Korea’s Global Competitiveness Rank Up 4 Notches

Korea’s global competitiveness has risen four notches to 23rd, outdoing Japan for the first time.

According to the World Competitiveness Yearbook 2010 released Wednesday by the Switzerland-based business school IMD, Korea’s ranking among 58 nations was the highest record since IMD began evaluating global competitiveness independently in 1997.

Of four sectors such as economic performance, government efficiency, corporate efficiency, and infrastructure, the only category Korea’s rankings did not improve in was infrastructure. The country’s rankings in economic performance jumped from 45th to 21st and that of government efficiency from 36th to 26th.

By sector, Korea ranked first in R&D patents, second in the proportion of people going on to higher education, third in corporate emphasis on customer satisfaction, sixth in low unemployment, and ninth in export volume.

Singapore ranked first and Hong Kong second. The global competitiveness of Taiwan, called one of four East Asian dragons along with Korea, Singapore and Hong Kong, climbed by 15 notches to eighth. Malaysia ranked 10th.

Japan, however, slipped from 17th last year to 27th this year due to structural problems blocking its economic growth and sluggish employment.

The U.S., hit hardest by the global financial crisis, fell to third place. The rankings of many European nations such as the U.K. and Germany also declined.

legman@donga.com