Korea this year was ranked a record-high 20th out of 67 countries in the World Competitiveness Ranking of the Switzerland-based International Institute for Management Development. Shown above are containers on March 1 last year piled at the wharfs of the terminals Gamman and Sinseondae at the Port of Busan. (Yonhap News)

By Hong Angie

The country's global competitiveness has entered for the first time the top 20 nations in the World Competitiveness Ranking (WCR) of the Switzerland-based International Institute for Management Development (IMD), thanks to higher ratings of domestic business efficiency and infrastructure.

The Ministry of Economy and Finance on June 17 said Korea in the latest rankings placed a record-high 20th out of 67 countries on the list, up eight notches from last year.

The IMD uses government statistics and surveys on entrepreneurs from each country to assess national competitiveness based on four criteria (with 336 sub-categories): economic performance, government efficiency, business efficiency and infrastructure.

Beating out Germany (24th), France (31st) and Italy (42nd), Korea was second only to the U.S. in the so-called 30-50 club, or a group of countries with per capita income of USD 30,000 and a population exceeding 50 million. 

Topping the overall WCR list was Singapore, up from fourth last year. The next four in order were Switzerland, Denmark, Ireland and Hong Kong.

By sector, Korea in business efficiency rose from 33rd last year to 23rd this year and infrastructure from 16th to 11th. But economic performance dropped from 14th to 16th and government efficiency from 38th to 39th.

In business efficiency, Korea saw all of its sub-categories such as productivity, efficiency, labor market, finance, management practices and behavior values rise in this year's rankings. This was thanks to the surge of the nation's entrepreneur survey index ranking, which had been relatively low.

The government will consider the WCR results to further enhance business efficiency based on the policy stance of a "dynamic economy led by the private sector and driven by the government."

Other efforts to comprehensively raise national competitiveness will include securing fiscal sustainability, improving government efficiency by rationalizing the tax system and equality of opportunity, improving economic results by raising the service sector's competitiveness and improving the trade balance, and building infrastructure.

shong9412@korea.kr