2017 IMD World Competitiveness: Our country maintains 14th place globally

The National Development Council stated that according to the "2017 IMD World Competitiveness Yearbook" (IMD World Competitiveness Yearbook) of the International Institute for Management Development (IMD) in Lausanne, Switzerland, among the 63 countries evaluated, our country ranked 14th, unchanged from the previous year. In the Asia-Pacific region, our country remained 3rd, behind only Hong Kong, China and Singapore.

Among the four major categories of competitiveness assessed by IMD, our country's "Government Efficiency" ranked best, at 10th in the world; "Economic Performance" and "Business Efficiency" each moved up 3 places and 1 place respectively, while "Infrastructure" fell 2 places.

In the "Economic Performance" category, "Domestic Economy" rose 3 places due to GDP growth, "International Investment" advanced 4 places, and "Prices" jumped 12 places largely because of price stability, while "International Trade" and "Employment" each fell 3 places and 6 places respectively.

In the "Government Efficiency" category, the rankings for "Public Finance" and "Institutional Framework" both improved, reflecting the country's improved credit rating and stable exchange rate, while "Tax Policy", "Business Legislation" and "Social Framework" regressed.

Among the sub-indicators under "Business Efficiency", "Labour Market", "Management Practices" and "Attitudes and Values" improved markedly, which was the main reason for the improvement in "Business Efficiency". However, the rankings for "Finance" and "Productivity and Efficiency" regressed.

Among the sub-indicators under "Infrastructure", apart from "Scientific Infrastructure" and "Education", whose rankings stayed flat, the other 3 items including "Health and Environment" all declined.