REGIONAL COOPERATION AND ECONOMIC INTEGRATION

REGIONAL TRADE AGREEMENTS AND REGIONAL COOPERATION
where R stands for Ranking, V the index value underlying the position, H and S stand for
Hungarian and Spanish position or value respectively. The minimum position is R min
=50,
with one exception: in the case of the ESI index Malta, Cyprus and Luxemburg are not
listed in the ranking because of their small size.
We have selected for international indicators to compare and link the rankings
numerically. These are the following: Global Competitiveness Index (GCI) prepared
by World Economic Forum, the Index of Economic Freedom (IEF) published by the
Heritage Foundation, this latter has administrative and social aspects too, as well as the
Environmental Sustainability Index (ESI) calculated by the Universities of Yale and
Columbia and the Human Development Index (HDI) of UNDP. These indicators, when
used jointly, take into consideration the economic, social and environmental aspects of
competitiveness and sustainability. In addition, instead of one index they provide a more
detailed image in some aggregate particular indices (World Economic Forum, 2008, The
Heritage Foundation, 2008, Environmental Sustainability Index, 2008, UNDP, 2008).
The values and the results of the individual indices covering the chosen countries are as
follows: reviewing the examined group of countries it appeared realistic and reasonable to
separate the scale of performance into 3 major scales – leading, middle range, catching
up - with 2 minor steps (bottom and top) within each of the 3 major ones, i.e. altogether
6 scales. It also has to be considered, naturally, that the names of these categories refer to
the chosen group of developed and medium developed countries:
82,5-100% Absolute leaders
66-82,5% Second line of leaders
50-66% Top middle range
33-50% Bottom middle range
16,5-33% Catching up
0-16,5% Falling behind
3.2 The Relative Total Performance of some Balkan and East Central European
countries
On the OECD basis the relative total performance of ten Balkan and East Central European
countries we calculated. These are (in alphabetical order) Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria,
Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Macedonia, Poland, Romania, Slovak Republic and
Slovenia. Owing to missing data in many cases Serbia and Montenegro could not be
participated in the research. This is a great loss; however, on the basis of a comprehensive
comparison of 50 countries it is possible to have an alternative view on the development
of many of our region’s countries. The table of the calculated numbers can be found in the
Appendix (Table 1).
As far as the global competitiveness is concerned (Graph 1 – see Appendix) most
countries of the region belong to the catching up or falling behind category, except for
Slovenia and Czech Republic, which reach the (lower) middle layer of the relative total
performance. Among the Balkan countries of the survey Croatia shows a better overall
performance ahead of Romania, Bulgaria and Macedonia, while Bosnia and Herzegovina
has the lowest relative result on an OECD basis. The Balkan countries mostly meet the
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