Albania climbs 8 places in global competitiveness report, ranks 88th

TIRANA, September 10 – Albania climbed eight places to 88th in this year’s global competitiveness report issued by the World Economic Forum in Beijing last week. The report covering 139 countries sandwiched Albania between Argentina and Ukraine which ranked 87th and 89th respectively.
Albania total score was 3.95 out of a maximum of 7.
Albania’s most problematic factors for doing business were access to financing, corruption, tax regulations, inefficient government bureaucracy and policy instability.
The most problematic areas in the first pillar, (the Institutions), were property rights in which Albania listed the world’s 116th, intellectual property protection 101st, judicial independence 88th and strength of auditing and reporting standards 83rd.
Albania was placed 15th in this category on the strength of investor protection and 20th on the burden of government regulation.
Infrastructure also remains problematic with its overall quality ranking the country 78th. The quality of roads is ranked 81st while railroad and port infrastructure 109th and 100th, respectively.
The available airline seat kilometers, measuring an airline’s passenger carrying capacity, ranked 113th. Albania’ best performance in this category was in mobile phone subscriptions which ranked 22nd.
Albania received poor ranking also in the macroeconomic environment with government budget balance and national savings rate ranking the world’s 109th and 106th respectively.
Government debt which is currently at 59.5 percent of the GDP ranked 92nd.
As far as the goods and market efficiency is concerned, Albania’s poorest performance was in the ‘intensity of local competition’ 113th, and effectiveness of anti-monopoly policy 109th.
The country’s best performance in this category was the time required to start a business and the number of procedures required, the world’s 9th and 23rd respectively.
The brain drain was the poorest indicator in the labour market efficiency ranking 107th. Female participation in labour force ranked 87th.
As far as financial market development is concerned, their availability ranked 128th while their affordability 113th.
The ease of access to loans ranked 90th while the soundness of banks 107th. The regulation of security exchanges listed 131.
The availability of latest technologies was ranked 90th while the number of internet users 55th.
Switzerland tops the overall rankings in the Global Competitiveness Report 2010-2011, released by the World Economic Forum ahead of its Annual Meeting of the New Champions 2010 in Tianjin. The United States fell two places to fourth position, overtaken by Sweden (2nd) and Singapore (3rd), after already ceding the top place to Switzerland last year.
The Global Competitiveness Index is based on 12 pillars of competitiveness, providing a comprehensive picture of the competitiveness landscape in countries around the world at all stages of development. The pillars are institutions, infrastructure, macroeconomic environment, health and primary education, higher education and training, goods market efficiency, labour market efficiency, financial market development, technological readiness, market size, business sophistication, and innovation.
This year, over 13,500 business leaders were polled in 139 economies. The survey is designed to capture a broad range of factors affecting an economy’s business climate. The report also includes comprehensive listings of the main strengths and weaknesses of countries, making it possible to identify key priorities for policy reform.