Instability, corruption continue to eat away competitiveness

Nepal continued to remain one of the least competitive countries in the globe, as frequent changes in government, burgeoning corruption and inefficient bureaucracy, among others, continued to add huge cost on businesses, says a latest report of World Economic Forum (WEF).
The Global Competitiveness Report 2012-13 that the WEF released on Wednesday has ranked Nepal at the 125th position out of total 144 countries wherein the competitiveness survey was carried out. Nepal had ranked in the same position last year as well.
“Instable government, corruption, inefficient bureaucracy, policy instability, restrictive labor regulations, inadequate supply of infrastructures, access to financing, poor work ethic in national labor force and inflation are the top most problematic factors for doing business in Nepal,” states the report.
The report that assesses the competitiveness landscapes of countries across the world has taken indices such as institutions, infrastructure, macroeconomic situation, health and primary education, higher education and training, goods market efficiency, labor market efficiency, financial market development among others for measuring the competitiveness.
Likewise, according to the report, technological readiness, market size, business sophistication and innovation has been used for measurement of the global competitiveness.
“Bangladesh, Pakistan and Nepal are lagging further and further behind in the Asia Pacific region as well,” reads the report.
According to the report, Bangladesh is ranked in 118th and Pakistan is in 124th. The report that has taken institution as the first index of the competitiveness highlights it as “the institutional environment is determined by the legal and administrative framework which individuals, firms and governments interact to generate wealth”.
However, Nepal has performed well in areas such as women in labor force ratio to men (13th rank), gross national saving (18th rank), and total tax rate (41th rank).