The World Economic Forum recently ranked Azerbaijan 77th among 138 benchmarked economies in its 2014 Global Enabling Trade Report.

The report's enabling trade index of 2014 contains four sub-indexes: market access, border administration, infrastructure and operating environment positions. The index ranked Azerbaijan 66th for market access, 94th for border administration, 45th for infrastructure and 58th for operating environment positions.

The report found that Azerbaijan's achievements in improving trade provide the country with a competitive advantage in several areas. Azerbaijan came in 39th in customs transparency index, 19th in ease of compliance with government regulation and 34th in openness to foreign participation index.

The country also came in 30th in ease of hiring foreign labor availability, 20th in business costs of crime and violence, 45th in quality of transport infrastructure, 46th in quality of air transportation infrastructure, 35th in quality of railroad infrastructure, 43rd in efficiency of transport mode change, 46th in information and communications technology use for business-to-business transactions and 50th in internet use for business-to-consumer transactions.

The 2014 report also showed that the Azerbaijani government needs to improve its competitive disadvantage by lifting existing import and export barriers.

The WEF's Global Enabling Trade Report is considered a key policy tool for governments to prepare ways to boost trade, enhance economic growth and generate jobs.