Korea rated poor in labor, management practices

Korea’s overall competitiveness has improved from last year, but it is still lagging behind in terms of labor market and management practices, a report by an international research institute showed Thursday.

The Switzerland-based International Institute for Management Development (IMD) released its 2018 World Competitiveness Rankings that evaluated the competitiveness of major countries in terms of economic achievement, infrastructure, and government and corporate efficiency.

Korea rose two notches to 27th among 63 countries surveyed this year, thanks to solid economic growth and expansion of core infrastructure. The United States topped the list, rising three notches, followed by Hong Kong and Singapore. The Netherlands came fourth followed by Switzerland. China moved up five notches to rank 13th this year, while Japan inched up by one notch to 25th.

However, Korea is still lagging behind in government and business efficiency.

Korea ranked 43rd in business efficiency, its lowest ranking among the four assessment criteria of the IMD. It is especially poor in terms of management practices, ranking 55th, and the labor market where it finished 53rd. Hostile labor and management relations, and low motivation, pulled down the indices, coupled with dis- trust of management and a lack of transparency in corporate governance. It fell two places down to 62nd in terms of social trust in management.

However, Korea jumped to 10th from 25th in terms of average annual work hours and to 42nd from 52nd in ethical management of businesses.

The country fell one grade to 29th in government efficiency this year. It was especially poor in business legislation, ranking 47th, as well as the social framework where it finished 38th.

While it has improved in terms of the transparency of government policies and their efficient execution, it still lacks legal and systematic support for businesses.

In terms of economic achieve- ments that cover the domestic economy, international trade and investments as well as employment and prices, Korea ranked 20th, up two spots from the previous year. Reduced uncertainties following the launch of the new administration and improving sentiment pulled up the overall indices.

In the infrastructure sector, Korea jumped six notches to 18th thanks to improvement in education as well as its technological and scientific infrastructure. The finance ministry explained the surging per capita public education spending and higher enrollment in middle and high schools pulled up the index while infrastructure support for innovative growth contributed in terms of both technology and science.