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securing only the 126 th position in 133 nations, according to the
Global Competitiveness Report 2009-10 released yesterday.
Bangladesh ranked 122 nd out of the 134 countries surveyed last year.
However, the country moved up 5 notches in the overall index, moving
from last year's 111 th position. Bangladesh lags behind its South
Asian neighbours: India ranked 49 , a step better than last year,
Pakistan remained unchanged at 101 and Sri Lanka stood at 79 , down
from last year's 77 th position. "The Global Competitiveness Report"
(GCR) is an annual publication of the World Economic Forum (WEF). The
Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD), a partner organisation of the WEF,
released the report at a press conference at its office in Dhaka
yesterday. Dr Debapriya Bhattacharya, distinguished fellow of CPD,
briefed reporters on the Bangladesh part of the report presented by
Khondaker Golam Moazzem, senior research fellow at CPD. The private
think-tank also released the ' Bangladesh Business Environment Study
2009 ' that it conducted simultaneously. Infrastructure is one of
the 12 parameters taken into account for the report. "The poor
supply of electricity was the major concern for almost all
respondents (98 percent), " the report says. More importantly, a
significant deterioration in the level of perception occurred in
2008. "The caretaker government failed to narrow the yawning
demand-supply gap in electricity, although a number of electricity
generation projects, with a total capacity of 1 ,200 megawatts, were
initiated in 2007 and 2008 ," the report says. The GCR shows more
than 80 percent businessmen said infrastructure remained largely
underdeveloped in 2008. They also said railroads and air transport
facilities remain poor in the country. Some 89 respondents
(companies) with assets worth no less than Tk 10 crore were surveyed
in the report, based on 2008 information. "Bangladesh performs well
in the worst group," said Bhattacharya. "Infrastructure is the number
one threat, even a more serious problem than corruption," he said.
Bangladesh can attribute advancements in the overall ranking to
progress made in macroeconomic stability, government and other
public institutions and improvements in the financial market, despite
global meltdown. Most respondents said foreign direct investment (FDI)
related rules were favourable to attract investment. Two-thirds of
the respondents also said an access to bank finance with a good
business plan is not enough. On the business operation and
sophistication index, over 60 percent of the companies found there
was fierce competition in the local market. Bangladesh did not
demonstrate improvements in education, human capital and corruption
indicators. "Two-thirds of the respondents perceived government
efforts to combat corruption and bribery as somewhat unsuccessful in
2008 ," the report shows. Switzerland tops the overall ranking in
'The Global Competitiveness Report 2009-2010 ', replacing the
United States that slipped to the 2 nd position this year. Only two
Asian nations -- Singapore and Japan -- are in the top 10 positions
while the remaining are all European nations. The GCR is one of the
world's most comprehensive and respected assessments of country
competitiveness, offering insight into policies, institutions and
factors driving productivity and then, enabling sustained economic
growth and long term prosperity. The rankings are calculated from both
publicly available data and the Executive Opinion Survey, a
comprehensive annual survey conducted by the WEF together with its
network of partner institutes in the countries covered by the report.
