Singapore hailed as "most competitive Asian economy" A new WEF report places Singapore at the top of the competitive game.  Singapore has been ranked once again as the most competitive Asian economy by the World Economic Forum. The ranking, based on the Global Competitiveness Index (GCI), puts Taiwan in 7th place, ahead of Japan (10th) and Hong Kong (14th). The GCI is built around nine pillars – institutions, infrastructure, macro economy, health and primary education, higher education and training, training efficiency and technological readiness. Singapore held first place on the institutions and technological readiness pillars. It also performed well on both subindexes of the institution pillar but particularly so on the public institution subindex where it held first place out of the 117 countries measured. The WEF report said, “It is clear that the public has a high level of trust in the financial honesty of politicians, compliance with administrative regulations does not put an unnecessary burden on business, government spending provides the necessary goods and services that are not provided by the market, government decisions are neutral and police services are reliable; all these characteristics serve to make Singapore the country with the best institutions at a global level.” Singapore’s top ranking on technological readiness was attributed to the existing technological infrastructure – large penetration rates for both Internet and personal computers – to the high level of technological absorption by firms, to proficiency at adopting new technologies and to a highly developed regulatory environment.