mbr special edition 2016 low (1)

Malta Business Review | SPECIAL EDITION
World Economic Forum Survey
EDUCATION
Malta climbs Global Competitiveness Index ranks
The Global Competitiveness Index
2016-2017 released by the World
Economic Forum (WEF) shows that Malta
has improved its overall competitiveness
performance. In the latest edition Malta
ranked 40th out of 138 countries included
in this publication. This represents an
improvement on the 48th place attained
by Malta in the previous release.
This publication assesses each country
on twelve (12) main pillars. Malta ranked
at least 41st under each pillar, bar for the
10th pillar (market size). Under this pillar
Malta ranked 126th. Unfortunately, little
improvement can ever be attained in this
area as the score is dictated by the size of
our country.
Malta excelled particularly well in the
areas of health and primary education
(18th), technological readiness (20th) and
macroeconomic environment (21st).
With respect to health and primary
education Malta ranked very strongly
in the areas of life expectancy (16th)
and quality of primary education (19th).
Under the area of technological readiness
significant results were attained for
internet bandwidth (3rd), fixed broadband
internet subscriptions (7th) and FDI and
technology transfer (21st). Under the
macroeconomic pillar Malta ranked as
being the best country in terms of annual
percentage change in inflation (1st). Malta
also ranked 20th for gross national savings
as a percentage of GDP.
Under the macroeconomic pillar
Malta ranked as being the best
country in terms of annual
percentage change in inflation (1st)
The report overall indicates that over the
last years Malta has gradually improved its
rankings in a number of indicators that are
included under this index. However, the
same report clearly indicates that this result
is not guaranteed and there are a number
of areas which still need to be addressed
concretely in order to enable Malta to
retain and improve its ranking further.
The index shows that improvements have
been recorded with respect to the number
of procedures to set-up a business as well
as the time required to do so. However,
the measures adopted so far have only
enabled Malta to rank 116th (procedures)
and 114th (time) in these areas. Given that
these indicators are sourced by the WEF
from the World Bank, the important work
carried out in this area is not yet reflected
fully in this publication.
The Global Competitiveness Report also
highlighted that for the first time, when
respondents came to identify the main
problematic factors for doing business, a
workforce which is relatively lacking in the
required education levels topped the list.
This is a reflection of the shift in Malta’s
economy to operations requiring far
higher levels of training and expertise than
was the case in the past. The situation is
being studied by the Ministry of Education
and the various stakeholders such as Malta
Enterprise and plans have been developed
to implement more targeted and effective
strategies in order to ensure long-term
sustainability. MBR
Source: Malta Enterprise
20