Andi Haswidi, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Indonesia has maintained its position in this year's World Economic Forum (WEF) global competitiveness index at 54th out of the 131 countries surveyed.
Top performer in the 2007-2008 index is the United States, which also maintained its place as the world's most competitive economy, followed by Switzerland in the second place, up two notches from last year.
Other Southeast Asia countries included in the report were Malaysia in 21st place, Thailand in 28th, Vietnam in 68th and the Philippines in 71th.
In conducting its survey, which has been carried out since 1979, the WEF uses nine groups of criteria to calculate a country's competitiveness: macroeconomic policy, market efficiency, business sophistication, technological readiness, innovation, infrastructure, health and primary education, higher education and training, and institutions.
""I do think that Indonesia's competitiveness has weakened rather than stayed the same,"" said Indonesia Competitiveness Community (ICC) chairman Handito Hadi Joewono.
The lack of government investment in education, Handito said, was one indication that Indonesia had yet to give its full attention to improving the country competitiveness.
""The benefits of spending more on education are not felt directly as it is a long-term investment. Nevertheless, it is of the utmost importance,"" he said.
Handi urged the government to take a similar approach to other countries in the region, which have established formal institutions to assess competitiveness issues on a day-to-day basis.
Meanwhile, the World Bank released a report earlier this week, ranking Indonesia 43rd out of 150 countries surveyed for its first Logistics Performance Index (LPI).
Other placings were South Africa in 24th place, Malaysia in 27th, Chile in 32nd, Turkey in 34th, China in 30th, Thailand in 31st, India in 39th and Vietnam in 53rd.
""Logistics can make you or break you in today's globalized world. You can have very good customs, but poor performance in only one or two areas of the supply chain has serious repercussions for the country's economic performance, creating a perception of unreliability,"" WB trade director Uri Dadush said in a statement.
The LPI is the first comprehensive cross-country assessment of logistics performance by some 800 logistics professionals. It aggregates the performance in areas such as customs procedures, logistics costs, infrastructure quality, ability to track and trace shipments, timeliness and domestic logistics industry competence.
