Qatar has ranked 11th of 67 countries on the 2024 World Competitiveness Booklet, issued by the International Institute for Management Development (IMD) in Switzerland, compared to 12th place last year. Qatar also ranked 4th on the economic performance indicator, 7th in government efficiency, 11th in business efficiency, and 33rd in infrastructure.
Overall performance
The report attributes Qatar’s rise in competitiveness to the country’s rise in several indicators at the local level in addition to the results of an opinion poll of a sample of company managers and businessmen on the business environment and the competitiveness of the Qatari economy. The report then compared Qatar’s results to other countries to come up with the ranking.
Under the economic performance factor which Qatar ranked 4th on, the most prominent indicators were the unemployment rate, youth unemployment rate, and terms of trade index in which the country ranked first globally.
In the government efficiency factor, Qatar’s economy ranked first in both the consumption tax rate and the personal income tax rate. Meanwhile, it ranked second in the public finance index. As for the World Competitiveness Booklet’s business efficiency factor, Qatar ranked first globally in both the effectiveness of corporate boards and the migrant stock, while it ranked second place globally in the working hours index. In the infrastructure factor, Qatar ranked first in the subfactors of energy infrastructure and the number of internet users per 1,000 people.
Read: UAE ranks 7th globally in 2024 World Competitiveness Report
Challenges remain
The report also highlighted some challenges that Qatar is facing in 2024, including the sustainability of investments in human capital formation, economic growth, and economic diversification efforts.
The 2024 World Competitiveness Booklet also cites challenges like managing a more balanced labor mix to boost productivity, enhancing governance structures and transparency to foster public trust and accountability, and increasing competitiveness and focusing more on innovation across Qatar.
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