18
19
CURRENT AFFAIRS
INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS
Text by STEPHEN EVANS
Photography by ERIC CHENAL
IT’S AN ADVANTAGE BEING A SMALL COUNTRY, BUT… Small countries are generally richer than large ones, because they are more open to the world and more responsive to their populations. The downside is that they would struggle to defend t hemselves aga inst larger aggressors.
L
uxembourg is the richest country in the world. In 2013 the economy produced goods and services worth $110,665 (equivalent to €83,300 in 2013) per head of population, said the World Bank. That’s 8% more than Norway, 14% more than Qatar and about a third more than Bermuda and Switzerland. Luxembourg’s
Winter 2016
figure is boosted by the contribution of non-resident commuters, but this country is still handily placed. What else is clear is that small countries dominate the list. The only big country in the top ten is natural-resources rich Australia, with the US 11th. It’s not easy to compare countries, but on the whole small countries with similar economies and cultures are wealthier (see page 20).
RICHER BECAUSE MORE REACTIVE Large country media, commentators and politicians often give the impression that this phenomenon must be because small countries are up to no good. In reality, it is because knowledge flows more quickly in small countries.
“Government, businesses and citizens benefit from proximity to each other,” said Tania Berchem, a senior advisor at Luxembourg’s ministry of foreign affairs, who is working on the government’s nation branding project. “Information flows quickly, making it easier to understand what is needed and wanted, and what is possible,” she added. The smaller the country, the more agile it is. “The Irish finance minister asked me ‘why is Luxembourg’s fund industry so much stronger than ours?’,” a financial sector executive (who did not wish to be named) told Delano. “I said it was simply a case of reactivity. In Luxembourg, local service providers, regulators and the government are