Independent economic forum ranks Malta 19th in EU

An independent review of the 25 EU member states carried out by the World Economic Forum (WEF) - an international organisation based in Switzerland - puts Malta in the 19th position when assessing the progress made by EU members in achieving the far-reaching goals of the Lisbon Strategy for economic and structural reforms.

This ranking shows Malta losing one place in two years as it had placed 18th in a similar analysis in 2004. The results of this report differ from a European Commission review issued last Tuesday which said that in 2006 Malta was "making good progress in the implementation of its National Reform Programme and is also addressing most of the commitments made by the 2006 Spring European Council".

The WEF report is based on data going back to the end of 2005.

According to the WEF report, Malta is the worst performing member state when it comes to investment in innovation and research and development and in sustainable development. On the other hand, it scored good points in the information society ranking and as having one of the best internet penetration levels in the EU. The report says Malta is not doing enough to facilitate the business start up environment.

The WEF report concludes that Denmark is the most competitive economy when measured by the Lisbon criteria, followed by Finland, Sweden, the Netherlands and Germany. On the other side of the scale, Italy and Poland are the worst performers.

Jennifer Blanke, senior economist at the World Economic Forum and author of the report, said the assessment indicates that EU attention should be focused on three areas in order to get closer to the Lisbon goal of becoming "the most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economy in the world".

These are improving the environment for innovation and R&D, developing a stronger information society and creating an enterprise environment that is more conducive to private sector economic activity.

The WEF explains that its assessment is based on publicly-available hard data and data from its Executive Opinion, a survey of business leaders carried out annually in over 100 countries and providing data for a variety of qualitative issues for which hard data does not exist.

The WEF says the results can therefore be interpreted to a certain extent as the business community's perspective on Europe's relative performance in meeting the Lisbon goals.