Bangladesh’s ranking in the World Economic Forum’s latest Global Competitiveness Index has moved up by seven places to 99 out of 137 countries surveyed.

The reports says: ‘Competitiveness has improved across most countries in South Asia (as seen in Figure 4a and 4b), in particular in the two Himalayan countries of Bhutan (82nd, up 15) and Nepal (88th, up 10). On a similarly positive trend, Pakistan (115th, up seven) and Bangladesh (99th, up seven) have both improved their scores across all pillars of competitiveness. Upgrading ICT infrastructure and increasing ICT use remain among the biggest challenges for the region: over the past decade, South Asia has been the area where technological readiness stagnated the most, with a performance similar to that of sub-Saharan Africa.’

At the bottom of the table, at number 137, lies Yemen - a poor country further devastated by civil war, economic collapse, cholera and near-famine conditions.

The World Economic Forum, which compiles the report, is best known for its annual meeting in the Swiss ski resort of Davos.