The Four Asian Tigers, namely the highly developed economies of Hong Kong, Singapore, Republic of Korea and Taiwan, still occupy the top four positions of Asian economies for the fourth consecutive year, according to the 2015 Asian Economies Competitiveness Report released by the Boao Forum for Asia on March 17.

The report lists detailed rankings and evaluates the competitiveness of 37 Asian economies, including Australia and New Zealand. The Chinese mainland ranks ninth, the same as in 2014.

Australia, New Zealand and Japan, the traditional developed economies, have sustained their positions in the top echelon of the ranking for the third consecutive year, ranking 5th to 7th. Israel, the Chinese mainland and Bahrain occupy the 8th to the 10th places. The emerging Southeast Asian economies, represented by Malaysia, and the middle and west Asian resource export countries, represented by Kazakhstan and Saudi Arabia, belong to the second echelon group, ranking from 11th to 20th.

The report points out that the rebound of the U.S. economy was the key to promoting global economic growth in 2014. The reduction of the demographic dividend, the lack of technological innovation and other factors all brought about the currently sluggish global economic recovery.

The report also predicts that the world economy is expected to experience new growth momentum in 2015 due to the Belt and Road initiative, the slump in commodity prices and other factors. As to Asian countries, the uncertainties in emerging markets will grow as the United States is expected to raise its interests and there will be changes in global risk appetite.

Here are the top 10 competitive economies in Asia.

 Bahrain

Bahrain [File Photo]

Rank in 2014: 10

Rank in 2013: 10