Bulgaria is becoming more competitive
Bulgaria occupies the 57th position out of 148 countries in the report on the competitiveness of the countries in the world, "The Global Competitiveness Report 2013-2014", prepared by the World Economic Forum (WEF).
The index of competitiveness of the country increased from 4.27 to 4.31 over the last this year (maximum 7). After the great leap that Bulgaria did in last year's report - it has moved from 74th to 62nd - the country once again shows good results reported by the Center for Economic Development, which is the Bulgarian partner of the forum.
This year Bulgaria is ahead of several EU Member States - Cyprus, Slovenia, Hungary, Romania, Slovakia and Greece, which was only the 91st.
WEF team based their study on the global competitiveness index, which reflects the micro and macro aspects of competitiveness. The index is based on 12 factors affecting the competitiveness. These are: institutions, infrastructure, macroeconomic environment, health and primary education, higher education and training, goods market efficiency, efficiency of the labor market, financial markets, market size, technological readiness, level of business development, innovation.
Until last year, Bulgaria has improved the value of the indices and their positions on all the factors of competitiveness, this year it has been some negative changes related to the labor market , innovation and business development.
Again, the greatest contribution to the good positioning is macroeconomic stability - here Bulgaria occupies the 30th place among 148 countries. These favorable items were related to good performance of the national debt, low deficit, the level of national savings ( 23.2% of GDP), low inflation (2.4%) and others.
The other factor that the country has performed very well is technological readiness - 44th, and last year was the 52nd. This is the factor that has the greatest importance for moving forward. This includes several quantitative indicators which have very good values. They are: Internet users (55.1% and 55th), number of broadband subscribers (17.6 per 100 inhabitants and 38th), high speed internet.
Disturbing is the fact that Bulgaria continues to be positioned behind the ranking in terms of quality of institutions. Places like 107th in the current and 108th last year unfavorable testimonial for Bulgarian institutions. It is noteworthy that sustainable Bulgaria remains the last places in the institutions. Very negative assessments of the judiciary (123 th), low level of transparency of government policies, low trust in politicians (only 97th and evaluation 2.4 at maximum 7), multiple business regulations (105th place), widespread corrupt practices. Institutions are the factor that has the most significant negative contribution to the low competitiveness of the Bulgarian economy. Improving the performance of the institutions should be a top priority for the government. The most radical tool is the rapid adoption of e- government. Moreover, it takes much more transparency, real dialogue with civil society and business discussions and joint problem solving.
Source: http://bg-daily-news.eu/
(05.09.2013)