ABSTRACT
Competitiveness is about benchmarking economic performance. Performance may be variously defined, as indeed may be the benchmark, for comparison. From the perspective of the business enterprise, performance is usually taken to mean its productivity, profitability, market share or rate of growth of sales, while its benchmark for comparison is the performance of its major competitors—and, more particularly, those perceived to utilize –best practice’ techniques and strategies. From the perspective of a government of a country, the most widely accepted measure of national performance is gross national product (GNP) per head of population, or the change in GNP per head over time, while national competitiveness is usually assessed by comparing the performance of one country with that of the countries serving similar world markets—although the countries benchmarked may vary according to the industrial sectors and markets being considered.1
