According to the report, the decline of Viet Nam in the global competitive assessment was because the country lost ground in nine out of the 12 pillars of the index, saying that it ranked below 50th in all of the pillars and dangerously close to 100th on most of them. Over the last two years, Viet Nam lost 16 places and is now the second-lowest ranked among eight members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) that the report covered.

Most notably, Viet Nam fell 41 places in the macroeconomic environment pillar to 106th. The country’s inflation climbed, sovereign debt rating worsened and access to credit became more difficult.

Infrastructure (95th), quality of roads (120th) and ports (113rd) remained challenges for the country despite some improvement in recent years while respect for property rights (113th) and protection of intellectual property (123rd) were insufficient, the report said, adding that private institutions also suffered from poor ethics and particularly weak accountability.

Meanwhile, Viet Nam was reported to have several strengths: an efficient labour market (51st), large market size (32nd) and satisfactory performance in the public health and basic education pillar (64th).

According to the report, decisive policy action was required to put the country’s growth performance on a more stable footing.

In the report, Switzerland was ranked first. The 12 pillars of the GCI were institutions, infrastructure, macroeconomics environment, health and primary education, higher education and training, goods market efficiency, labour market efficiency, financial market development, technological readiness, market size, business sophistication and innovation.