Malta climbs up the WEF Global Competitiveness Index

Malta is improving its competitiveness according to a report released by the World Economic Forum.

In the Global Competitiveness Index 2016-2017, Malta now ranks 37th out of 137 countries included in this publication, ahead of Italy, Portugal, Slovenia, and Croatia. This represents an improvement on the 40th place attained last year.

This publication assesses each country on 12 main pillars. Malta excelled particularly well in the areas of higher education and training (30th), labour market efficiency (29th), business sophistication (31st), and innovation (38th).

Malta’s economic performance can be attributed to the reduction of public debt and deficit, and an increase in national savings. There was also a significant improvement in female participation in the labour force a result of the free childcare measures implemented by the government.

Economy Minister Chris Cardona welcomed this improvement, stating that the World Economic Forum report is among the most respected, global publications in business. The minister added that this gives the government more drive to continue carrying out positive changes and to further rise in the overall ranking gauging its competitiveness.

Minister Cardona also remarked that the government is committed to continuing addressing the remaining challenge of creating a better-skilled workforce. This is a reflection of the shift in Malta’s economy to operations requiring far higher levels of training and expertise than what was the case in the past.

This recent positive result strongly indicates that Malta is more likely to be able to sustain its competitiveness in the longer term. All this bodes very well in a global economic environment and places Malta in a very attractive economic position.