Hong Kong’s global competitiveness has risen by two places to third globally, after improving by two places to fifth last year, in the World Competitiveness Yearbook (WCY) 2025, published by the International Institute for Management Development (IMD).
The ranking marks Hong Kong’s return to the global top three for the first time since 2019.
WCY 2025 finds that Hong Kong’s competitiveness has improved significantly. The city’s total competitiveness score of 99.2 out of 100 represents an increase of 7.7 points, the largest increase among the top 10 economies.
In terms of yearbook’s four competitiveness factors, Hong Kong rose to second globally on government efficiency and business efficiency. Its rankings on economic performance and infrastructure also improved to sixth and seventh, respectively.
With regard to competitiveness sub-factors, Hong Kong tops the rankings on tax policy and business legislation, ranks second globally in international investment, education and finance, and third globally in international trade and management practices.
Ahead of this morning’s Executive Council meeting, Chief Executive John Lee said Hong Kong’s scores, both in overall terms and in many specific areas, have improved, showing that the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government’s policy course is the right one, with various policies already yielding clear results.
Highlighting that the city ranks second globally on government efficiency, he said this reflects the inherent excellence and competence of the city’s civil servants, and indicates that policies designed to make the Government more result-oriented are bearing fruit.
In addition, noting that Hong Kong ranks second globally on business efficiency, Mr Lee said this reflects business leaders’ positive views of Hong Kong’s competitiveness and of its strengths, including the rule of law, a simple tax system and low tax rates, and the free flow of capital, information, goods and talent.
