ROMANIA IN EU CONTEXT. COMPETITIVENESS AND KNOWLEDGE-BASED ECONOMY

Abstract

The paper analyses Romania’s competitiveness and knowledge-based economyin an EU comparative context for the 2006-2007 period. The main compared pillar-indices are the following: global competitiveness index;higher education and training; technological readiness; business sophistication; innovation.Each pillar index is disaggregated into several relevant sub indices. Comparisons are madebetween Romania and EU-25, EU-10 (new member states since 2004), Bulgaria and Turkeyon the basis of positions and scores of each country or group of countries, within a totalframework of 131 countries. The size of Romania’s digital divide vis-à-vis EU-25 can beused as a tool for national priority setting and better policies regarding catching up andconvergence processes in digital economy.competitiveness; knowledge-based society; national and international value chains;catching-up; convergence; digital divide; brain drain; knowledge creation, absorption and diffusion.