Thailand has improved by three places to 30th in the World Competitiveness Ranking released on Tuesday by the International Institute for Management Development (IMD).
The country improved in the four main indicators used to compile the rankings, though infrastructure remained its weak link. The Economic Performance ranking improved to 16th from 34th in 2022, Government Efficiency to 24th from 31st, Business Efficiency to 23rd from 30th, and Infrastructure to 43rd from 44th.
Over the past five years, the country’s best overall competitiveness performance was in 2019 when it ranked 25th, while 2022 was the worst at 33rd.
Denmark, Ireland and Switzerland were named the top three among the 64 economies measured in the 35th annual edition of the influential survey.
“All three are small economies that make good use of their access to markets and trading partners – as does Singapore, which came fourth,” Switzerland-based IMD said in a press release.
“Navigating today’s unpredictable environment requires agility and adaptability,” said Christos Cabolis, chief economist of the IMD’s World Competitiveness Center.
“Countries that excel are building resilient economies, such as Ireland, Iceland, and Bahrain. Their governments are also able to adapt policies based on current economic conditions in a timely fashion. The UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Singapore are also key examples of this.”
The 2023 results also highlight how economies that were late to open up after the Covid-19 pandemic are starting to see improvements in their competitiveness, among them Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia. Those early to open up — such as Sweden and Finland — are now witnessing declines.
Europe excelled in the ranking, as in 2022, with five economies in the top 10. Apart from being smaller, the most competitive economies also tend to have strong and efficient institutions.
“A country’s ability to generate prosperity for its people is a key determiner of success. It’s not what China does yet and it’s not what the US even does fully yet,” said Prof Arturo Bris, director of the WCC.
The competitiveness rankings are a mixture of hard data — 164 criteria selected based on comprehensive research of economic literature, international, national and regional sources, plus feedback from businesses, government agencies and academics — and 92 survey questions answered by 6,400 senior executives.
Hard data accounts for two-thirds of the overall ranking results, whereas the survey data represents one-third, according to IMD.