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# _<u>World Economic Forum: Global Competitiveness Report (GCR)</u>_

The World Economic Forum is an independent organization which identifies strategic issues and provides a platform for decision-makers to effect constructive change. The Forum facilitates dialogue between corporate, political, intellectual and other leaders on matters of global, regional, corporate and industry importance.

The fundamental objective of the _Global Competitiveness Report_ (GCR) is to evaluate the economic competitiveness of a large sample of countries. Traditionally, the GCR has focused on two complementary approaches to analyzing competitiveness. The first, called the _Growth Competitiveness Index (GCI)_ , was developed by Jeffrey D. Sachs of Columbia University and John W. McArthur of The Earth Institute and was presented in _The Global Competitiveness Report 2001–2002_ .The second index, now labeled the _Business Competitiveness Index (BCI)_ , was developed by Michael Porter of Harvard University and was first introduced in _The Global Competitiveness Report 2000_ .

The two indexes combine available hard data and data from the Executive Opinion Survey (Survey) conducted annually by the World Economic Forum. The Survey is conducted in the first half of every year. Input is contributed exclusively by leading business executives and entrepreneurs whose current perceptions of the business environment in which they work are captured in their responses to a comprehensive and scientifically constructed questionnaire.

GCR includes an index based on quality perception for rating railroad services, port facilities and air transport services (Ranking from 1 to 7, with 1=underdeveloped, 7=developed as the world’s best). GCI 2004-2005 covers a total of 104 countries and BCI covers a total of 103 countries.

# **2.1.2 Governance Indicators**

# _The World Bank_ _<u>Governance Indicators : 1996-2004</u>_

This dataset contains composite indicators of six dimensions of governance (Voice and Accountability, Political Stability/Lack of Violence, Government Effectiveness, Regulatory Framework, Rule of Law, and Corruption Control). The indicators reflect the statistical compilation of perceptions of the quality of governance of a large number of enterprise, citizens and expert survey respondents in industrial and developing countries, as well as nongovernmental organizations, commercial risk rating agencies, and think-tanks. Data are available for over 160 countries and can be accessed online. Existing indicators of governance and institutional capacity, by source with a brief description of how each indicator differs from one another, as well as selected papers are available at the _<u>public sector website</u>_ <u>.</u>

# _<u>Transparency International:</u> Corruption Perceptions Index_

The Corruption Perceptions Index ranks countries in terms of the degree to which corruption is perceived to exist among public officials and politicians. It is a composite index, drawing on 14 different polls and surveys from seven independent institutions carried out among business 9 ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________