Bulgaria is the least competitive country in the European Union, with the most inept top-level managers and the highest corruption levels, surpassing even Romania and Albania (the latter not even a member of the European Union), according to official statistics released by the Davos World Economic Forum.
In spite of its rise from 79th to 76th place, Bulgaria still lags far behind Romania, which is second from last in the European Union, currently occupying 68th place. Even Croatia (a country involved in a military conflict not so long ago) and Montenegro (a country that has barely a year of history since independence from Serbia) fare better than Bulgaria. The analysis covered more than 130 countries, calculating economic, industrial and financial parameters, with statistical analysis, empirical data, opinions and projects submitted from every country.
The World Economic Forum's report continues to expand its coverage. This year it featured a total of 134 global economies. This year’s report is the most comprehensive of its type with coverage expanding to Brunei Darussalam, Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana and Malawi.
The report contains a detailed country/economy profile for each of the 134 economies featured in the study, providing a comprehensive summary of their overall position in the rankings as well as the most prominent competitive advantages and disadvantages of each country/economy based on analysis used in computing the rankings. Also included is an extensive section of data tables with global rankings covering more than 110 indicators, as stated by a report from UNESCO.
The report concluded that the Bulgarian judicial system is cumbersome and ineffective; corruption is widespread and rampant and, at current projections, almost incurable. Private property is unprotected by the government; red tape is strangulating and suffocating small private businesses; the competitiveness of the Bulgarian workforce is not as impressive as it was several years ago. The country's workforce occupies 60th place, but, overall, Bulgaria occupies 96th place.
Infrastructure, the report concluded, is a particularly poor area. Its inadequacy creates problems in all spheres and aspects of the economy and is a major contributor to the fact that Bulgaria is the least competitive nation in the EU.
Among newcomers to the European Union, the Czech Republic fares well in 25th place, the highest ranking of any eastern bloc country. Another worrying element is the performance of high-level Bulgarian managers. The companies suffer from poor operational, practical and strategic decisions exclusively attributed to their Bulgarian management, according to statistics quoted in Dnevnik.
According to the Davos report, private companies suffer from “inadequate policy making, poor selection and qualification process for working personnel, ineffective marketing, incompetent upper management as well as lack of investment, modern equipment and technology...”
This year more than 12000 managers were appraised worldwide. From Bulgaria, the research encompassed more than 100 companies and their managers. Regardless of the financial crisis in the US, America still occupies top place. Next in line are Switzerland, Denmark, Sweden and Singapore. In the top 10 are most of the countries from the European Union with Finland, Germany and the Netherlands taking prominent positions. From the eastern bloc, the Czech Republic and Estonia are leaders. A surprise was that Hungary had registered a significant drop in the table.
A number of countries in the Middle East and North Africa region are in the upper half of the rankings, led by Israel, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Tunisia, with particular improvements noted in the Gulf States since last year. In sub-Saharan Africa, South Africa, Botswana and Mauritius feature in the top half of the rankings, with several countries from the region measurably improving their competitiveness.
