Hong Kong trails behind Singapore in economic competitiveness

The SAR needs to work on its innovation capabilities.

Hong Kong was able to seventh place in the Global Competitive Index 2018 Rankings by the World Economic Forum (WEF) with a headline score of 82.3. 

Also read: Singapore beats Hong Kong in global smart city rankings

The ranking gives the SAR the distinction as Asia’s third most competitive economy as it trails behind Singapore and Japan which finished as second and fifth placers, respectively in the global league.

"Its competitiveness landscape is similar to that of Singapore, although it does slightly less well in terms of innovation and labour market efficiency," the report's authors noted. It added that Hong Kong’s greatest challenge is to develop its 'innovation capability' where the SAR booked its poorest performance with a score of 61.9 and 26th ranking.

Also read: Hong Kong is the world's third most attractive financial center as Asia outperforms weakening Europe

Amongst the top 12 pillars tested in the study, Hong Kong was part of the top ten in seven pillar. It ranked second in four pillars including infrastructure (94) where it placed first in sea port infrastructure and connectivity, ICT adoption (87.9), financial system (90.1) where it clinched the highest spot for stock market capitalisation and second in stability, and product market where it placed second in terms of trade openness.

The US clinched the top spot in the global index with a score of 85.6 as Germany (82.8) and Switzerland (82.6) sealed the top five.