UAE among top 20 economies: Global Competitiveness Report 2016
The UAE was ranked first regionally and 16th globally, maintaining its lead among the top 20 competitive economies in the world, according to the recent version of the Global Competitiveness Report 2016 issued by the World Economic Forum (Davos) in Switzerland.
The report is one of the most important global competitiveness reports, which monitors annual performance and competitiveness of the economies of countries in terms of strength, weakness, impact on quality of life, prosperity and well- being of people.
The UAE positions itself on the world stage, thanks to the efforts of the federal and local taskforces who are working as one team under one vision for 2021, and others in this respect, said Reem bint Ibrahim Al Hashimi, Minister of State for International Cooperation and Chairperson of the Board of the Federal Competitiveness and Statistics Authority.
This year’s report surveys the economies of 138 countries rated through 114 performance indexes and in 12 basic axes, including institutions, infrastructure,education, health, innovation, efficiency of the labour market and other topics. The UAE was ranked in the first 10 positions globally in three basic themes in the report. It is also among the best 20 countries globally in half of these axes.It also came in fourth place globally in the infrastructure hub.
At the level of indicators, the UAE was ranked among the 20 countries globally in 76 out of 114 indicators evaluated in this report. Regarding the institutions, the UAE was ranked first globally in the absence of the impact of crime and violence at work index, and second place globally in the people’s trust in the leadership and lack of wasteful government spending indexes.
The UAE was ranked third globally in the efficient government index. This reflects the success of the leadership strategy and steps taken toward achieving the high performance and efficiency in government work at the federal and local levels to ensure the happiness of citizens and residents and well-being on the territory of the state.
On infrastructure, the UAE has won the first place globally in the road quality index and second place globally in the airport infrastructure and means of air transport quality index. It also came in third globally in the seaport infrastructure quality and rate of mobile phone subscriptions per 100 users in indexes. The UAE was ranked in the fourth place in the global index of quality of infrastructure and fifth in the index of number of airline seats available for each million passengers a week. Furthermore, the UAE was ranked first globally in the lack of impact of taxes on investment index.
On the readiness of the technology sector, the maturity of the business sector, and higher education and training areas, the UAE has achieved the first position globally in the index of the government spending on “new technologies” and the second place globally in the index of provision of specialised trade zones (free zones), and the third place in the global index of foreign direct investment and technology transfer to the state. The state was also ranked fourth globally in the index of the Internet connection to the schools and fifth place in the global index of availability of scientists and engineers in the state.
