Saudi Arabia showed progress according to the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) global competitiveness index for 2018, ranking 39 on the list of 140 economies, achieving its best progress since 2012.
The WEF assesses the world’s biggest economies across almost 100 different indicators, from the quality of infrastructure to life expectancy and the jobs market. It added several new metrics to its 2018 study, such as workforce diversity, press freedom and how hierarchical the biggest companies are in a particular economy.
Saudi Minister of Trade and Investment Majid al-Qasabi, said that the integrated work of more than 40 government agencies is one of the most important factors that led to an improvement of the Kingdom’s ranking in the 2018 report.
Qasabi, who also chairs the Executive Committee of Tayseer, noted that unifying the agencies contributed in addressing the constraints and challenges, and supporting the private sector in the Kingdom during the last period.
Tayseer is an initiative that aims to secure and stimulate the investment environment for the private sector and provide the necessary guarantees for the preservation of rights.
The Minister pointed out that the progress Saudi Arabia achieved came despite the report’s methodology change and increase in number of countries to 140.
Qasabi pointed out that changing the methodology of the report also included changing the mechanism of data collection. Previously, questionnaires, one of the data-collecting tools, amounted to 70 percent of the report's results in terms of reliance, however, they now constitute 30 percent and international sources and statistics 70 percent.
Based on the previous methodology, Saudi Arabia ranked 30 out of 137 countries in 2017.
With more than 40 government entities represented, Tayseer’s purpose is to support the private sector in the Kingdom to achieve its goals in: enforcing high orders and directives to improve the business climate for the private sector, increasing the efficiency of government services, improving the efficacy of communication with the private sector, and elevating the Kingdom’s position in important international rankings.