The Sultanate of Oman has progressed 14 points in the Global Competitiveness Report 2018 to gain the 47th place globally. The Sultanate was among the top 10 counties in the world based on a number of indicators.
In terms of terrorism index, which reflects the absence of terror-related incidents, the Sultanate stood first. This is due to the political stability and security in the Sultanate. On incidents related to organized crimes, the country stood fourth globally and first in the Arab world. The Sultanate ranked fifth globally and first in the Arab world for reliability of police services. The country achieved the eighth position in the world and first in the Arab world in terms of the index of quality of roads. The Sultanate also topped the Arab countries in the independence of judiciary, which assures fundamental guarantee for protection of rights and freedom of individuals. The Sultanate came first among Arab countries in the indicators of property rights and protection of intellectual property and the first in the Arab world in the index of cooperation in relations between employers and employees. The country topped Gulf and Arab countries in the index of time taken for starting a business.
The analysis, prepared by the National Competitiveness Office for sub-indices and indicators, showed the Sultanate achieving a remarkable performance in a number of areas. In the institutions sector, the Sultanate ranked second for its efficiency to settle disputes. The Sultanate was among top countries internationally in a number of other sub-indices in this area; for example, in crime rates and futuristic direction of the government. According to the National Competitiveness Office, in its analysis of the report, the Sultanate's remarkable progress in infrastructure development was due to its achievement in a number of indicators, notably road link index, marine link index and port services efficiency index, which ranked the Sultanate among the top 20 countries of the world.
The National Competitiveness Office said that this achievement was the result of the efforts made by the Sultanate to pay attention to the transport and logistics sector as one of the pillars of reliable economic diversification. In terms of education and skills, the Sultanate ranked second in the Arab world in terms of the quality of vocational training and 14th globally in teaching and the number of students per teacher in primary education. The country ranked ninth in the distorted tax and subsidy impact index and second in the Gulf index of internal labor mobility. The Sultanate ranked second in the Arab world in Small and Medium Enterprises finance index and 19th globally in the index of capital availability venture. It ranked ninth globally in the Diversity of Manpower Index.
It also stated that this achievement and the significant improvement in the ranking of the Sultanate in the Global Competitiveness Index for 2018 is due to the country's progress in a number of areas that include institutions, infrastructure, skills and product market. This was reflected by the efforts made by various public and private sectors institutions to improve the competitiveness of the Sultanate, in order to place it among the developed countries. The report, which was released on October 17, has witnessed a change in the methodology of this year.
The Global Competitiveness Index measures the factors, which contribute to the productivity and prosperity of 140 countries around the world based on 12 categories, namely infrastructure, information and communication technology adoption, macroeconomic stability, health, skills, product market, labor market, financial system, market size, business dynamism, and innovation capacity
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