New Delhi: Andhra Pradesh on Wednesday signed a pact with World Economic Forum under which the Geneva-based organisation will help the state assess its competitiveness.

The Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), signed during the National Strategy Day on India event of WEF, paves the way for a future collaboration that will allow the state government and its partners to assess competitiveness.

Drawing on the work of the Forum in benchmarking competitiveness, particularly through the use of the Global Competitiveness Index (GCI), the Andhra Pradesh government and its partners will assess the competitiveness both strengths and weaknesses of the state's economy.

The assessment will provide key data for the design of evidence-based policies and reforms, and allow comparison with other economies of similar size or at a similar stage of development.

Collaboration with the World Economic Forum will provide us with the methodology, tools and knowledge to design better policies, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu said.

Identifying and measuring bottlenecks to growth and prosperity are critical steps for the State of Andhra Pradesh to fulfil its ambitions, he added.

The methodology used to assess Andhra Pradeshs competitiveness will draw on the GCI, which measures a set of factors and policies that together determine an economys level of productivity and its ability to prosper.

The assessment is based on the performance in 12 categories: institutions; infrastructure; macroeconomic stability; health and primary education; higher education and training; goods market efficiency; labour market efficiency; financial sector development; technological readiness; market size; business sophistication; and innovation.

We look forward to sharing our expertise with key actors of Andhra Pradeshs development and building their capacity to carry out a similar exercise for their state, which is home to almost 50 million people. The potential impact of this initiative is therefore significant, said Philipp Rosler, Head of the Centre for Regional Strategies and Member of the Managing Board, World Economic Forum.

The Forum will provide technical support and help train government staff on GCI methodology, data collection and interpretation of results, with the goal of building capacity for the Government of Andhra Pradesh and its partners to carry out competitiveness assessments independently and on a regular basis.

PTI