South Korea's global competitiveness ranking climbed by one notch this year amid its faster-than-expected economic recovery from the world recession, an international institute showed Wednesday.

   According to the 2011 World Competitiveness Yearbook unveiled by IMD, South Korea ranked 22nd in terms of competitiveness among the 59 countries surveyed.

   IMD is a Switzerland-based institute that releases competitiveness rankings every year based on countries' economic achievements, infrastructure and government and corporate efficiency.

   South Korea's standing this year is the highest ever since the world-renowned business school issued related reports in 1997. Last year, South Korea came in 23rd, which was also the country's best at the time.

   The United States and Hong Kong shared the top spot for this year's survey. Singapore, which was No. 1 in the previous year, slid to third, while Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan and Canada were among the top 10 countries in global competitiveness.

   Among Asian countries, Japan's ranking climbed to 26th from 27th after suffering a 10-notch plunge in 2010.

   The report put Venezuela at the bottom of the list. Greece, which is suffering from fiscal debt problems, saw its ranking dive to 56th from the previous year's 46th, the report showed.

Source: Yonhap News (May 18. 2011)