Transformation readiness: WEF spots weaknesses in Switzerland

This week the World Economic Forum published a special edition of the Global Competitiveness Report without an overall ranking of the most competitive economies. Instead, this special edition is dedicated to elaborating on the priorities for recovery and revival, and considering the building blocks of a transformation towards new economic systems that combine “productivity”, “people” and “planet” targets. The report identifies eleven priorities for policy makers who want to drive this transformation. The priorities cover different topics from the environment to human capital and innovation ecosystems.

In aggregating the 11 priorities that emerge from this analysis for the economic transformation phase, the report provides a preliminary measure of countries’ “transformation readiness”. This exercise covers a small set of countries (37), measuring only those priorities for economic transformation rather than the complete set of factors needed to drive productivity, sustainability and shared prosperity. For Swiss readers the analysis is worth a closer look because for once Switzerland is not among the leading countries. Taking the average across all 11 categories, Switzerland is only in 12th place out of the 37 countries selected.

Switzerland scores particularly poorly where the WEF sees the state playing a more active role. These includes for example financial incentives for companies to engage in sustainable and inclusive practices and investments. Switzerland is also not among the very best when it comes to innovation ecosystems. In the two categories dealing with this topic, it is in sixth and seventh place respectively. The top countries are the USA. Finland and Japan. 

According to the analysis, Switzerland should expand public investments in R&D, and incentivize venture capital and R&D in private sector as well as the diffusion of existing technologies that support the creation of new firms and employment in "markets of tomorrow".