Singapore's competitiveness: The good, the bad and the ugly

It slips to third in WEF ranking; it scores in areas such as higher education but is lacking in others such as innovation

Anita Gabriel

Published Wed, Sep 27, 2017 · 09:50 PM

World Economic Forum

Singapore

SINGAPORE remains one of the world's most competitive economies across the board. Period. But if you prefer to nitpick, let's do that (too).

After basking in the sweet spot of being second for at least five straight years in the World Economic Forum's (WEF) flagship Global Competitiveness Index, the city state slipped one notch to third spot in the latest 2017-18 rankings, switching places with the United States.

Should there be reason to be alarmed? No. Third out of the 137 countries that were ranked in the index is not shabby (by any stretch).

Is there room for improvement? Absolutely - unless a country scored an overall perfect score or in WEF speak, "most desirable outcome", of 7/7, which inciden…