Sep 10, 2010, STRAITS TIMES
GLOBAL COMPETITIVENESS RANKING
Singapore retains No. 3 spot
VOCABULARY
Fill in the blanks using the given helping words.
highest challenges outlook remain place future efficiency anchored competitiveness technologies released crisis financial Nordic sustainable
SINGAPORE has held on to third place in a global competitiveness ranking to remain true to form as the fastest recovering economy post-recession.
It lost out only to Switzerland, which retained top spot, and Sweden, the new No. 2 in the latest World Economic Forum (WEF) annual Global Competitiveness Report, which was 1. _______ in Tianjin, China yesterday.
The United States, still suffering the fallout from the financial 2. _______, fell two places to fourth, having conceded the No.1 ranking to Switzerland last year.
The WEF said that aside from macroeconomic imbalances building up over time in the US, there has been a weakening of the superpower's public and private institutions, as well as 'lingering concerns about the state of its 3. ________ markets'.
4. ________ nations Sweden, Finland (seventh), Denmark (ninth) and Norway (14th) again dominated the top 15, but Asia was also strongly represented by Japan (sixth), Hong Kong (11th) and Taiwan (13th).
The report measures the productivity of an economy and its capacity for 5. ________ growth over the next five to 10 years.
The WEF based its study on publicly available data and a survey of business leaders. This year, more than 13,500 of them from 139 economies were polled.
At No. 3, Singapore remains the 6. _________ ranked Asian economy, and came in tops for both the lack of corruption in the country and government efficiency.
In other separate categories and sub-indices, Singapore also came in tops for the 7. _________ of its goods and labour markets, second for its financial market sophistication and fifth for infrastructure.
But while its competitiveness was 8. _________ by its strong focus on education and providing individuals with the necessary skills in a rapidly changing global economy, Singapore was still found wanting in a few areas.
They include innovation (ninth), business sophistication (15th) and market size, where it placed 41st.
'In order to strengthen its 9. _________ further, Singapore could encourage even stronger adoption of the latest 10. ________ as well as policies that enhance the sophistication of its companies,' added the WEF report.
Looking at the broader picture, Professor Xavier Sala-i-Martin of Columbia University and co-author of the report said that while concerns about the 11. ________ for the global economy remain, policymakers 'must not lose sight of long-term competitiveness fundamentals amid short-term 12. _______'.
'For economies to 13. _________ competitive, they must ensure that they have in 14. ______ those factors driving the productivity enhancements on which their present and 15. _______ prosperity is built.'
ANSWERS- Vocabulary- 1. released 2. crisis 3. financial 4. Nordic 5. sustainable
6. highest 7. efficiency 8. anchored 9. competitiveness 10. technologies
11. outlook 12. challenges 13. remain 14. place 15. future
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