Jordan is the only Arab country included in the World Competitiveness Report

Joseph Odeh
For Al-Shorfa.com
2008-12-29

King Abdullah and Queen Rania of Jordan at a business seminar on investment in Jordan held at St James's Palace in London two years ago. Jordan was the highest ranking Arab country in a world investment survey. (Reuters/Toby Melville (UK))

The Kingdom of Jordan ranked 16th out of 55 countries in the annual World Competitiveness Report for 2008 issued by the International Institute for Management Development (IIMD). It is the first and only Arab country to be included in the Competitiveness Index. IIMD, a non-profit organization based in Switzerland, gave Jordan an advanced score of 6.49 in its annual World Competitiveness Index. Ranking No. 1 was Singapore with a score of 8.11. Denmark was second at 7.85, followed by Hong Kong, Ireland, Chile, Norway, Luxembourg, Malaysia and, rounding out the top ten, Turkey.

It is interesting to note that the countries ranked immediately after Jordan are Thailand, Switzerland, Finland, Sweden, and Taiwan.

According to the report, the main challenges facing Jordan in 2008 were strengthening the partnership between the public and private sectors, accelerating the implementation of programmes to reform the social security system, improving links between education programmes and the needs of the market and guiding economic growth towards sectors that create jobs.

The report relied on 331 criteria related to the four competitiveness factors of international trade, international investment, employment, and prices. The report also looked at each country’s government efficiency in public finance, fiscal policy, institutional frameworks and business and social legislation. It also considered business efficiency as related to productivity, the labour market, finance, management practices, attitudes and values. Finally, the report took into account basic, technical, scientific, health, environmental, and educational infrastructures found in each country.

The report was issued on the same day that an Egyptian delegation was in Amman to strengthen bilateral cooperation and discuss ways to increase trade and investment between the two countries. In 2007, the total trade exchange between Egypt and Jordan reached US$650 million, an increase of three percent over 2006.

[Arabian Business website, Al Rai newspaper, Addustour newspaper]

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