It is not surprising at all that Switzerland, once again, tops the competitiveness league. This well proves that the country’s efficiency is no myth, a fact well epitomised in a contribution to a foreign website by a correspondent who was taking up a job in Switzerland. He wrote: “Yesterday, I succeeded in acquiring a temporary residence permit, opening a bank account, purchasing a monthly transit pass and picking up a Swiss mobile sim card. All in one day. I remember being in tears upon first arriving in Oxford a couple of years ago when it seemed an impossible feat to open a UK bank account. They wanted letters I didn’t have, forms I wasn’t eligible for and details of my first-born, which I haven’t yet conceived. Yesterday held little resemblance to that sad memory.”

It is no wonder then that Switzerland tops the overall rankings in the Global Competitiveness Report of the World Economic Forum. In fact, according to the report, Switzerland’s placing reflects the country’s “excellent capacity for innovation and a very sophisticated business culture” in which it ranked second and fourth respectively. Public institutions were considered among the most effective and transparent in the world, receiving an even better comparative assessment this year than in the past.

The ranking is based on 12 pillars of competitiveness: institutions; infrastructure; macroeconomic environment; health and primary education; higher education and training; goods market efficiency; labour market efficiency; financial market development; technological readiness; market size; business sophistication; and innovation. Nordic countries continued to be well positioned in the ranking as well, with Sweden, Finland and Denmark placing among the top 10 and Norway in 14th place.

There are many lessons to be learned from these countries but how does Malta fare? Not bad, considering its inbuilt constraints and its relatively recent background in industrial development and the people’s traditional laid-back culture, a trait shared by other Mediterranean peoples, including our neighbours to the north. The people are well aware of this ingrained culture and often joke about it but times are changing as, through the internet, travelling and the taking up of work opportunities abroad, particularly since Malta joined the European Union six years ago, younger workers are being increasingly exposed to a far more efficient life than that found in Malta.

However, with pockets of resistance to change still found in quite a number of segments, the process of change is, of course, expected to remain gradual but, taking the assessment over a number of years, it may well be justifiably said that the island has certainly made an improvement not only in terms of efficiency but also in economic and social development generally. Malta would not have been ranked in 50th place had no change been made.

In the light of all this, some rankings for Malta are very positive, a matter that the island ought to be proud of. Is it not amazing that the island has placed 11th in financial market development and 17th in internet access in school? In health and primary education, the island has placed in 30th position; in higher education and training, 37th, and in technological readiness, 29th.

There are, of course, a number of weak spots. Making more and more women join the labour force has been proving a very difficult task and, when it comes to government regulation, there is a lot to be seen to but, all in all, the island’s ranking in the latest competitiveness report is positive.