, "While it is too early to find its way to this year's report, we expect that trade tensions with China and the rest of the trading partners will have a negative impact on the future competitiveness of the US, if it continues." She added,"Open economies are more competitive."
