Switzerland is the world’s most competitive nation

In the 37th IMD World Competitiveness Ranking, Switzerland has swapped places with Singapore. In so doing, it has reclaimed the mantle as the most competitive nation in the world after finishing in second place last year. Thereafter follow Hong Kong, Denmark, the United Arab Emirates, Taiwan, Ireland, Sweden, Qatar and the Netherlands.

Germany gained five places to finish in 19th spot and remains in upper mid-table. The largest improvements in the top 30 were made by Malaysia (+11 to 23rd), Lithuania (+9 to 21st) and Canada (+8 to 11th). The most significant falls were recorded by South Korea (-7 to 27th), Belgium (-6 to 24th) and Australia (-5 to 18th). Namibia (68th), Kenya (56th) and Oman (28th) were included in the ranking for the first time. 

For this ranking, the World Competitiveness Center at the IMD Business School in Lausanne analyzed 170 different publicly available datasets and surveyed more than 6,000 decision-makers around the world. According to a press release summarizing the report, polarization and fragmentation played a significant negative role in their assessments of a total of 69 countries.

After all, this is because “economic and political consensus creates stability”, as research director and IMD professor Arturo Bris comments: “The top ten economies all have strong institutional frameworks, robust infrastructure and adaptable governance models.” As such, government efficiency should not be viewed as an “ideal way of governing”, but rather as a “practical prerequisite for maintaining economic resilience and investment attractiveness over the next few years”.

All of this, the press release explains further, speaks strongly in favor of Switzerland. While the country may not lead the field for economic competitiveness (ranked 6th for business efficiency and 13th for macroeconomic competitiveness), Switzerland does claim top spot for both the infrastructure and political environment categories. However, while these traditional criteria are said to be necessary, they are no longer sufficient on their own: “To supplement these factores, the most effective leaders of today rely on digital literacy, managing the ecological transition and sophisticated approaches to building resilience.”