Cambodia is not keeping up with the global pace of innovation and business competitiveness across world as the country continues to suffer from low skills levels and low-value exports, according to a report released yesterday at the Davos Economic Forum, coinciding with Prime Minister Hun Sen’s visit to the event.

The 2017 Global Talent Competitiveness Index released by international business school INSEAD, ranked Cambodia 108 out of 118 countries, looking at factors such as the regulatory landscape, business environment, education and use of technology. The Kingdom ranked 96 out of 109 countries in last year’s report.

Figures from the report show that Cambodia fell behind in terms of high-value exports, defined as exports requiring advanced technology such as electronics. Cambodia ranked 104, compared to 63 last year.

The Kingdom also performed poorly in terms of government effectiveness, ranking 104, as well as corruption, ranking 115. Other findings from the report placed Cambodia at 52 for the relationship of pay to productivity, while it ranked 51 for both ease of hiring as well as prevalence of foreign ownership.

Gender equality was one of Cambodia’s better performance areas, ranking 34 for gender earnings gap, though it was ranked 18 in last year’s report, and ranking 52 for business opportunities for women.

The country’s taxation system, measured by the extent to which it reduces incentives to work, ranked 43, compared to 25 last year.