Israel is flying high in the rankings

JORDAN MOSHE

While the ANC continues to push for the South African embassy to be downgraded and International Relations and Cooperation Minister Lindiwe Sisulu remains adamant that the ambassador to Israel will not be reinstated, the Jewish State continues to rack up achievement after achievement.

Israel’s success in virtually every sector is nothing short of astounding, and South Africa may well be missing out in downscaling its ties with this country.

According to the World Economic Forum index, published earlier this week, Israel is third in terms of innovation and is among the top 10 most innovative countries on the planet. Israel came just after Switzerland and then America. It was well ahead of countries such as the United Kingdom, France, China and Italy.

On 8 July, Israel was also ranked among the most powerful nations in the world in an annual survey by the media company, US News & World Report. It based its findings on the answers of more than 21 000 people from four regions. Israel was ranked the eighth most powerful country in the world for the second consecutive year, ahead of Iran, Saudi Arabia and Turkey. The surveys and rankings are based on nine categories, incorporating 65 indicators.

This ranking looks at 80 countries, falling into four categories:

•     The top 100 countries in 2014 or 2015 in terms of gross domestic product (based on World Bank data);

•     The top 150 countries in the UN’s Human Development Index, based on the 2014 or 2015 report;

•     The top 100 countries in terms of foreign direct investment inflows in 2013 or 2014 according to UN data; and

•     The top 100 countries in terms of international tourism receipts in 2014 or arrivals in 2013, based on World Bank data.

Israel scored a 9.8/10 in perception of the strength of its military and 7.9/10 for its political influence, according to Haaretz. It was also deemed to have strong international alliances and to be quite economically influential. It did not, however, earn a high score on the leadership indicator. Altogether, these factors made Israel the eighth most powerful country in the world for the second year in a row.

However, Israel came only 30th out of 80 in the overall list of “Best Countries”, coming behind Russia, Greece and China. Israel also ranked poorly in terms of “adventure” where it came 70th (fun and sexy being two of the indicators in that category).

In the “Open for Business” category, it came 64th. The rankings suggested an inhospitable tax environment and high manufacturing costs.

Predictably, Canada, Germany and the Nordic countries fared well, with Switzerland taking top spot in the worldwide rankings for the second year in a row.

In terms of power, the US, Russia and China took the top three spots, respectively. The UK came behind Germany in fifth place.