The latest report from the World Economic Forum (WEF) shows that Indonesia's global competitiveness is not yet improving while the United States remains a top performer despite being shackled by the worst financial clout since the great depression.
Regardless various attempts by the government in reforming the bureacracy and infrastructure, Indonesia ranks 55th among 134 economies surveyed by WEF this year, down one notch from last year's position in the WEF Global Competitiveness Index report.
However, compared to the same list of countries surveyed in 2007, this year Indonesia still retains its position at 54, says the index, which was published on WEF website early Wednesday Jakarta time.
This year's index includes four more countries -- Brunei Darussalam, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana and Malawi -- and excludes Uzbekistan due to the lack of data.
The United States remains as the world's most competitive economy despite facing a serious liquidity crisis following a massive default in its collateralized debt market.
Switzerland is in second position followed by Denmark, Sweden and Singapore.
European economies continue to prevail amid growing pressure from a global liquidity squeeze with Finland, Germany and the Netherlands in the top 10.
“Rising food and energy prices, a major international financial crisis and the related slowdown in the world’s leading economies, are confronting policy-makers with new economic management challenges," said Xavier Sala-i-Martin, Professor of Economics at Columbia University, USA, and co-author of the report.
He further said, today’s volatility underscores the importance of a competitiveness-supporting economic environment that can help national economies to weather these types of shocks in order to ensure solid economic performance going into the future,
The United Kingdom, while remaining very competitive, has dropped by three places and out of the top 10, mainly attributable to a weakening of its financial markets.
The People’s Republic of China continues to lead the way among large developing economies, improving by four places this year and joining the top 30.
All of the BRIC economies figure in the top half of the ranking, with China followed by India, Russia and Brazil.
Several Asian economies perform strongly with Japan, Hong Kong SAR, Republic of Korea and Taiwan, China in the top 20. In Latin America, Chile is the highest ranked country, followed by Panama, Costa Rica and Mexico. (and)
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