According to The World Competitiveness Yearbook 2018, which it is annually published by the International Institute for Management Development (IMD) located in Lausanne of Switzerland, Qatar ranked (14) out of (63) mostly high-income countries, comparing with (17) in 2017. This year’s assessment confirms Qatar’s strong performance across various fields. The evaluation is based on a range of statistical indicators collected from different local and international statistical sources, as well as from opinions collected via surveys distributed to more than 200 local business leaders, who frankly provided their views of Qatar’s economy competitive position.
Areas, where Qatar ranked highly in the report, included: economic performance (5), government efficiency (10) and business efficiency (13). Moreover, Qatar has maintained its ranking at (38) for infrastructure.
This ranking has been positively influenced by many factors including strong economic performance as represented by, Qatar’s low unemployment rate, and the high percentage of gross fixed capital formation (capital investments) and saving to GDP, the high percentage of trade balance to GDP, and the high level of overall productivity.
The assessment of Qatar’s competitiveness in IMD World Competitiveness Yearbook 2018 is a collaborative effort of IMD and the Ministry of Development Planning and Statistics. The State of Qatar has been contributed to the IMD Competitiveness Yearbook for the 10th time.
His Excellency the Minister of Development Planning & Statistics, Dr. Saleh Bin Mohammed Al Nabit, welcomed the findings of the report, stating that, “these results confirm that our overall performance is solid, and they will certainly help us to identify those areas where we need to consolidate gains and make further improvements”. He added that “Qatar’s Second National Development Strategy (2018-2022) sets out clear goals in the areas of economic infrastructure and private sector development that will lead to economic and social growth. Qatar has no option but to diversify its economy. If it is to achieve this, we must continuously work to increase efficiency and productivity and improve our international competitiveness. These results show us where we need to increase our efforts and improve further. The IMD findings will be carefully studied and, along with other indicators, will help us to exert our efforts to bolster our economy further”.
