All of the Gulf countries except for Bahrain and Oman experienced a fall in their rankings for the 2017-18 Global Competitiveness Index. The report, released last week by the World Economic Forum, coincided with a public forum in Geneva by the World Trade Organisation under the theme “Trade: Behind the Headlines”.

Not surprisingly, the UAE outperforms all other Gulf and Arab economies in the Index, getting ranked the 17th most competitive economy in the world, down by one. The performance confirms the exceptional competitiveness of the UAE economy by ranking it ahead of numerous European Union (EU) countries including Austria, Belgium and France.

Among others, the aviation industry is a contributor to competitiveness of the economy, as the country boasts four airlines and with elaborate networks. Emirates is the largest global operator of superjumbo Airbus A380, having secured its 100th aircraft only recently. The aviation sector makes stellar contributions to diverse factors that have weightage in the study such as infrastructure, logistics and innovation.

The index ranks reviewed economies — 137 of them — on the basis of their achievements in three broad categories, namely basic requirements, efficiency enhancers and innovation and sophistication factors. The basic requirements category consists of institutions, infrastructure, macroeconomic stability, health and primary education.

The efficiency enhancers category comprises of higher education and training, goods and market efficiency, labour market efficiency, financial market sophistication, technological readiness and market size.

Qatar saw its ranking declining by seven spots to 25th. Nevertheless, Qatar ranks ahead of China and South Korea.

Saudi Arabia dropped a rank to 30th, and yet comes ahead of the likes of Spain and India. Saudi Arabia is expected to enhance is ranking in the years as the kingdom relaxes social rules, including granting women the right to drive cars.

Bahrain managed to improve its rankings by four positions, advancing to 44th place. Clearly, the country has regained some of the standing lost in the 2016-17 report, when it dropped none spots. Bahrain’s strengths include an emphasis on education and training as well as sophistication of its financial services sector.

Of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, Kuwait suffered the greatest plunge of its ranking, dropping 14 positions to 52nd. However, promising prospects await Kuwait on the back of economic liberation measures, including strengthening role of the private sector. Also, Kuwait has embarked on a major development of the airport, as part of a drive to enhance infrastructure.

Furthermore, Oman succeeded in gaining four places to 62nd. The sultanate clearly lags behind other GCC nations.

Countries anywhere value the notion of competitiveness in order to entice investments to help address economic challenges such as creating jobs. At least this partly explains the challenge facing GCC countries, as other nations steadily strengthen the competitiveness of their economies.

Gulf countries have the means and ability to improve their standings on the index. The citizens are technology-savvy and global in their outlook. And economic liberalisation initiatives are in full swing.

— The writer is a member of parliament in Bahrain