UAE’s high ranking in World Competitiveness Yearbook 2011
An IMD Business Forum in Dubai on Decision Making in Shifting Times highlighted the UAE’s high ranking on government efficiency, as reported by the IMD World Competitiveness Yearbook (WCY) 2011, the annual report on the competitiveness of nations published by IMD since 1989.
Dr. Hischam El Agamy, IMD Executive Director, presented the results, highlighting Qatar and the UAE, the only two GCC countries to be featured in the list. This is the first time that UAE is featured in the report that looks at the competitiveness of 59 countries worldwide.
Overall UAE is ranked number 28. Under the government efficiency factor, the UAE comes out at number four, while it lags behind in Business Efficiency with a 46 ranking.
Dr. El Agamy said: “There is a strong correlation between a country’s government and business efficiency and overall competitiveness. Though the UAE government comes out tops in efficiency, the overall competitiveness of the country is affected by the lack of efficiency in the business sector.”
“Companies in the UAE must look at ways to improving efficiency by developing strong business leadership, providing greater access to executive education with focus on execution capabilities, improving overall productivity, adapting to changing environment and offering strong emphasis on customer satisfaction. The report also highlights the need for the UAE to focus more on helping SMEs to attain overall business success and apply best practices to stimulate growth,” he said.
In the context of competitiveness, the Forum examined the best ways to improve business efficiency through good corporate governance.
IMD Professor Didier Cossin, Director of the IMD Global Board Center, stressed that good corporate governance is based on sound decision making abilities on the part of leaders. This is especially so now as the world faces risks associated with sovereign debts like in Europe, where commodity price rises and the risk of inflation is reflected in soaring food prices.
According to Professor Cossin, leaders must be prepared to face risks and uncertainties in the current scenario. He said true leadership faces economic and social complexity and a good leader must base his/her judgements on knowledge and intuition.
Highlighting this point was Abdulla Bin Kalban, President & Chief Executive Officer of Dubal, who presented a case study on the company’s experience of facing the recession and coming out of it stronger and better. In fact, Dubal did not cut any jobs and remained profitable and cash positive throughout the recession.
He said they were able to achieve this by making optimum use of human resources, identifying new opportunities in the worldwide market, changing product mixes to meet the needs of customers, continuing production levels at maximum capacity, increasing emphasis on controlling costs and sustaining investments in major projects.
