Little Singapore is no longer the world's most competitive economy. That position is now occupied by global superpower, the United States, which "out-innovated" it to take the honours this year.

Singapore, which was top of the heap in the previous five years, was pushed into second spot in the 2000 global competitiveness ranking released on September 6, 2000 by Swiss-based World Economic Forum (WEF). The US was ranked second in last year's list, a position it had held for several years.

The switch in the top position was not the only big change in the rankings ---- there were three newcomers among the top five, in addition to string of other changes lower down the line.

This is thanks to a new weighting system for the 2000 report that emphasised technology and innovation.

WEF president Professor Klaus Schwab explained that the 2000 competitiveness report attached "significantly greater weight than before to technology as a key driver of sustained economic growth".

And as a result, the US vaulted to the top while Luxembourg, the Nether-lands and Ireland shot past Canada, Hongkong and Taiwan to take third, fourth and fifth places respectively. They pushed the three down to seventh, eighth and 11th places respectively.

Some of Singapore's key East Asian neighbours also lost ground. Malaysia slipped to 25th position from 16th last year and Korea to 29th from 22nd.

The WEF, which produces its annual report in collaboration with Harvard University, also introduced two separate indices in the 2000 survey to measure global competitiveness.

These are on current competitiveness and growth competitiveness which it said would "further refine" its study of global competitiveness and the implications for future growth.

The growth competitiveness index, it added, was a revision of its earlier single competitiveness index.

In the current competitiveness ranking for 2000, Finland emerged as No 1, followed by the US and Germany.