TIRANA, September 8؆ive countries of Southeast Europe (SEE) improved their competitiveness this year, Bulgaria’s ranking remained unchanged, while Croatia, Serbia and Bosnia were perceived as less competitive, the World Economic Forum said on Tuesday.
The nine Southeast European countries ranked between 37th and 109th among 133 countries included in this year’s Global Competitiveness Report of the World Economic Forum which the international non-profit organisation posted on its website. Their scores ranged from 4.55 to 3.53, where 10 indicatess the highest level of global competitiveness and 1.0 indicates the lowest one.
Albania moved up the most, by 12 positions. Slovenia, Montenegro, Romania and Macedonia also improved their rankings this year.
Croatia fell the most among the SEE countries surveyed, by 11 positions, the report showed. Serbia and Bosnia retreated by eight and two positions, respectively.
Moldova was not covered in this year’s report because of a lack of survey data.
Corruption, access to financing, bureaucracy and government policy instability were among the most problematic obstacles for doing business for all SEE countries. Inadequate supply of infrastructure was listed as the second major problematic issue in Montenegro. In Slovenia, restrictive labour regulations were the second biggest problem for doing business.
Bosnia and Herzegovina was the only state in the region in which government instability was identified as the top negative factor for doing business, while in Romania tax regulations policy was indicated as the main obstacle.
“Rapid integration with the global economy sustained growth in Eastern Europe over recent years but has also made the region more vulnerable to contagion during the economic crisis that is now having dramatic consequences in some countries,” the report said, commenting on developments in Bulgaria, Romania and Slovenia.
Yet the present situation also provides an opportunity to strengthen economic fundamentals and overall competitiveness in order to put growth on a sustainable footing and prevent future crises, it said.
The report assesses the ability of countries to provide high levels of prosperity to their citizens, depending on how productively a country uses available resources. It uses a global competitiveness index which measures factors such as macroeconomic stability, infrastructure, labor market efficiency, market size, business and financial market sophistication and technological readiness.
Competitiveness rankings and scores of the SEE countries:
Country- ’09-10 ratings-’09-10 scores-’08-09 ratings-’08-09 scores
Slovenia 37 4.55 42 4.5
Montenegro 62 4.16 65 4.1
Romania 64 4.11 68 4.1
Croatia 72 4.03 61 4.2
Bulgaria 76 4.02 76 4.0
Macedonia 84 3.95 89 3.9
Serbia 93 3.77 85 3.9
Albania 96 3.72 108 3.6
BiH 109 3.53 107 3.6
