DOHA: Qatar is a country with one of the best macroeconomic framework in place in the world. The country’s labour market and business environment have been rated as one of the most efficient, according to KPMG’s 2013 Change Readiness Index (CRI).
Qatar has been positioned third out of 90 countries in total with Singapore on top, followed by Sweden. Qatar’s strength found lying mainly in fiscal and budgeting and macroeconomic framework.
The CRI was produced in partnership with Oxford Economics and looked at how well countries respond to change, such as natural disasters or longer-term trends like technology, demographics, global competition, and investment.
The index focused on three key pillars: Enterprise Capacity, Government Capability and People & Civil Society Capability. Under the Enterprise Capacity, Qatar ranked two among the 90 assessed countries. The country’s labour market got the highest score (0.86) ranking the country second among the 90 countries. The business environment score was also high rating the country again one of the world’s best. The sub indicator Trade Policy and Economic Openness score was the lowest under this pillar (0.63) with a rank 20.
Under the “Government Capacity Pillar”, Qatar’s macroeconomic framework got a high 0.92 score with top ranking. However, the environmental ranking was the lowest under this pillar with a score of 0.54 ranking 37.
The People and Civil Society Capacity Pillar showed access to information in Qatar was low with a lesser score of 0.66, ranking 28.
“Qatar has worked hard to harness its financial resources and benefits from a stable and effective government. The country has a flexible and skilled international workforce and is investing heavily in areas such as education, healthcare, real estate, and infrastructure,” said Jamal Fakhro, managing partner, KPMG in Qatar.
The survey highlighted that although the countries ranked highest in the CRI reflect a diversity of locations and size, they all share many of the same qualities essential to change readiness such as a dynamic business environment, stable and effective governments, skilled populations, and strong civil societies.
Among the key findings, the CRI revealed that a country’s wealth is not always a determining indicator of its ability to respond to and manage change, with a number of lower income countries ranked as having greater change readiness capability than some more “developed” countries.
The 2013 CRI included inputs from more than 500 interviews with experts worldwide and more than 70 secondary data variables collected from sources like the World Economic Forum, World Bank, Economist Intelligence Unit, World Health Organization, and Unesco.
The Peninsula
