ASTANA – Kazakhstan climbed from 47th to 32nd place in the IMD World Competitiveness ranking, evaluating business efficiency, public finance and domestic economy. The new ranking shows Kazakhstan surpassing states such as Spain, Saudi Arabia, Poland, Portugal, Italy, Russia, Turkey and Ukraine.
“Kazakhstan has demonstrated the greatest progress on public finances and domestic economy indicators. The public finances indicator jumped from 51st place to 4th, the domestic economy improved from 51st to 40th place. The country also significantly increased in the business efficiency category in all positions,” said Alexander Zemlyanichenko, expert of RBK Russian media company.
Kazakhstan improved its positions for the year, rising 15 spots with an index of 76 points out of 100. Thirty-second place also was achieved by Kazakhstan in 2014 as reported the IMD World Competitiveness ranking 2014 yearbook, according to www.imd.org.
The World Competitiveness ranking evaluates 63 countries. This year Cyprus and Saudi Arabia were evaluated for the first time, according to the IMD Swiss business school’s annual research.
Hong Kong took first place in the ranking for the second year in a row. Switzerland and Singapore are in second and third place. The U.S. fell from third to fourth position, receiving the worst result in the last five years. The Netherlands rose in the latest ranking to fifth place from the eighth.
The IMD World Competitiveness Centre has also published a separate report ranking countries’ digital competitiveness for the first time this year. Kazakhstan took 38th place, improving from 43th place last year. The new Digital Competitiveness Ranking introduces several new criteria to measure countries’ ability to adopt and explore digital technologies leading to transformation in government practices, business models and society.
The World Competitiveness ranking determines how countries, regions and companies manage their competencies to achieve long-term growth, generate jobs and increase welfare.
The ranking assesses competitiveness using 20 indicators, divided into four categories. There are economic indicators, infrastructure, government and business efficiency categories. The indexes consist of 323 variables, such as the contribution to world GDP, gasoline prices, tax rates and the state policy transparency.
The IMD World Competitiveness Centre has been a pioneer in the field of the competitiveness of nations and the World Economy Ranking. The IMD Centre has published the rankings every year since 1989.
