China moved up two places this year to No 27 in rankings of the Global Competitiveness Report 2010-2011.

The report, released Thursday by the World Economic Forum ahead of its annual meeting, said Switzerland tops the overall rankings. The United States fell two places to fourth, overtaken by Sweden (second) and Singapore (third).

China continues to lead the way among large developing economies in the rankings and solidifies its place among the top 30. Among the three other BRIC economies, Brazil (58th), India (51st) and Russia (63rd) remain stable.

The United Kingdom, after falling in the rankings over recent years, moves back up by one place to 12th. Japan ranks sixth.

The rankings are based on the Global Competitiveness Index (GCI), developed for the World Economic Forum by Professor Sala-i-Martin,, and introduced in 2004. The GCI is based on 12 pillars of competitiveness: institutions, infrastructure, macroeconomic environment, health and primary education, higher education and training, market efficiency, labor market efficiency, financial development, technological readiness, market size, business sophistication, and innovation.

The rankings are calculated from both publicly available data and the Executive Opinion Survey, a comprehensive annual survey conducted by the World Economic Forum together with its network of Partner Institutes (leading research institutes and business organizations) in the countries covered by the study. This year, over 13,500 business leaders were polled in 139 economies. The report also lists the main strengths and weaknesses of countries, making it possible to identify key priorities for policy reform.

This year''s report also features discussions on selected regions and topics. These include an analysis of the competitiveness of the European Union countries (guest-authored by European Commissioner Joachim Almunia); a review of Latin America''s infrastructure challenges, with a special focus on Brazil; and a discussion on the relationship between macroeconomic stability and longer-term competitiveness.

（Source from China Daily）