Armenia is safer than the United States, Germany and Italy, the World Economic Forum said in its Global Competitiveness Report, published recently.
Overall, Armenia is ranked 79th out of 138 countries included in the WEF’s report, which assesses the competitiveness landscape of the economies, providing an insight into the drivers of their productivity and prosperity.
Scoring 5.2 points out of possible 7, Armenia took the 47th spot in the rankings, alongside Chile, Nicaragua, Jordan, Lithuania and Mongolia.
In the report, Azerbaijan is placed the 41st, Georgia, Turkey and Iran come in 28th, 87th and 90th, respectively, while Russia is ranked the 95th.
Interestingly, some developed countries are considered less safe than the South Caucasus states, including Greece (52th spot), Germany (58th), the United States (60th), France (62nd) and Italy (96th).
The security index of the Global Competitiveness Report is based on four indicators:
– Business costs of terrorism which assesses to what extent the threat of terrorism imposes costs on businesses in a given country (Armenia claims the 33rd position with a score of 5.8);
– Business costs of crime and violence which assesses to what extent the incidence of crime and violence imposes costs on businesses (Armenia is the 27th with 5.4 points);
– Organized crime which asses to what extent organized crime (mafia-oriented racketeering, extortion) imposes costs on businesses (Armenia is the 57th with 5.1 points);
– Reliability of police services which assesses to what extent police services can be relied upon to enforce law and order (Armenia is the 67th with 4.4 points).
WASHINGTON (RFE/RL) — Nagorno-Karabakh remains a “partly free” territory governed by a less repressive administration than Azerbaijan, the U.S. human rights group Freedom House said in an annual survey released this week.