Page 296 - DMGT509_RURAL MARKETING

Unit 15: Marketing of Agricultural Produce

Notes
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Case Study The World Economic Forum – Annual Report

he World Economic Forum has once again published its annual report on Global
Competitiveness, the fundamental objective of which is to “evaluate the economic
Tcompetitiveness of a large sample of countries”. In the latest report for 2003, 102
countries have been covered, up from 80 in the previous year, the additions coming
mainly from the developing world, and chiefly Africa.
Among the non-African economies included in the latest report are Luxembourg,
Macedonia, Malta, Pakistan and Serbia. The sub-continental interest factor here is clear
though the point must be made that, in the international economic league, Pakistan is no
match for its much bigger economic neighbour. In fact, in the Growth Competitiveness
Ranking Index (GCRI) table, Pakistan figures at No 72 as against India’s 56.
The report relies on two “complementary approaches to analysing competitiveness”, the
first being the Growth Competitiveness Index (GCI) and the second the Business
Competitiveness Index (BCI). The two indices are based on “available hard data” and on
the results of an Executive Opinion Survey conducted annually by the WEF. This survey is
conducted in the first half of every year and covers responses from leading business
executives and entrepreneurs, specifically their current perceptions of their immediate
business environments.
The prescriptive aspect of the exercise (as opposed to the strictly descriptive function of
the Survey) has been spelt out as follows: “By participating, respondents are also provided
with the opportunity to identify key obstacles to economic growth in their own countries
and thus contribute to assessing the quality of the business environment in the countries
where their companies operate.”

This, in turn, may help precipitate an internal debate within the country between
government officials, business leaders, organisations of civil society and the academic
community on key problem areas and how best to address them. As far as India is concerned,
the point of interest in the Global Competitiveness Report 2003 is how it has fared vis-à-
vis China because it is in the outcome of this specific competition that the economic future
of the country lies, both in Asia and in the world at large.
This is precisely why China is always considered as the competing investment destination,
and also why (to actual and prospective foreign investors) the economy’s image is so very
closely linked to the overall foreign direct investment figures, though the actual basis for
comparison may not be quite comparable.
Thus, in the Growth Competitiveness Ranking Index for 2003, while China was placed at
No 44, India was put at No 56 (in 2001 the respective figures were 39 and 57). Now the
Growth Competitiveness Index is itself broken up into three components, namely, the
macroeconomic environment index, the public institutions index, and the technology
index, on which the process of economic growth is said to rest.
First, as regards the macroeconomic environment, the point is made that “although it is
certainly not true that macroeconomic stability alone can increase the growth rate of a
nation, it is no less true that macroeconomic disarray kills its growth prospects”. In
other words, an economy cannot grow unless the macroeconomic environment is
favourable.

Contd...

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