ANALYSIS OF DISPARITIES, DEVELOPMENT NEEDS, AND GROWTH POTENTIALS. 1.1.1 Analysis of disparities and identification of the main development needs THE COMPETITIVENESS CHALLENGE General Competitiveness is commonly defined as the capacity of a business, operating in the context of open markets, to retain its market share. There are many facets to the competitiveness of an individual business, including: • the entrepreneurial quality and capacity of its managers. • the distinctiveness and the quality of its goods and services. • its level of innovation. • its physical and virtual connections with its markets. • the efficiency of its production process. • its access to the factors of production ‐ land, labour and capital. Hence, business support interventions are commonly designed to enhance business competitiveness, by strengthening the client business in one or more of these areas. The concept of competitiveness can also be applied at the level of countries and regions, in terms of their capacity, in the context of open markets, to maintain or grow their economic activity. In this context many of the same facets of competitiveness are manifested in a more aggregated form: • the extent of enterprise culture • areas of comparative advantage • resource endowment • research and innovation systems • transport and communications infrastructure and services • availability of sites and premises • skills availability • functioning financial markets Accordingly, in assessing Romania's "competitiveness" the full analysis from which the following conclusions are summarised considers: • the scale, scope and performance of Romanian businesses. • the attributes that contribute to a competitive business environment. The DG ENTR Competitiveness Scoreboard provides a summary appreciation of Romania's relative position. In all but a few measures, Romania is in a weaker position than the EU average, and in a third of measures by a substantial margin, with low productivity, low business R&D and small number of high‐growth enterprises prominent. Romania Competitiveness Scoreboard ‐ Distance from EU Average (standard deviations) ‐3 ‐2 ‐1 0 +1 +2 +3 Innovative Industrial Policy Labour productivity per hour worked (2010), , x Labour productivity per person employed (2011) x Labour productivity per person in manufacturing (2009) x % of employees in manufacturing with high educational attainment (2011) x Tertiary graduates in science and technology (2010) x R&D performed by businesses (2010) x Share of high‐tech exports in total exports (2011) x Susta...
