World’s best country in business English is the Philippines

Yahoo just came out with a very positive article about the Philippines. Apparently, a company called GlobalEnglish Corporation did an annual study about Business English and the Philippines came out on top for 2012, even beating the USA!

This is great news for freelancers. Show this article to your prospects and get the job awarded to you instead of our top rivals such as India, Pakistan and even China.

Here’s a shortened version of the article:

Well, people will now have to think twice before mocking Pinoys’ use of the English language.
 
The Philippines was named the world’s best country in business English proficiency, even beating the United States, according to a recent study by GlobalEnglish Corporation.
 
GlobalEnglish has released early this month the results of its annual Business English Index (BEI), the only index that measures business English proficiency in the workplace.
 
For 2012, results showed that from 76 represented countries worldwide, only the Philippines attained a score above 7.0, “a BEI level within range of a high proficiency that indicates an ability to take an active role in business discussions and perform relatively complex tasks.”
 
“This is particularly interesting because the Philippines, a country with one-tenth of the population of India, recently overtook India as a hub for call centers. Over 400,000 Filipinos are now employed in call centers, roughly 50,000 more than in India,” the study said.
  
GlobalEnglish noted that a country’s business English capability is an indicator of its economic growth and business success.
 
“It is not surprising that both the Philippines and Norway—the only two countries in the top five in both 2011 and 2012—are improving their economies, based on the latest GDP data from the World Bank,” it added.
  
“Surprisingly the BEI score for global workers in the U.S. declined from 6.9 to 5.09 since the original 2011 BEI benchmark, which is attributed to a majority of test takers being foreign-born engineers and scientists,” the report said.
   
GlobalEnglish stressed that the 2012 BEI which showed a lack of business English proficiency is threatening the productivity of companies, industries and country-specific economies this year.
 
“Poor Business English skills are bad for global businesses and this year’s Business English Index suggests that many companies will be hard-pressed to achieve their desired performance goals during 2012,” said Tom Kahl, GlobalEnglish President. 
  
Here’s the list of the 10 best and worst countries in the world for business English proficiency based on GlobalEnglish’s 2012 BEI:

10 Best Countries:
Philippines
Norway
Serbia
Slovenia
Australia
Malaysia
India
Lithuania
Singapore
Canada

10 Worst Countries:
Armenia
Cote d’Ivoire
Taiwan
Honduras
Columbia
Chile
El Salvador
Saudi Arabia
Israel
Brazil

Source: Yahoo