Moldova goes up in global competitiveness ranking

Moldova went up 5 positions in the Global Competitiveness Report and now occupies the 87th place out of the 144 states. The list is annually compiled by the World Economic Forum (WEF) and the latest was presented on Wednesday in Chisinau by Grigore Belostecinic, rector of the Moldova Academy of Economic Studies (ASEM), Info-Prim Neo reports. According to the report, even though Moldova went up 5 positions, the improvement in the score is insignificant, from 3.89 to 3.94 on last year, on a scale of 1 to 7. Moldova got the weakest mark in innovations, ranking 135th, compared to 2011’s 128th. In the field of higher education and training, Moldova is placed 88th, dropping 5 positions since last year. Compared to the average 87th position in the ranking, Moldova registered higher marks in technological training – ranked 65th compared to last year’s 78th; and health and primary education – 86th, position that remained unchanged since the previous report. Regionally, Moldova beats Serbia, Albania and Bosnia and Herzegovina, which are still suffering heavily from the global depression. According to the Global Competitiveness Report for 2012-2013, Switzerland is first, followed by Singapore, Finland and Sweden. The United States, which is usually first in the ranking, is now 7th. The Global Competitiveness Index of a country is calculated based on 110 individual indexes, grouped in 12 competitiveness areas: 4 are base factors, 6 are efficiency growth factors and 2 of them are innovation factors. Among the most important are the institutions, training, infrastructure, macro-economic stability, education, financial market, market size and business complexity. The first Global Competitiveness Report was made in 1979 and has been published annually since.