On January 22, AmCham’s Investment Policy Task Force (PTF) held an extraordinary PTF meeting, where our guest speaker was Mr. Péter Vakhal, research associate of Kopint-Tárki, who shared his insight on Hungary’s recent ranking in the Global Competitiveness Report conducted by the World Economic Forum (in cooperation with Kopint-Tárki on domestic survey).
According to the World Economic Forum’s recent worldwide competitiveness ranking, Hungary ranks 48th out of 140 examined countries in 2018. The current ranking cannot be compared to previous years' results since the methodology was entirely changed to put more emphasis on Industry 4.0 readiness, ICT adaptation, digital competency and innovation. The Index examines 110 indicators across 12 pillars (Institutions, infrastructure, ICT adoption, macroeconomic stability, health, skills, product market, labour market, financial system, market size, business dynamism, innovation capability) to measure competitiveness. The Global Competitiveness Index is well-known in all countries across the globe, and used at the highest level. The report is published once a year. In Hungary, Kopint-Tárki Institute for Economic Research (and its predecessor) has been participating in the preparation of the domestic survey for over 15 years.
At the meeting, participants discussed the strengths and weaknesses of Hungary according to the latest results and tried to identify those areas where AmCham’s recommendations are relevant and can help in improving the competitiveness of the country
AmCham and the Competitiveness Report
In 2014 AmCham Hungary reconfirmed its mission: “To be the most effective representative of the business community in Hungary, while promoting the global competitiveness of the country“, and defined the World Economic Forum Competitiveness Report to be the measurement in reviewing progress made in this area. AmCham’s Policy Task Forces were formed based on the deep analysis of the 12 Pillars of the Report. A strategic document, AmCham’s Policy Agenda was compiled to detail the challenges, the recommendations and commitments in those 4 priority areas that AmCham chose to prioritize. In 2019, these focus areas, where AmCham established its Policy Task Forces, are Investment, Competitive Workforce, Innovation and Digitalization.
