Muscat, Oct 17 - Oman has been ranked highly for the level of services offered by law-enforcement authorities, for political stability and infrastructure, especially quality of roads. The country was ranked fifth globally and first in the Arab World on the World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Index (GCI) for reliability of police services offered to the population. Finland tops this list. Overall, the Sultanate climbed up 14 places to 47 in 2018, from 61st in 2017 on the index. GCI measures factors that drive productivity in 140 countries based on 12 core categories that represent the pillars of the competitiveness index: institutions, infrastructure, ICT adoption, macroeconomic stability, health, skills, product market, labour market, financial system, market size, business dynamism and innovation capacity.
The country came first at the Arab level in the index of ‘terrorism incidence’ and among the top 10 countries in the world, reflecting the absence of terrorist attacks. The country was ranked eighth globally for the quality of roads and first in the Arab world. Singapore tops the list globally. It topped the Arab countries on the index of independence of judiciary, which provides basic guarantees for protection of rights and freedom of individuals. The Sultanate came first among the Arab countries on indicators of property rights, intellectual property protection, cooperation in relations between employers and employees. It came first at the GCC and Arab levels on the index of time to start a business.
It was ranked 15th on the burden of government regulation and 13th for efficiency of legal framework in settling disputes. On intellectual property protection, it was ranked 17th in the list, which is topped by Finland.
The country scored 12th on road connectivity index, 47th for airport connectivity, 28th for the efficiency of airport transport services, 18th for efficiency of sea transport services and 44th for reliability of water supply.
Oman’s progress on the infrastructure front has been attributed to the results achieved on a number of indicators, namely the road connection index, the marine shipping link index and the port services efficiency index.
It was ranked ninth under distortive effect of taxes and subsidies on competition, 34th in hiring/ firing practices, 14th for cooperation between labourers and employers and ninth for diversity of work force.
The Sultanate has achieved the ninth place globally in the index of (the distorted effect of taxes and subsidies on competition) and the second place at the GCC level in the index of (mobility of domestic labour).
It ranked second at the Arab level on the index of finance of small and medium enterprises and 19th globally on the index of availability of venture capital and ninth globally on the Manpower Diversity index.
Out of the 140, Oman was ranked 24th (infrastructure), 36th (institutions), 61st (ICT adoption), 58th (macroeconomic stability), 85th (health), 33rd (product market), 93rd (labour market), 56th (financial system), 62nd (market size), 52nd (business dynamism) and 86th (innovation capacity).
Vinod Nair
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