Good national score
in health and education

Survey also praised local market efficiency

Lebanon achieved a high score on the level of competitiveness of its health and primary education sectors, according to the recently released Global Competitiveness Report 2016–2017 by the World Economic Forum (WEF).

The WEF survey, to which InfoPro Research has contributed the Lebanon part of the survey, said that the country ranked 52nd out of 138 countries (including developed ones) in the competitive pillars of health and primary education. Its score was six on a scale of one to seven.

The health ranking was based on indicators such as infant mortality, life expectancy, tuberculosis cases, and HIV prevalence, and their business impact.

Lebanon was ranked 16th in the quality of primary education, but net enrollment rate in primary education reached 87 percent, ranking the country 116th.

The country has also recorded acceptable scores in some competitive pillars that include higher education and training, scoring 4.5, goods market efficiency at 4.4, and business sophistication at 4.2, which are measured on a scale of one to seven.

The higher education scores are deemed satisfactory and are attributed to the quality of the education system, 18th position, the quality of math and science education, sixth, and the quality of management schools, ninth. The availability of specialized training services locally also contributed to the good score on this level.

The evaluation of the efficiency of the goods market is based on the country’s satisfactory scores against a number of benchmarks that include intensity of local competition, total tax rate as a percentage of profits, imports as a proportion of GDP, the degree of customer orientation, and buyer sophistication.

The report attributes business sophistication to the existence of a large number of local suppliers, the extensive use of marketing, the ability of domestic businesses to control the international distribution of their products, and the nature of the competitive advantage of local firms.

Lebanon scored badly at the level of the macroeconomic environment compared with the MENA region. The most problematic factors for doing business in the country include corruption, government instability, inadequate supply of infrastructure, and inefficient bureaucracy.