Scandinavische economieën zijn wereldwijd het meest concurrerend (en)

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - Nordic countries dominate the top positions in the latest Global Competitiveness Rankings, published yesterday (13 October) by the World Economic Forum (WEF).

Finland is considered the world's most competitive economy, with Sweden (3rd), Denmark (5th), Norway (6th) and Iceland (10th) all in the top ten.

The survey looks at factors that make an economy competitive, such as the quality of public institutions and the level of technological development.

"The Nordic countries are characterized by excellent macroeconomic management overall", said WEF's chief economist Augusto Lopez-Claros, pointing to "extremely low levels of corruption" and the fact that the "private sectors are on the forefront of technological innovation".

Full steam ahead on Lisbon

Competitiveness is a key component of the EU's so-called Lisbon strategy, which aims to make the union the most "competitive, knowledge-based economy in the World by 2010" and the performance of the Nordic countries clearly shows that progress is possible, although catching the US - which came 2nd in the survey - will be hard.

Other EU countries performing well include the UK (which jumped from 15th to 11th) and Estonia, which was ranked 20th, well ahead of many "old" EU states, including France (27th). The report singles out this small baltic country for its "stellar performance".

At the wrong end of the list come Italy and some of the new EU member states. Italy slipped to 47th place from 26th in 2001 and performs particularly badly in the area of judicial independence and the business cost of crime.

Bottom of the EU pile was Poland, which came 60th of the 104 countries surveyed. EU hopefuls Bulgaria (59th), Romania (62nd) and Turkey (66th) will also feel they have some catching up to do.

A lesson for Europe

Ann Metler from the Lisbon Council, a think-tank pushing for economic reform in Europe to achieve the Lisbon goals, told the EUobserver, "What this survey shows is that countries that have reformed their economies by making their labour markets more flexible have become not only more competitive but also more social".

"By restoring order to their public finances and creating an environment for innovation and risk-taking, the Nordic countries are able to sustain their social model. That should be a lesson for the rest of Europe", she concluded.