S. Korea ranks 22nd in global competitiveness: IMD report

(ATTN: RECASTS lead; ADDS details in 5-8th para) SEOUL, May 18 (Yonhap) -- South Korea's global competitiveness ranking climbed by one notch this year as it scored better in its efforts to improve government and corporate efficiency, an international institute showed Wednesday. According to the 2011 World Competitiveness Yearbook unveiled by IMD, South Korea ranked 22nd in terms of competitiveness among the 59 countries surveyed. IMD is a Switzerland-based institute that releases competitiveness rankings every year based on countries' economic achievements, infrastructure and government and corporate efficiency. South Korea's standing this year is the highest ever since the world-renowned business school issued related reports in 1997. Last year, South Korea came in 23rd, which was also the country's best at the time. South Korea's ranking in government efficiency climbed to 22nd from the previous year's 26th, while the ranking in the corporate sector rose to 26th from 27th. The nation, however, received relatively low points in its efforts to attract foreign direct investment and improve relations between labor and management. "South Korea achieved a ranking improvement for three consecutive years and enhanced government and corporate efficiency helped drive up the standing to the highest level," the finance ministry said here in an analysis of the IMD report. "We still need to make efforts to tackle our weaknesses pointed out by the report in order to keep improving our national competitiveness on the global stage." The United States and Hong Kong shared the top spot for this year's survey. Singapore, which was No. 1 in the previous year, slid to third, while Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan and Canada were among the top 10 countries in global competitiveness. Among Asian countries, Japan's ranking climbed to 26th from 27th after suffering a 10-notch plunge in 2010. The report put Venezuela at the bottom of the list. Greece, which is suffering from fiscal debt problems, saw its ranking dive to 56th from the previous year's 46th, the report showed.