Mongolia
has been ranked 99th among 139 countries in the just released Global
Competitiveness Report 2010-2011 published by the World Economic Forum. This is
a significant improvement on its last year’s performance when it was put 117^th
among 134 countries, and is an acknowledgement of the Government’s efforts to
improve several aspects of the business environment and to reduce macroeconomic
imbalances.

Switzerland
retains the top place it claimed last year from the USA , which now falls a further
two places, overtaken by Sweden (2^nd) and Singapore (3^rd).
Germany (5^th) moves up two places, leading the Eurozone countries.

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, India (51st), Brazil (58th), 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.

The
rankings are calculated from both publicly available data and the Executive
Opinion Survey, a 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 Report.

The
Global Competitiveness Report’s competitiveness ranking is based on the Global
Competitiveness Index (GCI), developed for the World Economic Forum 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.

Mongolia’s
macro economic stability score has risen to 4.9 from 3.9, mainly because of a
lower budget deficit, reduced inflation, and higher foreign currency reserves.
However, the score on financial market has fallen from 3.4 to 3.1, mainly because of lower access to
credit, instability in the banking sector, and an underdeveloped capital
market.