United States no longer the country more competitive globally, a post now held by Switzerland, according to the ranking of countries published today by the World Economic Forum.
In the case of Latin America, Chile continues to occupy first place among the significant changes and stresses that for the first time Mexico has been overtaken by Brazil.
The 2009-2010 Global Competitiveness Report compares the performance of 133 countries as a key factor as complex. "For us is the potential competitiveness of a country to grow steadily in the long term," he told BBC Irene Mia, Director for Latin America in the global competitiveness program, World Economic Forum.
"We measure what we call the 12 pillars of competitiveness, factors as diverse as infrastructure, macroeconomic stability, institutional quality, efficiency of markets, the potential for innovation and education, which is very important."
Education is the long-term challenge for Latin America, according to Mia, who says that the reason that countries like Chile fail to advance in the ranking is its educational system.
The impact of the crisis
What explains the fall in U.S. the list is the financial crisis. "What we see especially when we look at the top 20 in the ranking is that there was a general decline in absolute performance. The difference between the U.S. and Switzerland is that there was a more marked deterioration in the U.S., Switzerland is not improved, but not worse. "
To innovate, A. America must improve their education.
The crisis hit primarily in three areas, as World Economic Forum. "The strength of financial markets, macroeconomic stability (with the stimulus there was a deterioration of debt) and the quality of public and private institutions because of all the scandals," Mia told the BBC.
The situation in the U.S. turn explains largely why Mexico was beaten by Brazil. "Unfortunately, Mexico has a very strong relationship with the U.S. business cycle Mexico had come from external shocks U.S. besides influenza. "
For its part, China, in 29th place, still heads the list of major economies developing, which shows that the factors measured in the ranking are broader than just export competitiveness.
The problem with education
The index measures the basic education, but also the top one area where the World Economic Forum economist finds some problems:
THE WORLD'S FIRST 12
- Switzerland (1)
- United States (2)
- Singapore (3)
- Sweden (4)
- Denmark (5)
- Finland (6)
- Germany (7)
- Japan (8)
- Canada (9)
- Netherlands (10)
- Hong Kong (11)
- Taiwan (12)
"On one side of racing. If we take a country like Mexico, for example, and compared with other OECD countries is that Mexico has a percentage of engineers and scientists very low. This is a problem, it seems that Latin American educational system is no longer producing the workforce needed by the productive system.
"Another problem is the curriculum, should be improved and put more emphasis on information technology, English.
"And the last is what he has to do with the connection between academia and industry in Latin America lack a little. Because innovation is important in the time it becomes something useful for the industry. "
Another disadvantage is Mia is "you have to do with research and development in Latin America is made more by governments, not companies. "
The roof
Chile Chile remains the most competitive country in the region, but no progress in the general ranking.
Chile For what appears to be the weakest element is the education system, the ability of this system to encourage innovation
Irene Mia, World Economic Forum
"The problem in Chile is that if you look at the past two years appear to not move from position 30, it is as if a glass ceiling that Chile can not happen," says the economist.
And the problem according to the World Economic Forum is that in the advanced stage in which Chile is one of the factors on which depends crucially on the competitiveness is innovation, linked in turn to the need for more graduates science and a better relationship between the academy and college.
"In the case of Chile which appears to be the weakest element is the education system the ability of this system to encourage innovation.
"It's something the government knows and is trying to address, but still change education is not something that is done in two years," Mia told the BBC. "I think for Chile that is the number one challenge, else already has. "
How many days to start a business?
THE 12 FIRST OF AMERICA A.
- Chile (30) Costa
- Rica (55)
- Brazil (56)
- Panama (59)
- Mexico (60)
- Uruguay (65)
- Colombia (69)
- El Salvador (77)
- Peru (78) Guatemala
- (80)
- Argentina (85)
- Honduras (89)
Bureaucracy and corruption are factors used by the World Economic Forum to measure what it calls "quality of institutions."
It uses data program Doing Business "(Doing Business) World Bank, for example comparing how many days or how many formalities are required in each country to start a business. The number of procedures varies considerably from one in Canada and three in Finland, 9 or 11 in Mexico in Uruguay.
"I got a lot of attention the case of Colombia, who put a team of people in the Ministry of Trade and Industry working with the people of Doing Business and greatly improved. It is one of 10 countries improved more in recent years all that has to do with the paperwork, the ease of starting a business and things well, "says Mia. "Mexico also is doing."
Another component of the quality of institutions is insecurity. "We measure, for example, the cost to employers of violence and Latin America is doing quite badly in this regard."
also has legal uncertainty. According to the researcher, one of the reasons why Argentina is in the ranking behind nations with smaller economies such as El Salvador, is the existence of "structural weaknesses that have to do with the quality of public institutions and pessimism Argentine businessmen to respect the right in general "in the country.
What good?
" The usefulness of the index is not in the ranking, "the WEF economist, for whom it is important that countries to analyze the components of the 12 pillars. "For companies it is also a platform neutral, as they can go to the government and say what areas are problematic."
The index measures the cost of insecurity in the business.
For the economist is encouraging that many Latin American governments have competitive fees. "Colombia has a board of private competition on the web site every week or every day put the status of proposed government policies that color, if red is that they did nothing, if green is that the government is working on that. "
And it's important to remember that the very concept of competitiveness changes. Within a few years, for example, the index could pick up the capacity of countries to adapt to low carbon economies, an aspect that could be crucial in the climate change agreements.
"There is no further studies to confirm the impact of environmental sustainability on competitiveness, but it is something that we consider in the future, "said Mia.
For now, the ranking seems to make clear that the quality of higher education is the key to greater long-term competitiveness in Latin America.
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