2015 is a milestone year for the world, KPMG International notes in its latest report made in partnership with Oxford Economics, regarding the assessing countries’ ability to manage change and cultivate opportunity, according to the Change Readiness Index (CRI).
Thus, from a total of 127 countries surveyed (expanded from the 90 countries surveyed in 2013), Romania ranks 79th for enterprise capability, improving its overall CRI score since the last survey two years ago. This reflects the soundness of a country’s business environment.
The index is designed to measure how effectively a country’s government, private and public enterprises, people and wider civil society anticipate, prepare for, manage and respond to change and cultivate opportunity.
According to KPMG, this year’s CRI is structured around three pillars (enterprise capability, government capability and people & civil society capability), with subindices for each pillar, and primary survey question responses and secondary data variables feeding each sub-index score.
KPMG International shows that Romania scores better in terms of technology infrastructure (50th place), economic openness (51st) and labor market flexibility (61st). Government capability is Romania’s weakest point in the change readiness index, for which the country ranks 86th, mainly because of poor government strategic planning as well as suboptimal fiscal and budgeting management.
Romania also scores poorly for business environment (95th place) reflecting difficulties in starting a business; the degree of government regulation, property and contract laws, taxation, and investor protection. Romania also performs badly in the financial sector (93rd), as this indicator mainly measures the efficiency of funding to enterprises and entrepreneurs. Romania also ranks weakly in terms of responsiveness to environment and climate change, food and energy security, as well as in the financial sector (93rd), as this indicator mainly measures the efficiency of funding to enterprises and entrepreneurs.
However, Romania improves its signs regarding bureaucracy, positive regulatory policies and a more stable macroeconomic framework, for which it is placed near the average of the classification.
Romania ranks well in terms of technology use, inclusiveness of growth and good health, due to high life expectancy at birth (74,6 years) and a low infant mortality rate. People and civil society are Romania’s strongest capability, taking 62nd place in the ranking, although the score has fallen since the last survey.