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Singapore Retains Top Spot in Global Competitiveness Ranking

Updated: May 20

Singapore has once again come up as the most competitive among 63 global economies. According to the 2020 Institute for Management Development (IMD) World Competitiveness, the country is spending another year at the top of the list. There are a lot of reasons that Singapore continues to dominate the world market as a highly competitive contender in the international economy, followed by economic leaders like Denmark, Switzerland, the Netherlands and Hong Kong. We’re going to look at those key reasons in this article.



The IMD competitiveness ranking has been released every year since 1989. The ranking results are the combinations of hard data and responses from domestic business executives on how they perceive their country to be positioned within the global status. Among other factors, economies are ranked on economic performance, government, efficiency, business efficiency and infrastructure. Additionally, aspects considered include the future of the country, education levels and electable politicians. A projectable outcome to determine the next calendar year of the country.


Tech Advances


Stable rises in Singapore’s education system, coupled with their technological infrastructure had a lot to do with their position. Technological infrastructure is another concept that has a lot to do with projecting where the country could be in a year's time. This global competitiveness ranking is not only based on where the country is but where it could be. Their technology improvements have Been comprised of telecommunications, Internet bandwidth speed, and high-tech exports. Their steady technological rise has added them into the tech game and made way for positive economic developments.


International Affairs


Maybe the most prevalent international affair by which to judge Singapore is, of course, the global pandemic. Arturo Bris, director of the IMD World Competitiveness Center and professor of finance, said: "The benefit of small economies in the current crisis comes from their ability to fight a pandemic and from their economic competitiveness. In part, these may be fed by the fact it is easy to find social consensus." Singapore has benefited from small economies in the current crisis. That comes from its strong ability to fight a global pandemic and still maintain economic competitiveness. Singapore made it apparent that they had an easier time finding social consensus than other countries. Another aspect of international affairs is that Singapore is a direct beneficiary of trade tensions between The Unites States and China. Trade wars have posed issues for both the US and Chinese economies, providing the benefit for Singapore that it has a chance to interject itself in the world stage economically. China dropped to the 20th position from the 14th in 2019, which is an interesting trend being that it is downward. With the exception of Taiwan, which jumped from 16th to 11th place, all of the other Asian countries dropped down on the scale. Singapore not only help its place, but it held its place at the very top of the list.

Asian economies are largely dependent on China due to their high dependency on trade. Of course, a lot of items and goods originate from China, so their level of output and trade influences its surrounding countries immensely.

Looking to the Future


Looking to the economic future, Singapore is positioned well to be equipped with everything they need to be an emerging world power. The world is due for a shake-up and with the changes, they really do have a great chance. However, some words of caution are also necessary. A recession can have a negative impact on the future competitiveness of Singapore. This is something to watch for, considering the international market is very turbulent.


Overall, Singapore is an emerging market that is going to be one to watch in the next few years. The two-year streak of being at the top of the list is promising, it will be exciting to see what they do with their economic status.

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