Bangladesh has improved its competitiveness for the fourth year, thanks to gradual progress in different indicators, mainly infrastructure, according to the Global Competitiveness Report (GCR). The country moved up one notch to 106 out of 138 economies on the Global Competitiveness Index for 2016-2017, prepared by the World Economic Forum. “This is positive that Bangladesh has increased its score and ranking gradually,” said Prof Mustafizur Rahman, executive director of the Centre for Policy Dialogue at the launch of the GCR at the Cirdap in Dhaka yesterday. The GCR ranks nations based on their ability to offer products and services meeting local and global quality standards at a competitive price with adequate returns on the resources employed or spent on providing them. A year ago, Bangladesh was ranked 107 out of 140 countries, according to the WEF that prepared the report unveiled worldwide yesterday. The Geneva-based forum made the report based on a survey conducted with a set of questionnaire to assess the level of competitiveness of the economies. The CPD released the GCR on behalf of the WEF in Dhaka. It also disclosed the findings of its Bangladesh Business Environment Study 2016. In the GCR’s competitiveness ranking, Switzerland continued to maintain its position as the most competitive economy in the world, narrowly ahead of Singapore and the United States. Following them are Netherlands and Germany, said the WEF. According to the report, all countries, except Sri Lanka, gained in rankings with India moving 16 notches up to 39 from last year. Bhutan and Nepal also rose in ranks and remained ahead of Bangladesh. Pakistan becomes the weakest performer among the South Asian countries. Bangladesh’s overall score rose 1.06 percent to 3.8 on the current index from 3.76 a year ago, said CPD Additional Research Director Khondaker Golam Moazzem while presenting the key findings of the competitiveness report. Though infrastructure is said to have improved in Bangladesh, it still remains the major problematic factor for doing business in Bangladesh followed by corruption, according to the report. Limited access to finance emerged as the third major problem, Moazzem said, adding that problematic factors increased from a few to many. Bangladesh’s competiveness is not growing compared to the countries it is competing with, he said. “Bangladesh is stuck in the lower end segment of business competitiveness. We are walking but others are running.” The GCR shows that the country has made progress in infrastructure and institutional capacity. However, Bangladesh’s position has deteriorated in macroeconomic stability. It slid to the 65th position in macroeconomic stability from 49th last year. Bangladesh’s position went down because of a declining situation in terms of government budget balance and gross national savings as percentage of GDP and the country’s credit rating in comparison with other economies, said Moazzem. Bangladesh has been increasing its competitiveness based on scores in 12 categories termed as the pillars of competitiveness. The competitiveness index is the weighted average of these pillars. Last year, Bangladesh moved up two notches from its ranking of 109 in the GCI 2014-15. The latest report said Bangladesh’s performance deteriorated in health and primary education and financial market sophistication. The country’s ranking of financial market sophistication fell to 99 from 90 a year ago. Moazzem said the financial sector suffers due to poor soundness of banks, limited availability of financial products and difficulty in raising capital through the stock market. “Financial system needs overhauling to improve its competitiveness,” he said, recommending a reform commission. Governance is the weakest part of business competitiveness of Bangladesh, Moazzem said. “The government should gradually focus on efficiency enhancing factors along with ensuring basic requirements,” he said, adding that other than electricity, none of the infrastructure facility was found to have improved considerably, said Moazzem referring to rail, road and waterways.
