Hong Kong is again ranked the world’s most competitive economy, moving up from second place last year, according to the International Institute for Management Development (IMD) World Competitiveness Yearbook 2016.
Last year the Hong Kong competitive economy ranking fell to second place, behind the US, which has now fallen to third.
Financial secretary, John C Tsang, welcomed the IMD’s “high regard of Hong Kong as the world’s most competitive economy and its recognition of our consistent commitment to a favourable business environment”.
“We are delighted to see that Hong Kong has regained the title of the world’s most competitive economy. In light of the fierce competition in the global arena, we will strive to uphold our prevailing competitive edge and continue to search for new growth areas, so as to strengthen our position as an international financial, trading and business centre and enhance Hong Kong’s long-term competitiveness.”
According to the IMD World Competitiveness Yearbook 2016 released yesterday (May 30, Switzerland time) , Hong Kong was ranked top among the 61 economies assessed, followed by Switzerland, the US and Singapore.
The IMD also recognised Hong Kong for its consistent commitment to providing a favourable business environment, encouragement of innovation through low and simple taxation, free flow of capital, and role as a gateway between the Mainland and the global capital markets.
The report assessed each economy on four competitiveness factors: Economic performance, Government efficiency, Business efficiency and Infrastructure, with each consisting of five sub-factors. Among the four competitiveness factors, Hong Kong’s rankings in Government efficiency and Business efficiency both continued to be ranked first globally. The ranking in Economic performance climbed four places from ninth to fifth, mainly reflecting the more resilient Hong Kong economy relative to others in the challenging global economic environment last year.
On the down side, due mainly to some changes in the IMD’s choice of indicators, Hong Kong’s ranking in Infrastructure dropped from 15th to 21st.
*Photo credit: Louis Allen.