Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago and Guyana moved up in the list of 133 countries, while the fourth Caribbean nation, Jamaica, slid a few positions.

Guyana was the biggest climber, moving from 115 last year to 104 this year; Barbados moved slightly up from 47 to 44; and Trinidad and Tobago jumped up from 92 to 86. Jamaica, on the other hand, saw its rating drop from 86 to 91.

Amidst the global economic problems, the report noted that "the competitiveness landscape described by the Global Competitiveness Index (GCI) this year for Latin America and the Caribbean is fairly encouraging".

GCR rankings are based on publicly available data and an Executive Opinion Survey carried out by the WEF.

As part of the survey, respondents were asked the select the five biggest problems in doing business in their country.

For both Trinidad and Tobago and Jamaica, crime was identified as the top concern.

Inefficient government bureaucracy, corruption and inflation were also common factors. For the twin-island republic, poor work ethic in the national labour force was also a concern, while access to financing was another major problem in Jamaica.

The issue of poor work ethic also featured prominently in assessing Barbados where it was the biggest problem, as well as Guyana.

Accessing finance, inefficient government bureaucracy, restrictive labour regulations and inflation were the other worries in Barbados.

The other top concerns about the Guyana situation were tax rates - the number one problem - crime, corruption and access to finance.

The number one position in the WEF ranking went to Switzerland, which replaced the United States in the ranking of most competitive countries for doing business.

"The United States falls one place to second position, with weakening in its financial markets and macroeconomic stability," said the Geneva-based foundation.

The report showed economies with a large focus on financial services such as the US, Britain or Iceland, were the losers in the economic crisis.

Rounding off the top five positions were Singapore, Sweden and Denmark respectively, followed by Finland, Germany and Japan, which moved up one place. Canada and the Netherlands closed the top 10.