Chinese Mainland Advances to the 29th Most Competitive Economy

    The Chinese mainland’s ranking rose one place from last year’s rank of 30th to 29th on the Global Competitiveness Index for 2009-2010, according to a report released by the World Economic Forum (WEF). China’s increasing competitiveness mainly comes from its rising innovation capability. The report’s global competitiveness index is based on 12 categories, including such dimensions as institutions, infrastructure, and macroeconomic stability. China made progress in subindicators like commercial maturity (38th) and innovation (26th), advancing by 5 and 2 places respectively over last year. The report also indicates shortcomings China would be wise to tackle: maturity of financial markets, technological readiness and higher education. This year the U.S. fell by one place – ranking second after Switzerland – due to its weakening financial market and macroeconomic instability.