Pakistan’s ranking in terms of Global Competitiveness Index (GCI) 2016-17 has witnessed improvement as it stood at the 122nd position in 2016-17 against the 126th position previous year 2015-16 emained among the bottom 20 in the list of 138countries, World Economic Forum (WEF) reports.
The Global Competitiveness Report 2016-2017 also identifies corruption as the most problematic factor for doing business in Pakistan, followed by crime and theft, tax rates, access to finance and government instability and coups.
Although Pakistan improved its ranking by two notches, its score is still below the 2007 level, suggesting that the country has not sustained the competitiveness gains made during General retired Pervez Musharraf’s era.
India ranked at 39th position in terms of GCI, Bangladesh at 106th and Sri Lanka at 71st position.
In terms of judicial independence, the GCI ranking showed that the country’s ranking worsened by six notches as it declined from 82nd position in 2015-16 to 88th position in 2016-17. The strength of investor protection nosedived from 21st position in 2015-16 to 25th position in 2016-17.
The property rights related ranking also declined by 4 notches. The quality of port infrastructure ranking worsened by 18 notches as it stood at 66th position in 2015-16 but it went up to 84th position in 2016-17.The quality of air transport structure worsened by 12 notches in 2016-17 compared to 2015-16.
The quality of management schools related ranking nosedived by 14 notches as it stood at 70th position in 2015-16 but it further aggravated to 84th position in 2016-17. The intensity of local competition witnessed nosedive by 20 notches as its ranking declined to 118th position in 2016-17 against the 98th position in 2015-16.
The effect of taxation on the incentive to invest also worsened as its ranking stood at 85th position in 2016-17 against the 66th position in 2015-16. The hiring and firing practices related ranking witnessed decline of 15 notches in Pakistan. The firm-level technology absorption witnessed decline by 28 notches. The local supplier quantity witnessed decline by 39 notches in one year.
The availability of Scientists and Engineers related ranking declined by 22 notches in one year during 2016-17. However, according to GCI 2016-17 states that Pakistan showed some recovery on the economic front, where the country has been successful in improving its macroeconomic framework to improve its global competitiveness
Pakistan is classified as a factor-driven economy, which basically depends on improving its institutions, infrastructure, macroeconomic stability, health and primary education indicators. Pakistan improved from 119 to 111 on the institution’s pillars, while infrastructure improved only one point and stands at 116 this year. On the Macroeconomic Stability Pillar Pakistan jumped from 128 in 2015 to 116. c, where Pakistan improved from 115 in 2015 to 107 this year. While the government debt percentage to GDP also ranks at 95 among 138 economies in the world. The biggest gain, however, is in the area of inflation; annual percentage change where Pakistan moved from 127 in 2015 to 93 in 2016.
On other pillars, among 138 countries, Pakistan ranks at Health and Primary Education 128, Higher Education and Training 123, Goods Market Efficiency 117, Labour Market Efficiency 129, Financial Market Sophistication 107, Technological Readiness 119, Market Size 29, Business Sophistication 95 and Innovation 75.
This year among 114 global competitiveness indicators, Pakistan showed improvements on 54 key indices, whereas on 50 indices the country lost its previous position. While 10 indices remained same as last year.
Pakistan at 122, ranks last amongst its South Asian neighbours, where India leads at 39 followed by Sri Lanka 71, Bhutan 97, Nepal 98 and Bangladesh at 106. South Asia continues its upward trend as competitiveness improves in most countries in the region. India has been the best performer, climbing to 39th from 55th last year. Over the past decade, the subcontinent has focused on improving overall health and primary education levels and upgrading available infrastructure, areas of particular importance given the resource-driven nature of its economy. However, the latter remains the second weakest spot in the region, just after technological readiness.
India will be going up in everything and Pakis will be the last in everything. But Congrats to Pakistan! we will be the FIRST in producing and exporting Terrorists to 138 countries.. No country will be able to beat you. Mubarak.
Pakistan has great potential but it needs to use that potential in Education and restricting religion to home. If Pakistan would have invested the money in these instead of Military, Im sure India & Pak would have been competing with each other
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