Thailand’s competitiveness ranking fell to 32nd in the World Economic Forum’s 2015-16 index, and is only 10th among other economies in Asia-Pacific.
The most competitive economies in the Asia-Pacific region are holding steady in this year’s Global Competitiveness Index: five of the region’s top ten occupy exactly the same position as in last year’s overall Index, while two have dropped a single place and three have moved forwards.
It is worth noting that among Asean countries only Thailand (-1) and Indonesia (-3) are moving down the scale. Vietnam, probably Thailand’s main competitor for FDI, is moving up 12 ranks in 2015.
In the lower reaches of the overall Index, too, more of the region’s economies are advancing than regressing – there are year-on-year advances for Lao PDR (83rd of the 140 economies analysed), Cambodia (90th), Nepal (100th), Bangladesh (107th) and Myanmar (131st), with only Mongolia (104th) and Bhutan (105th) regressing.