'Formula for success must have clear goals and strategies'
Each country must find its own way to compete in the global marketplace and cannot just copy other economies' policies, though nations can learn from the experiences of others, both positive and negative, according to the International Institute for Manag
Speaking at the "Thailand Competitiveness Conference" seminar arranged by the Thailand Management Association, Professor Arturo Bris, the new director of the IMD World Competitiveness Centre, said competitiveness was about prosperity of the people living in the country.
"Competitiveness is about generating prosperity, and this virtual circle of prosperity is very simple. A country policy importance [An important national policy] is to create jobs. Through job creation, people save and consume.
"This intern led to company in turn leads to companies making money, and when companies are making money, they invest and pay taxes.
"When companies pay taxes, they generate revenue for the state, and then it’s eventually transferred into investment on education and health. Ultimately, this would make people better off," he said.
Bris said many countries focused on the wrong priorities when trying to improve their competitiveness, and they should have a clear strategy to focus on what truly matters by pursuing key performance indicators that would lead to economic growth.
"Economic reform needs a clear strategy, and strategy requires two things: objectives and choices," he said, pointing to Japan and Mexico as recent positive examples. "Economies which have been successful in recent years are countries that have a clear economic strategy which stated clear objectives for economic policies such as Japan’s Abenomics and Mexico, which is currently on the right path."
Bris explained that a clear strategy to increase economic growth and competitiveness would require a long-term view along with participation from the private and public sectors.
He said a long-term view was extremely important because the most painful changes that an economy needs to make only become tangible in the long run, such as investments in education and health that would only pay off in 10 to 20 years.
"You need to be preserve in your effort. Hong Kong was one of the most corrupted economies in the world 20 years ago until they decided to reduce the level of corruption through education, since [eliminating] corruption requires a long-term view," he said.
Any successful changes towards prosperity and improvement of a nation’s competitiveness require the involvement of both the private and public sectors. Private enterprise takes the initiative in economic development and innovation, while public policy and regulation promote business creation, ensure level playing fields, and guarantee that companies can attract capital from investors while making sure that there is stability in the stock market.
With such policies in place, entrepreneurs are able to start new businesses," Bris said.
He concluded that there was no single recipe for competitiveness and each country would have to find its own model – and the best economic strategy was to exploit the country’s uniqueness.
"Only a country that has the right strategy succeeds. The right strategy consists of having the right goal, which is prosperity; having a long-term view, which consist focuses on what matters in the long term, which is extremely costly; focusing on the uniqueness of the country; and also making the right choices that allow you to pursue that goal," he said.
