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China edges up on rankings of industrial competitiveness

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-04-27 19:55

Singapore led the world in industrial competitiveness while China rose five places up from the 31st in 2000 to the 26th in 2005 in the rankings of the competitiveness industrial performance (CIP) index, according to the Industrial Development Report 2009 released on Monday by the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO).

The Industrial Development Report 2009 said China's CIP has overtaken the Philippines and is approaching Thailand. In 2000, China ranked 31st by scoring 0.387 points in CIP index value. The value rose to 0.418 points in 2005, when data collection ended.

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The UNIDO said the CIP index, which measures the ability of countries to produce and export competitively, was used to help assess national industrial performance in the global economy.

The CIP index combines four main dimensions of industrial competitiveness: industrial capacity, manufactured export capacity, industrialization intensity and export quality, it said.

The report said the CIP ranks changed little between 2000 and 2005, and countries at the top and bottom tended to maintain a relatively stable position.

According to the rankings, developed countries congregated near the top, countries with economies in transition and East Asian countries around the upper middle, low-income dynamic countries in the lower middle range, and low-income countries and the least-developed countries at the bottom.

Singapore led the rankings, by scoring 0.887 points of CIP index value in 2000 and 0.890 points in 2005. Ireland and Japan followed, along with Switzerland, Sweden and Germany.

The United States was the only mature industrial power that has seen a deterioration in its relative position, down from the 9th place in 2000 to the 11th in the 2005 ranking. This was the result of the improved performance of the Republic of Korea and China's Taiwan, which ranked the 9th and 10th position in 2005, respectively.

The other two Top 10 countries in the 2005 ranking included Finland and Belgium, according to the report.

The 2009 report was first released this February in Vienna, Austria, where the UNIDO is based. Since then, the UNIDO had been making a worldwide tour of presentations to disseminate information of the report.

The UNIDO first introduced the CIP index in the Industrial Development Report 2002-2003, which was released in late 2002. In that report, China's rankings jumped from the 61st position in 1985 to the 37th in 1998.