Smes in asia and the pacific

Table 5. Global Competitiveness Index: rankings for Asia-Pacific economies
Economy
Rank
Economy
Rank
Singapore
5
Kazakhstan
66
Japan
9
Viet Nam
70
Hong Kong, China
11
Philippines
71
Republic of Korea 
13
Sri Lanka
77
Taiwan Province of China
17
Mongolia
100
Australia
18
Pakistan
101
Malaysia
21
Cambodia
109
New Zealand
24
Bangladesh
111
China
30
Tajikistan
116
Thailand
34
Kyrgyzstan 
122
Brunei
39
Nepal
126
India
50
Timor-Leste
129
Indonesia
55
Source: 
Xavier Sala-i-Martin, Jennifer Blanke, Margareta Drzeniek Hanouz, Thierry Geiger, Irene Mia and 
Fiona Paua, “The Global Competitive Index: Prioritizing the Economic Policy Agenda”, in Michael 
E. Porter and Klaus Schwab, eds., Global Competitiveness Report 2008-2009 (World Economic 
Forum, Geneva, 2008), table 3, p. 10.

---

10
An interesting, and relatively recent, development has been the creation of 
subnational indices, such as the Provincial Competitiveness Index in Viet Nam, and 
an off-shoot of this in Cambodia.
5
Such an approach recognizes that most SMEs have 
relatively limited relationships with national agencies and the like, and that they interface 
rather with municipal or provincial bodies, and conduct their activities largely or entirely 
within that sphere. Thus, the Provincial Competitiveness Index seeks to measure and 
rank the business conditions—allowing for “initial conditions”, such as natural-resource 
endowments—for private sector development in each of the 64 provinces of Viet Nam. 
Such an exercise is highly pertinent to SME development, as it focuses on 10 principal 
factors that impact SMEs, comprising: (a) costs of market entry; (b) access to land and 
security of tenure; (c) issues relating to the transparency of regulations and their enactment 
by provincial bodies; (d) the time required to be compliant with regulations; (e) informal 
charges imposed; (f) bias towards State-owned enterprises; (g) the proactivity of provincial 
authorities to assist firms; (h) the provision of private sector development services; (i) the 
availability of training for employees; and (j) the quality of legal institutions.
In the case of Cambodia, a provincial business environment scorecard was 
developed, spanning the country’s 10 most economically active provinces. Like the 
Provincial Competitiveness Index in Viet Nam, 10 sub-indices were developed for 
measuring the enabling environment in these provinces, but tailored to meet the slightly 
different conditions in Cambodia, including, among others: tax administration, crime 
prevention and dispute resolution.