ABSTRACT
Generating national prosperity requires a combination of policies, leadership skills, and initiatives that must complement each other. This part analyzes the ingredients of a competitiveness strategy. Starting with the most important one, education, we discuss the success factors in designing an education system, showing what works and what does not work, and taking the example of Switzerland for the latter. Openness to foreign talent, and the ability to retain its own are also important in an education system. The second driver of competitiveness is infrastructure, and the example of Brazil will be illustrative. Next, we discuss the principle of the rule of law and its relation to prosperity. Specifically, this part shows how successful countries have implemented such a principle and use it to curtail corruption. The poster child of anti-corruption policy is Hong Kong, and it receives special attention in this part. Subsequently, we pay attention to the institutional factors that make a nation successful: one is the existence of well-functioning, developed capital markets. Financing companies, both large as well as small and medium, guarantee that the private sector—not the public sector—is the job creator in a competitive economy. The role of the public sector is to support and partner with private initiative by providing the right regulation, not by subsidizing it. In this sense, the examples of Tunisia and Oman will be illuminating. This part ends by highlighting the importance of a country brand, and how the promotion of social and economic values (in Timor-Leste, in South Africa, in Thailand) results in capital and talent attraction.
