Competitiveness of the selected Balkan countries in the period 2006-2015

• Main Authors: Nedić Vladimir, Lepojević Vinko, Despotović Danijela, Cvetanović Dušan
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Srpsko udruženje za marketing 2016-01-01
• Series: Marketing (Beograd. 1991)
• Subjects: country's competitiveness; GDP per capita; Basic requirements; Efficiency enhancers; Innovation and sophistication factors
• Online Access: http://scindeks-clanci.ceon.rs/data/pdf/0354-3471/2016/0354-34711604278N.pdf
• ISSN: 0354-3471; 2334-8364

The paper considers the level of competitiveness of two groups of Balkan countries. The first group consists of neighboring countries of the Republic of Serbia that are not members of the EU (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia), while the second group consists of five member states of the EU (Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Hungary and Romania). Research refers to a time period from 2006 to 2015. The level of competitiveness of countries is analyzed through the value of the Global Competitiveness Index of the World Economic Forum. Special focus is on Basic & Efficiency factors based competitiveness, on the one hand, and Innovation & Sophistication factors based competitiveness, on the other. The conclusion is that Serbia and the selected non-EU countries are lagging behind the group of EU countries, by all indicators. However, data for the observed period reveal trend of convergence of these groups' competitiveness.