Jordan ranks 95th on global governance efficiency index

AMMAN — Jordan ranked 95 out of 180 countries on the Governance Efficiency Sub-Index of the 2021 Global Sustainable Competitiveness Index (GSCI).

The Kingdom scored 51.6 points in the Governance Sub-Index, which is published by SolAbility, an independent think tank and sustainable management consultancy. 

This year, Jordan advanced 27 positions, ranking 122 in 2020.

Published since 2012, the GSCI measures competitiveness of countries based on 131 measurable, quantitative indicators which are grouped into five sub-indexes: Natural Capital, Resource Efficiency & Intensity, Intellectual Capital, Governance Efficiency and Social Cohesion, according to the SolAbility website.

“The Governance Sub-Index encompasses all aspects that shape the framework of society (the Social Capital), and in which the economy (Intellectual Capital, Resource Management) operates,” the website said.

The Governance Sub-Index aims to evaluate the performance of a country’s regulatory framework and infrastructure environment to facilitate sustainable competitiveness, according to the GSCI.

The 2021 governance ranking was topped by Estonia, followed by Ireland, the Czech Republic and Finland. As for the ranked Arab countries, Egypt took the 50th place; Kuwait came in at 60th and Saudi Arabia in 68th.

“Making that big of a jump is a clear indication that Jordan has made a significant headway,” said sociologist Hussein Khozahe, commenting on the 2021 Governance Efficiency Sub-Index.

However, he said that in reality, society does not have a positive experience, and the economic, political and social conditions, which are closely connected are not getting any better.

From a socio-economic explanation, Khozahe added that “people do not care about rankings; they want to sense the presence of concrete achievements, in order to have confidence and hope for the future”.

Economist Mazen Marji told The Jordan Times on Tuesday that “there are many relevant indicators such as the transparency indicator, anti-corruption indicator and ease of doing business indicator that are in the growing grey area and remain to be negative, especially in the overall difficult situation”.

In order to improve the Kingdom’s governance practices, it must break out of the typical legislative and administrative framework, according to Marji. 

He noted that that way governance would have significant impact on the aforementioned indicators and people would end up seeing tangible changes in the country.