Bader in partnership with WEF conduct for 4th year executive opinion survey

The Executive Opinion Survey (EOS) is perceived as 'the voice of the business community' and as a major component of the Global Competitiveness Report, as it provides the key ingredient that turns the Report into a representative annual measure of a nation's economic environment and its ability to achieve sustained growth.

The survey gathers valuable information on a broad range of variables for which hard data sources are scarce or nonexistent.

High-level company executives in Lebanon will be asked to complete this important and confidential survey to capture their opinion on the business environment.

President of Bader Young Entrepreneurs Programme Robert Fadel stressed, "It is vitally important that each executive sampled complete the survey to ensure that Lebanon has accurate and reliable data in the Report."

Fadel expressed the hope that "Lebanon's results in this important world ranking will urge Lebanese governmental and parliamentary officials to work more seriously on improving Lebanon's ranking and competitiveness by carrying out the reforms and adopting the legislation needed to address the gaps highlighted by the Report."

"Our partnership with the World Economic Forum for the fourth consecutive year has enabled us to include Lebanon in this classification but we hope that the legislative and executive authorities will not be content to act merely as receivers, as they should speedily develop and implement short- and medium-term plans to address the gaps," he added.

In this respect, Fadel revealed that Bader is preparing two drafts to encourage competitiveness and innovation and working with the relevant legislative and executive authorities to turn them into draft laws.

In conclusion he said, "We are confident that Lebanon has many elements of competitiveness, as proven by its high score in the fields of health, primary education, training, financial market development and the quality of local companies. Still, additional efforts are needed in order to develop the infrastructure, ensure macroeconomic stability, improve the institutional environment and encourage innovation, all of which are fields in which Lebanon scored low grades, hence the fact that they represent the main weaknesses."

Lebanon had ranked 91st among 144 states in the 2012 Global Competitiveness Report published by WEF, i.e. down from the 89th spot out of 142 states in 2011. In 2010, Lebanon had ranked 92nd out of 139 world states, knowing that this had been the first time it was included in the Global Competitiveness Report according to the partnership agreement between Bader and WEF.

It is worth noting that The Global Competitiveness Report has been the World Economic Forum's flagship publication since 1979 and is widely recognized as the world's leading cross-country comparison of factors affecting economic competitiveness and growth.

This indicator encompasses 12 categories representing the pillars of competitiveness and providing a global image of the competitive environment in a given country. These pillars are: Institutions, infrastructure, macroeconomy, health and primary education, higher education and training, efficiency of the good market, efficiency of the labor market, financial market development, technological readiness, market volume, business sophistication, and innovation.