Slovakia at all-time low in terms of competitiveness

Slovakia was doing pretty well before in the ranking of competitiveness, but over the past year it has dropped down several places to an all-time low. According to the Global Competitiveness Report 2010-2011 published by the World Economic Forum, Slovakia dropped 13 places since last year to 60th among 139 countries.

Slovakia now shares spots next to the likes of Vietnam and Turkey, making it the fifth weakest competitor in the EU, ahead only of Romania (67th), Latvia (70th), Bulgaria (71st) and Greece (83rd).

The report was published yesterday, 9 September, and president of the Slovak Business Alliance (PAS), Robert Kičina, told the SITA news wire that negative interference into the local business environment by the former Slovak government last year, combined with a weak reform effort for removing the most important barriers to the business sphere, were behind Slovakia’s slump in the chart. The decline has been steady over the past four years.