South Korea ranked 24 th among 142 countries in ‘ the Global Competitiveness Report 2011 ’ published by the World Economic Forum ( WEF ) on Wednesday . Korea ’ s position fell by two ranks from 22 th place out of 139 countries last year . According to the WEF ’ s evaluation , Korea took a big leap in terms of infrastructure and healthcare and primary education , jumping from 18 th to 9 th and from 21 st to 15 th , respectively . Korea ’ s achievement was especially remarkable in quality of elementary education , rising significantly from 31 st to 22 nd . However , the country slid from 62 nd to 65 th in the assessment of institutional factors including protection of property rights , corruption and trust in politicians . This slide dragged down the country ’ s ranking on the whole . Korea ’ s global stance fell from 111 th to 128 th in transparency of policy making , from 71 st to 95 th in wasteful government spending and from 84 th to 94 th in terms of partiality in the decision - making process of public servants . Such lowered rankings in the public sectors proved that the government sector is still hindering the country ’ s improvement . Switzerland topped the competitiveness list , retaining last year ’ s position , followed by Singapore that rose to second from third place . Others in the top five list include Sweden on third , Finland on fourth and the United States on fifth . Sweden and the U . S . climbed up by one notch each , while Finland came up by more than one ranks . Among Asian countries , an indebted and earthquake - stricken Japan went down from sixth to ninth , while Hong Kong and China witnessed no change in their rankings . Greece which is struggling to weather the storm of massive government debts had a free fall from 83 rd to 90 th . In the rock bottom of the list , there sat Chad , Haiti and Burundi . [ Written by Heon - cheol Shin - Su - hyun Song / edited by Soyoung Chung ] ▶ [ 화보 ] 소녀 시대 윤아 , 돋보이 는 ` 명품 공항 패션 `▶ 수입 차 , 이제 는 소형차 에 승부 건다 ▶ 이하늬 “ S 라인 비결 은 콩고기 와 수건 운동 법 ! ”▶ 유진 , 이효리 에게 " 눈 맞추 면 결혼 가능 " 조언 눈길 ▶ 영정 속 웃 고 있 는 故 장효조 감독 [ 아츠 포토 ] [ ⓒ Maeil Business Newspaper & mk . co . kr , All rights reserved ]