Oman gains five places in Global Enabling Trade Report 2010

The sultanate has secured 29th position among 125 countries and stands third in the GCC region

By V L Srinivasan

Muscat, May 18 - Making rapid strides in global trade, the sultanate has secured 29th place among 125 countries, moving up from its 34th position last year. It also ranked third in the GCC region, according to the Global Enabling Trade Report (GETR), which will be released by the World Economic Forum (WEF) on Wednesday.

Published for the third year in a row and covering 125 economies worldwide, the report presents a resource for dialogue and provides a yardstick of the extent to which economies have in place the necessary attributes for enabling trade and where improvements are most needed.

The Muscat-based International Research Foundation, which is managed by the Arabian Research Bureau, is the Partner Institute for the World Economic Forum in preparing the report by conducting an Executive Opinion Survey.

Amongst the GCC countries, Oman with a score of 4.71 came behind UAE and Bahrain. UAE was ranked 16th globally with a score of 5.12, and Bahrain took the 24th position with a score of 4.95. Oman’s climb in the global rankings is the highest among all GCC member states.

Qatar had a score of 4.68 and a global rank of 34, Saudi Arabia came in 40th with 4.54. Kuwait was at the bottom of the GCC table with 4.01 and a global rank of 65 and was the only GCC nation to drop in rank since 2009 when it ranked 59th.

Commenting on the performance of the sultanate, Arabian Research Bureau managing director
Gus Freeman said that this year's rankings mirrored the resilience against the threat of protectionism during the economic crisis.

“International agreements such as the WTO framework and pledges by the G20 have contributed to limiting the effect of protectionist pressures on trade barriers. Despite fears of rising protectionism, the report confirms that a large majority of countries did not raise trade barriers,” he said.

Singapore retained the first rank followed by Hong Kong, Denmark, Sweden and Switzerland with New Zealand behind in 6th place, moving up five ranks since 2009. The other countries in the top ten are Norway, Canada, Luxembourg and the Netherlands. Iceland entered the index for the first time this year and debuted at 11th place.