June the 19th, 2024 – Croatia has found itself in 51st place out of 67 on the latest World Competitiveness Ranking, with some individual qualities rated very highly.
As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, Singapore has regained the top spot in IMD’s 2024 World Competitiveness Ranking, after being in the top five from 2020-2023. This year, Switzerland came second, Denmark third, and Croatia is in 51st place out of 67 ranked global economies in 2024.
“We believe that the most competitive economies of the future will be those that can anticipate and adapt to this changing global context, while creating value and benefit for people. That will also make them sustainable,” said Arturo Bris, director of IMD’s World Competitiveness Centre (WCC), which has been behind the World Competitiveness Ranking since its inception in 1989.
He also said that the major competitiveness challenges for the world’s economies in 2024 and beyond are: the transition to a low-carbon and circular economy, following the increasing integration of emerging markets into the world economy and the digital transformation.
In the overall ranking of the World Competitiveness Index, Croatia is in 51st place out of 67 examined economies.
Of the key indicators of the croatia’s attractiveness, respondents rated the following as the highest:
Reliable infrastructure 70.1%
Skilled workers 62.7%
High educational level 53.7%
and the lowest…:
Strong research and development culture 14.9%
Competitive tax system 14.9%
Effective legal system 6.0%
Government competencies 3.0%
Of the four key areas assessed by the World Competitiveness Index, economic performance, government efficiency, business sector efficiency and infrastructure, Croatia recorded growth in two: government efficiency (from 49th to 47th place) and infrastructure (from 45th to 44th). place), while a decline was recorded in the areas of economic performance (from 46th to 49th place) and efficiency of the business sector (from 56th to 59th place).
The World Competitiveness Ranking calculates the data collected from the questionnaire and combines it with 164 statistical data. The survey was conducted between March and May 2024 among 6,612 top and middle level managers in 67 economies.
The three trends that respondents believe will have the greatest impact on companies in 2024 are:
The adoption of artificial intelligence (55.1%),
The risk of a global economic slowdown (52%) i
Geopolitical conflicts (36.1%).
The report shows that the adoption of AI is one thing, but its application is something completely different. One of the key challenges for businesses in Croatia today is how to implement artificial intelligence systems that improve efficiency, but without causing disruption to existing business activities. A related challenge is ensuring the correctness of the chosen AI system, as malfunctioning systems lead to inefficiencies and reduced productivity, according to the report.
In the survey, 27% of the executives surveyed consider the transition to zero emissions as an important trend in the short term, but only 12.2% highlighted the impact of global warming as relevant.
WCC researchers believe these results reflect a question of priorities: executives need to balance short-term priorities with long-term ones. Environmental risks are considered to be in the latter category and are given too little importance despite the fact that they already affect us.
The scale divides data into four areas: economic performance, government efficiency, business sector efficiency and infrastructure. Together they encompass various aspects of competitiveness, such as macroeconomic stability, fiscal policy, quality of system institutions, market openness, business dynamism, innovation, education, health and environmental efficiency.
All in all, the World Competitiveness Ranking has shone the spotlight on certain advantages that Croatia not only boasts, but that it has greatly improved on in more recent years. It has also highlighted the very many issues which have been a thorn in its side for decades. One can only hope the country rises up this list in the years to come.
