The Saudi National Competitiveness Center (NCC) and the International Institute for Management Development (IMD), in the presence of Saudi Minister of Commerce and Chairman of the Board of Directors of NCC, Dr. Majid bin Abdullah Al-Qasabi, signed today in Lausanne, Switzerland, a bilateral agreement aimed at adopting frameworks for managing continuous relations between the two sides. Dr. Al-Qasabi, after the signing ceremony which witnessed the participation of the Saudi Ambassador to the Swiss Confederation Dr. Adel Siraj Mirdad, affirmed that the National Competitiveness Center seeks, through the agreements it concludes, to build strategic partnerships with organizations and centers for developing global competitiveness, to contribute to achieving the goals of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia's Vision 2030, which aims to improve the business environment and put the Kingdom among the 10 most competitive countries in the world. The Center was represented at the signing of the agreement by the Deputy Minister of Commerce and CEO of the Center, Dr. Iman Al-Mutairi, who indicated that this agreement and other agreements reflect the center's keenness to benefit from various international experiences to ensure the adoption of the best methods and practices that lead to enhancing the competitiveness of the Kingdom globally. IMD Director of the Global Competitiveness Center, Professor Arturo Bris, said that the agreement will work to enhance cooperation between the two sides, especially enhancing analytical expertise in the field of competitiveness. Under the agreement, NCC will obtain advisory services from the institute, which includes a group of senior consultants specializing in management development, resident executives, human resources and talent management consultants, learning managers, and executive coaches, in addition to access to a wide range of knowledge from business sources around the world, through the institute's global knowledge platform. Moreover, NCC will be able to analyze and study the competitiveness data that the IMD is working on, in addition to participating in the dialogue sessions held by the institute, in which experts and CEOs participate to discuss the latest developments in management thought, in addition to benefiting from the educational and training programs of the institute. IMD is one of the recognized institutions in competitiveness internationally. It issues the IMD World Competitiveness Rankings Yearbook (WCY), which is classified as one of the most important global reports and a reference for international organizations and institutions. The Kingdom advanced eight ranks in the 2022 edition of WCY, compared to the previous year, ranking 24th among the 63 most competitive countries in the world, recording the second-best progress among the countries under measurement, and 7th among the G20 countries, driven by the improvement of the Kingdom's ranking in all four main axes measured by the report, in addition to its entry into the list of the top 10 countries globally in a large number of sub-indicators, mainly the adaptation to government policy, digital transformation in companies, long-term workforce growth and public financial management. —SPA 21:15 LOCAL TIME 18:15 GMT 0007 www.spa.gov.sa/w1849245
