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Bulgaria has moved three rankings ahead in the Global Competitiveness Report 2008-2009, released Wednesday by the World Economic Forum, featuring a total of 134 global economies.
The country has moved from the 79th to the 76th position, but the report notes that Bulgaria has the most unfavorable ranking compared with all other countries members of the European Union.
Romania has ranked behind Bulgaria for several years in a row, but now has moved from 74th to 68th position. Croatia (61) and Monte Negro (65) are also ahead of Bulgaria.
Despite the financial crisis, the United States tops the overall ranking, Switzerland is in second position followed by Denmark, Sweden and Singapore.
European economies continue to prevail in the top 10 with Finland, Germany and the Netherlands following suit. The United Kingdom, while remaining very competitive, has dropped by three places and out of the top 10, mainly attributable to a weakening of its financial markets.
China continues to lead the way among large developing economies, improving by four places this year. Several other Asian economies perform strongly with Japan, Hong Kong SAR, Republic of Korea and Taiwan.
In Latin America, Chile is the highest ranked country, followed by Panama, Costa Rica and Mexico.
A number of countries in the Middle East and North Africa region are in the upper half of the rankings, led by Israel, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Tunisia.
In sub-Saharan Africa, South Africa, Botswana and Mauritius feature in the top half of the rankings, with several countries from the region measurably improving their competitiveness.
The Global Competitiveness Report's main competitiveness ranking is the Global Competitiveness Index (GCI), based on 12 pillars of competitiveness: Institutions, Infrastructure, Macroeconomic Stability, Health and Primary Education, Higher Education and Training, Goods Market Efficiency, Labor Market Efficiency, Financial Market Sophistication, Technological Readiness, Market Size, Business Sophistication and Innovation.
According to the report, the main reason for Bulgaria's relatively unfavorable position is the negative assessment of the Institutions in the country such as slow and ineffective legal system, wide-spread corruption practices, ineffective fight against organized crime, insufficient protection of intellectual property, lack of transparency in public tenders and others. Bulgaria ranks barely 111, according to the Institutions pillar.
Another pillar where Bulgaria ranks very low is the Infrastructure - 95th place. The country also lacks behind in pillars such as Sophistication and Innovation (96th position from 88th last year), Higher Education and Training (96). The Health and Primary Education pillar, however, shows a much better position (39).
Bulgarian companies have the most serious problems in areas such as adequate policy for qualification and training of the human resources, marketing, professional management, lack of implementation of innovations and modern technologies.
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Equestrian Bulgaria Ranks 76 by Global Competitiveness - Report