Denmark has moved up two spots to sixth in the new edition of the Year Competitiveness Yearbook for 2016, just published by the Swiss business school IMD.
Part of the success has been attributed to Danish company leadership being rated the best in the world, while high taxes prevent an even better placement in the index.
“Denmark is doing well in a number of areas,” said Kent Damsgaard, the deputy head of industry advocate organisation Dansk Industri.
“Danish companies’ leadership practice is among the world’s best according to the report, and we have good reason to be happy about the Danish authorities in a number of areas, including environment, health and justice.”
READ MORE: Denmark moves up global competitiveness ranking
High tax hindrance
The areas that hamper Denmark from performing even better on the index include its heavy tax burden, which is ranked the least competitive in the world.
Damsgaard contended that low growth, slow productivity growth and a difficulty attracting investment from abroad continue to stifle proceedings, as does the ability to recruit the required workers.
“It’s good that we are ranked so high in a number of parameters, but a chain is never stronger than its weakest link,” said Damsgaard.
“It’s unrealistic to imagine Denmark having the world’s most competitive tax system, but we should be able to perform better than last place.”
China/Hong Kong was ranked the most competitive nation in the world for 2016, followed by Switzerland, the US, Singapore and Sweden. Denmark, Ireland, the Netherlands, Norway and Canada completed the top 10.
Other notables included Germany (12), Australia (17), the UK (18), Finland (20), China/Mainland (25), Japan (26), South Korea (29), France (32), India (41), Russia (44), South Africa (52) and Brazil (57).
