The UAE and Qatar have ranked in the seventh and 11th positions ahead of the United States, China and Finland in the The World Competitiveness Yearbook 2024, issued by the International Institute for Management Development (IMD) in Switzerland.
The report classifies the countries based on four main pillars and 20 sub-pillars encompassing 336 competitive indicators across various economic, administrative, and social fields, including government efficiency, education, and innovation.
This year, the highest position was achieved by Singapore, followed by Switzerland and Denmark. The only two GCC nations in the top 15 were the UAE in seventh place and Qatar in 11th place. The US ranked in 12th place, followed by Australia and China.
IMD 2024 Competitiveness Ranking
- Singapore (100.00)
- Switzerland (97.55)
- Denmark (97.07)
- Ireland (91.86)
- Hong Kong SAR (91.86)
- Sweden (90.30)
- UAE (89.75)
- Taiwan (Chinese Taipei) (88.50)
- Netherlands (86.94)
- Norway (85.33)
- Qatar (85.33)
- USA (83.48)
- Australia (81.86)
- China (81.04)
- Finland (80.26)
The UAE success
The UAE was placed among the top 10 globally in over 90 key and sub-indicators analysed by IMD. The counrtry ranked first globally in 11 indicators including industrial disputes, labour force (%), employment (%), and household consumption expenditure- real growth.
The UAE secured second place globally in nine indicators, including tourism receipts, females in parliament, labour force growth, adaptably of government policy, and absence of bureaucracy. It ranked third globally in six indicators and achieved fourth place in 12 others.
His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, stated that the UAE remarked on the importance of the achievement and thanked all the teams in the government, economic and development sectors who helped drive this growth.
Qatar shows resilience
The IMD report gave Qatar 11th place out of the of 67 countries analysed, above the US and China. The country ranked fourth, seventh, 11th and 33rd respectively across the economic performance, government efficiency, business efficiency and infrastructure factors.
The assessment was based on the developments witnessed by a comprehensive set of data and indicators provided at the local level, along with the results of an opinion poll of a sample of company managers and businessmen on the business environment and the competitiveness of the Qatari economy, as well as comparing such data and indicators with counterparts from other reviewed countries.
Within the government efficiency factor, the Qatari economy ranked first in both the consumption tax rate and the personal income tax rate, while it ranked second in the public finance index.
As for the business efficiency factor, Qatar ranked first globally in both the effectiveness of corporate boards and the migrant stock, while it came in second place globally in the working hours index. Under the infrastructure factor, Qatar ranked first in the subfactors of energy infrastructure and the number of internet users per 1,000 people
