Asia, the world’s largest and most populous continent, is growing stronger and bouyant as ever as businessweek discloses the top most competitive countries of 2008. Yep, you heard me right. According to an annual study by one of Europe’s top business schools, Asian economies are notching up overtaking the U.S. and Northern Europe to become the most competitive in the world.

Here’s a matrix exhibiting the top ranks by country based on the IMD word competitiveness and WEF Global Information Tech Report.

	IMD World Competitiveness Yearbook		WEF Global Information Technology Report
Country	Rank 2008	Rank 2007	Rank 2008	Rank 2007
USA	1	1	4	7
Singapore	2	2	5	3
Hong Kong	3	3	11	12
Switzerland	4	6	3	5
Luxembourg	5	4	24	25
Denmark	6	5	1	1
Australia	7	12	14	15
Canada	8	10	13	11
Sweden	9	9	2	2
Netherlands	10	8	7	6
Norway	11	13	10	10
Ireland	12	14	23	21
Taiwan	13	18	17	13
Austria	14	11	15	17
Finland	15	17	6	4
Germany	16	16	16	16
China Mainland	17	15	57	59
New Zealand	18	19	22	22
Malaysia	19	23	26	26
Israel	20	21	18	18
United Kingdom	21	20	12	9
Japan	22	24	19	14
Estonia	23	22	20	20
Belgium	24	25	25	24
France	25	28	21	23
Chile	26	26	34	31
Thailand	27	33	40	37
Czech Republic	28	32	36	34
India	29	27	50	44
Slovak Republic	30	34	43	41
Korea	31	29	9	19
Slovenia	32	40	30	30
Spain	33	30	31	32
Jordan	34	37	47	57
Peru	35	N/A	84	78
Lithuania	36	31	33	39
Portugal	37	39	28	28
Hungary	38	35	37	33
Bulgaria	39	41	68	72
Philippines	40	45	81	69
Colombia	41	38	69	64
Greece	42	36	56	48
Brazil	43	49	59	53
Poland	44	52	62	58
Romania	45	44	61	55
Italy	46	42	42	38
Russia	47	43	72	70
Turkey	48	48	55	52
Croatia	49	53	49	46
Mexico	50	47	58	49
Indonesia	51	54	76	62
Argentina	52	51	77	63
South Africa	53	50	51	47
Ukraine	54	46	70	75
Venezuela	55	55	86	83
Iceland	N/A	7	8	8

Among the top 20 economies out of the 55 ranked, Asia-Pacific had the greatest gains as compared with last year’s figures. Singapore, landing on No.2 would soon overtake US at the top 1 spot. Following the trail is Hongkong and the usual top performers: Switzerland, Luxembourg, and Denmark. Keeping up with the challenge is Malaysia notching four ranks to No. 19, while Australia and Taiwan separately jumped five places to No. 13 and No. 7, respectively. Remarkably, here we also see Thailand, rose six spots to No. 27, and the Philippines, up five to No. 40.

Thanks to the hardworking, middle class of the current generation- particulary in China and India. The world is shaking up once again to balance the riches of the world.

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