May 28th, 2019 - IDA Ireland today welcomed the news that Ireland ranks 7th (from 12th) of the 63 countries benchmarked in the 2019 IMD World Competitiveness Yearbook.
Ireland also ranks 2nd in Europe.
This means that Ireland has improved in overall competitiveness from last year’s ranking on a number of scales across Economic Performance, Government Efficiency and Business Efficiency.
2019 figures:
- 6th for Economic Performance in 2019 (11 in 2018)
- 11th for Government Efficiency in 2019 (13 in 2018)
- 3rd for Business Efficiency in 2019 (10 in 2018)
- 23rd for Infrastructure in 2019 (21 in 2018
Commenting on the results Martin Shanahan, CEO, IDA Ireland said: “This is welcome news and international comparisons like this are important in the world of foreign investment – rankings matter.”
“Once again, we are reminded that every time Ireland wins an investment, it is competing against many other countries to come out on top. Ireland is an established top-tier investment location and we must do everything that we can to ensure that we we stay ahead of our competition in some areas, and sharpen our edge in others.”
“Our business-friendly environment, education levels, ability to attract and retain talent, flexibility of our workforce, policy predictability and skilled workforce are all areas that investors refer to when they choose Ireland as an investment location. These rankings are constantly changing and Ireland has to be constantly improving its product if we are to continue to win investment. If we don’t, other countries will win that business and Ireland will fall down these rankings.”
About the IMD World Competitiveness Yearbook:
The IMD World Competitiveness Yearbook (WCY) is reputed as being the worldwide reference point on the competitiveness of nations, ranking and analysing how an economy manages the totality of its resources and competencies to increase the prosperity of its population. It has been published since 1989 and compares the competitiveness of 61 nations on the basis of over 300 criteria. It is based on hard data statistics and a business executives' opinion survey.
Link to IMD World Competitiveness Yearbook