Bahrain is ranked the 44th most competitive nation globally, according to the World Economic Forum's 2014-15 Global Competitiveness Report.

Switzerland has topped the Global Competitiveness Index again this year, keeping its first place for six years in a row, said a report in the Gulf Daily News (GDN), our sister publication.

Placed just ahead of Turkey and Oman, Bahrain is well ahead of major developing countries such as Brazil, Russia and India.

The kingdom is also among 24 economies that are transitioning from efficiency driven to innovation-driven stage.

Bahrain leads the world on indicators such as 'effect of taxation on incentives to work' and 'effect of taxation on incentives to invest'.

In another key indicator, it has the lowest global HIV prevalence as percentage of adult population at under 0.2.

Drilling down into the constituents of the index, the kingdom ranks 29 in institutions, 31 in infrastructure, 47 in the macroeconomic environment and 40 in health and primary education.

Bahrain is ranked 55 in higher education and training, 21 in goods market efficiency, 26 in labour market efficiency, 31 in financial market development, 34 in technological readiness and 99 in market size.

In business sophistication, it is ranked 45 and in innovation it is ranked 60.

Other key criteria in which the kingdom has secured high global rankings are: Burden of government regulation (11) mobile telephone subscriptions (eight), total tax rate as a percentage of profits (five), country's capacity to attract talent (11), ease of access to loans (eight), individuals using Internet as a percentage of population (eight) and Mobile broadband subscriptions (five).

The UAE is the top ranked among the Middle East and North African countries.

The report assesses 144 countries on their ability to provide high levels of prosperity and welfare to its citizens, along a series of performance indicators which evaluates the country's ability to provide the suitable infrastructure for investments. - TradeArabia News Service