Hong Kong trails rival Singapore in Asian Competitiveness report for third year running

Despite its standing as one of the most robust Asian economies, Hong Kong’s shortcomings in higher education and innovation have once again prevented it from outstripping regional rival Singapore in an annual survey of competitiveness.

Hong Kong retained second place in the 2016 Asian Competitiveness report, released on Thursday at the Boao Forum for Asia Annual Conference currently taking place in Boao, in China’s Hainan province.

It’s the third straight year that Hong Kong has taken the runner-up spot behind Singapore in the survey, having slipped from first to third place in 2013. The findings are in line with last year’s Global Innovation Index, which placed Hong Kong second among Asian countries behind Singapore which was only kept off the top spot internationally by Switzerland.

Hong Kong’s stable, efficient and trustworthy business environment and financial market once again earned big scores in the latest survey. The report also highlighted the city’s commercial and administrative efficiency, as well as its social stability and low unemployment rate.

However, it didn’t fare so well when it came to higher education and innovation, ranking 10th among the 37 economies included in the index. These areas stood in sharp contrast to the city’s leading positions in economic and financial developments, the report said, without elaborating.

The Chinese mainland remained the ninth most competitive economy in the survey, unchanged since 2013. Its overall economic strength and pace of growth – even in the face of a slowdown – shows that its prospects remain promising, according to the report.