Trading Places - How Globalisation Will Drive Future UK Competitiveness - Part One

Globalisation is quickening its pace. If the UK is to remain competitive in the battle for investment and wealth creation, business and government need to take action.

Nation is increasingly pitted against nation. As a result, the UK needs to benchmark itself against the best in the world to define where its comparative advantage lies. The new Deloitte Competitiveness Index is a unique attempt at capturing where the UK ranks today and enables a direct comparison between nations. It places the UK sixth amongst 25 world economies. However, by 2010, and assuming the continuation of trends of the last 20 years, our model suggests the UK will slip outside the top ten.

This is a clarion call that we must answer urgently. The speed and energy with which emerging economies are increasingly competing on an equal footing means there is no place for prevarication.