Canada Slips in Global Competitivness

The World Economic Forum has released their latest global competitiveness ranking. As was the case last year, Switzerland  tops the list followed by Singapore. Switzerland's top ranking is due to strong innovation performance, labour market efficiency, and a well functioning business sector. Switzerland has some of the best research institutions in the world and their is strong collaboration between the research centers and business. Switzerland has the second highest rate of patenting per capita.

Canada is ranked 14, two spots lower than last year. Canada  has slipped 5 places since 2009.Canada scores high in health and primary eduction but investment in education, research and development and entrepreneurship are weak. Since these factors are key drivers to the wealth creation process, Canadian governments and businesses would do well to invest more heavily in education, R&D, and entrepreneurship.

European countries do fairly well in this ranking which is a bit surprising given all of the debt problems in the Euro zone. Among the BRICs, China ranks 29, Brazil 48, India 59, and Russia 67.