SOUTH KOREAN COMPETITIVENESS RANKINGS FALL

SEOUL, May 15, 2008 (AsiaPulse via COMTEX) -- -- South Korea's global competitiveness ranking fell this year, mainly due to inefficiency in the government sector, an international report showed Thursday.

According to the IMD World Competitiveness Yearbook 2008, South Korea ranked 31st in terms of competitiveness among 55 countries, down from 29th a year earlier.

The Switzerland-based institute releases the report every year, analyzing countries based on their economies, infrastructures, and government and corporate efficiency.

It was distributed by the Finance Ministry here.

The report put South Korea at 37th in terms of government efficiency, down from 31st last year.

Its infrastructure ranking was downgraded to 21st from 19th, while that for corporate efficiency improved to 36th from 38th, the report showed. South Korea's ranking for its economy rose two notches to 47th, thanks to robust exports.

Bureaucratic hurdles on business activities and technology developments, along with inflexible labor markets, were cited as the main reasons for lower points in public sector efficiency.

"The IMD finding calls for the government to step up efforts on deregulations, tax cuts and better labor relations so that it can bolster corporate activities here," the ministry said.

South Korea was among the lowest-ranking of the Asian countries, ranking 11th out of 13 Asian Pacific countries surveyed, with China and Japan coming in 17th and 22nd, respectively. The U.S. kept its No. 1 position, followed by Singapore and Hong Kong. Venezuela came in last.

Of the countries with populations exceeding 20 million, South Korea was 13th, down from the previous year's 12th. The country's ranking dropped one notch to 26th among the 35 countries with gross domestic products over US$10,000.

A finance ministry official said the IMD report is based mostly on 2007 statistics, so it does not reflect all the current efforts made by individual countries.

"Given the government's ongoing efforts to create a business-friendly environment, we expect the competitiveness ranking to improve next year," he added.

(Yonhap)

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