Growth competitiveness and current competitiveness

Many organisations review the competitiveness of national economies and the performance of their innovation systems. The World Economic Forum (WEF) ranked Finland the first in Growth Competitiveness in 2005 followed by the USA. The two countries shared top rankings also in the Business Competitiveness index, where Finland came second after the United States. According to WEF Finland has one of the most innovative business environments in the world, particularly critical to driving productivity in the country.This is coupled with a very healthy macroeconomic environment, at a time when many other industrial countries are struggling in this area.

Finland was ranked tenth in the Institute for Management Development’s (IMD) competitiveness scoreboard published in May 2006. Finland’s ranking fell from the previous year due to lack of foreign direct investments and high taxation rate. A well functioning education system, good public administration and cooperation between industry and universities are listed as Finland’s strengths.

In the European Innovation Scoreboard 2005 Finland is one of the EU's two star performers. It ranks second out of the 25 EU countries and third out of 33 countries, after Switzerland and Sweden. Finland ranks among the top three countries for each of the six EIS composite indices with the exception of applications and is in 1 st place for innovation demand and innovation governance.