UAE, leader in competitiveness in the MENA region

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has been ranked ninth in the world ranking that assesses the competitiveness of countries, the IMD World Competitiveness Yearbook 2020 from the World Institute for Management Development in Lausanne, Switzerland. From the MENA region - Middle East & North Africa - it ranks first, ahead of Saudi Arabia in 24th place. 

The Emirates has thus become the leader in the region for the fourth consecutive year, and remains in the top ten along with other leading powers such as the United States, Ireland, Finland, Luxembourg, Germany and the United Kingdom. The top 3 in the ranking is Singapore, which leads the ranking in 2020, followed by Denmark and Switzerland. The Netherlands and Hong Kong came in fourth and fifth place respectively.

According to the report's findings, compiled by the state news agency WAM, the Gulf country "ranked first worldwide in 23 indicators and sub-factors, while it was among the top five worldwide in 59 indicators and in the top ten worldwide in 106 indicators, out of 338 indicators covered by the report this year". UAE "takes the lead in 7 factors: at the sub-factor level, it achieved an improvement in 7 factors, ranking 1st worldwide in the Labour Market factor, and 5th worldwide in the Employment factor, 6th in the Price factor. The UAE is also making progress in other sub-factors, such as the social framework, education and technology, health and environmental infrastructure, while maintaining its unchanged rank in two sub-factors, the Attributes and Values factor (second in the world) and the Fiscal Policy factor (third in the world)," the publication details.

The Emirates also ranked first in the world on more than a dozen indicators, namely, absence of bureaucracy, immigration laws, redundancy costs, low central government foreign debt, tax evasion, personal income tax collected (%), indirect tax revenue collected (%), real personal taxes, and the percentage of women in parliament. 

"The UAE is moving forward with an ambitious strategy that anticipates the future and fosters a culture of excellence to lead global competitiveness on several levels," said the Director-General of the Federal Authority for Competitiveness and Statistics, Abdullah Lootah. "Thanks to the vision and guidance of UAE's leadership, the country has managed to join the top 10 competitive countries in this report since 2017 and consolidate its well-deserved position among the top 10 worldwide in overall ranking and regional leadership," he added.

The Gulf country has also made progress in gender balance. "Since the launch of the UAE Gender Balancing Council in 2015, we have taken all necessary steps to improve the UAE's position in global competitiveness reports and to establish our nation as a regional and global model for gender balance legislation," explained UAE Gender Balance Council Chairperson Manal bint Mohammed.