Ceylon Chamber hails improvement in Lanka’s competitiveness ranking

The Ceylon Chamber of Commerce said yesterday it was pleased to note the remarkable improvement Sri Lanka has made over the past three years in the Global Competitiveness Ranking of the World Economic Forum from 79 in 2009/10, 62 in 2010/11 to 52 in 2011/12. The current ranking is out of 142 countries.

“It is important to note that the progress made in the area of infrastructure development has improved our ranking in infrastructure from 70 last year to 60 this year. Inadequate infrastructure had been identified by the private sector as the third most important key impediment to doing business in Sri Lanka in 2006/07 Global Competitiveness Report but today the significance of this barrier has been pushed down to eighth place. The ranking of the country fares well in the areas of business sophistication (32), innovation (42) and goods market efficiency (41),” the Ceylon Chamber said in a statement.

It also said Sri Lanka fares better than its South Asian neighbours in terms of overall performance, and is closing the gap it has with its East Asian neighbours.

Areas that have slipped down in the 2011/12 ranking include higher education and training and restrictiveness of labour regulations.

“The Chamber is optimistic that the government will take necessary steps to address these issues in the future which will undoubtedly improve the overall competitiveness of Sri Lanka and our ranking in the Global Competitiveness Index,” the statement added.