Extensive Reading Lesson 48

  中国竞争力排名继续上升

        在世界经济论坛2010年新领军者年会即将于天津召开之际，世界经济论坛发布了《2010-2011年全球竞争力报告》，亚洲的几个发达经济体和发展中经济体在这一报告的全球竞争力排名中取得了良好成绩。新加坡排名第三，日本（第6位）和香港（第11位）也名列前20强。在大型发展中经济体中，中国继续领先，今年的排名又上升了两位至第27名，而印度为第51名。在其他亚洲国家中，印度尼西亚(第44位)、越南(第59位)和斯里兰卡(第62位)是今年进步最大的一些国家，而泰国（第38位）和巴基斯坦（第123位）的排名在继续下降。

        瑞士在今年继续独占鳌头，而美国在去年失去头把交椅之后，今年又被瑞典(第2位)和新加坡(第3位)超越，排名下降至第四位。除日益严峻的宏观经济失衡问题外，美国公共和私人机构的削弱以及人们对美国金融市场状况挥之不去的担忧也是造成美国位次下降的原因。北欧国家继续在排行榜上表现优异，瑞典、芬兰（第7位）和丹麦（第9位）均名列前10名，而挪威则排名第14位。

        英国最近几年的排名一直在下降，但今年上升了一位至第12名。在拉丁美洲，智利（第30位）是排名最靠前的国家，其后是巴拿马（第53位）、哥斯达黎加（第56位）和巴西（第58位）。中东和北非地区的几个国家也占据了排行榜的前半部分，其中包括卡塔尔（第17位）、沙特阿拉伯（第21位）、以色列（第24位）、阿拉伯联合酋长国（第25位）、突尼斯（第32位）、科威特（第35位）和巴林（第37位）。近年来大多数海湾国家在排行榜上保持了上升的趋势。在撒哈拉沙漠以南的非洲地区，南非（第54位）和毛里求斯（第55位）位列排行榜前半部分，后面接着的是第二梯队最佳区域表现者：纳米比亚（第74位）、博茨瓦纳（第76位）和卢旺达（第80位）。请点击此处阅读此报告的亮点。

        世界经济论坛创始人兼执行主席克劳斯•施瓦布指出：“未来的经济格局将以变化不定和动态平衡为特征。在为未来做好准备使经济表现优异的同时，政策制定者们也在努力寻找应对当前经济挑战的方法。在这种全球经济环境下，各国应将支撑经济增长和发展的基本面落到实处，这比以往任何时候都重要。”

        美国哥伦比亚大学经济学教授、《报告》合著者沙维尔•撒拉-伊-马丁（Xavier Sala-i-Martin）补充说：“尽管政策制定者对全球经济的未来心存担忧，但不能因为暂时的困难而忽视长期的竞争力基本因素。经济体如果要保持竞争力，就必须确保建立起提升生产力的因素，因为它们当前和未来的繁荣依赖生产力的提升。鼓励竞争力的经济环境有助于各国抵御经济危机，确保建立起一种可在未来使经济取得良好表现的机制。”

        《全球竞争力报告》的竞争力排行榜以全球竞争力指数为基础，由萨拉•伊•马丁(Sala-i-Martin)教授为世界经济论坛编制并于2004年引入，而全球竞争力指数又以12个主要竞争力因素为基础，全面地反映了处于不同发展阶段的世界各国的竞争力状况。这些因素包括机构、基础设施、宏观经济环境、健康与初等教育、高等教育和培训、商品市场效率、劳动力市场效率、金融市场发展、技术就绪度、市场规模、商业成熟度和创新。

        排名的计算基础是公开可获得的数据以及世界经济论坛与其合作伙伴机构(包括领先的研究机构和商业组织)每年在《报告》所涉及国家进行的全面的高管意见调查。今年调查了139个经济体的13,500多位商界领袖。调查的目的是了解影响经济体商业环境的众多因素。《报告》也详尽地列出了各国的主要优势和弱势，可据此确定进行政策改革的关键优先领域。

        《报告》提供了大量数据，详细介绍了调查所涉及的139个经济体的情况，综合概述了各国的具体排名，另外也提供了数据表，列出了110多个指标的全球排名情况。

        今年的《报告》还包含了对精选出来的一些地区和话题进行的讨论，包括分析欧盟国家的竞争力（特约作者为欧洲专员约阿希姆•阿尔穆尼亚（Joachim Almunia））；对拉美基础设施所面临挑战的回顾（尤其专注于巴西）；关于宏观经济稳定性和长期竞争力关系的适时讨论；和欧盟联合研究中心分析全球竞争力指数的结果（强调了该指数在统计上的严谨性和科学性）。
 

China rises in competitiveness

Switzerland tops the overall rankings in The Global Competitiveness Report 2010-2011, released today by the World Economic Forum ahead of its Annual Meeting of the New Champions 2010 in Tianjin. The United States falls two places to fourth position, overtaken by Sweden (2nd) and Singapore (3rd), after already ceding the top place to Switzerland last year. In addition to the macroeconomic imbalances that have been building up over time, there has been a weakening of the United States' public and private institutions, as well as lingering concerns about the state of its financial markets. The Nordic countries continue to be well positioned in the ranking, with Sweden, Finland (7th) and Denmark (9th) among the top 10, and with Norway at 14th. Sweden overtakes the US and Singapore this year to be placed 2nd overall. The United Kingdom, after falling in the rankings over recent years, moves back up by one place to 12th position.

The People's Republic of China (27th) continues to lead the way among large developing economies, improving by two more places this year, and solidifying its place among the top 30. Among the three other BRIC economies, Brazil (58th), India (51st) and Russia (63rd) remain stable. Several Asian economies perform strongly, with Japan (6th) and Hong Kong SAR (11th) also in the top 20. In Latin America, Chile (30th) is the highest ranked country, followed by Panama (53rd) Costa Rica (56th) and Brazil.

Several countries from the Middle East and North Africa region occupy the upper half of the rankings, led by Qatar (17th), Saudi Arabia (21st), Israel (24th), United Arab Emirates (25th), Tunisia (32nd), Kuwait (35th) and Bahrain (37th), with most Gulf States continuing their upward trend of recent years. In sub-Saharan Africa, South Africa (54th) and Mauritius (55th) feature in the top half of the rankings, followed by second-tier best regional performers Namibia (74th), Botswana (76th) and Rwanda (80th). Read the highlights of the report.

"Policy-makers are struggling with ways of managing the present economic challenges while preparing their economies to perform well in a future economic landscape characterized by uncertainty and shifting balances," said Klaus Schwab, Founder and Executive Chairman of the World Economic Forum. "In such a global economic environment, it is more important than ever for countries to put into place the fundamentals underpinning economic growth and development."

Xavier Sala-i-Martin, Professor of Economics, Columbia University, USA, and co-author of the report, added: "Amid concerns about the outlook for the global economy, policy-makers must not lose sight of long-term competitiveness fundamentals amid short-term challenges. For economies to remain competitive, they must ensure that they have in place those factors driving the productivity enhancements on which their present and future prosperity is built. A competitiveness-supporting economic environment can help national economies to weather business cycle downturns and ensure that the mechanisms enabling solid economic performance going into the future are in place."

The Global Competitiveness Report's competitiveness ranking is based on the Global Competitiveness Index (GCI), developed for the World Economic Forum by Sala-i-Martin and introduced in 2004. The GCI is based on 12 pillars of competitiveness, providing a comprehensive picture of the competitiveness landscape in countries around the world at all stages of development. The pillars are: institutions, infrastructure, macroeconomic environment, health and primary education, higher education and training, goods market efficiency, labour market efficiency, financial market development, technological readiness, market size, business sophistication, and innovation.

The rankings are calculated from both publicly available data and the Executive Opinion Survey, comprehensive annual survey conducted by the World Economic Forum together with its network of Partner Institutes (leading research institutes and business organizations) in the countries covered by the study. This year, over 13,500 business leaders were polled in 139 economies. The survey is designed to capture a broad range of factors affecting an economy's business climate. The report also includes comprehensive listings of the main strengths and weaknesses of countries, making it possible to identify key priorities for policy reform.

The report contains an extensive data section with a detailed profile for each of the 139 economies featured in the study, providing a comprehensive summary of the overall position in the rankings, as well as data tables with global rankings for over 110 indicators.

This year's report also features discussions on selected regions and topics. These include an analysis of the competitiveness of the European union countries (guest-authored by European Commissioner Joachim Almunia); a review of Latin America's infrastructure challenges, with a special focus on Brazil; a timely discussion on the relationship between macroeconomic stability and longer-term competitiveness; and the results of the EU Joint Research Center's analysis of the GCI, highlighting the statistical robustness and soundness of the index.