Azernews.Az

Azerbaijan enjoys all required opportunities to further improve its positions in the competitiveness ranking of the World Economic Forum (WEF), President of the Azerbaijani Marketing Association Jahangir Najafov told Trend Sept. 3.

According to the Global Competitiveness Report for 2014-2015, released by WEF on Sept. 3, Azerbaijan has improved its positions in the competitiveness ranking to 38th among 144 countries.

"This is a very positive change for Azerbaijan," he said. "Azerbaijan yielded only to Estonia among the countries of the former USSR. For the first time in the history, Azerbaijan was able to overtake two Baltic republics - Latvia and Lithuania in the rating. Azerbaijan is ahead of Russia and Kazakhstan in the ranking. This is the result of fruitful works of the Azerbaijani leadership."

He stressed that it is necessary to improve the system of licensing and customs duties to further strengthen Azerbaijan's positions in the competitiveness ranking.

He also stressed that the main condition for improving the position of Azerbaijan in the WEF competitiveness ranking is further liberalization of foreign trade.

WEF rankings are based on a combination of available statistics and a survey of business executives. The survey is in fact a comprehensive annual survey conducted by the World Economic Forum together with national partners - leading research institutes and companies that specialize in competitiveness and economic development in the countries analyzed in the report.