Romania ranked 77 in the annual competitiveness report of WEF

Romania has been ranked 77 out of 142 countries in the 2011-2012 Global Competitiveness Index Report issued by the World Economic Forum (WEF). Romania lost 10 positions from the previous report. According to WEF, competitiveness is defined as the set of institutions, policies, and factors that determine the level of productivity of a country.

The most problematic factors for doing business in Romania are as follows: 15.5 percent consider tax rates to be an issue. In addition, 13 percent mentioned the inefficient government bureaucracy, while 11.9 percent blamed policy instability for hampering the businesses. Access to financing is a problem for 10.8 percent of respondents, while corruption is regarded as problematic by 9.7 percent of respondents. The least problematic factors are crime and theft, and poor public health, each with 0.5 percent.

With respect to the detailed structure of the Global Competitiveness Index, Romania is an underachiever in the transparency of government policymaking (ranked 140 out of 142 countries), quality of overall infrastructure ranked 139, the extent and effect of taxation ranked 135. Other pillars where Romania reports negative results are the cooperation in labor-employer relations ranked 137, the brain drain process ranked 131, while the availability of latest technologies was ranked 115.

On the positive side, Romania is ranked 4 in trade tariffs and 15 in redundancy costs. Other top 50 rankings are achieved for broadband internet and mobile subscriptions, the quality of math and science educations and the tertiary education enrollment rate. Romania is ranked 34 for the number of procedures to start a business and 40 for the number of days to start a business.

Since 2005, the World Economic Forum has based its competitiveness analysis on the Global Competitiveness Index (GCI), a comprehensive tool that measures the microeconomic and macroeconomic foundations of national competitiveness.