(MENAFN- Muscat Daily) The World Economic Forum (WEF) has Oman in third place in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region in its Global Enabling Trade Report 2014, while the sultanate has been ranked 31st globally out of 138 countries.
The UAE topped the MENA region with a global ranking of 16th, followed by Qatar, which was ranked 19th globally. Bahrain was 33rd in the global ranking, while Saudi Arabia was placed 48th, with Kuwait retaining the 74th position.
With a score of 4.7 on a seven-point scale, Oman's enabling trade ranking dropped in 2014 from 25th in 2012.
Published every two years, WEF's Global Enabling Trade Report assesses the quality of institutions, policies and services facilitating the free flow of goods over borders and to their destinations. At the core of the report, the enabling trade index benchmarks the performance of 138 economies in four critical areas: Market access, border administration, transport and communications infrastructure, and regulatory and business environment.
On the market access sub-index, which measures the extent and complexity of a country's tariff regime as well as tariff barriers faced and preferences enjoyed by a country's exporters in foreign markets, Oman ranked 54th, ahead of all GCC countries.
Oman also performed well on the operating environment sub-index - a measure of the quality of key institutional factors impacting the business of importers and exporters active in a country - with a global rank of 17th.
The sultanate ranked 38th globally on the infrastructure sub-index - which assesses the availability and quality of transport infrastructure of a country, associated services, and communication infrastructure, necessary to facilitate the movement of goods within the country and across the border.
On the border administration sub-index - which assesses the quality, transparency and efficiency of border administration of a country - Oman was placed 40th, ranking behind the UAE and Qatar in the GCC.
Singapore and Hong Kong were the top two countries on the WEF global list, with Holland advancing from seventh place to third in this year's report.
The report praised Oman for its import and export turnaround times, liner shipping connectivity, quality of port infrastructure and quality of roads.
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