The Netherlands has fallen from eighth to 10th position on the World Economic Forum’s index of global competitiveness.

One reason for the decline is the effect of the credit crisis on the Dutch banking sector, which has made banks more reluctant to make loans.
‘This is a big setback,’ professor Henk Volberda of the Erasmus Strategic Renewal Centre which carried out the research in the Netherlands said in the Volkskrant. ‘In 2002, ministers set the target of a top 5 place. But now we are slipping away.’
Volberda said the Netherlands had also failed to invest enough in infrastructure and combatting traffic congestion, and in research and development.
‘Compared with Switzerland and the Scandinavian countries, the Netherlands has not yet made the switch to the knowledge economy,’ Volberda told the paper. And government tender procedures do not ‘challenge companies to increase their innovative pressure.’
The ranking is now topped by Switzerland, which overtook the US, the paper says.