Costa Rica Global Competitiveness Rankings for 2015
The 2014-2015 Global Competitiveness report has been released by the World Economic Forum. The Global Competitiveness report analyzes what it refers to as the 12 pillars which are the following:
First pillar: Institutions
Second pillar: Infrastructure
Third pillar: Macroeconomic environment
Fourth pillar: Health and primary education
Fifth pillar: Higher education and training
Sixth pillar: Goods market efficiency
Seventh pillar: Labor market efficiency
Eighth pillar: Financial market development
Ninth pillar: Technological readiness
Tenth pillar: Market size
Eleventh pillar: Business sophistication
Twelfth pillar: Innovation
In this article I will review some of the findings of the 2014-2105 Global Competitiveness Report as it relates to Costa Rica. In general terms Costa Rica fairs well in the areas of Health, Education and Innovation and use of Technology.
In overall Education Costa Rica ranked 37 out of 144 Countries worldwide. Costa Rica has always had a strong emphasis and commitment to public education and the rankings clearly show it. The educational rankings are set forth below.
For Health rankings Costa Rica ranks 48 out of 144 countries around the world.
It is in the areas of infrastructure, government efficiency and business competitiveness where Costa Rica ranks poorly when compared to other countries around the world.
The top two complaints for business entities in Costa Rica are (1) Inefficient government bureaucracy and (2) Inadequate supply of infrastructure. The graph below shows the most problematic factors for doing business in Costa Rica.
For overall infrastructure we rank 103/144. This comes as no surprise for those of us that live in Costa Rica and have to deal day in and day out with the poor road infrastructure and saturated roadways. We are right there in the company of countries like Algeria and Uganda !
The quality of the roads that do exist are very poor as well ranking 119/144.
The railway infrastructure faired no better. Costa Rica abandoned its railway infrastructure in the 1990’s. It has realized that was a mistake and has started in the past 10 years or so to re-build the railway structure for passenger service to decongest the roadways in the Central Valley area of Costa Rica. They still have a long way to go ranking 91 out of 144 in railroad infrastructure.
When it comes to trying to do business in Costa Rica the rankings also show a very slow and cumbersome process that hinders business from setting up and getting up and running in a quick and efficient manner.
For imposing barriers to trade we rank 126/144 next to countries like Ghana and Tanzania !
Costa Rica also has very stringent labor laws and regulations which make it very difficult to terminate or alter the labor agreements for empolyers. As such we rank 76/144 for wage flexibility in comparison with other countries aroudn the world.
The railway infrastructure faired no better. Costa Rica abandoned its railway infrastructure in the 1990’s. It has realized that was a mistake and has started in the past 10 years or so to re-build the railway structure for passenger service to decongest the roadways in the Central Valley area of Costa Rica. They still have a long way to go ranking 91 out of 144 in railroad infrastructure.
