Investment climate
Investment climate

Lithuania leads CEE region following significant jump in global competitiveness ranking

June 04, 2015

Lithuania has climbed six positions to lead the Central and Eastern Europe region in the IMD World Competitiveness Centre’s annual global competitiveness ranking. IMD, a leading international business school based in Switzerland, uses over 300 criteria to rank countries’ competitiveness in its annual report. In this year’s ranking Lithuania comes in 28th position globally, rising from 34th in 2014.

Professor Arturo Bris, director of the IMD Global Competitiveness Centre, told Lithuanian business journal VŽ that the country’s significant jump is an impressive achievement. ‘Lithuania has improved its position considerably,’ he explained. ‘It is one of the countries to have climbed most in the list; six places in a year is a really impressive result. Italy was the only country to have made greater progress.’

In terms of the region, Lithuania was the only Baltic state to improve its position this year. It has leapfrogged Estonia, whose ranking has dropped one place from 30th to 31st, and has outperformed Latvia, which has fallen 8 places to 43rd globally.

A range of strengths

[quote text=”Lithuania has improved its position considerably. It is one of the countries to have climbed most in the list; six places in a year is a really impressive result.” name_surname=”Arturo Bris” description=”Director of the IMD Global Competitiveness Centre” left=””]

The IMD Global Competitiveness Centre aims to evaluate the effectiveness with which countries exploit their resources and competences to increase wellbeing. Of the 300 different criteria used to compile each country’s rating, two thirds are hard data on the economy and business environment, with the final third a range of surveys of top managers and business leaders.

According to Professor Bris, one of the major factors which led to Lithuania’s rise up the rankings was the business regulation reforms implemented last year, which he believes significantly improved the business environment.

IMD identified a number of other improvements in Lithuania’s business and economic environment over the past year. These include a reduction in bureaucracy, smarter processes for starting a business, more transparency and less corruption, greater energy independence, better budgeting and higher levels of market capitalisation.

From the surveys of top managers and executives, a number of core strengths were identified. Importantly, many of those surveyed pointed to the high levels of education and the well-qualified talent pool Lithuania has to offer. Lithuania’s dynamic economy, business-friendly environment, reliable infrastructure, cost competitiveness and political stability were also specifically identified as key assets for the country.

Global leaders

The top three most competitive countries in the IMD 2015 index are the USA, Hong Kong and Singapore (last year it was the USA, Switzerland and Singapore). Venezuela comes in last in the list, with Ukraine in second-to-last (60th), having dropped 11 places due to the ongoing conflict in the east of the country.

Read full article in Lithuanian at VZ.lt

 

Subscribe CTA image

Enjoy reading our news?

Please wait...

Thank you for subscribing to our newsletter!

Have questions? Contact us
Aistė Žebrauskienė
Press Officer LinkedIn icon
Contact me
Get in touch


    Aistė Žebrauskienė Press Officer
    contact-success-modal
    Thank you!

    Thanks for reaching out to us, this means a lot! We will get back to you shortly.

    Meanwhile, we invite you to discover what’s new in the Lithuanian business landscape.

    Vilnius panorama