29th isn't good enough

This tweet from the World Economic Forum just caught my eye...

...and, as you do, you wonder where New Zealand is. The WEF's article on the countries with the best infrastructure has a link to its Global Competitiveness Report site and the associated competitiveness database, which you can play around with. Here's our ranking on infrastructure: a global 29th.

Not so good. If you unpick the details behind the infrastructure rating, you'll find it's largely down to relatively poor roads (a global 35th) and rail (a global 39th): on the other hand our ports (11th) and air transport (14th) are pretty good, and electricity and telecoms okay though not great (24th).

So there you have it: we're aiming for the productivity and income levels of a UK or a Germany, and we're trying to do it with the infrastructure of a Malaysia or a Saudi Arabia.

Ain't gonna happen.