Labor, banks, blocks on foreign investment cited
South Korea’s global competitiveness ranking fell five notches from a year ago to 24th place, according to the Global Competitiveness Report 2006-2007, released by the Geneva-based World Economic Forum (WEF) on September 27. The nation received low scores in sectors such as labor-management cooperation (114th), restriction on foreigners’ owning of domestic companies (95th), soundness of banks (82nd), and wastefulness of government spending (73rd). On the other hand, Korea was highly recognized in fields such as the ratio of students who enter a university (second place), Internet users (fourth), research and development investment (ninth), and appropriate laws for information and communications (11th). Switzerland took the top spot in the rankings, up from fourth place last year, followed by Finland, Sweden, and Denmark. The United States, which was deemed the most competitive economy last year, showed a notable drop to sixth place, due to large macroeconomic imbalances such as a serious fiscal deficit. Sweden, which has been severely criticized by conservatives as a ’failed’ economic and social model because of its large-scale spending on welfare, went up four positions to third place from a year ago. In Asia, Singapore was ranked fifth, Japan seventh, and China stood at 54th place. The WEF’s assessment of each nation’s global competitiveness is based on a combination of related data and a survey of business leaders. It is conducted on 125 economies worldwide. The survey portion accounts for 73 percent of the assessment items.Another Swiss firm, the International Institute for Management Development (IMD), released data in May that places Korea’s "world competitiveness" at 38th worldwide.
