Singapore has slipped to third sport on the Globalisation Index 2010 rankings, behind Hong Kong and Ireland, which occupy the first and second places respectively.
The annual index, which measures how globally connected the world’s 60 biggest economies by gross domestic product (GDP) are in terms of capital, trade, culture, technology and labour, was released by Ernst & Young and the Economist Intelligence Unit
Singapore’s overall score fell to 6.78, mainly because of lower labour and technology mobility. Hong Kong overtook with a score of 7.48, following gains in all categories except technology, while Ireland also saw improvements in all categories except cultural integration.
While Singapore’s cultural integration index improved, its labour index dropped to 4.37 in 2010 from 6.27 in the previous year. Its technology index also fell to 5.58 from 6.39, as trade in research and development (as a proportion of GDP) declined.
Singapore’s globalisation index will likely improve steadily from 2011 to 2014, said Steven Phan, Country Managing Partner for Singapore at Ernst & Young. Its scores for trade, technology, capital and cultural integration are all expected to rise, though its labour mobility index could drop slightly, he said.
This echoed the views of over a thousand senior business executives polled, that the world’s biggest economies will continue to globalise, driven by technological innovation, economic recovery and growth of emerging markets.