By Muhammad Luqman
Pakistan has improved its overall position by seven notches in the Global Competitiveness Index of the World Economic Forum (WEF), crawling out of the bottom-20, but continued to stay at the last place among South Asian countries, revealed the 2018 report.
The 2017-18 Global Competitiveness Report, which compared governance in 137 countries this time as opposed to 138 in the previous year, ranked Pakistan at 115th – 22 places from the bottom, compared to 16th from the bottom last year. Last year, the WEF had conducted survey in 138 nations and Pakistan was placed at 122. Overall, Pakistan jumped seven positions, but the performance remains sub-par when compared with the amount of stress and priority laid on the country’s competitiveness.
Corruption remained the most problematic factor for doing business in the country for the third consecutive year, followed by high tax rate, according to the Global Competitiveness Report 2017-18 that the WEF released on Tuesday. The other troubling factor was that on the pillar of primary health and education, the country stood at 129 – one notch below last year’s level and at bottom 8th among 137 nations.
Similarly, on labour market efficiency, the country was ranked at 128th, a big question mark on Islamabad’s ability to take full advantage of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor in the longer run.
This year, among 114 global competitiveness indicators, Pakistan showed improvements on 82 key indices, whereas on 20 indices the country lost its previous position. In 12 indices, the position remained the same as last year.
