The World Economic Forum's annual Global Competitiveness Reports have studied and benchmarked the many factors underpinning national compeititiveness. The goal has been to provide insight and stimulate the discussion among all stakeholders on the best strategies and policies to help countries overcome the obstacles to improving competitiveness. It serves as a critical reminder of the importance of structural economic fundamentals for sustained growth.

The quality of port infrastructure falls under WEF's second pillar: Infrastructure. Extensive and efficient infrastructure is critical for ensuring the effective functioning of the economy, as it is an important factor in determining the location of economic activity and the kinds of activities or sectors that can develop in a particular instance. Well-developed infrastructure reduces the effect of distance between regions, integrating the national market and connecting it at low cost to markets in other countries and regions. In addition, the quality and extensiveness of infrastructure networks significantly impact economic growth and reduce income inequalities and poverty in a variety of ways. A well-developed transport and communications infrastructure network is a prerequisite for the access of less-developed communities to core economic activities and services. Effective modes of transport - including quality roads, railroads, ports, and air transport - enable entrepreneurs to get their goods and services to market in a secure and timely manner and facilitate the movement of workers to the most suitable jobs.
Quality of port infrastructure, WEF (1=extremely underdeveloped to 7=well developed and efficient by international standards)
Although data were collected for almost 150 economies in 2012, after the editing process only data for 140 economies were used. Company size is defined as the number of employees of the firm in the country of the Survey respondent. Adjustments were made to the data based on searches in company directories and data gathered through the administration of the Survey in past years. In order to reach the required number of surveys in each country (80 for most economies and 300 for the BRIC countries and the United States), a Partner Institute will use the response rate from previous years. In cases where the information about the company's sector of activity is missing, the average response values across the surveys are apportioned to the other sectors according to the sample sizes in those other sectors. This has the effect of including these surveys on a one-for-one basis as they occur in the sample with no adjustment for sector. If the weight of an individual response exceeds 10 percent of the country sample, the sector-weighted average is abandoned for the benefit of a simple average.
The Quality of Port Infrastructure measures business executives' perception of their country's port facilities. Data are from the World Economic Forum's Executive Opinion Survey, conducted for 30 years in collaboration with 150 partner institutes. The 2009 round included more than 13,000 respondents from 133 countries. Sampling follows a dual stratification based on company size and the sector of activity. Data are collected online or through in-person interviews. Responses are aggregated using sector-weighted averaging. The data for the latest year are combined with the data for the previous year to create a two-year moving average. Scores range from 1 (port infrastructure considered extremely underdeveloped) to 7 (port infrastructure considered efficient by international standards). Respondents in landlocked countries were asked how accessible are port facilities (1 = extremely inaccessible; 7 = extremely accessible).
Data on the quality of port Infrastructure index are from the World Economic Forum's (WEF) Executive Opinion Survey. The latest round included respondents from 144 economies. Data are collected online, through in-person interviews with business executives, and through mail and telephone interviews, with an online survey as an alternative. Sampling follows a dual stratification based on company size and the sector of activity. Responses are aggregated using sector-weighted averaging. The data for the latest year are combined with the data for the previous year to create a two-year moving average. Respondents were asked to assess the port facilities in their country. The lowest value (1) rates the port facilities as extremely underdeveloped, and the highest value (7) rates them well developed and efficient by international standards. For landlocked countries, respondents were asked how accessible are port facilities, where the lowest value (1) was extremely inaccessible and the highest value (7) extremely accessible.
 
The yearly administration of the Survey is carried out with a strong network of over 160 Partner Institutes worldwide. The Partner Institutes are typically recognized research institutes, universities, business organizations, and in some cases survey consultancies. The Partner Institutes are tasked to follow detailed sampling guidelines in view of capturing a strong and representative sample. The Partner Institutes must: prepare a "sample frame," or large list of potential respondents, which includes firms representing the main sectors of the economy (agriculture, manufacturing industry, non-manufacturing industry, and services); separate the frame into two lists: one that includes only large firms, and a second list that includes all other firms; and based on these lists, choose a random selection of these firms to receive the Survey.

Surveys with less than 50% completion rate are excluded. In addition, WEF uses Mahalanobis distance technique and a univariate outlier test to remove outliers. To weight the data by sector, individual answers are aggregated at country level and weighted by the estimated contributions of each of the four main economic sectors (agriculture, manufacturing industry, non-manufacturing industry, and services) to a country's gross domestic product. The weights of the other sectors are then adjusted proportionally to their weight in the country's GDP.

As a final step, the sector-weighted country averages for 2012 are combined with the 2011 averages to produce the country scores that are used for the computation of the GCI 2012-2013 and for other projects. This moving average technique consists of taking a weighted average of the most recent year's Survey results together with a discounted average of the previous year.
Quality of Port Infrastructure measures business executives' perceptions of their country's port facilities. The rating ranges from 1 to 7, with a higher score indicating better development of port infrastructure.